Buhari’s comments not fair to womenfolk —Ekiti LG chairman

The chairman of Gbonyin Local Government of Ekiti State, Mrs. Sade Akinrinmola, has described as unfair to the womenfolk, a statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, in which he said his wife, Aisha’s place was in “my kitchen, the living room and the other room.”

Mrs Akinrinmola said in Ado Ekiti that “such a weighty statement, which is currently being reduced to a mere joke by the president’s handlers,” was capable of discouraging women and girls from pursuing credible careers.

She said the statement credited to the president in reaction to the outrage expressed by his wife over his government, did  not “portray Nigeria as a nation serious with the need to build an egalitarian society, where every child and citizen would enjoy all available opportunities to be better.”

According to her, “saying that your wife belongs to your kitchen and other rooms in the house means nothing, other than saying she cannot be useful elsewhere in the society, including in the sorely needed intellectual and social energy for national development. And we all know that this isn’t true.

“To have stated this to an international audience, and particularly in Germany, a country that is governed by a woman, is uncharitable to womenfolk and to hard-working Nigerian women and girls.”

Akinrinmola added: “It is sad that a thing like that was said by President Buhari in Germany. It is even worse that this has become one of the ways through which Nigeria could be viewed by the international community; as a people that lack respect for women simply because they are women! This is sad.”

“Nigeria is blessed with women with notable achievements in the academia, finance, governance, medicine, and all spheres of human endeavours. We should encourage rather than discourage more of our children, especially the females to explore and make positive contributions to the country.”

She noted that “during the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria achieved 31 per cent of the prescribed 35 per cent affirmative action in the Nigerian cabinet,” and regretted that “rather than improve on that, the country has slipped to miserly six per cent and we now don’t need to think too deeply to know why that happened.”