Dr Monsurat Ayo Alaga is a woman of many parts; a community development expert, astute public officer, counselor and advocate for girl child education as well as a vanguard for women empowerment through a female club for women graduates. In this interview with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, she speaks on gender imbalance, women in leadership and public space, women moving beyond cheerleaders and sex objects. Excerpts:
Will you say women are given a chance to reach their potentials in Nigeria?
I won’t deceive you, there is gender imbalance, it is all over and the reasons are not farfetched. You know there is this obnoxious culture which makes people hold on to the belief that men are superior. I want to tell you that even in career environment, when there are opportunities for promotion, even when a lady is the most qualified, they will use one excuse to give it to someone else. For example, if it is a far distance, they will say they are giving you consideration that they don’t want to post you out because of your home, this excuse is not tenable. I want to tell you that there is still some discrimination against women in work places and I believe that with various advocacy activities, we will get there, we are more qualified than men and I am saying it now that the best man for any job is a woman. We are saying no to this discrimination because precisely, there is serious discrimination and it abounds in work places
How easy is it for women to uphold moral values and break even in the Nigerian society?
It is easy because inner will always serves as impetus for achievement. A woman can uphold her moral values if she sets standard for herself. And it is always good to be a conformist and not a deviant. As a woman, you should not compromise and you should not believe in cutting corners in getting things done. We should live a life that is worthy of emulation and when we are doing this and we conform with the moral norms of the society, uphold it and by doing this, you are passing messages to the young ones
Are Nigerian women really ready for leadership?
I want to tell you that Nigeria women are more than ready for leadership roles in the sense that all our lives what we have been doing is taking up leadership positions, even at home, we lead; we lead in the sense that we determine even what our husbands put on, we take care of the children, we direct them. The reason people think that women are not ready to take up leadership roles is that we don’t have economic power and the reason for this is simply because they have not given us our rightful place in the scheme of things. I want to tell you that in this part of the world, some men still believe that their wives cannot own properties, there are a lot of breakup in homes because the wife purchased landed property, such men bar women from anything that has to do with leadership. Look at politics, men don’t like women to be at the forefront; I don’t know whether it is because they are jealous or they don’t just want us to lead but I want to tell you that things are changing for the better especially if we consider the success recorded after the Beijing conference and women started getting some leadership positions. But it is disheartening to know that the number of women that want to contest political positions is terribly low and this is because of some unwholesome practices of their male counterparts. But we are more than ready to take up leadership roles.
What is your view on the belief that attributes a woman’s success to sexual promiscuity and assistance from men?
It is still funny that in this 21st century, societal perception has not changed and I want to tell you that this problem doesn’t emanate from the men, women don’t celebrate the successes of our fellow women. When we are doing this, there is little or nothing the male counterparts will do than to join us, that is to join other women in bringing their fellow women down. This is very bad. I want to tell you that when a woman is determined to achieve, there is no stumbling block but people, I mean women don’t celebrate the success of our fellow women as I said earlier on.
If you put a man and a woman on a training and you give them equal opportunity to perform, at the end of the day, the woman will excel because we always shun distraction when we mean business, we are determined and disciplined. I’m saying that all efforts or actions that some people are bringing up in some quarters are to bring the women folk down and we are saying no to it
How can women prove their worth to be seen beyond cheer leaders and sex objects?
I believe we can do this when we say no to collecting tokens from politicians. It is highly absurd that in any political gathering, women, even the qualified and highly placed elites are the praise singers of politicians. We are saying no to this, they should not give you money and be saying you should be praising them at functions again. We are saying that women should fight for political posts, they should contest. If any man is trying to attract you to his political group, name your worth and tell him your price; your price is that you also want a political position and appointment, you equally want to contest.
Also, women should engage in income generating activities so that they will not be seen as mere sex objects. If you have the wherewithal and you are more economically viable than your male counterpart, they dare not involve you in unholy activities. I’m encouraging women out there to ensure that we make ourselves involved in profitable jobs or engage in acquiring knowledge that will fetch us money so that we can take our rightful position in the scheme of things in Nigeria.
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