Today, December 10, 2014, is the International Human Rights Day and although it is true to say that a handful of girls in Nigeria have grown up to be women who have excelled in industry, private businesses and even as government appointees, so many other girls will never grow up to be women and will remain girls forever. Unless aggressive campaigns are carried out by Nigerian women to free them from the strangleholds of discrimination, which is so bad that their futures remain blighted by the moral bad judgments of so many Nigerian men in the name of antiquated culture.
Influential people throughout history have been known to define landscapes and the power of women to achieve noble goals should not be underestimated. I see many such women around me, in churches and in society. But how influential are our women in affecting society positively away from magniloquence? Recently, I came across a discriminatory practice against women first-hand. The forebear of an acquaintance of mine died and left a huge estate. Even though this estate and residual income from it was sufficient to share among the deceased’s children equally, the men in the family denied the women a share.
When I asked why this happened, I was told it was because when women get married, the family’s wealth goes to a man outside of the family. This instant defensive response is sickening to someone bound to this family by history and ancestry. Should women not have the feeling of prerogative anymore and are men born in a different way to women in Nigeria?
At another business forum, I met a daring campaigner who took umbrage at the idea of women having a share in an inheritance. This campaigner went further: “If the deceased did not have living male children but only female children, the family must share his estate with his brothers, which is the custom.” It begs the question: What if the brothers were not instrumental to his success, should his offspring-daughters suffer as a result of accidents of birth?
I asked the campaigner: Would you like your daughter(s) to suffer the same discrimination? All selfish men balk when you ask them questions like this, but it is startling how many spearhead wrong causes.
The premise that women will take wealth to another man’s house upon marriage is irrational. Marriage is a choice, and success in our day is not measured by the fact that a woman is married. What happens if that woman decides not to marry; should she remain poor in the midst of wealth?
What if she marries a wealthy man, who later, though no fault of his own, suffers a misfortune that makes him go bankrupt, should they remain poor even when there is a bequeathed wealth? Furthermore, what if she marries a poor man, should she and her children remain poor even though she had a wealthy father?
Nigerian ladies should fight shy of the electorate party-political scene and get down to brass-tacks. There is a need to take campaigns to governors and legislative chambers to rid the society of this discrimination in all states of the federation.
These ladies must begin to go to places of worship and other institutions to preach this message. They must not forget the palaces and fortresses of traditional institutions that to a large extent promote the status quo. Since traditional institutions are financed by the state, it is easy to make them bow down to do the justice-bidding of the state and not promote policies that are anti-state. Women should capitalise on this and pressure them into submission.
Freedom for women should not be perceived only in appointments to political offices as only a handful get such opportunities – as a favour and, not on merit and, moreover not many will ever grow up to have that discerning spirit relevant to self, society and country.
A country should be on a pedestal higher than the cultural norms and belief of a greedy-body-of-man and not be beneath it. That country must be able to enact laws to free her citizens from discrimination if she truly means well for her growth and development.
The reason workable nations have produced a Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Angela Merkel and others around the globe is the abolition of discrimination. And Nigeria has yet to produce a female governor in her history. But how can this happen when there is institutional discrimination against women?
This isn’t about the intrinsic worth of women being equal to men as housewives, but little girls should not suffer because of their unsought-for gender over which they have no control. Such girls should be allowed to reach their potential in life by having access to everything good and not denied because they are girls and forced into marriages, as sexual slaves, as domestic servants exposed to barbaric practices by male and women folk in domestic quarters.
Some societies also promote the ethos of brainwashing the eldest daughters not to have any ambitions but to stay unmarried in their childhood homes. Ironically, they do not halt the practice of such women being breeding machines, making babies for different men when they are chosen to do so.
Others see the girl child fit only for the hawking of wares at times meant for school. I see them every day on the streets of Nigeria at school times. How can our streets be free from crime in these settings? And why are our women forever silent except for occasions when they are called to make political speeches?
Women have a lot of work on their hands that must not be treated lightly if they know the obligations of their gender. This discrimination may last until fraternal eternity if the ladies do not begin to rouse public disgust as influential personalities have done and are wont to do, throughout history and the time to start is now.
It will go down to their eternal credit if a legislation is enacted in all states of the country to make it compulsory for women to be included in birthrights, even where a Will is not left by the deceased because a financially depressed girl will grow up to be a miserable woman and it is counter-productive to have mothers lacking confidence in themselves and society to raise responsible children for the growth of the nation.