…Male folks flood female’s business preserve
By VERA WISDOM-BASSEY
THREE ambitious residents of FESTAC Town in Lagos had little to look forward to until they decided to take the future into their hands. And their new skills, unlike trades limited to menfolk, they are helping them to create a network of small businesses that they hope will change their financial footing. In one corner of the town with a tightly packed population, precisely the first gate area is where Ikechukwu Ifeanyi, an indigene of Anambra State, a young man in his 30s works hard at a trade he has just found exciting. With a burst of energetic activity, Ikechukwu engages in the cooking of corn. His outward behavior towards his customers reflects the reward he gets from his new found business.
Ifeanyi, after a careful and thorough examination of his jobless situation decided to go for cooking of corn, a job which was the exclusive business of women. “It may take a generation, but it will happen. There are still many people who don’t take an interest in what I am doing here. But they will see and soon they will want to join in,” said Ikechukwu. He is not the only man in women’s world. Kachi and Kamso Okoro are two brothers who are among the many men also involved in women’s business like cooking and roasting of corn. Fortunately for the duo, it is a business which runs in the family. It is a characteristic and quality received from their parents.
Kachi and Kamso Okoro from Delta State are graduates of different disciplines. Although joblessness was a factor that forced them into the business of corn roasting, they nevertheless, found inspiration in the landscape around them. Down the road, along 7th Avenue, close to Alakija area of Lagos, these men engage every day in what they know how to do best.
For Adamu Kano, the Boko Haram insurgency has become a blessing in disguise. Adamu may not find himself doing an exclusively women’s job since those in his age and social class in the North consider the selling of tomatoes, pepper, onion and okro as men’s business, he is nevertheless excited that the business allows for the entry of men in a region where it is exclusively for women. Many who were affected by the rebellious Boko Haram group resorted to begging. But not so for Kano. He opted for tomato selling to fend for himself and family.
Men have moved into historically female jobs. Before now in Nigeria, especially in the southern part, some works that require little skill or training like cooking, frying and browning of corn, among others, were all that women could look up to. Life for the men was much different. There were skilled occupations, usually those requiring manual labour for those not qualified for office jobs. Today, however, life has changed dramatically and the change has paralleled the alteration in the attitude of the average human in the Nigerian state.
Several years ago, women spend their days cooking in their compound and engage in some articles offered for sale. Most areas of concentration like the sale of certain foodstuff and services like hairdressing were the exclusive areas of business and industry of women. At first, many people, including narrow-minded and conservative male elders who are unwilling to consider new ideas and ways of doing things were wary and even hostile to these innovative ventures of men, afraid that their traditional powers would wane as young men learn to develop their ideas and abilities.
“These are jobs exclusively meant for women but men have taken over. You wonder what has come over these young men of nowadays. Is it because of lack of things to do?” queries Oladele Atilade, an 83 year-old retiree in Ikorodu.
These hide-bound elders got a knock from some young men who said the boys and men involved in women’s job are happy. “Before, there was nothing for them to do except being a labourer if you are not qualified. They had no hope of jobs. They wouldn’t feed their wives and children,” Mason Orobosa, a young graduate who studied Architecture remarked.
The young man was pointing to a section of a street in Surulere where 15 young men are learning to dress women’s hairs and fix their nails. “These women are even more comfortable with men dressing their hairs these days. So who says men cannot roast corn because it is one woman’s job? Are men not now winning cooking competitions? The women are saying what a man can do they can do better. The men’s incursion into their hitherto exclusive business is a tacit statement by men that what a woman can do, men can do it better,” said Mason.