EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Read from your humble daughter, Joyce Daniels Oamen, the most capable hand to move Esan Central LGA forward.
“In preparing for public leadership, I have been trained by The Electoral College of Nigeria, ElectHer Future Lawmakers Program, and The School of Politics Policy and Governance from where I have a certificate in Public Leadership and Policy and I was Female best-graduating student in the Class of 2022 cohort. My unique selling point is that I have been schooled in leadership and governance, so I have tools of leadership that anyone who has not been trained in the same will not have.
Allow me to use an analogy to explain. A mother who is trained in medicine as either a doctor or a nurse will know how to attend to her child’s medical needs more than a mother who has no medical background/training. Love cannot replace training. Thus, they are both mothers, but when the child is sick, it is the mother who has the medical training that can effectively attend to the medical needs of the child. This does not make the non-medical mom a bad mother. She’s just limited in what she can deliver. So, I have more capacity for leadership because I have been trained in leadership and governance. Those who have only the love for Esan Central and want to lead are not necessarily bad leaders, they might just be limited in capacity if they have not been trained in leadership, governance, and policy formation as I have. This is one of my greatest advantages” – Joyce Daniels Oamen, Chairmanship Aspirant, Esan Central LGA.
Irrua 14th May, 2023.
As the battle to occupy the seats of government in the 18 LGAs of Edo State heats up the polity, contenders lines up across boards to take up leadership positions in the much awaited dispensation.
For the first time in the history of Edo State, women has been given a level playing ground to excel in politics under the able leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki in furtherance of the legacies of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, great PDP national leaders and former presidents who gave 35 percent appointment slots to women in governance. Our great Governor is taking their legacies further by promoting 40 percent to women in the the forth coming dispensation.
In this interview with Urban Scoop Media, one of the most outstanding contenders for the seat of Chairman, Esan Central LGA, Joyce Daniels Oamen talked convincingly and sincerely about her humble background, education, works and most importantly about her exposure, training in the act of governance and passion for community service – the bedrock of grassroot development. Excerpt.
Urban Scoop Media…. solution-driven news.
Interview Questions with Joyce Daniels.
*Urbanscoopnews:* Kindly tell us your name, background, educational qualification, and work experience.
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* Joyce Daniels is my name, and I am the daughter of Elder and Elder Mrs. John Oamen of Idunwele Ewu, Esan Central LGA, Edo State. I was born on Sunday 31st January 1982 in Warri, Bendel State, Nigeria. At the age of 2, we relocated to Port Harcourt where I spent 25 years of my life. For my primary, secondary, and university, I attended the Federal Government College Staff Nursery and Primary School, Federal Government Girls College Abuloma, and graduated with a BSc in Anatomy from the University of Port Harcourt. I have since worked as a Public Speaker, professional Master of Ceremonies, Public Speaking and Presentations Skills Coach, and Human Relations Trainer, facilitating programs in cross-cultural communications and effective communication. In the year 2020, the Covid year, I took up a role as a Mindset Coach owing to the despondency of so many people around me and the need for mindset reengineering for better living, from developing courage and confidence to developing a desire to make Nigeria a better place and by extension, the world a better place. I have since taken on the title of Social Engineering Practitioner because that is what my life’s purpose is hinged on.
Reengineering the mind, to re-engineer society for increased productivity, the full beneficiation of all the resources God has blessed us with and to live our best lives.
*Urbanscoopnews:* We are aware that you obtained a nomination form to contest for a political office, please tell us about this.
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I obtained the nomination form to contest for the office of Chairman, Esan Central LGA for the singular reason that I believe that the local government offers the best opportunity for incremental, measurable, achievable, and realistic growth and development goals in any state of a country. I desire to seize such opportunities.
*Urbanscoopnews:* Have you held any political or government appointments before now?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* No. I have never held any political or government appointments before now.
*Urbanscoopnews:* Tell us about your Party PDP, its leaders, and stakeholders concerning your aspirations.
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* The People’s Democratic Party has always, from 1999 shown some level of consideration for women in politics. Under the leadership of Fmrs. President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, we did see the fulfillment of 35℅ affirmative actions for women in appointed positions. Thus, the PDP has always shown at least at the federal level to live up to its constitution of giving 35℅ affirmative actions for women.
In Edo State, the PDP under the governorship of His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki has upheld that clause in the PDP constitution. There have been over women occupying over 40% of appointed offices across the state and in continuation of this, the party has also released a publication on Wednesday 10th May 2023 calling on willing and able women to aspire to political and appointed offices, clearly stating that 40% of these positions will be reserved for women. That’s commendable.
Now, how does this clause affect me and other women currently running for office? Well, we do believe that the party would hold up this clause by allowing women to attain 40 percent of the seats in the forth-coming local government elections, giving room for gender balance and equity.
I must add – the party is not only about gender balance, but also about creating a level playing field for those who have the needed Character, Competence, and Capacity to lead different offices in conjunction with the state government to a desired outcome.
So, I am very encouraged to forge on with my aspirations, believing in the structure and trusting in the goodwill and integrity of the PDP to see to a successful outcome of electing competent individuals into office.
*Urbanscoopnews:* You seem to be very active in the Esan social circle, what are your motivating factors?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* My job has always put me in social circles of interaction from and around different industries and sectors of society. At a point in my life, I realized that I wanted to be more involved in my roots, my hometown, and my locality. I wanted to create the same kind of experience I had enjoyed in Port Harcourt where I lived for 25 years, Akwa Ibom where I lived for 10 years, Lagos where I lived for over 4 years, and Maiduguri where I lived for 1 year. I wanted to create these s have same kinds of experiences for myself, in Edo State, in Esan Central, and in Ewu. I wanted more relevance in my roots. I found that I was garnering and gathering relevance in other places and at the end of the day, I just felt it should also be the same at my roots. So, I intentionally packed up my things and moved back home, just because I wanted to be of more relevance at home.
I’m blessed with a good kind of influence. Positive influence. It emanates from my name Joyce which means leader. I have been blessed from my primary school days as someone who radiates positive influence. I have always been known to be an influential person of sorts. When I was in Primary School, one teacher said, “When you see many pupils gathered, check who is in the middle that they are listening to, it’s Joyce.” My mom always used to say the same thing and so why not? If I am such a burst of positive energy and light, why not in my own home, in Ewu, and Esan Central.
I started by being active on the Ewu Progress Foundation (EPF) platform which is a gathering of like-minded concerned Ewu indigenes who give back to society through philanthropic efforts and also try to inspire progress through sporting activities, educational interventions, and extra curricula activities for people within the community and of course, once in a while, we gather together to have fun and get to know each other. This has been very helpful.
I also joined the Idunwele Sons and Daughters Association to further my relationships with my kindred.
*Urbanscoopnews:* We are aware that you have a passion for grassroots development, can you give us a summary of some of the efforts you have made in that regard?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* So, for me, I have a personal guiding principle lettered E.D.O. I came up with this sometime in 2021. E-education. D – development. O – order. Thus, I am committed to my efforts in these spaces.
I started the Ewu Spelling Bee which is closely linked to the kind of work I do. I am a Speaker and I believe that the foundation for good speaking is spelling. I thought, ‘how can we encourage young children to be more committed to spelling and maybe someday also be involved in a reading competition’? For me, it was to start up with the Ewu Spelling Bee which we have done in conjunction with the Ewu Progress Foundation. Development involves infrastructure and enterprise development, and so, in 2021, we had the first Ewu Youth Empowerment Program where we trained over 100 Ewu youths, with intense training for selected 20 Ewu youths, and then we gave financial empowerment to 10 of them to support their businesses. My commitment to development also inspired me into install solar streetlights along my street in Idunwele Ewu and two other streets within the community that indeed needed such intervention. So, I am all for any development effort that will improve education, enterprise, and infrastructure that is directly linked to the living standards of people. 2022 Christmas, we installed solar kits in the homes of 10 women in Idunwele, Ewu, and by the grace of God, by the end of this month, we hope to install another 40 solar home kits in the homes of women across the local government starting of course with my home, Idunwele and spreading across the other villages.
We will give out these kits at the Ewu Mother’s Day celebration I’m organizing for Sunday 28th May at the brand new Idunwele Town Hall.
*Urbanscoopnews:* How much of Esan Central LGA do you know?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I know enough to keep my love alive. We are one of the smallest local governments in the state. We have fewer than 200,000 people living within the local government. We are at such a location that if we were in a human body, we would be located where the heart is. A little to the left of the centre, so I call us “The Heart of the Heartbeat” being that Edo State is the “Heartbeat of the Nation.”
A survey I carried out with a company in 2021 to assess and understand the workings of the local government showed that over 60% of the people of working age in the local government are in one trading business or the other. 45% of the people in Esan Central are either Traders or Businesspersons, 12% are civil/public servants, 9% are artisans, 7% are private sector employees, 6% are farmers, 5% are retirees, 5% are unemployed, 3% students, 2% clergy, 2% transporters, 1% teachers, 1% legal practitioners, and so on. So, you see, If I had not carried out this survey, I would have personally made the error of thinking we had more people in farming than in trade which is not the case. We have more people in trade and business than in farming.
I know that we have untapped human capital, we have enough people who are semi-skilled workers that can fill a gap in the economy. We have quite several retirees, people who are considered above the age of youth, but we also have a growing youth population. I know that Esan Central people are highly politically aware and are politically involved and we have produced various prominent sons and daughters in different spheres of life, from the 4 kingdoms within the local government. I also know that in the 31 years that we have been in existence, we are yet to have a woman at the helm of affairs in the local government.
*Urbanscoopnews:* What will you do differently from those before you if you emerge?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I chose this journey, it’s not a fluke, it’s not happenstance. So, my commitment and drive, I can already tell you ab initio will be more toward fulfilling the clear agenda that I have for the local government.
I and my team developed a #BetterLIFE for Esan Central Agenda because as a person, with all my heart, I believe in considering Living standards; Infrastructure that improve productivity and ease of doing business; Farming, and agriculture because we already have a high subsistence farming population within the local government, with the opportunity to scale up, thankfully now, we also have the Ewu Flower Mills up and running again and I believe that with the right nudge, encouragement, facilitation, and empowerment, our farmers will scale farming for bigger things like production within the flower mills; and Enterprise development because without tooling, re-tooling, upskilling of enterprise and business processes, our businesses would not grow and this will not attract investors and investments which we desperately need.
Note that any kind of investment and empowerment being embarked on would be about improving existing businesses based on proper needs assessments.
We will never be caught in the trap of giving empowerment materials to non-existent business, it’s not a sustainable intervention.
We would only give empowerment based on the NEEDS ASSESSMENT done. One major thing I would do differently from those before me would be consistent Needs Assessments, Stakeholder engagement on a monthly and quarterly basis so that we are sure that we are developing according to the needs of the local government. Our ideas will be close to the people, not far-fetched ideas that would die with the administration, but ones that the people themselves will be willing to carry on.
I would apply what I know as the A-List. Accountability with quarterly accountability sessions with stakeholders; Leadership in terms of providing direction and Love for the people; Integrity, constantly keeping the books open, showing and doing only what I say – you will never find me making promises to communities that I cannot keep, in fact by my nature and character, I have not been known to be mediocre, I talk about only what I can deliver; Stewardship which involves constantly engaging with the people in stakeholder conversations and, Transparency.
I am so given to being open. I and my team will have regular short videos of the progress reports of our administration, carrying people along with photos and videos per time so that nothing is done in the dark and people will always know what is going on and what to expect from the council. I try with all my heart in business and so far in philanthropy to be open, so people know what to expect from me.
These are major things I know I would do differently from those before me.
*Urbanscoopnews:* Tell us about Ewu and the various communities, are you satisfied with the level of government presence in Ewu and the political empowerment of its people?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I believe that government and governance are progressive. I would say those before me tried their best and were probably limited by what was available to them. This is my honest summation.
Ewu is quite developed in terms of road networks which can and will be improved.
I’m not a naysayer. We have made quite some progress. We have schools in every one of the communities, and we have teachers. However, government presence can be improved upon which is why I want to be part of the government because I firmly believe that it is the local government that should take her place in providing basic education for children at the community level in partnership with the state government, developing community roads and road networks, providing water and the basic amenities for a community. Since the correct structure is for the local government to develop, I cannot even hold the state government to ransom because the right order is that the local government should take care of the local government’s needs. Hence, we need the right people who have this understanding to be at the helm of affairs in the local government councils.
Political empowerment on the other hand starts from political interests. The people of Ewu have a high level of political interests and we empower ourselves by being organized in political parties and political groups and the end, we support ourselves. So yes, I am impressed with what I’ve seen so far.
*Urbanscoopnews:* What are your plans for the LGA as a whole?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I have only 1 agenda, 1 plan – and that is #BetterLIFE for Esan Central. (Share Manifesto). I am a life-giver. I and my team and the people who will work with us have only one goal, to bring #BetterLIFE to Esan Central.
*Urbanscoopnews:* Who is Joyce Daniels, what are your unique selling points?
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I believe in fit-for-purpose learning. Thus, in preparing for public leadership, I have been trained by The Electoral College of Nigeria, ElectHer Future Lawmakers Program, and The School of Politics Policy and Governance from where I have a certificate in Public Leadership and Policy and I was Female best-graduating student in the Class of 2022 cohort.
My unique selling point is that I have been schooled in leadership and governance, so I have tools of leadership that anyone who has not been trained in the same will not have. Allow me to use an analogy to explain. A mother who is trained in medicine as either a doctor or a nurse will know how to attend to her child’s medical needs more than a mother who has no medical background/training. Love cannot replace training. Thus, they are both mothers, but when the child is sick, it is the mother who has the medical training that can effectively attend to the medical needs of the child. This does not make the non-medical mom a bad mother. She’s just limited in what she can deliver. So, I have more capacity for leadership because I have been trained in leadership and governance. Those who have only the love for Esan Central and want to lead are not necessarily bad leaders, they might just be limited in capacity if they have not been trained in leadership, governance, and policy formation as I have. This is one of my greatest advantages.
Other advantages are the ones given to me by God and nature by making me a woman. I am more given to love and nurture. I am a great listener and an effective team player. I have high empathy levels.
I am also undergoing training to become a qualified mediator – a skill leaders need for adequate conflict resolution.
I always try to treat people with respect and dignity.
Again, I am not just a competent individual, I am also a woman with scientifically proven women’s instincts. Competence! Capacity! and Character for leadership!
Summarily, I have a rich network of accountability partners. I belong to the Fix Politics Movement. I have people who will draw my ears if I am stepping out of line. I have people whom I can call on to intervene in guiding development. Within my immediate network, there are men and women, doctors, professors, and entrepreneurs who are development partners from within and outside Edo State.
For example, I have a friend, Prof. Hamidu from ABU Zaria who is always available to sit with me and my team whenever we need someone to guide us as he is a professor of local government studies, and I have several other such people in my network intentionally. I already know and interact with them, and they already teach me to look out for pitfalls that may not be obvious to the untrained eye. Oh, training is key! There is no substitute for training and education in the field of public leadership. I have been trained by the best in the African space and I will deliver as the best in the African space within the Esan Central context.
*Urbanscoopnews:* We learned that you are a national figure in a male-dominated public speaking profession, tell us about your job and how you can bring the prospects of public speaking concept into the leadership of the LGA.
*Joyce Daniels Oamen:* I am indeed one of the most sought masters of ceremonies in the country. I daresay I am the most sought female master of ceremonies in corporate Nigeria.
I have trained over 1000 masters of ceremonies across Africa because I believe that there are people like me, I call us “restless talkative” who want to do more with our speaking and earn from it. Thus, I developed a curriculum in 2013 and put out pieces of training. My goodness, I did not realize that so many people were already looking for such training. I am proud of it and I am not threatened by other people being qualified in my field, rather, it gives me life to know that we have a plethora of professionals in my field because that is good for nation-building. We cannot continue to celebrate Nigerians who are doing well in other climes, we need to celebrate Nigerians who are doing well in unconventional fields here in Nigeria.
Thus, be assured that within the local government council, chairman, vice-chairman, councilors, and workers, every month, we would have public speaking trainings that I will oversee and from time to time, we would bring other professionals to train us because the world has been changed repeatedly only by leaders who can communicate their ideas and their desires. A leader who cannot effectively communicate his/her ideas will find it difficult to get buy-in from constituents. Intentions must be properly communicated for constituents to buy in and cooperate with the local government. It’s my life’s purpose to ensure that those around me can communicate clearly and if I can’t help them, we would find those who can.
