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…By Making Her The 1st Elected Lady Senator In NIGERIA
There is a tide in human affairs…
Taken at the head leads fortune. Shakespare before 1983, the late Franca Afegbua a beautician and a Benue State politician, the late Joseph Tarka, met and one thing led to another. Romance, yes swizzling romance that lifted Franca into the political class and saw her elected into the Senate, the National Assembly’s Red Chamber. The First Lady to be so-elected.
Bendel State that is today known as Edo and Delta States gave Nigeria her first elected woman senator in 1983. Her name is Franca Afegbua. She won the 1983 National Assembly election to the Senate, representing Bendel North Senatorial District.
In 1979 general elections, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) lost presidential election to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). The UPN led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo despite losing to Alhaji Shehu Shagari of the NPN in the presidential election, however, swept the polls in the South-West or the defunct Western region.
At the time, that was 1979, the UPN made a clean sweep of LOOBO states, that was Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel and Ondo States.
The Nigerian’s People Party, (NPP) led by the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, won in East Central Anambra and Plateau States.
The NPN won the presidential election and most, defunct Northern region states, Cross River State, Rivers State, Kano and Kaduna States were taken by the leader of Talakawa, the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) led by Mallam Aminu Kano, while Borno and Adamawa States were won by Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim an apostle of politics without bitterness. The Rivers and Cross River States went the NPN’s way because the two Niger Delta States were desirous of pitching their political camps with the Northern-based political party. This was not unconnected with the desire of the two states to play politics at the national level.
That was the political setting and structure imposed on Nigeria by the 1979 general elections conducted by the defunct Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO). Recall that the National Chairman of the NPN was the late Chief Adisa Merredith Akinloye, a Yoruba man. In his efforts to give his voice weight in the party, the National Chairman of the NPN ogled the LOOBO with for victory at the polls to give him a more befitting weight and status in the country’s political setting.
He believed that an incursion attempt and victory would undoubtedly be rewarding. As the march towards the 1983 general elections was hotting up, NPN surveyed the political horizon of LOOBO states for easy prey(s).
Joseph Taka was a member of the NPN and a senator in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly. Be that as it was, Tarka represented a Senate District in Benue State. He was in a close relationship with Franca Afegbua who was from Bendel State.
In fulfillment or execution of the NPN’s incursion plan into the LOOBO states, Tarka saw an opportunity for his lover and he did not tarry to give it to her.
That was how he introduced Franca to partisan politics and procured the NPN’s senatorial ticket for her to contest election in 1983.
Franca, thus, became the NPN’s standard bearer in the North senatorial district in Bendel State. With the senatorial ticket in her hand, Franca knew that it would not be easy to contest and win election on the platform of the NPN in a state dominated by the UPN.
The three senatorial district seats in Bendel State were won by three men who were UPN staunch members in 1979. For a lady to wrestle and win a seat out of the three occupied by big time UPN membrs, would be a titanic contest that would be fought with every weapon that could be accessed by the contestants.
To Franca, contest, was not a stranger in her life. She was a beautician and a make-over expert. Born on October 20, 1943, Franca, who did her primary and secondary education in Nigeria went ahead to run her tertiary education programme in Sofia. It was in Sofia that she learnt and graduated in a course that specialised in making girls, ladies and women more beautiful and attractive to men and admirers. She returned to Nigeria and started practising her profession, giving her services to the upper class ladies and celebrities.
In 1977, she participated in and won an international hairstyling competition. That was how she first tasted the world of competition in her life.
She knew that winning election would not be an easy task to accomplish.
What with thuggery and violence. It was not a woman’s game or sport. She, however, exploited her femininity to advantage. During campaign she told ladies and women to vote for her and give a lady a chance to represent, promote and protect women’s interests in the National Assembly. That, she told her people, was the best way to raise the status of women in the scheme of political life in the country.
In August, 1983 National Assembly election, Franca won, beating John Umolu, who was the UPN’s candidate. Thus, Nigeria produced her first elected woman senator in 1983.
–Tajudeen Adigun
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