Our Women are Coming
By
I read with so much satisfaction recent media exposition on women in Nigeria. In the publications eminent focus were given to women who are
accomplished in the legal profession. These are women who have reached the height of that profession as Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN). In Nigeria, being a
SAN remains for now, the highest honour in advocacy.
The publications also paid attention to our women who have ventured into the usually rough terrain of politics and are doing exceedingly well. Yet politics and
law are not the only areas that our women have shown resilience and determination.
They are in the service and real sectors of the economy as chief operating officers. In banking especially, we can count our own dear Chief Mrs. Cecilia Ibru,
Sola Adeoti, Lady Joy Udensi to mention but a few. There is also the Nigerian sensation in the World Bank called Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who was appointed the
Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank on October 2, 2002. Her professional doggedness and unparalleled brilliance are steadily propelling her
to the very pinnacle of that respected global financial institution. Remember also that she was home briefly as adviser to President Obasanjo on economic
matters.
Women are everywhere in the informal sector as big time and petty traders and artisans. In some cases, women are the driving force of the agrarian economies of
rural communities in Nigeria. They till the ground and bring forth food. It is from the abundance of their sweat that food flows to the rest of us. It is right
therefore to say that our women do not only bring forth children, they do more to nurture these young ones socially and nutritionally in a more substantive
sense till they become fully established . .... in their environment.
Indeed, Nigeria has always had in good measure women of excellent virtues. In the old, we could talk of the Great Queen Amina of Zaria, Emotan and of course
Queen Idia of Benin Kingdom after whom my project, Idia Renaissance is named. There are a lot more names across this great country. But in the much recent past,
we have had our gallant mothers such as the late Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti reputed to be the first Nigerian woman to ever own and drive a car and the
inimitable Mrs. Magaret Ekpo. The efforts of these women and many others across the country including the heroines of the famous Aba Women revolt have done so
much to shape our collective destiny.
The surge is even higher in contemporary times. In situations where the women are not directly in charge, their roles have been most complementary as wives.
Take for instance the wives of the governors. Most of us are devotedly engaged in one form of charity service or the other. At the federal level, the First
Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo and wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar are not relenting. Indeed, both are at the forefront of efforts aimed at
securing a better tomorrow for future generations of Nigerians.
Permit therefore to sound a little immodest by saying that our combined efforts in re-aligning some obvious societal dislocations may have yielded bountiful
harvests in the last three years or so. Beneficiaries of the Edo Underprivileged Children Scholarship Trust Fund should be fair minded enough to say that things
have not been the same with them since the institution of the trust fund. Those that have gone through our female youth empowerment scheme, otherwise known as
the Edo State Skills Acquisition Centre may also have one or two testimonies to give.
Yet our modest contribution in Edo State is by no means exhaustive of efforts by wives of governors to give a little back to the Nigerian society. From Ababa
through the South east to Calabar and back to Lagos and across the Benue to Lokoja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Maiduguri and so on, some successes ,to say the
least, have been recorded in the sworn task by First ladies to make society better than they met it.
On Independence day, some 48 notable Nigerians living or death, were recognised by Mr. President as icons of hope. Of these, 16 were woman who were listed on
the basis of their enormous contributions to nation building. Among them was Mrs. Uzoamaka Nwizu the comptroller general of the Nigerian Immigration Service.
She is a chief executive of a government department. Her recognition goes to show that even in the public or civil service, we have women drivers who can assist
in driving this great country beyond the level we are now to real enviable heights.
Another female icon was Dr. (Mrs.). Dora Akunyili, the director general of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). She is one
woman who has shown more than masculine firmness in tackling the problem of fake drugs and food items in the country. Yet her task is by no description mean. It
could be as tough as that of the Inspector General of Police because faking of drugs and food is a highly organised crime. Those involved in it are vicious and
mafia-like in their moje of operations. It takes therefore courage, determination, honesty and a very high sense of patriotism to resist being compromised and
confront these criminals head long in the manner that Dr. Akunyili has been doing. She has insisted on strict compliance to rules and standards form both big
and small organisations. We can safely say therefore that Dr. Akunyilli has succeeded very well where men have failed. Let me quickly add that there are far
more female icons in the public sector who may not have been ceremonially recognised, but who enjoy even greater recognition from Nigerians.
The months ahead promise to be fulfilling in our dogged march to making democracy irreversible in Nigeria. In all situations of struggle for social and
political change, women have proven to be partners in progress. Wives stood by their husbands in the great nationalistic struggles in Southern Africa. One Latin
American freedom fight once described women as the lubricants of all freedom struggles. They are not lubricants in the erotic sense but in the far more
fundamental interpretation of women being the effective protectors of the home front, an arrangement that makes it possible for men to remain afield to
prosecute the struggle for better existence.
I ask therefore for full participation of women in the 2003 political dispensation. And it should be participation at the two levels of offering themselves to
serve and selecting those that should serve. In other words, they should vote and be voted for. Without any doubt in mind, I expect a greater empowerment of the
women folk in 2003. And I foresee an empowerment that may interestingly come about not through the defeatist arrangement of an affirmative action which somehow
puts on women the toga of weakness and second class status. It is an empowerment, I believe, that will surely come through competition and fitness.
Nov 2002