As the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) prepares to mark its golden jubilee at its Annual General Meeting and election scheduled for April 14 to 18 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, it faces the possibility of having an all-male executive which would be a first in its 50-year history.

With the election barely weeks away, NANTA’s First Deputy National President and Managing Director of Global Links & Services Limited, Chinyere Umeasiegbu, who is seeking re-election spoke to reporters in her Lagos office recently, saying that the association will have to determine if it will step into its next phase with a balanced, inclusive leadership or not.

She stated that removing the sole female member of the core national executive would be both a regression and an unusual deviation.

In an association where women constitute the majority of practicing members, three female presidents have emerged since the inception of NANTA. The current expanded executive council has only one female vice president across all zones and of the two positions open for contest at the Ibadan election, Umeasiegbu is the only woman contesting for a place at the core national executive.

If she loses her re-election bid, and no woman emerges through the PRO contest, NANTA’s core national executive will be entirely male and the expanded executive will be left with a solitary female vice president. “In the expanded executive, there’s only one female vice president. All other zones are male. There’s only two positions that are being contested for, that are open, the first deputy national president and the national PRO. If anything goes south, NANTA in 50 years will not have the proper gender equation annexed. That’s an abnormality,” she said.

She says she spearheaded the revival of NANTA’s South Eastern zone, adding that a loss would strip the area of any national executive representation.

“When we had balance in 2024, there were four or five of us in the expanded executive. Reducing it to no one at the core and one at the expanded, that’s an anomaly, especially when I have just said to you, all the deliverables that I have been able to do in less than two full years, that are foundational, that need to be consolidated. For NANTA Eastern Zone not to have a core representation, that is an error. So apart from me wanting to come back to consolidate, for us not to have a female at the core national exco, and for us not to have Eastern Zone at the core national is an error,” she said.

Besides the issue of gender balancing and regional representation, Umeasiegbu said her achievements more than qualify her for re-election. She points to NANTA’s rising profile under the current administration which she said has moved beyond being a gathering of travel professionals. She said the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development, all the aviation agencies and the International Air Transport Association now regard NANTA as the representatives of travel professionals in Nigeria.

Umeasiegbu also said this current administration led by Yinka Folami is pushing a process that, for the first time, would include gender representation as a formal requirement in NANTA’s constitution.

She added that a constitution review committee has been established, and a clause mandating a percentage of female representation in the executive has been proposed.

She also said that by showing up, delivering results, and being visible at the highest level of the association’s leadership, she has ignited a fresh awareness among female members. “Women are suddenly realising we only have one woman in the leadership. Only one. That is not right. I remember some female members telling me at a recent gathering that my presence alone was reason enough for them to make the journey to Ibadan even when the logistics were challenging. They say because of Pastor Chi, I’m coming. I didn’t want to come before, but I’m coming. Before, this position I occupied was just there. But a woman came, and she shook the table and began to deliver. I came and began to deliver and have made it so attractive.

“Let there be experience over experiment. Let there be inclusivity over exclusion. Let there be continuity over disruption. Dismantling the progress made on gender and regional representation at this stage would set the association back not just symbolically, but operationally. Should we allow for disruption? Should we remove the gender that brought about the foundation? You can see what women do to an ecosystem,” she said. (The Sun)