Barrister (Mrs) Evelyn Hauwa Shekarau, National President, International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Nigeria represents the umbrella body representing all women lawyers at the National Conference. In this encounter with Zainab Suleiman Okino and Emeka Nze in Abuja, she expressed happiness that FIDA will celebrate her 50th anniversary during her tenure as well as their struggles to protect and preserve the right of women and children. She also spoke on the abducted girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno state and FIDA’s pace-setting role in the struggle to bring them back. Excerpts:
How did you get to the enviable position of National President of FIDA?
It was by contest; we had an election. FIDA is a membership organisation; our leadership is elected through election. In the past, it was biannual and then we amended the constitution to make it every three years, so on 1st May 2012 to be precise I was elected as the National President. However before then I was the deputy to the then National President, I have had almost 5 to 6 years, so I will say I have paid my dues.
What is the relationship between the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and FIDA?
The NBA, I will say is the main constituency of every lawyer in Nigeria. It is our own professional organisation that takes care of our interest and welfare and wellbeing where as FIDA is a non- governmental organisation. It is voluntary and it is non- political, non religious. It joins women who have come in the practice of law together in order to promote and preserve the rights of women and children in the society. So it’s voluntary; there are so many women lawyers who are not necessarily members of FIDA. You have to step out, pick up a form to fill to be a member, it is not an organisation that promotes the welfare of women lawyers rather, it is an organisation that seeks to protect the wellbeing of women and children. So it an organisation that gives back to society, it does not showcase us, it is about us working for society free of charge.
How much have you given back to society since your tenure began?
My tenure began in May 2012 and between those periods, we have done so much. At the moment we are putting together a study to document the cases we have handled from May 2012 to date. In fact, FIDA will be 50 this year because FIDA came into Nigeria in 1964 and we are already preparing an elaborate celebration by rolling out the drums to celebrate FIDA having been in the country for the past 50 years. One of the things we are doing in that celebration is stock-taking, to see how we have been able to serve the society in the last 50 years. For me we are actually going a step further to prepare a documentary on the impact of the work we have done and we will be talking to the people who have benefitted from our services. Like I said earlier, the services that we render are free of charge, even as I work for FIDA, I do not attract a dime as in salary or allowances. Rather I deep hands into my pocket in order to enhance the organisation. So it’s been very fruitful and rewarding for me to provide service to humanity and I can assure you that, I may not be able at this moment, off hand to tell you, but I know that within a year 2012 to 2013, we had a programme that was funded by UNFPA, provision of goodwill services, from 16 branches and we were also able to document about 300 cases within one year. So, you can imagine what the number will be if we put all of them together. We have 32 state branches and there are three more branches that are in formation and about to be inaugurated. I am therefore looking forward to when the collation is done for us to put a figure to say this is what we have done since FIDA started working to promote the right of women and children.
Since FIDA is an international organisation, Nigeria is an appendage of that international organisation, what kind of relationship do you have with the international body?
Very well. FIDA as an international body was founded in 1944 and it has presence in over 70 countries but I can assure you that FIDA Nigeria is one of the most vibrant branches of FIDA international. We are just affiliates. The states charter is actually affiliates of the international body. As autonomous and as independent as we are the form of relationship we have with the international body is that of a cordial relationship and the international body only serves the purpose of decision making , coordinate the kind of activities that FIDA can conduct in all her different countries where chapters are present. For instance, the issue of vision, mission and objectives are cardinal principles of FIDA that are guided at the international level. So what we do at the state branches is to find a way to bring those principles and make them relevant to our local circumstances. Our mandate is the same- promoting, protecting, preserving the rights and children, our four objectives are the same, one of which is to promote comparative law in the different counties where we are, one of which is to ensure that society is a better place to live in where the wellbeing of women and children is guaranteed. FIDA at the international level believes that when the wellbeing of women and children is protected then the society will be better for it. It is like in law, there is a platform up there that every other charter of FIDA is linked to. You cannot do any other thing outside the core mandate and vision and mission of the organisation and I think this is what the international organisation represents and we are part of the collage of the leadership of the international body and so we are part and parcel of the international society. We do not take approval to raise funds or to implement our activities so long as these activities are in tandem with the vision and mandate and objectives of the organisation, we are free to embark on them.
Are there some landmark cases bordering on women and children that you have handled in the recent past?
Yes, because of the criminal nature of our prosecution in Nigeria, I mean in our legal system, a criminal matter can only be prosecuted by the police or the Ministry of Justice, the best that we can do is to watch brief and then to provide support so that the prosecutors can do their work effectively. So we support them technically and otherwise. Now if you remember the case where a lady was accused of murdering her husband, I wouldn’t want to mention the name for the purpose of confidentiality, FIDA was part of that in ensuring that we provided legal support for her and she was found not guilty and she was discharged and acquitted. I am talking of the recent ones I can quickly remember. We have also been able to provide legal support to cases of women involved in domestic violence and inheritance matters, particularly in the South eastern part of the country where women are discriminated against in terms of inheritance and so on and so forth. I can at the curve of the hand call them out but I can assure you that come August when we shall have our golden jubilee celebration; we will give you documents, including video documentary on what we have done so far.
Nigerians have not heard much about FIDA in the #Bring Back Our Girls campaign, what’s your take on this?
Coincidentally, two people have asked me that this morning and I am shocked. I am shocked because before the matter blew out to international acclaim that it has reached now, FIDA was in the forefront. One, we issued a very strong press statement, in fact one of the strongest press statements against the abduction and the need for the government to do much more than what we are seeing. Two, FIDA was part of the planning team that organised that organised the #Bring Back Our Girls campaign. FIDA was actually there, contributed financially, materially and otherwise in ensuring that the programme was carried out and we are in the leadership of #Bring Back Our Girls” campaign. I was on “Focus on Africa” a programme of the BBC to talk about it. I am telling you, that’s about the earliest media intervention regarding the issue and as you know when things are so close people can easily claim credit for it, even people we don’t know to be activists; they are now playing to the gallery and saying O ‘bring back our girls’. Meanwhile for FIDA it‘s our job; we will always be there doing it. Sometimes we do these things without necessarily blowing our trumpet but I can assure you that we have been at the forefront.
What we are even strategising now is what we do when the girls are out. We are already strategising on ways that we can support these young girls when they are released. For us in FIDA, we see that the issue of the abduction presents and brings to the fore so many challenges that FIDA has been talking about and the need for a special protection of the girl child, the need for her to be protected and given the opportunity to pursue education to the highest level, to policy decisions that needs to be in place to promote the wellbeing of the girl child as well as sexual and reproductive health right of the girl child and the woman. For us we are already looking at how to take care of situations like this making sure that things like this do not happen and when they do happen, how do we ameliorate the damages that victims of such abduction suffer. So for us that is the level where we are now, yet it is good to keep the issue on the front burner, in constant insistence of #bring back our girls, but we are going a step further to look for ways that we ourselves will also be part of the solution and not just hoping that manna will fall from heaven and the situation will take care of itself. Apart from what the government is doing, we as citizens what can we do to be part of the solution and I think that what we are now.