Gender Equality Agenda Is No Special Favor To Women!

Gender Equality Agenda Is No Special Favor To Women!
Written by Paul I. Adujie Esq.    

A great society is measured by such society’s treatment of women and the underprivileged. Nigeria’s unequal treatment of women is part responsible for national developmental drawbacks.

The wife of former president of the United States Mrs Hilary Rodham Clinton attended International Women’s Conference in Beijing China, in 1995 and she made remarkable contribution with her emphatic declaration to the effect that Women Rights are Human Rights…. Mrs. Clinton is currently a candidate for the American presidency. I want to see Nigerian women as governors and president of Nigeria soon.

In the matter of Gender Equality… it is the case that Women are not asking for equality as special favors, but instead, for the right to be respected, the right to be treated with human dignity and be afforded the chance, the right to aspire and to have equal opportunity to do all the reasonable things which all humans do, men or women

Here is why Gender Equality is crucial and Critical, Gender Equality is really literally about my mother and your mothers, my sisters and your sisters, my nieces and your nieces, Gender Equality is about the persons who constitutes more than half the world’s population, women are factually more, in populations worldwide
Gender Equality is precisely about saving the life-giver and the life-deliverer of ALL of us, and therefore, it means the protecting the life-source of the entire human race! Where would the world be without women? Women are earth life-force.

At the United Nations in 2011, events marking the 100th year of International Women Organisation, I was invited to make comments, and I began with, I AM MY MOTHER’s SON! The statement or that theme began with, as it was suffused, surrounded and ended my speech. And as we celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I want to repeat that same idea, to the effect that, Just like me, you are your mothers’ son or daughter, we should therefore want to protect women, we are all, after all, children of women, hence women rights is human rights!

My rationale is simply that, we are intricately, and then, intimately related and connected to women, without women, there is no us….. Therefore, we should wish our women, what we wish our mothers, wives or daughters or nieces or all the women in our lives.
We should not look to, or seek to oppress our mothers, or to disrespect or deprive our mothers, or demean our mothers or our wives, daughters or nieces or other women in our lives …. If we would treat our mothers right, treat our daughters or nieces right, I urge you to treat all women right!

There is no reason to keep our women at the bottom of our society… Nigerian women, even with limited opportunities, have been working very hard, a good number of women here today, are capable, accomplished and high-achieving women, consummate professionals and all.
Many Nigerian women have excelled in their career or chosen endeavours, a great example is in our state brilliant chief judge herself, women such as the Chief Judge of our state, Bayelsa, are exemplar for the great investment which Girl Child Education is.

Girl Child Education is the ultimate and most critical investment, education is a game changer!
An educated wife is good for the home, among other things, so that she can do your child homework or teach your child, children are like blank tapes, what you put in them is what you get… our societal best interests are served when our women are educated
An educated man or woman is a great asset to society

I love Nigeria and African culture, and we should do all that is possible to preserve our culture and way of life…… But certain aspects of our culture need reform and even drastic changes! Some Inheritance Traditional practices are repugnant, unjust and grossly unfair practice of depriving female their inheritance rights and entitlements, just because she is of female gender.

Double Jeopardy, Wives suffer loss of husband and then, accused or blamed for his death….Accusing women of killing their husbands while the accused wife actually deserve our sympathy as she mourn her beloved husband… Traditional practices never seem to similarly accused husbands when their wives die.

Litmus test for wife as an accused killer of dead husband … it is carried out…. This Disgusting
Disgusting practice of washing corpse and asking bereaved wife to drink the corpse water which may have the virus or bacteria which may have killed the husband in the first place! Ebola, Zika, Lassa etc
Our society should treat our mothers, our sisters, our nieces and all women with utmost respect and with dignity because
Women are the glue or gum, which hold our society together and we can observe this in our everyday life. During the floods of 2012, women were the reliable family members who ensured the health and safe

Women, our mothers and their thoughtfulness and care are illustrated again and again in Nigeria and abroad, at home and in public policies which they promote

Women, propelled as mothers and driven by maternal instincts perhaps, are more caring and generous to humankind, Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany is a woman, she has run the most robust and most successful European economy during the preceding decade and she welcomed refugees with open arms, Germany has accepted over one million refugees in one year!


Women are great managers! Women are great managers! There is information, research and clear indicators to the effect that women are better managers of human and material resources… at times of crises, when relief materials are given to grandmothers, grandmothers share to every lineal branches, daughter, daughter in-law, son, son in-law, children grandchildren etc etc, but give relief material to an average man, it goes to wife, girlfriend, then he sells the rest to buy beer and cigarettes! … Nigerians should learn to trust our womenfolk with governorship and the presidency in fact I hope to see a woman become president of Nigeria soon! And why NOT?

We have women who are gynaecologists, surgeons, lawyers, pilots, and we trust them as such; Nigerians must also trust women with high political offices, such as, voting for women them with managing states as governors, and managing Nigeria as president!

Nigerian men should let there be all the comfort be for women and children; An example is, letting your wife drive your car! Let your wife and your children enjoy your car more than you, let your wife drive the better of your cars, if you have more than one car, everybody will be happy, including yourself the man…. Your wife and kids will be stress free, and you will be feeling quite cool yourself, because, anyone seeing your wife drive your nice car, will assume that you actually, are even driving, a yet, better car, even if that is not the case, they will think you have a helicopter because your wife drives such a good car

Many of today economic hardships or difficulties affect women more harshly and more disproportionately, whether it is unemployment, or Human Trafficking, the impact on women is disproportionate, gender inequality and lack of education, other societal injustices with attendant negative impacts, are more severe on women

A friend and I chatted recently, about how Women Rights and Girl Child Education remain paramount an issue in Nigeria and all of Africa.
Every household you visit, girls as young as fifteen, are forced to become house-helps or house-girls… this ensures that there is no formal education, training or skills, this practice ensures that the adulthood of such house-girls may be bleak as Nigerians, even if they were imported from poorer nations, the negative impact is unmistakable.
House girls or house helps are practically indentured servants that only get paid, when they complete their contract terms, terms which were unfair and lopsided in the first place, sans poor pay or benefits…. And such low pays, have to be shared with the middlemen who brought the house girls ….

These girls are not educated or equipped with necessary life-skills for their adulthoods, they mostly do not know their own age…. In today’s world, this is shameful and appalling….poverty, abject and extreme poverty is still being guaranteed for Africa’s future, with the neglect of girl child education, for all girls and including house-girls or house-helps….

A better Nigeria for all, I want a more perfect union, a more perfect federation, unity in diversity, where environmental pollution in Bayelsa State concerns Nigerians in Nnewi, Okitipupa, and Sokoto …. Pollutions causes toxic fumes and ruination of human lives and aquatic lives, pollution leads to miscarriages among women, again, women are disproportionately affected by pollution, it should concern all Nigerians, not just those of us in the Niger Delta, and, similarly, the deaths, injuries and displacements caused by Boko Haram in North East Nigeria concerns all Nigerians in Yenagoa, Aba, Akure and Makurdi

We all can do better than we are currently doing for women… in Bayelsa, in Nigeria, in Africa and across the world… some nations are doing comparatively and relatively better than us, and we should wake up!  America is poised to elect her first female president…. Nigeria should get ready, so that we too can have female governors and female president soon…

Nigerian and African Women have been in the forefront of political and Socio-Economic development, including decolonization…. Aba Women Riots in 1929…. Nigerian women have always stood up to be counted when it mattered…. Protested against taxation without representation …. Queen Amina, Queen Moremi, Winnie Mandela

A society’s human progress index is measured by how such society treats its women and underprivileged!
Nigeria must rise and to rise, Nigeria must, quickly engage in exulting women! Exulting women must include giving our mothers, our sisters, our nieces, the women in our lives, ALL women, the prominent pride of place which women richly deserve, and let us beginning that process NOW!

Paul I. Adujie Esq. is the Director/Head of Legal Services Department, Federal University Otuoke