“Na Only Women?”

The Insight by Lateef Adewole

Some two weeks ago, on Friday, the 8th of March, 2024, it was the day earmarked by the United Nations for the celebration of women. It is designated as ‘International Women’s Day’ (IWD). It was a day set aside, not just for the celebration of women, but to raise awareness about many other critical issues affecting them, like discrimination against women, lack of equal opportunities for women in government and corporate environment, bias due to stereotype, lack of inclusiveness, gender equality, and so on.

Before we could finished celebrating that day, it suddenly came upon us, what is called ‘Mother’s Day’ or in another version, ‘Mothering Sunday’. This one happened on the Sunday that followed that IWD Friday, just two days after, on 10th of March, 2024. What does this represent on its own? It is a day dedicated to appreciating mother of the family, motherhood, maternal bonds and influence of mothers in our society.

With this sequence of events for which days were specially designated, I wondered if “na only women dey this world.” Why are so many days given to celebrate women, female folks and girls? What’s special about the female gender?

The 2024 International Women’s Day has the theme: “Invest In Women: Accelerate Progress.” This is about counting her in by increasing gender equality through empowerment. International Women’s Day (IWD) has its origin in the early 20th century, in USA. It was first observed there on February 28, 1909. The initiative was championed by the Socialist Party of America. It was in 1910 that Ms. Clara Zetkin proposed the IWD at the International Women’s Conference that took place in Copenhagen and it was formally celebrated in 1911. The United Nations adopted the day in 1975 and designated the 8th of March for it in 1977, from when it has remained till date.

The essence of this year’s theme was to accentuate the need for governments and policy makers in different countries around the world to do more in increasing access to economic opportunities by women, despite notable improvement over time. Governments are required to give priorities to gender-sensitive and gender-responsive financing, which will increase economic empowerment of women. We see this being done with special loans and grants specifically directed to women.

Like in Nigeria, there are programmes established to purposely serve women’s needs. Many public and private organisations often require less stringent terms and conditions for women to access soft and quick loans, than required of men. It is also required that governments should spend more money on essential services and social protection targeted at women.

Why this has been an issue is actually because monetary values are not placed on the so much responsibilities that women shoulder and duties they perform in the society, especially within the family settings, for which they are not being paid, despite that they take them many man-hours daily.

There was this video clip I saw long ago. It was an interactive session with a number of people in the audience. The lead speaker spoke about some plans to recruit some workers in his organisation. He elaborated on this by briefing his audience about what the roles, responsibilities and terms of the jobs were. He started by saying that they needed someone who could work round the clock, all year round. This shocked the audience who were listening, wondering how someone could work like that?

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Then, he continued that they needed someone who could stand for hours, who could make endless running around, attend to people nonstop, and so many tasking duties. He ended the session by announcing to the applicants that on top of all that, they were not ready to pay any dime! A bewildered audience couldn’t hold back their disgust and disapprovals. They wondered what kind of ‘inhuman’ organisation that could be, queried if they were running a slave camp or what. All, with exception of none, lost interest in such job immediately.

It was at that point that the speaker said that all he had described earlier are what most, if not all, mothers (women) do as their jobs at home, within the family. On deeper reflection, the audience truly realised how humongous the ‘job’ that women / mothers do, without being formally called ‘job’, as they are not being paid for them. It did not required the formal application, interview, orientation, training, salary and emoluments that usually cost companies a fortune. This might be reason why it is not being properly valued and appreciated.

Like in my house, we are in fasting period now. I always wonder where my wife gets her strength from. Despite that we both fast, and everyone is so weaked by it, apart from the fact that we wake up very early in the morning to eat, foods which she prepares for us too, she still cares for the kids who have to go to school later in the morning, a period that “orun ààwè” (fasting sleep, as we call it) is sweetest. This does not make her jettison many other duties she does at home daily. By evening when all bodies and bones are weak and many could hardly stand firmly again, she still finds strength to prepare foods for breaking of fast. I always see her as a ‘super woman’. All these she does effortlessly, with equanimity.

This brings me to a part of the advocacy of most feminists I often disagree with. The way and manner they go about their demands for women’s rights and gender equality, which happen to be part of what IWD advocates for too, often portray women as being ‘weak’, hence, need to be ‘handpicked’ or whose hands need to be held before they can stand. As I mentioned earlier, with the strength I have seen and watched my wife displayed over the years, my conclusion has been that ‘women are actually stronger than men.’

The problem is the perspective from which we look at what strength is. There are ‘hard and soft’ strengths. The hard one is the physical strength that many men are seen to possess more than many women. It is aided by natural physiological make up of man’s anatomy. However, the ‘soft’ strength include many things that do not require physical ability; emotional intelligence, multitasking, hypersensitivity, innate endurance capacity, and so on. They are a lot of works where most women trump men. So, when gender equality that demands for equalising women with men is being advocated, I usually don’t buy into it. Especially the way the advocates showcase it.

Men and women are not created equal or to be equal. Every gender is created with individual’s uniqueness. Can men menstrate? Can men get pregnant and carry pregnancy, another human being, in his tummy for nine months? Can a man go through child labour and give birth to a child, a point between life and death? Can a man breastfeed for months? Will a man’s body be altered by all these activities? Which man loses his ‘shape’ because of child bearing? These are experiences that men will never know how hard they are. Only in their imaginations. Therefore, how can the gender that bears all of these be considered as a ‘weaker sex’? That’s fallacious. It is due to the interpretations given to strength in the course of trying to substitute women for men or equate them with men. That’s erroneous.

My point is that, each gender is created differently. Each gender has unique roles and responsibilities for which they are most suited. These do not mean discrimination in any way. Both genders have rights to be given access to developmental opportunities, like quality education, quality healthcare, economic opportunities and leadership positions, just as advocated for by the proponents of IWD.

To be fair, there has been drastic improvement in this. Africa in general, and Nigeria in particular, could be accused of being guilty of such discrimination, though, it is a global phenomenon. Like in Nigeria, political participation by women has improved, with women now occupying many top political positions, either elected or appointed. It is easier through appointments than elections, due to the difficult political terrain that we have here. Navigating it takes a lot away from those involved. Women can lose more. This affects the number that gets to political offices through the ballots.

Present Tinubu’s administration has many women in top government positions. We had the first female Comptroller General (CG) of Immigration, Mrs. Caroline Wura-Ola Adepoju, appointed in 2023. Another woman took over from her this year as she goes on retirement. She is Mrs. Kemi Nanna Nandap. That’s progress!

The previous discrimination against women, economically, that skewed the opportunities to occupy topmost positions in corporate world, is gradually being removed too. In Nigeria today, many women are leading many first rated organisations. Just some days ago, the Tier-1 bank, Zenith Bank Plc, appointed its first female Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), in the person of Adaora Umeoji. She has followed in the footsteps of many of her predecessors who have led or still leading banks and many organisations in Nigeria.

As at today, women are the heads (MD) of many banks. A post went viral after Adaora’s appointment that stated that “women are taking over banking sector.” It listed the banks as: “GT Bank: Miriam Olusanya; Union Bank: Yetunde Bolanle Oni; Access Bank Plc: Bolaji Agbede; Fidelity Bank: Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe; Zenith Bank: Adaora Umeoji; Citi Bank: Ireti Samuel-Ogbu; SunTrust Bank: Halima Buba; FCMB: Yemisi Edun and FSDH Merchant Bank: Bukola Smith; Lotus Bank: Kafilat Araoye and Unity Bank: Oluwatomi Ayodele Somefun.” Isn’t this impressive? This is becoming a trend around the world.

A similar trend can be seen in the academia. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, about fourteen women are leading our universities, both public and private ones. They are: FUTA- Adenike Oladiji; UNILAG- Folasade Ogunsola; LASU- Ibiyemi Bello; UNIBEN- Lilian Salami; FUTO- Nnenna Oti; UNICAL- Florence Obi; LASUED- Bidemi Lafiaji-Okuneye; ADSU- Kaletapwa Farauta; UNIDELTA- Stella Chinye Chiemeke; ABUAD- Elizabeta Smaranda Olarinde; Pan Atlantic University- Enosa Okonedo; Chrisland University- Chinedum Peace Babalola; Kings University- Adenike Kuku; Micheal and Cecilia Ibru University- Ibiyinka Fuwape. All are professors of great standing.

We can endlessly list same in all professions in all walks of life; science, engineering, medicine, law, entertainment, sports, and so on. For the records, the Super Falcons, the Nigeria’s female national team, has achieved far more than their male counterpart, the Super Eagles, in our football history on equal scaling (by extrapolation), despite only coming to existence many decades after that of male team. Same as women in other sports. We are continuously dazed by the exceptional performances of the current World Record holder in Women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan. She, and many fellow female athletes, have been doing wonders in the ongoing 2024 African Games in Accra, Ghana.

As captured in the 2024 IWD theme, how could these women attain these lofty heights without adequate investments in them and allowing for inclusion? This must be a deliberate policy of government, which will cascade down to the smallest unit of the society, which is the individual family. Unfortunately, there are still places and cultures that discriminate against women / girl child around the world. In Nigeria, there are places where education of a girl child is not given priority. It is not even considered necessary in many instances.

In this time and age, due to the African mentality, giving birth to girl child is still viewed with some reservations and certain level disdain, especially when it happens multiple times. A couple has about eight girls because they were looking for a boy, as if the girls are not children. There are places where girls are married off at very tender age by their parents because they do not see value in educating or training them. There are other areas where women are not allowed to work or engage in commercial activities. They are not allowed to own properties. There are places where girls / women are not allowed to get inheritance from their parents.

Women (wives) are often blamed for the death of their husbands and are punished unfairly for it. Women are subjected to so many inhuman treatment in the name of one barbaric culture or another under such circumstances. All these, and many more absurdities, are still prevalent in many places, among many tribes in Nigeria, Africa and around the world. These are what should be vigorously fought against, not trying to replace men with women.

The contributions of women to the informal economy are grossly understated. As highlighted earlier, because women are not paid for the ‘services’ they render to their families at home, makes it look like they are not contributing to the overall economic growth of the society or nation. Most of these very duties are what the roles and responsibilities of a ‘care giver’ entails, for which huge amount is paid as wage or salary.

Therefore, it is expedient that policy makers value, recognize and account for contributions that women make to the economies all over the world through paid and unpaid care work. In reality, if the time that women spend in such unpaid care giving, as described earlier, were to be properly evaluated, it will be discovered that women spend much more time in their contribution to the economy, than men, which can account for a substantial part of the GDP, if they are assigned monetary values.

So, if women are celebrated multiple times in a year as in different days designated to them, they deserve it. As the Yorubas would say: “yinni yinni, k’eni o se minran” (when effort is appreciated, it encourages to do more). Women are not being given their due share of appreciation for their overall contribution to the family, society and national developments. It is a clear testament that what many children become in future are more influenced by their mothers.

Like the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) taught us, that when you educate a man, you educate an individual. But, when you educate a woman, you educate a nation. This underscores the importance of investment in girl child, who grows up to become a woman. However, this should not be done at the exclusion of boys, who also grow up to become men. Whatever we desire in future, its foundation is laid today. If all attention are paid to girls while neglecting the boys, the good women from among the well trained girls will end up with irresponsible men from among the untrained boys. So, they are not mutually exclusive. Like 2024 IWD slogan: “Inspire Inclusion.” It should be all encompassing.

To wonderful women all over the world, singling my wife out in particular, I dedicate this article to you all. May God continue to strength you as you bring life, succour and joy to our world. Happy Women’s Day in arrears.

May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.

God Bless Nigeria.

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March 23, 2024.