Mrs. Dayo Benjamins-Laniyi is a seasoned entrepreneur, a social innovative agent who is also dedicated to the empowerment of women, communities, and the girl child through her various initiatives and programs.
In this interview, she speaks on why she is aspiring for the FCT Senate seat in 2023; going against the incumbent, Senator Philip Aduda, and why she will win if she emerges the APC’s flag bearer.
Let’s talk about your ambition to be the senator representing FCT. Why FCT?
In the words of the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, ‘if you really want to make a difference… It can only happen when more of you get involved, like me in political processes, and become an accidental Public Servant’. This has also reset my interpretation of the value of making a difference as a transformer for our nation.
So I’d like to clarify: it’s not an ambition; this is a disruption from what had generally been perceived as my trajectory in terms of career engagements. It is a culmination of my experiences and exposure overtime in the apolitical space through advocacy, events, projects, and associations relatable to politics in the FCT.
Everything I do is for the purpose of reconstituting the value of engagement with my capabilities and talent in engaging issues, connecting people, and their communities thereby giving hope for community impact.
The FCT needs a curated visible voice for the voices speaking and the voiceless. I realize our voices speaking don’t just need to be amplified, they need to clarify the messages and causes for national and inclusive gain.
I know your party has reserved a certain percentage for women. Have you done enough consultations? Are you confident you will get the ticket to represent FCT in the Senate?
Confidence is an expression of courage. And you must be deliberate and very clear about your intention when it comes to any endeavor, more so the political endeavor at the ultimate representation of the Senate.
Yes, I’m absolutely confident about my projection to the point where it will give the decision-makers a verifiable, valuable candidate to endorse as their flag bearer that I intend to be. The journey to that position definitely requires a lot of consultation so I have to be very deliberate about meeting with the gamut of people from original inhabitants, to the settlers who have come in with their different demographics; the entire geopolitics of difference, and regions at the different levels comprising of principal stakeholders in and out of the FCT, working with the ward level, with the local government level, with the state level, with the women, with the elders, with the youth; this is extensive as everyone is important.
It is important we know that politics is about people and it is the purest form of governance, self-governance for the electorate and for the people you’re representing. It is the highest, purest form of advocacy that you use as an individual now morphed into the politician going for political office and I am confident.
Should you become the flag bearer of your party, you will be going against Senator Philip Aduda, who thought, in opposition, has been there since 2011? Secondly, he is an indigene of FCT. Do you have what it takes to defeat him?
First and foremost, I think the principal issue that we should all look at is the issue of this indigene, non-indigenes status for this singular seat of the Senate of the FCT.
The reality is this. It’s about becoming that principal actor and change agent, not just for one demographic of the indigene, but for everyone who has been indigenized in the Federal Capital Territory, through their personal investment.
So, this is not about the distinguished Philip Aduda as an indigene and the distinguished Dayo Benjamin-Laniyi, as a non-indigene. This is about a senatorial representation for the Federal Capital Territory, and you must be able to holistically inclusively direct, not just the concerns, but the human rights priority of the indigene and the settler that has come in here as I’ve been here 30 years, and the dividends of the investment in terms of enterprise, professionalism, engaging community change, and all of that representation. I believe this is actually the key cracking point of engagements.
Secondly, if you look at the opportunities that the distinguished Philip Aduda has been able to provide for the indigenes, you need something bold, something fresh to reset what he has done in a direction, that innovates for the indigenes and the non-indigenes alike, and also the fact that Abuja, the FCT, is not just the center for political engagements but for social-economic engagement and directing policies for Nigeria, Africa and for everything to do with international communities out of Africa.
Thirdly, I don’t see distinguished senator Aduda as a threat to be afraid of; I see him as a threat to challenge. And that is how you emerge in your space and in your place of reference as a champion for a cause. The cause, as I said, is one for all, all for one as a true Nigerian at heart.
One of the issues that are of concern to the natives, if I may say, is that they are still bitter with the National Assembly for throwing out their mayoral status and ministerial status demands…
Everything when it comes to this case, and the state of the law has an opportunity to be revisited, to be reviewed, to set up the conversations that can engage it along the line that produces outcomes that unify the polity of the origin, with the politics of a national estate, as we find is the unique expression of the FCT.
The APC particularly right now is not enjoying the kind of support they did in 2015; the issue of insecurity and all. Do you think you can surmount that challenge?
We all know that the challenges in a country are not as a result of a dispensation/a political party in power but as a result of economic changes which most times we as individuals do not have control over (for example the constant fluctuation in crude oil in the international markets which directly affects us and can trickle down to our expenditure as a country) but can only work proactively to mitigate these challenges, although we cannot rule out the role of a party it is not a major factor.
Hence, the need to identify champions, people, individuals, or uniquely constituted demographics that will give people an opportunity to identify with a person as a people’s candidate, rather than a politically implicated statuesque. I believe sincerely, that the status ranking of people is what can and in this very dynamic time has an opportunity to rearrange the political architecture, not just of my party, but of every party.
The apathy, the venting we find around us is because of failed leadership, failed promises in the place of performance. What, therefore, the polity is looking for is people they can trust, people who they see as representing their dreams, their hopes, and their prayers, and can engage and have them voted into elective office.
Right now, the angst of women, as a result of the unfortunate incident in March, right? Is one that has brought to the frontline, the demand for women in elective office. It just created that opportunity. So now it’s across partisan lines, that women should run on every possible platform. If you cannot run for office, support a woman to run for office, engage party dynamics, as it is an opportunity for them to gain an entrance, have a voice, and not just put the votes there. I am confident we have crossed the rubicon and can surmount the challenges united.
Financially, politics is draining. Are you financially buoyant for this to go all the way?
I have found out that the issue of financing campaigns, elections, or running for political office is an experience that doesn’t have an elastic limit. It implicates you, everyone, and everything around you. And a lot of talk goes into the whole issue of all money for politics. And I realized that it is necessary for faith-based platforms to advocate for women or anyone running for elections, if they are serious in talking about positioning or posturing anyone in elections, then be serious by setting up a financial intervention for people running for elections.
So do I have the money? The truth of the matter, I think I have more audacity than money. But clearly, audacity is critical to engaging investors, because they want to see that you’re a winner. And that is what I am. And that is how I’m raising the funding for what I’m doing in collaboration with my outstanding DG. And I believe that by the time I come out fully, I mean she is the first female DG of any campaign. And she understands the dynamics. Because it’s become evident that I am not just a woman who’d come out at a woman’s time to run, but I’m a winner, who is shooting for a ticket that would give the party that traction to win in the general elections, and the campaign against the sitting Senator.
What are the issues you will be pushing in the Senate should you get in there?
Merely looking at me, you see, the first issue upon getting there is all-out advocacy in the political space for every woman running, whoever ran, who will run, and who will never run.
The fact that we bring a voice to champion, elucidate, and engage in those discussions will give us a foot in the door to clearly profile women’s issues, giving them an opportunity to direct the prime leadership on policies and laws for us in the FCT.
Report From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye
