Nigerian ladies, old, young and enterprising, felt wounded, cheated and humiliated when the National Assembly refused to violate Nigerian Constitution by discriminating against men in favour of women, all in the name of ensuring equal rights for gender representation in elected members of parliament.
Was the effort warranted in the first palace? At all. In the first place, unknown to them, ladies, rather unconsciously, resigned themselves to the blackmail to which they are vulnerable in society. Otherwise, they should not have put on the false toga of persecution complex in their, ironically. legitimate struggle. There is nothing in Nigerian Constitution barring or even ordinarily discriminating against women from getting elected as members of state/national assembly. The demand of women to be treated as super-patriots for whom 35 seats of the National Assembly should be specially reserved is wrong and completely discriminatory against men. The real handicap of ladies lies with them and are themselves too insincere to own up to. The problem is distrust, especially on commencement of dating leading up to the worst stage, mariage.
To be fair to them, Nigerian ladies will stand on their own anywhere in the world, if given the chance and if the ladies trust themselves. But in place of that confidence, Nigerian ladies are ever prepared to cut corners to make it in life, money, appointment, promotion, fame, etcetera, to the extent that men have been so pampered to believe that nothing goes for nothing in conceding natural and constitutional rights to ladies. Imagine ladies unashamedly bragging to their friends they consider unduly moralistic or not smart enough that “You must flaunt what you have to get what you want.”
Admittedly, even among animals, males chase the females. Among human beings, it is a question of luck. But that is no excuse that a determined lady with proper morals must necessarily concede. Indeed, unlike animals, which cannot completely resist the aggression of their male counterpart, a lady has the right to be firm in resisting a man and damning the consequences, including losing prospects, repeating a class, failing a subject, losing out in competition for contracts or forfeiting appointments.
We have such ladies of stature of whom Nigeria can be proud. Iyabo Anisulowo was a commissioner in Ogun State and later a minister of state for education in Abuja. She was later elected a senator from Ogun State. It was later a logical consequence that she aspired to be governor of Ogun State. Clearly, she encountered problems, as explained to the press in abandoning her aspiration. The nearest she narrated of her predicament was that “I would never get involved in any situation in which I would be very ashamed to defend before my children, all in the name of bidding to become Ogun State governor.”
Such a woman of high moral standard merited being selected as politician or woman of the year by one of Nigerian newspapers. But no media house throughout Nigeria ever thought it fit.
There was a female undergraduate at University of Ilorin whose lecturer refused to pass her in her subjects unless he had time with her. She refused and withstood the pressure. Instead of compromising to earn a fake degree, she reported to her dad and a trap was set for the lecturer. Caught well-tight, the lecturer was prosecuted in a court of law in Ilorin and the victim’s daddy sent her abroad to complete her education.
Then, of course, there was another lady at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, who was propositioned for a sexual encounter by her lecturer as a condition for passing her examinations. The lady cleverly played along by recording all the the arrangements for the sexual session, which she avoided. Instead, she handed all the details to the authorities. The lecturer was prosecuted, convicted and dismissed from the university. That is the attitude which Nigerian ladies in pursuit of any legitimate venture must adopt. This does not mean that agitators for women’s or ladies’ right to be elected to National Assembly all necessarily encounter sexual embarassment, if not harassment. But the truth is that Nigerian men are not the only hindrance in the ambition of women to contest elections to the National Assembly.
In these matters, women are the enemies of fellow women. A peep at foreign countries, especially United States, Britain and Europe, ladies commence their political career with some tutelage as congressional aides or parliamentary assistants, a job which might warrant late night sittings of parliaments or the political parties into the early hours of the following day. In the position of congressional aides or parliamentary assistants, such incumbents will get acquainted with political moves or situations in which they will be well-placed to be considered for first refusal in filling vacancies in parliament.
However, it should be noted that the real saboteurs of such promising careers for women are their close friends or even colleagues who, out of envy and indeed mischief, will commence insinuations that “See your friend. She is contesting elections for that constituency. Are you surprised? Don’t you know she is her oga’s madam? etc.” Whether such disparaging remarks are true or not, it is a question of time for the rumour to be spread all over the place, including the husband, all in an effort to break her marriage. It is the way of ladies.
In such an atmosphere, how many Nigerian men can allow their wives, either as politicians, congressional aides, parliamentary assistants or elected members of the National Assembly, to be attending mandatory late night meetings of political parties or legislature? Whereas, in established democracies, which Nigerian women cite as examples in establishing the case for having similar huge representation as elected members of Assembly, husbands have such total confidence in their wives. How many Nigerians have such confidence in their wives for late night political party meetings? Where the Nigerian husband is even tolerant of such late night political activities of the wife, the man will be ridiculed by his wife’s friends and colleagues to have been hypnotised to the point of being unable to control the wife. Nigerian women?
What do we really want in Nigerian politics? Everything centres round hustling or cleverly disguised opportunism. Usually, for individual or group political advantage, a demand crops up as it suits a particular interest. Zoning, then no zoning, ban on 70-year-olds and now special allocation of seats in the National Assembly only for women. The idea of reserving 35 seats in the National Assembly for women violates the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees that no citizen will suffer discrimination specifically on grounds of gender. As of now, all Nigerians (male or female) enjoy equal rights to contest the election. Indeed, on that ground, there are women elected members of state and national assemblies. Therefore, to detract from that healthy situation and set aside 35 seats specially for women means discrimination against men in those constituences who cannot contest while women in the remaining constituences still have the right to vie with men.
That women are unable to win nomination tickets for contesting elections cannot be blamed on men. In such exercises, women betray themselves mainly by failing to attract the necessary number of votes to either win the nomination ticket or get elected. Men must gear up for this fight. When did it become a foregone conclusion that women will floor men in any showdown?