Letters

Nigeria, its women and mothers

Published by

7 years ago

Yet another Mothers’ Day celebration across various faiths in Nigerian Christendom, I love women and graciously say that I am jealous of them; when it is not Mothers’ Day, they would have Mothering Sunday, and then how about that international day of women and that of the girl child. Well, there might be serious objections to the way and manner I would have used ‘women’ in this essay, so before I go further I humbly tender an unreserved apology to the women-folk, this piece is not intended as an insult, however like it is said one girl misbehaves, all are insulted.

The objections to this piece may also stem from the fact that we live in a world with more exposure and enlightenment on gender-sensitive issues, but as the world seems to be heading forward, the nation Nigeria has had as usual a peculiar way of taking the proverbial 10 steps back after making a miserable step forward.

The interpretation of proverbs is very complex since they are said to come alive only in oral communication and they acquire new connotations each time they are quoted. So, in this essay, I say Nigeria and indeed her leaders are ‘women’ and some bitter truth exists in the following lines that I have penned down.

A nice navel does not prevent a girl from suffering stomach upset, so also does our sleeping giant status in Africa make us different today from war and conflict-ravaged Sudan or CAR, with the likes of Professor Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, late Chinua Achebe, Zainab Alkali all beautiful and great writers, it is unfortunate that Nigeria today has lost it. All irreplaceable as we live in the shadow of past glory, not with the kind of educational sector where fine face now means empty head in the university and tertiary institutions. It may be difficult to attribute a proverb outside a live situation without any definite meaning, however, I have chosen to give life to or make the Nigeria situation live.

Despite our proverbial big opportunities tag, we remain with a nagging stomach upset. It’s sad that Mr. Buhari and his APC cohorts almost four years into this misadventure have left his countrymen who gave him this change charge and away he is dancing to the drumbeat of doom.

The way Nigeria was married to her people without proper introduction rites is causing us problems because at every slightest opportunity there is a drummer for her to engage her fantasies on, she runs away.