Highlights of the 1991 Africa Prize

Acceptance address by Maryam Babangida

1991 laureate of the Africa Prize for Leadership

Mr. Chairman, The Chairman of the Honorary Committee and Chairman of the Occasion - Sir Shridath Ramphal, Chairman of The Hunger Project Jury - Dr. Chester A. Crocker, Global Executive Director of The Hunger Project - Ms. J. Holmes, Co-laureate for 1991 Africa Prize for Leadership - Professor Wangari Muta Maathai.

This is a very dear moment for the African woman, and for me it is a precious honour and privilege to be part of this historic occasion. I am proud of this moment because it is a special testimony to the courage and resilience of the long-suffering women of Africa. When news reached me of the award of the 1991 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger, I was naturally elated. More importantly, I found sustainable joy in the knowledge that, for the first time ever, the award has been won by an all-female team.

Perhaps, with all sense of modesty and humility, it should not be a surprise that the prize was won by two women. Apart from the timely recognition of the growing positive impact of women, in today's African society, when you talk about hunger, you immediately think of food and, when you want food, you automatically think of a woman. So who then is truly better suited to win a prize instituted in honour of efforts to put an end to hunger than the women! It is my hope that more women will, henceforth, take up more seats in the hall of fame of The Hunger Project Group.

Mr. Chairman, I have always believed that the woman, as keeper of the home front, is literally the nutritional bedrock of human society. As she feeds the family, she also nurtures mankind and as she manages the home, she also tends the garden of humanity. If, according to the received story, Eve spoilt the garden of man, her daughters have made up by bearing the greater part of the burden of making that garden healthy and beautiful again.

The issue of food security in Africa is indeed very crucial. In Nigeria, as elsewhere in Africa, our women, most of whom live in the rural areas form the larger percentage of our population. General Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head of State of Nigeria and a laureate of the Africa Leadership Prize, put it very succinctly in his acceptance speech before this forum last year, when he said: "We missed the boat of true and meaningful development by a long chalk, at the point of our failure to recognize the crucial and near-dominating role of our women in agriculture.

It is indeed true that these rural women who produce about 80 per cent of the food in our continent are those most deprived of facilities necessary for food security. Deprivations such as inaccessibility to cultivable land, high-yield seedlings, credit facilities, as well as restriction of movement due to traditional and religious prejudices continue to inhibit the productive capacity and economic and social empowerment of our rural women. Marginalised, yet it is in their hands that African nations have entrusted the care and nurture of their youth, the future leaders of our continent. Saddled with occupational and household responsibilities, these women are often malnourished; yet they bear many children as a result of which they become easy prey to maternal mortality and other health hazards.

To put it differently, food security and the sustainable end of hunger, as well as the development process in general will remain unattainable in Africa for as long as the crucial position of women on the continent remains unappreciated and their marginal position unreversed. How is this to be achieved? The answer, boldly put, is: "Give Women a Better Life." It was to answer this call that the Better Life Programme for the Rural Woman was founded in September 1987 with the purpose of raising the status of Nigerian rural women by stimulating, mobilising and empowering their income generating creativities. This was a very daunting task which would never have left the drawing-board without the sacrifice, commitment and genuine selflessness of good leadership drawn from both the rural and urban areas. Without any emolument, without any perks of a formal office, and at the grave risk of losing their conventional jobs and private businesses, these women became the catalytic agents in the gentle revolution that is still unfolding within the ranks of rural women in Nigeria today.

This pioneering effort is succeeding in bringing the long-suffering woman out of her rural closet; her political and social consciousness in being effectively mobilised; and now she is alive to her civic and political rights. Organised with other women, she is determined, more than ever, to take her destiny in her hands and to occupy her rightful place and role in the economic, cultural, political and social life of Nigeria. It is the synergy of the skills of the rural women and the intellectual direction of their leadership that lies at the operational core and success of the Better Life Programme. Let me elaborate.

The Programme is based on the redirection of resources towards enabling it to solve the problems of the rural woman -- which she has identified. In this sense, it emphasises self-reliance. Thus, the initial funding of the Programme came principally from self assistance in the form of volunteer labour and fund-raising activities. International agencies such as UNICEF, UNIDO and the UNFPA were also very supportive of the Programme. As the impact multiplied to a hundred-fold, government began to provide technical and resource assistance through a host of new agencies such as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI); financial institutions such as the People's Bank and the Community Banks.

The Programme's integrated and co-ordinated feed-back strategy provides a systematic networking of data to facilitate the constant review of new and current projects so that fresh ideas can be introduced as soon as they become necessary. But the self-reliant thrust continues to be maintained and emphasised in that it is the rural women who are involved from the beginning to the end.

However, it is the planning-in-action methodology that has been one of the keys to the success of the Better Life Programme. In addition, the Programme operates on a four-tier structure linking the national, state, local government and ward levels into a holistic, that is, integrated and co-ordinated machine. All of this is hitched on to the recently operative National Commission for Women, the ideological and administrative wagon of the Better Life Programme.

The Better Life experiment has been successful to the extent that men are now demanding their own Better Life! In what does the success of the Programme lie? Because the programme is directed at the totality of the person, we have evolved, a new woman; a woman who is now economically stronger, politically more active, socially more aware, psychologically more fulfilled and, therefore, an all-rounder who is equipped to play her role in society maximally.

However, our primary concern at the initial stage of our programme was what one might call "Survival First"; because we realize that food is the irreducible minimum condition for human existence and hunger is often the result of inadequate food production. Consequently, we invested most of our resources in agricultural food production.

It was at this stage too that we strengthened the formation and use of women's co-operatives, which has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary tactics in our strategy. Together, in the spirit if the co-operation, women found that they could do a great deal more for themselves than when they acted individually.

For instance, traditional prejudices and legal discrimination made it impossible for women to have access to land on their own. This meant that the most important single resource in the agricultural production of food was denied to those who produce 80 per cent of food in Nigeria. With the co-operative as a corporate entity, however, the land problem was quickly sidetracked by our women. Since then we have not looked back.

It is indicative of this robust development that the number of women co-operatives has risen from 413 at the inception of the programme to a record 9,422 at present. These co-operatives, using the Better Life Programme as collateral, have been able to obtain financial and technical assistance from government and other agencies such as fertilizers, credit facilities and improved varieties of seedlings, and high-breed livestock. In addition 1,435 cottage industries, 1,784 farms and gardens, 135 fish and livestock farms, 495 shops and markets, along with 1,094 multi-purpose women's centres have been established under the auspices of the Programme. The Programme also incorporates functional courses for environmental protection and awareness, adult literacy and vocational education, political enlightenment, social welfare and health-care programmes. Programmes such as the Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), which emphasise grassroots, community-based preventive medicare have found a critically useful an indispensable partner in the Better Life Programme.

Given this extensive network, the Better Life Programme has delivered modern farming techniques and farm inputs to rural compounds. Food production has thus been boosted. The Better Life Programme has also intervened by teaching women simple modern techniques for food storage, processing and preservation. Furthermore, we have thus created more market outlets for the skills and products of rural women.

The potential and energies unleashed by the spirit of the Better Life Programme were so competitive and infectious that research institutes were challenged to invent and design labour-saving devices for use by the rural women. Thus, food processing machines, for instance were soon to come to their aid; and the benefits have been immeasurable. Their farm products, their crafts and technological innovations have won wide public acclaim at several national and international exhibitions and trade fairs held in Lagos, Nigeria; Atlanta, Georgia; Houston, Texas; West Berlin; Mali, Burkina Faso, Dubai, etc. This is all consistent with the Programme's self-reliant philosophy, as these innovations are home-grown. Simple tools, which take account of the cultural life of the rural women.

The social impact of the Programme has been equally spectacular. Rural women are now more self-confident and take pride in their work. And the Nigerian public has become sensitized to the place and potential of our women in the society. The political awareness created in women is manifested in increased interest and participation in the transition to civil rule programme, especially the massive turnout during elections.

Indeed the Better Life experiment has been a totally new school of learning not only for women, but for men as well, especially the urban ones. Such was the depth and variety of participation experienced, that the leaders learned to be good followers and the followers good leaders themselves. This too has engendered a weakening of barriers across the gender, ethnic, cultural and religious divides which is a happy development for the unity of our people.

I must say, however, that it has not been an easy ride. Often times, the road was rough and bumpy and the terrain was vast and forbidding. The size and cultural heterogeneity of our country were uphill tasks and the novelty of the Programme made acceptance slow and difficult at first. Many lives have either been lost or impaired. Yet we would neither bend nor break. Resolved to be as firm as iron, we struggled on because we knew that our Programme was life a rose, and we all know that if you cultivate a rose you have to endure its thorns. We did: and today we are glad for the glory it has brought.

In all modesty, Mr. Chairman, we are encouraged by our happy experience to urge the extension of the Better Life model and strategy to other arenas, especially those which affect women not only within the African continent but in the developing world. In fact, Mr. Chairman, we believe hat even the developed world can learn a thing or two from our model. From our experience I believe it is the responsibility of the privileged woman to aid her rural sister to gain access to the mainstream of national development.

Our ability to achieve this New World Order will be largely determined by the democratic instinct in us. And this, in turn, will be singularly influenced by the degree of self-reliance we would have attained. Without this, integration will be an illusion and this New World Order will be to us as the promised land was to Moses. This is one of the cardinal philosophies of the Better Life Programme. I am glad to acknowledge in this connection the efforts of a number of other African First Ladies to improve the conditions of underprivileged women and children in their countries. It will really be a healthy development and I anxiously look forward to the time when First Ladies of African countries will pool their immense potential for public good in order to better the lot of our women and children.

At this juncture, Mr. Chairman, I would like to acknowledge the affinity of Prof. Wangari Maathai's work with the Better Life Programme. There is no doubt, and we are well aware, that an ecologically balanced environment is indispensable to the search for food security on our planet. Prof. Maathai's Green Belt Movement is the pre-eminent flagship in the articulation of this awareness on our continent. I wholeheartedly salute her and commend her record of achievement despite the obvious handicap of her private sector base. I cannot but feel that were the Green Belt Movement and the Better Life Programme given a pride of place in the development plans of African governments, we would have taken the one giant leap toward the realisation of the Sustainable End of Hunger which the critical reality of the African continent in these times would seem greatly to recommend.

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank sincerely the International Jury of The Hunger Project as well as Joan Holmes, the Global Executive Director and her staff for this historic honour conferred on my sister, Professor Maathai, and myself. I thank my family, especially my husband, who has consistently remained unwavering in his commitment to the upliftment of our women. I am also indebted to my friends and staff for the incredible support they have given me. Finally, in the depths of my heart, I embrace the long-suffering woman of Africa who not only understands, but feels deep in her marrows, the haunting breath of hunger every long day of her life. On her behalf and to the greater glory of God, in whose hands I am merely an instrument, I accept this prize with the humility of a leader and the pride of a follower.

I want to assure you all that this award has injected an unbelievable amount of unquenchable energy, inspiration and dedication into the corporate entity of African womanhood. We are encouraged to work even harder and to reach out even farther. We are encouraged to get help wherever we can, and to wear the armour of a brave soldier. We are even encouraged by the legendary patience of Job, even in the face of daunting obstacles to fight on, to win and win and win. All of this, is what the award means to me.

Lastly, Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I shall leave you with a plea. Whenever I see a cripple, I am sadly reminded of the perpetual irony of history of mankind. As a specie, we are all walking towards a collective destination. None of us can walk fast or far on one leg. Yet in our race for progress, in our clamour for speed, in our breathless yearning to make the glorious headway towards our destination, our specie has relied, too much of the time, solely on just one leg; and that is the menfolk. But might we not need both genders co-operating and complementing one another, just as every one needs two legs, before we can maximize progress?

If one hand needs the other for both hands to be washed clean, if one needs two legs to walk faster and farther; if mankind needs the union of male and female genders to perpetuate its existence, then let me humbly submit, that any meaningful and lasting progress towards our destination can only be achieved when mankind reclaims its second leg: and the man and the woman walk side by side and arm and arm to make the journey together. This co-operative venture will also see the end of hunger. This should be the beginning of wisdom and the definitive starting-point in our search for a Sustainable End for Hunger on Mother Earth.

I thank you very much.