 Published
February 1st, 2011
I don’t know why I am always
amazed, whenever my curious eyes take a peep at the Nigerian
political terrain, specifically on the burning issue of our
women in politics. Intriguingly, my amazement is more
centred on the political drama in Nigeria over the past ten
years. The truth is, I have always consoled myself with a
wry grin, long aware that the present Nigerian political
terrain has failed partly due to the conspicuous fact that
the country’s politics lacks women with bold character and
strong will, as witnessed in the first, second and third
republic, when we had strong characters like the late
firebrand women’s right activist, Mama Margaret Ekpo, the
late sharp tongue and no-nonsense Hajia Gambo Sawaba, and
the resilient Mrs. Fumilayo Ransome Kuti.
Unlike the first and second republic, when we had fearless
women social mobilizers, who took on the men squarely and
played major roles as grass roots and national politicians,
in an era of male dominated political masculinity, including
cultural and traditional discrimination of women
empowerment. These women unlike their today’s womenfolks
were able to put the men on their toes and thanks to them,
the Nigerian women actually had a say and a voice in the
political policies then. Today the story is different.
Apologies to our present day women politicians, who are more
visible during the sharing of the ‘goodies’ siphoned by the
male counterparts, and popular at political dinners and
luncheon, thus allowing the ever dominating and cunning male
to use and dump them for their selfish reasons.
The present day Nigerian women politicians are funnily
different from those amazons of the past, who were ready to
sacrifice their lives for the freedom and betterment of the
women folks. They fought and won the battle against the
imbalance in administrative promotions, cultural and racial
discriminations, price control of goods, and struggled for
women’s rights in tax and voting matters. They were humble,
motherly and fearless. They never allowed the menfolks to
buy them over with cheap atanpa, Ankara , soaps, rice and
other cheap materialistic Greek gifts. Even though they had
little resources at their disposal then, they were able to
mobilize various women from different geo-political zones
and formed viable and vibrant women pressure groups, which
became a pain in the neck of the colonialist, including
their fellow Nigerian collaborators, who saw pepe in their
hands.
These women acted like the mothers and leaders they were
naturally. Keeping the home front prudently and at the same
time battling the injustices and suppression that were
prevalent then in the society. They were united and not
carried away by monetary inducement and fake political
promises. Unlike our present day women politicians and women
leaders who are now rich landladies, more seen and known in
their flamboyant gele, imported hollandis, glittering
jewellery and state of the art cars, and famous for their
numerous shopping trips to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, London,
America, France, Beijing , Malaysia and the other well
organized countries, where the women there have continue to
stand up for their rights, and their male counterparts had
no option but to give them what they deserved and make their
homes a better place to live.
Interestingly, our women politicians, turned shoppers, daily
travelled to these beautiful cities, interact with other
women from these countries and are in constant admiration of
them and their rich cities, but yet don’t come back home and
put pepe in the eyes of our male leaders who have been more
dominant in the affairs of the country and the main reason
why their own cities and homes are not as beautiful as their
friends and acquaintances in these other nations.
What we now have today are women who are mainly in politics
to better their lives, send their offspring to rich schools
abroad and own gigantic malls, supermarkets, boutiques and
very happy with the popular first lady tag, Hajia, Alaja,
Madam, Princess, Chief- Mrs., and the other funny deceiving
tags coined for them by their ever tricky male counterparts.
Actually, I don’t mean disrespect for our women, nor am I
trying to be a chauvinist, but the truth is, our women need
to stand up and rally around themselves to bring about a
stable and well organized peaceful Nigeria, just as their
counterparts in Liberia, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica,
India, Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, Ukraine, Canada,
Philippines, Finland and the other countries across the
globe where women have been able to mobilize and support
themselves into the highest political offices in their land.
I believe it is important that our women politicians shine
their eyes and be wary of the dangling N100 million carrots
recently approved for them by the federal government as
Special Trust Fund for women politicians, and instead they
should dust their wrappers, knot them firmly and take their
rightful place in the affairs of this country. They should
forget about their political, tribal, and other differences
and rally around a viable Amazon, who would boldly fight for
their rights in having well equipped hospitals, and good
schools for their children and a secured environment. They
should say no to the various cheap inducements and demand
better markets with affordable price control of foodstuffs,
wrappers, jewellery and all the other vanities that could be
available in their markets if they want. Infact they have
the charming power to sweet talk our expensive politicians
to build some of the best salons, and jewellery stores in
the world in the country, as well as sweetly instigate them
to make each state in the country look like Dubai . True our
women if they could be more patriotic, has the power to
unveil the masks on the faces of our politicians and make
them see the reality that most of the abandoned textile
industries across the country can as well produce some of
the best hollandis in the world and create millions of jobs
for frustrated Nigerians.
They should say no to the many foxy promises, stand up and
demand good safe roads and not the death-trap ones that over
the years have turned them into widows and claimed some of
their children, brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers,
including friends. We have the money and the resources and
nobody knows this better than they. As the ears and pairs of
our male politicians, they should continue to put more pepe
in their eyes and encourage them to develop our villages and
moderniz our towns and cities with infrastructure, reliable
electricity and running tap water. They should comprehend
that they have the power to starve our flamboyant
politicians with hunger and other hidden ‘bedroom secrets’,
until they are willing to stop siphoning our wealth to other
countries, which help to develop and groom the women of
these countries and provide them with better living
conditions.
The famous 2011 elections is fast approaching with different
drama, and I am yet to see the dominating beautiful gele of
our women at the high political stand, apart from Dr.Sarah
Jibril the only Amazon still standing, even though her
womenfolks disappointedly abandoned her along the bridge at
her crucial crossing point.
I don’t know if we should count those other women in the
country, who all along have been riding on ‘daddy’s
shoulders’, as our women politicians, but all the same, my
curious eyes, are still looking out to see the women, as we
ride towards dramatic election 2011. Please have you seen
the women?
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