By Anthonia Soyingbe, Senior Reporter, Lagos.
The Nigerian society (both ancient and contemporary) has been known to be dotted with peculiar cultural practices that are potently hurtful to women’s freedom, such as early or forced marriage, wife-inheritance and widowhood practices.
In the African setting, daughters self-identify as females with their mothers and sisters, while the sons, as males with their fathers and brothers; and this is typically referred to as gender stereotyping that has now become institutionalized particularly within the family unit.
•Mr. Alex Oni (left), Mrs Onari Duke, Hon Justice V. Akobi (rtd), Chief C. Anyiam-Osigwe, Prof. Abiola Awosika, Mrs Adaobi Alex-Oni, Prof. Akinterinwa
For so long the situation had become entrenched and acceptable as part of life until very recently when a lot of people became conscious enough to raise objection to the unacceptable equation and speak up against it.
So it was when with a mission which seek to ensure that the African woman who is a stakeholder in Africa’s emerging democracies recognizes her rights and responsibilities with respect to good governance, promotion of girl child moral and educational development, health and social economic empowerment across Africa, Women on Women Initiative (WOWi) in partnership with The Role of Women in Emerging African Democracies (ROWEAD) held a thought provoking and lively discussion at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Victoria Island, Lagos recently.
The gathering which was predominantly of women and men of like minds was to critically take a look at the untoward situation as they affect the nation’s growth particularly over 54years of nationhood and with the view to draw up a new agenda to push for cultural re-orientation as a way to move the people beyond every subtle limitations of culture.
For instance, a prominent cultural view is that it is better for the woman to stay home and learn to tend to her family instead of attending school. In many of the traditions, there are higher values placed on a man than a woman.
This is a function of a moribund long-held belief in male superiority; a situation further aggravated by patriarchal practices which gave girls no traditional rights to succession and encourages preference to be given to the education of a boy rather than a girl.
Conveyor of the program and Chairperson of WOWi, Adaobi Alex-Oni while welcoming participants to the forum tried to disabuse the minds of participants to the notion that women are each other’s enemy adding, women really love to help themselves at every given time.
She however enjoined participants to assist in raising new generation of females who are would not only be strong but who will be positive change agents in the society.
Chaired by Hon. Justice Victoria Okobi (Rtd), the predominantly female audience discussed the role of women in the pursuit of peace and unity in Nigeria. The event featured three renowned speakers, Professor Abiola Awosika a famous global online lecturer, Chief (Nze) Charles Anyiam-Osigwe and Mrs Onari Duke, who presented their thoughts to the audience before a wider debate opened up.
Professor Awosika, spoke about the role of women in resolving the ethno-religious crisis currently gripping the nation. To counter this problem, she argued that more women are needed at the table of decision making in all levels of society. She went on to warn the crowd that this would not be easy, “Things will not be handed to us [women],” she said. “We have to want it, we have to demand it.”
Awosika went on to discuss tribalism, suggesting that it adds to the country’s division. It is important she said to “foster relationships with other tribes and religions,” in order to counter stereotypical prejudices. She highlighted the importance of seeing things objectively and not ‘tribalising’ negative experiences as such behaviour does not solve problems. “You can have your view,” she said. “But do it objectively.”
As the discussion opened up, others gave their opinions on how best to resolve mistrust and prejudice in terms of tribe. An audience member emphasised on the importance of the home in tackling the problem an opinion echoed by Chief Charles Anyiam-Osigwe who stressed the role of mothers. “You [mothers] have the power to make us biased in any way,” he said. “You are the first point of indoctrination. Mothers have more influence on their children and morality will give you better millage. It is important to reflect on globalization, get back to the essence of what true Nigerians represents. Mothers should educate their sons on the importance of respecting women,” Anyiam-Osigwe said while adding that human interaction makes life worth living.
Hon. Justice Victoria Okobi asked the audience if politics or the economy was responsible for creating ‘this monster [tribalism.’ and went on to talk of its increase in recent decades. She implored the younger generations in the audience not to ‘buy into it.’
Anyiam Osigwe’s talk centred on globalization and its effect on Nigeria’s identity. “As Nigerians we embrace all things foreign,” he said. “[But] we haven’t taken the time to think of how these things are impacting us.” He spoke of the dangers of allowing non-stop foreign influence to erode Nigerian identity and challenged the audience to be ‘guardians of our culture.’
As the discussion went to the audience, the home was again highlighted as a crucial factor in safeguarding Nigerian identity, but it was noted that child rearing is a community wide effort and that it is our responsibility as a nation to ‘get our values back.”
Speaking in her capacity as one of the keynote speakers on the importance of girl-child education, former First Lady of Cross River State, Mrs Duke said in spite of numerous reforms, educational disparity still existed especially in rural areas where access to education is still a challenge for some. She challenged the audience to question the effects of UN goals and reforms and to be spokesmen for women and girls in rural areas. In her paper titled ‘Girl Child Education; A key factor for the Political, Social & Economic development of Nigeria’, she explained, “Women in Nigeria have had various challenges in order to obtain equal education. Education is a basic human right and has been recognized as such since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Empirically, rapid socio-economic development of a nation has been observed to depend on the calibre of women and their education in that country. Education bestows on women a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, attitudes, competence and skills.”
The audience then discussed ways in which they could personally ensure the education of girl children, through sponsoring house helps or mentoring younger women.
The discussion drew to a close with audience members pledging their support for the initiative and committing to take action in their day to day lives in relation to development of women.
To this end, participants at the forum unanimously conclude that there is urgent need for women to be rightly placed in the society.
The post Nigerian women pledge to end cultural biases appeared first on Daily Independent, Nigerian Newspaper.