Recently when the Senate rejected the gender bill initiated by one of the female senators, i monitored the anger unleashed by women all over Nigeria. I for one was neither angry nor suprised because i knew such a bill will not be a tea party for our law makers considering the society we live in. What i expected the women all over Nigeria(not just our female senators) to focus on was, to have a back up plan, a plan B/C knowing that the men who outnumbered females in the National assembly must surely reject it.
My mind flashed back when Mrs Sarah Jibril who contested for the post of the President in PDP went for the party Nominations here in Abuja. I can’t forget this sad event ever in my life. I wrote about this severally in the Newspaper i was writing for that period and have also talked about it here at BD SUNDAY.
I am also going to ask the same questions i kept asking when after the PDP convention, sara jibril had only one vote…her own vote. Jeezzzz….did this actually happened? It did…korokoro….the woman was alone…abandoned by all including the women that campaigned for her? Where were the women she had series of meeting with? I do not want to talk about the men who also supported her because i am sure there were some men that stood by her to pay for that nomination form but also abandoned her during the convention. My concern was the women she parley with all the time she was preparing for the convention. Where were they during the voting? You see folks, i wish to conduct an interview one day with mrs sarah Jibril and ask her certain questions before i can get this ugly incident out of my memory for good. I need to understand why it was only her own vote she got during the nomination and how she dealth with all the people that betrayed her. Oh sure…it was obvious she was betrayed by those she trusted…. those who made her had the courage to even show her face to compete among ruthless male politicians we have in this country.
When this happened, men who always say that women are their worse enemies capitalized on this to comfirm their stand on women not supporting each other. This is not my concern today to say if this is true or not but i am concerned about what women like Sarah has decided to do when she heard about the rejection of this bill. I am very sure she is still in this country and very much aware of the political runs happening in this country. This is an opportunity for all women who have tasted the bitter pills of politics, violated women, battered/abused women to rally round and support our senators to re-strategise and relaunch this bill. Oh yes, the bill MUST be presented over and over till the men get tired of rejecting it. If the women give up just after one trial, the opposition will laugh at us and say we are not serious and have no political and emotional muscles to fight for our rights of existence .
Listen …for men reading this today, i am not here to jive about this gender equity which have deprived lots of Nigerian women their rightful positions both in their various homes and political arena. So if you are a man reading this and you hate my guts for speaking out…so be it!!!!! The truth must be said and most people hate to hear the truth so call me any name you like. I stand by my words here!!!
It’s funny when men who oppose women and deny them certain human rights always say that we the women want to be equal with them. This is not what those of us who fight for women rights mean when we talk about gender equity. There is no way a man and a woman can be same because GOD made us different so men like Senator Sani former Governor of Zamfara state should think properly before fighting women rights of existence and leadership positions in this country. I listened to his statements at Senate concerning this bill and he really sounded funny with all he said concerning what the women want. I wonder how he treats the women in his life.
Now coming back to the women and how they stand by each other, if the Nigerian women want women to succeed in this bill, they must have to come together one way or the other, make their various contributions in ways they can and agree on what to do. For those women who feel this woman or that woman is not good enough to be heard, i think you should stay at home so you do not sabotage the efforts of others. For any woman to have the boldness to speak out and compete with men in this country, and some women somewhere did not even give her some credit for her courage but rather, feels she is not competent, i strongly feel you are the one that is not competent. No matter how baised you are about your fellow women, at least respect any woman who has the guts to stand up to challenge for women rights in this country. If you do not like a woman’s face, tribe, whatever reason you have not to support her….simply stay off her activity radar.
Any woman adult who have seen how women are being denied various human rights, teenage girls as young as 10years, being raped/violated/adopted and forcefully married off and you look down on another woman who comes out to speak up against this, you certainly need your brains to be examined properly. This is all i have to say about this ever-ending remarks majority of people keep saying about women being their worse enemies.
Finally, women who are opportuned, well-off should try to empower more women so that they can have a voice in the women activities world wide. It is sad seeing wealthy women spending all their finance on fashion when they can use such funds to empower intelligent and talented women who can make meaningful contributions in the liberation of women in Nigeria. The 8th African women leadership conference happened in Sandton south Africa this march and if you take a survey in women that attended this meeting, you would see same old faces . As a wealthy woman of worth, how many women did you sponsor to this conference to represent Nigerian women? Most women in this country has so much wealth but they hardly empower other women with their wealth and influence. Men are more liberal in helping other men but women tend to be selfish when it comes to empowering other women in Nigeria. This attitude must change if women must have one voice to fight for freedom of speech and their human rights .
Jaclyn Iwu is a Life/Career/Business Coach
A Stress Management Expert &Conference Speaker
Media communications consultant
BLOG: https://bluntjacqui.blogspot.com.ng
FACEBOOK: beautifulwoman.column
TWITTER: @Jacquiworld
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