MY FATHER WORKED AGAINST MY RE-ELECTION - CATHERINE DABO-ADZUANA

Adzuana Aondona Catherine Dabo-Adzuana, is  Chief Godwin Daboh's daughter. In this interview with Daily Sun, she speaks on the circumstances that saw to her emergence as a member of the House of Representatives in 2003, her sojourn in the Green Chamber as the only member of the defunct United Nigeria Peoples' Party (UNPP) in the 5th National Assembly and life outside politics.

Excerpts: How did you get yourself involved in politics? It was really, really accidental because I was just a business person. I had just moved to Abuja in the year 2000 when I heard about the massacre in the Tivland, the Tiv-Jukun crisis and out of sympathy, I just decided that oh, let me go and help my people. And I went there and bought things for them.

I bought ten trailer-loads of rice, beans, cows and goats. At that time, I spent N50 million of my personal money. No single contribution from anybody. It was all my money and to tell you that I wasn't thinking of any political ambition, I did help 13 local governments in Benue State, all the local governments in the Tiv-speaking areas and 23 communities. I mean, this was something that you could see. It wasn't like people announced it on television or radio that she donated this and you don't see it. You could see me with a convoy stretching 10, 15 kilometres of trailers and trailers of relief materials: clothes, exercise books, pen and, of course, I did give 300 students scholarships whom have graduated today from different higher schools.

It was after that, that my people insisted that I should represent them. They actually started with the idea of me being a governor because of the wide spread of my help but I said, no, I wasn't doing this to be paid back. Thereafter, they suggested going to the Senate and I said no. They said the House and I said no, and they were like, oh, you think you are too much for us to send on an errand? It was at that point that I caved in.

So, you chose the House of Representatives? Yes. Out of the three options. How was the election that saw you becoming a member of the House of the Representatives?

My election was the election of the people. It wasn't me. My people were the ones that asked me to come and like I said, having helped 13 local governments, you can imagine. In fact, I was being voted for in 13 local  councils for the House of Representatives.

How was your sojourn in the House? It was very eventful, very dramatic. It was very eventful because I was the only member of the UNDP at the National Assembly for four years. And because I wasn't in the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) or Action Congress (AC) or any other party, or I didn't have any other member of my party at the National Assembly, I was naturally victimised. Also, probably because I wasn't playing to the gallery. It was tough but I thank God I went through it.

Were there things you intended doing that you could not accomplish while in the House?

Oh yes, certainly. I couldn't do a lot of things because I was alone. I will tell you that there was a bill I prepared; a very important bill. You know, I will just let sleeping dogs lie. And to my shock, after I had prepared the bill and I presented it, I was called at 3am and told that this bill was too important for someone in an unknown party to be the one to have originated and to present it and, therefore, that we were going to have someone in the PDP, of very high ranking position in the House, to present it and I should second it. I was amazed. I was really upset.

So, there was nothing you could do? There was something I could do but I just decided to let it be because if I had done that, they would said: 'Oh, ah ha, controversial Dabo's daughter.'

What has been taking your time since you left the House?

I went back to my business; trading. And while I was in the House, I had an accident which has turned out to be a blessing. I fell down in the bathroom and I had an injury on my neck, which saw me have POP on my neck for six months and I was in England for those six months.

While I was in England, I was skeptical about having an operation. I met a Greek woman, who jokingly said to me that, do you know that herbs can heal your neck and you won't have to undergo a surgery? I said I beg your pardon, we are not talking about sleeping wrongly on the bed, we are talking about an injury. And she smiled. She said, look, there is a herb called comfrey, that during the World War (11), the physician on the battle field who couldn't fix broken arms, sent a particular person away and the person came back and the broken bones were healed to his shock because he thought the case was hopeless. And when he asked the man, the man said it was comfrey, that a herbalist gave him this herb that fixes broken bones. I was amazed that the pains I had for six months, actually disappeared in one week or rather, 50 per cent of it had gone in one week.

Just with the use of the herb? Yes. Just herbal teas. And by the second week, all of the pain had disappeared and I was like wao, this is magic, this is amazing.

When I asked the woman, she said, look, herbal medicine is original medicine. Orthodox drugs are alternative but there has been a successful blackmail against herbs and herbal teas that now, they call herbs alternative and orthodox, original. How can that be, nature? And you find out that even the orthodox drugs are made from herbs or rather, a lot of them are derived from herbs. Drugs that are synthetic are always poisonous.

What exactly are you presently into? I am presently into eating and drinking right. Eating and drinking right? Yes. What do you mean by that? What I mean is that most human beings, 90 per cent of human beings are actually what they eat and drink. Now, I will give you examples: the doctor of the future will definitely heal people by food. Food is medicine in Asia. In fact, in Asia, there is no line between food and medicine. For instance, our spices in our kitchen. Would you believe that thyme is a very powerful antiseptic, more powerful than detoil? Would you believe that nutmeg that is predominantly used for baking, is a sleep inducer, a better sleep inducer than valium?

So, I do have a herbal lounge now where I use food to heal the body.

If you come to my herbal lounge, from the spices that we cook with… I could give you rosemary for instance. It is excellent for even being forgetful because it is used for amnesia disease, it is used for nervous breakdown, headache and migraines; rosemary.

That is wonderful… Yes. That is why if you go on DSTV, Channel 125, you will find out that there is a programme for embarrassing illness. You will find out that cancer can be healed just by a change of diet.

Do you think Nigerians are aware of this? No, a lot of people are ignorant. And that is why when people say oh, you are doing medicine, I say no, I am not doing medicine, I am doing food that is medicinal or healing to the body. Regular food. For instance, the mushroom. If you go into any supermarket, you can buy it. It is an anti oxidant, it is anti-cancer and you can find it in any of the big stores, the super markets. I see it everywhere. It is just N1,500. It is anti cancer and anti-tumor.

Do you hope to go back to politics? I really don't know. Right now, I am on a break and I am happy being on a break. But nobody knows what tomorrow holds. It is only God that can tell and like I said, I have experienced first hand, the benefits of herbs. First hand and not second hand information and I also know that, that is why the Asians, today live the longest and they are the strongest, mentally and physically and they are the ones that also don't age. Their ageing process is very slow and that is because like I said earlier, there is no distinction in Asia between food and medicine.

What kind of father is your dad, Dr. Godwin Dabo-Adzuana?

Sincerely, he is a unique human being. I don't know if I have come across two people like my father. He is just unique. He is uniquely made. He is so unique that when I was contesting my election, he was the main person to fight against me.

He also printed these fliers and said reasons why you must not vote for my daughter. He distributed it round my two constituencies but some people thought he was joking but he wasn't. He really fought me but God did the best.

Is he really controversial as some people think? Yes, my dad is controversial. He is controversial because his ways are not usual. He is an unusual human being. He does things in an unusual way. That is why I said he is a unique human being. People who are unique are controversial. They are misunderstood. Geniuses the world over, if you read history, you will find out that people, who invented things, were exceptional human beings. My father is an exceptionally intelligent man and he has a lot of energy. The only problem, and I keep telling him, many times, my father does the right thing at the wrong time or the wrong way and that is why in life, you must know when to do the right thing because if you do the right thing at the wrong time and in the wrong manner, it ends up being the wrong thing.

Would you still want him as your father in the next world?

Yes. Despite all the challenges and particularly, I think with me being a female and being his first child, we are always at loggerheads but I always say to people that I don't regret having him as my father. The reason being that a combination of my mother and another man, wouldn't have produced me as a human being. It is only my mother and my father, who could have produced me. So, I am forever grateful but there are lots of things he does in a particular class that I don't agree with and I will never agree with. And I keep advising him but you know, he always sees me as his little girl. I am 44 now but my father thinks I am a 12 years old.

Any regret so far? In life? Yeah. Oh yes. I don't think there is any human being alive that will say he or she does not have regret. Anybody who says that, obviously, is not a sincere human being. There are certain things I once did in the past, either out of being too young or not being knowledgeable enough.

What really contributed to the person you are today?

Fundamentally, I think the discipline I had from my father. I am telling you, he was a disciplinarian. I was over disciplined and that is why till today, I have a problem with the young generation of today because one, a lot of them lack in morals. Two, they lack proper upbringing and in culture as well. I believe that no matter how modern I am or how civilised or how educated, I believe that nobody should forget or totally abandon their culture.

That is why you see that the greatest race the world over are people, who have embraced modern living but also, are deeply rooted in their culture. For instance, the Chinese. Look at the Chinese, look at the Indians. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, our culture is being eroded totally by Western civilisation. For instance, a lot of the younger generation says 'oh, that aunty is a wicked aunty' because there are certain things I wouldn't expect. A 23-year-old cannot walk into my house with my son, who is 19, and say hi to me. I wouldn't accept that.

That is un-African and I wouldn't accept that we should become too civilised. To me, that is being rude.

Young girls of nowadays cannot cook. When I was growing up, we had three cooks in my house, we had two stewards, we had washer men, we had all sorts of people but my father would insist, as the female, that I was in the kitchen while they were cooking. My father would insist that when I woke up in the morning, I made my bed. Even if I didn't make it right, I made it and then, it could be re-done but kids of these days, they don't know anything.