When women are given opportunity to shine, it inspires others to believe they too can shine
Cynthia Mbamalu is a human and gender rights advocate and development practitioner. The lawyer by profession, with an LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law from the Central European University (CEU), specialises in human and women rights advocacy, constitution building, elections and inclusive political leadership. She is a co-founder and Director of Programmes of Yiaga Africa. In the past 16 years, she has worked in support of sustainable democracies, promoting political inclusion, electoral integrity, and human rights.
She has led different election observation missions and is currently leading the #WatchingTheVote project, a data and tech-driven initiative for electoral integrity. She was actively involved in the advocacy that led to the adoption of the Electoral Act 2022 in Nigeria and is engaging the constitutional amendment process to promote gender sensitivity. Mbamalu is a founding member of the Not-Too-Young-to-Run movement and the Ready-to-Run campaign committed to promoting young men and women’s political leadership. She also manages the Community Organising Programme for young people in West Africa. She recently launched ‘The Unamplified Podcast’ driving diverse conversations on democracy and development from a gender lens.
Mbamalu is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Leadership, Organising and Action Executive Programme; Central European University (CEU) Course on Constitution-Building in Africa; the University of South Africa (UNISA) Course on Management of Democratic Elections in Africa and the University of Cape Town on Leading in Public Life, as well as Women, Influence Power Programme. In this interview with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA, she speaks on her activities in championing the cause of young people, particularly women, in the electoral processes and political leadership.
Take us through your career journey
I began my career journey during my undergraduate days in the University of Jos, as a young active student committed to creating change. At the time, I used to volunteer with the Youth Friendly Centre of the University of Jos where I carried out awareness campaigns on sexual and reproductive health. In my second year in the university, some colleagues and myself decided to start Yiaga Africa to promote youth participation in governance and human rights. At the time, it was registered in the university as Youth Action Initiative Africa. Yiaga Africa has since evolved to become one of the leading civil society organisations working for advancement of sustainable democracy and development of Africa. Starting an organisation so early in life meant learning on the job. From planning and hosting ‘Democracy Dialogues’ in the university to training students’ union parliamentarians, setting up human rights clubs and engaging international partners and national stakeholders, amongst others, my career path was set. I graduated from the university in 2011, proceeded to the Law School the same year and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 2012. I began my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) the same year. During my youth service, I did my primary assignment at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), where I was deployed, and it gave me the opportunity to truly work and learn. I handled tasks requiring me to develop a workplan for the unit, propose project ideas for the unit, as well as write and participate in meetings both within and at inter-agency levels. My experience in constitutional review and legislative advocacy dates back to 2008, from our National Youth Dialogues on Constitutional Review and Electoral Reform, seeking to advance the voice of the youth in both processes.
In 2009, I travelled with my colleague from school to engage the constitutional amendment committees in the National Assembly where we first presented our demand for the reduction of the age to attain before being allowed to contest office in Nigeria. Our proposal failed in that Assembly. We continued to present constitutional amendment proposals in 2012. By 2016, we decided to build a national movement, ‘Not-Too- Young-to-Run’ demanding reduction of age at which to contest election and independent candidacy. We needed the capacity to lead a national movement to sustain the constitutional amendment demand. I enrolled for an Executive Programme on Leadership, Organising and Action at the Harvard School of Kennedy, and working with my colleagues, we adapted its module in the capacity building training for the ‘Not-Too-Young-to- Run’ campaign. This enabled the national movement to achieve the constitutional amendment. Supporting electoral integrity and citizens’ participation in governance, for me, dates back to the time of engaging students’ election in the university. The first election I observed was that of the Law Students Society in University of Jos. In 2011 Nigeria elections, I was fully involved as observer and citizens mobiliser. I remember leading the ‘street citizens engagement’ segment of our Voter Education Television show (My Vote My Future) in Plateau State and for the first time managing about 500 observers. My election work has since then expanded to include advocacy for electoral reform like the one that led to the adoption of the Electoral Act 2022. I have participated in election observation missions/studies in the United States of America, across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Sierra Leone, and worked with the Commonwealth Observer Group and EISA observer mission. I also participated in providing technical support to election management body and civil society groups in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Liberia.
Your focus is on human and women’s rights. How are you changing the narrative, especially through Yiaga Africa?
One of my principles is to constantly showcase women at their best because when we give the opportunity to more women to shine, it inspires others to believe that they too can shine. I firmly believe in the social engineering role of laws and policies to inform a consistent and committed trajectory for positive change, especially as it relates to equal and safe world for women and girls. Accordingly, in my work in Yiaga Africa, I am intentional in engaging legislative and policy advocacy from a gender lens and always seeking for better representation and protection of the rights of women. This informed our work in the 9th Assembly and in some states to support a more effective framework for response to sexual and gender-based violence. I believe in the power of stories and in 2021/2022, we began a book project under our Beating The Odds Book Series (the third edition), documenting the stories of young women who contested in national, state and local elections. The beating the odds 3 will be launched in 2023, as we start planning for the 2027 and 2031 elections and the local elections in-between. This idea to tell women stories better was inspired by our meeting with young women who contested in elections as a solidarity and experience-sharing platform in 2019. From this engagement was a documentary, Winning Women, and subsequently a report, “No Country Without Women” analysing women political participation in the 2023 election. Internally, I have led reviews of the organisation’s policies to set a template for promoting diversity and workplace conducive to women.
Share with us some of the key activities you are proud of through Yiaga Africa. How are you continually driving change for young people in politics?
This is tough because I am proud of all our work at Yiaga Africa. However, I will list a few. First is the ‘Not-Too-Young-to-Run’ campaign, which achieved the amendment of the constitution to reduce the age to contest for some offices. This is because it was a long journey from 2009 till 2018 when the president signed the Age Reduction Bill into Law. Today, we have 17 legislators between 25-29 years in state assemblies and two in the House of Representatives. We have, cumulatively, over 100 legislators who are between the ages of 25 and 35 years in the House of Representatives and state assemblies. Beyond supporting young candidates to contest election is the support to young legislators to perform better in office. I also have distinct technical support for the young women legislators. Second is our Community Organising Programme, where I led, with an amazing team, the building of capacity of young people in Nigeria and other countries in West Africa in the last eight years. From this programme, we have young activists setting up their respective organisations, advocating social change in their communities and achieving results, and some contesting for election. Third is our ‘Watching the Vote’ project, because from the inception, we wanted to build a movement of citizens committed to promoting electoral integrity. I am also particular about ensuring at least 40 per cent women participation as observers under this initiative.
How have your experiences in your various projects and initiatives focused on young people and governance shaped you and your work?
Leadership is about responsibility and constant learning. The past 16 years have been a journey of learning, evolving and reinventing. Working with young people has taught me the important skill of listening and engaging without any form of bias to ensure a people-centred inclusive intervention in programme design. I am particular about context specific strategies and seeking best-fit approach in the work I do. In addition is the need to create the time and opportunity for mentorship for young people. I am interested in leading conversations to inspire mindset shift. This informed the launch of my Podcast, ‘The Unamplified Podcast’ driving diverse conversations on democracy and development in Africa from a gender lens by young voices across generations.
In your practice, what have you identified as a factor that can influence young people’s participation in electoral processes. What should young people learn from the 2023 elections?
Young people want to be heard, to be part of the solution, to be allowed to influence change. First, we need better laws and policies to ensure political inclusion and representation. This includes legislative and policy reforms that ensure democracy in political party primaries and reduce the role of money in our election to truly guarantee opportunity of youth and women winning election to improve representation. Also, there is need for significant appointment of youth and women into government at all levels to enable inclusive growth and development. Secondly, in post- 2023 election, we need reforms to improve the quality of our elections. This is because young people will be more interested to participate as voters when they believe that their votes will count. Thirdly, our government and other stakeholders must create safe spaces for young men and women to dialogue through peoples/citizens assemblies in a way that informs policy decisions and government actions at all level. Giving the youth a sense of ownership in project Nigeria and even within Africa would influence their level and quality of participation. The youth remain the hope for the present and the future. We must keep this hope alive.
What motivates and inspires you?
My continuous hope in the possibility of a developed and inclusive Nigeria and Africa.
How can we get more women to become successful and rise to the top, especially in political leadership?
We have a lot of women with vision, the requisite capacity and competence to lead in any sector or leadership position. A major need is an enabling system that does not directly or indirectly discriminate against women or judge women based on standards that their male counterparts are not subjected to. Nigeria needs legislation to promote women political representation and inclusion. Countries that made progress in women leadership achieved that through legislative and policy reforms that forced the system to gradually adjust. For some countries, it was an amendment to their constitution. We are still performing poorly when it comes to women representation, with Nigeria ranking 123 of the 146 countries with respect to our gender gaps across different sectors that ought to enable sustainable development. Accordingly, the cost of women exclusion in Nigeria is adversely high. Under this new government, Nigerian women will come up again with the Gender and Equal Opportunity Bill and the Constitutional Amendment Gender Bills. Another major need is education and social reorientation at all levels on the important role of women as leaders and equal partners in development. In addition is building women leaders from childhood through gender-inclusive socialisation processes. Lastly is deliberate expansion of needs-specific capacity development opportunities for young women who will carry the baton for the young generation.
What is your life mantra?
I am here for a purpose and I will inspire change, one person at a time, one issue at a time, and one community at a time. I am living, I am learning and I am loving
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