Senator Joy Emodi @ 60: Give us joy forever

She is a woman who has lived up to her baptismal name – Joy. She is a joyful delight to many who come her
way, and it was no wonder that in her time in the Senate she was popularly referred to as the Joy of the Senate.
But it is the native nickname Adadiorinma, “a daughter that is loved by all” that seemingly conveys the life and latitude of Senator Joy Ifeanyichukwu Emodi (CON). Indeed, loving and liking Mrs. Emodi is an infectious aptitude for men and women that come around her.
Excellence in public life for many comes at the cost of the erosion of human compassion and dignity. But not so for Senator Emodi, who in her more than two decades on the public stage has earned recognition from near and far for rubbishing suggestions that only women of easy virtue progress in politcs.
Few in her native Anambra State have reached her heights in public life without evoking tales of one smear or scandal. Rather, Mrs. Emodi despite her early introduction to politics by her husband, Dr. Okey Emodi, a leftist who identified with the defunct Peoples Redemption Party, PRP of the Second Republic, has carved a name that has seemingly evaded the scandals and stories that have besmirched the reputations of many supposedly successful men and women.
In fact, she has held her dignity and maintained the virtue of womanhood and in the face of denial of political opportunities including at one time, the denial of a ministerial appointment.
But Mrs. Emodi is, however, nobody’s pushover on a level playing field as she has repeatedly demonstrated in Anambra State.
Mrs. Emodi was nurtured in the political field by the political gurus of Nigeria in the nineties among whom were the late Senator Abubakar Saraki, Prof. Jibril Aminu, Chief Emmanuel Iwanyanwu among a select few.
Her governorship bid in 1998 was one that evoked emotions from many women who saw in her, a trailblazer who was able to upset the permutations that had until then subjected women to the backseat of political discourse in the state. Support for her campaign that was unfairly traced to the powers in Aso Rock was, in fact, the product of humble diligence that saw high and low in the land galvanise support for her.
It was the momentum from that campaign that led General Olusegun Obasanjo in early 1999 to seek her support for the presidential election despite her membership of the then All Peoples Party, APP.
When in 2003 she sought the Anambra North Senate seat about to be vacated by Senator Chuba Okadigbo, the new set of political godfathers that had surfaced in Anambra immediately saw her astuteness as averse to their agenda and it was no surprise that for nearly two years after the election she was in court until she got victory. In the Senate, Mrs. Emodi quickly made herself a woman of reckoning with her political poise, purposefulness and pace. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, she is remembered by several federal institutions for the forthrightness with which she discharged her obligations to them. The sour tales of scam and scandal that once tainted that very committee were quickly replaced with uprightness and transparency.
Senator Emodi’s efforts were quickly recognised by the United Nations, which through UNESCO made her its focal person in the National Assembly. Universities that got their due through her efforts like the University of Abuja and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University beckoned to her with honourary degrees.
What was unarguably a testimonial to her character and conscience was her depiction as the Joy of the Senate. Even when her tenure was cut short by one of the most bizarre court rulings ever in 2010, Mrs. Emodi remained a beckon of hope to many especially in her native Anambra State who were beneficiaries of her empowerment schemes.
Perhaps, it was that infectious joy that drew the attention of President Goodluck Jonathan towards her with her appointment as the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters. It was a job that she did with panache. Winning the confidence of even the most distrustful sceptics of the president in the National Assembly. It is to her credit that no one executive proposal failed while she occupied the office. An easy measurement of Senator Emodi’s success as special adviser is the fact that since she left that office in 2013 that President Jonathan has not stepped foot in the National Assembly complex.
Educationist, lawyer and politician, Mrs. Emodi has to all intents in the eyes of man lived a life fitting to be loved. At 60 today, Adadirionma is a woman that all men and women of goodwill will pray that her diamond will last forever! Congratulations.
By Emmanuel Aziken