International Women’s Day: Nigerian Women Demand Equal Rights
By: Victor Ulasi, Nigeria
Nigerian women have demanded equal rights and equal opportunity from their male counterparts, stating that they can no longer continue with the rate of disrespect and gender inequality being shown to them. They claim that women in Northern Nigeria are seen as second-class human beings.
During the International Women’s day in Kaduna state, Nigeria, groups of women made it known that as far as Nigeria is concerned, gender sensitivity, gender equality and equal right between the males and the females has never existed. The women further said that in Northern Nigeria women are seen as slaves and that they have no right to public affairs.
Mrs. Hamma Saadatiu, the Chairwoman of the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), said the method and rate of discrimination against women in Nigeria is unacceptable. Women in Northern Nigeria are not given the opportunity to go school, neither are they granted certain kinds of employment in society.
Mrs. Saadatiu goes on to say, “Women are been treated unfairly in Nigeria in their domestic home, as in Northern Nigeria men do not believe that women have the right to an inheritance or to have a say in the family. Eventually if a woman’s husband dies, his family members end up taking away all the proper possessions from the woman and allowing her to go with just a dress or two, just because she is now a widow. It is a very sad development as the men in Northern Nigeria are gross abusers of women.”
While speaking on gender inequality and mortal mortality, Mrs. Saadatiu made it known that today, the husbands in northern Nigeria do not allow their wives to go to hospital to take care of their health. This is because the husbands forbids their wives to go out of the house and when the women speak up their husbands beat them until they become unconscious. These particular issues increase the rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria.
My research shows that married men in Northern Nigeria divorces their wives at will when they visits the hospital and are checked by male doctors. In Northern Nigeria, men considers it anti-Islam or a taboo for their wives to be checked by a male doctors, even at the risk of death.
I have also learned that in Northern Nigeria, women are not given the opportunity to go to school, since society considers it a waste of time and investment in sending a woman to school. They feel that women are meant to get married and leave the home.
Mr. Danladi Umar, a father who made it known that women’s affairs are secondary issues in his house, said “women’s education is good but it is not a primary issue in any home. Women are products for sale and sooner or later they will be sold off to an unknown destination and only a fool will waste his time decorating a product that is made to be sold. So, there is no point in wasting so much time and resources investing in someone that will end up bearing another man’s name and will not keep the legacy of the family. Women’s education is a secondary issue as long as I am concerned.”
Hafsat Muhammad Baba, a Nigerian woman, said that she thinks it will take up to 10 to 20 years before the gender discrimination in Nigeria would become history. She believes that the men in Nigeria are not yet ready to accord the women with the proper right and respect they deserve, since they see women in Nigeria as second class beings.
Edited by S. Robinson
Short URL: http://worldnewsvine.com/?p=9113
Published on Mar 8 2010. Filed under Health and Living, Human Interest, International News by Publishing Editor, Opinion Editorial.
Tagged with FIDA, International Women’s Day: Nigerian Women demands equal right over their male counterpart, Kaduna, Mrs. Hamma Saadatiu, nigeria
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“Hafsat Muhammad Baba, a Nigerian woman, said that she thinks it will take up to 10 to 20 years before the gender discrimination in Nigeria would become history. She believes that the men in Nigeria are not yet ready to accord the women with the proper right and respect they deserve, since they see women in Nigeria as second class beings.”
Just 10 or 20 years to throw off over 1400 years of distilled evil?
I see the word “Islam” was only used once in the article and then as alternative to “taboo”. If your going to be as oblique as this why bother talking about women in Nigeria at all? No mention of the southern Christian women. Are they slaves like their northern sisters? No? Not the same? Maybe it is Islam and the poison it puts in the souls of mankind that is behind “gender” differences. Maybe people ought to open their eyes if their heads aren’t to deeply buried in the sand.
The gender discrimination in Northern Nigeria has nothing to do with religion or politics, though it can be narrowed down to it but that is not the real issues behind women discrimination. It has to do with culture.
In Northern Nigeria women are not allowed to look men into the eyes while mean speak, women do not have handshake with men and most of the times denied to speak in public.
Have ever wondered why the advert by MTN, Zain, and other companies in the south differs from that of the North. Are they not one company? The two region are controlled by two different cultures, each of this cultures practice Islam or Christianity side by side.
The Northern women tries to combine culture with religion and tradition. In the North, women do not have the right to get married to whom they want, most of the times you will discover that the ladies family just get their daughter a husband and she just marry him.
That is why the North has the increasing high rate of divorce, because the women are just been married out not that they actually intended to get married. Since the men knows that they can divorce and marry another with no stress, women have become toys that are meant to be used and abandoned.
There are Norms and values that even evolution cannot change in Northern Nigeria. In Katsina state and some state in Northern Nigeria you will find taxi for men and taxi for women, the painful part, the government provides the vehicles. The Muslim women forbidden to marry Christian men while the Muslim men are allowed to marry Christian women.
These issues does not exist in the south.
The major problem that women in the Southern Nigeria face, is the issue of widowhood and inheritance.
If you have something that you feel is news worthy then, lets talk about it and if its within the house style of this medium which is “Fresh News” I will look into it and have it published.
But, I need to know your name and which state or country you are writing from.
ANAMBRA ELECTION: A REPORTER’S NOTE
KANMI OLATOYE
THOUGH BENT WITH AGE, SHE WALKED ASSUREDLY INTO THE POLLING CENTRE STEADIED BY A MAKESHIFT WALKING STICK IN ONE HAND AND A CAREFULLY KEPT VOTER CARD IN THE OTHER. SHE STOPPED AT THE FIRST BOOTH WITH SHORT QUEUE OF VOTERS AND MADE STRAIGHT TO THE POLLING ATTENDANT PRESENTIING HER CLEAN VOTER CARD. SHE SMILED UP TO THE OTHERS ON THE QUEUE. THEY UNDERSTOOD. A SHUFFLE THROUGH THE REGISTER SEVERAL TIMES, BUT NO NAMES OR IMAGE TALLY WITH MAMA’S IN IT. SORRY THE ATTENDANT SAID AND DIRECTED THE OLD WOMAN TO THE OTHER BOOTH STILL IN THE SAME VICINITY. SHE LOOKED UNPERTUBED, EVEN SLIGHTLY ENTHUSIASTIC. OBVIOUSLY, DESPITE THE LENGTH OF AGE SHE HAD NOT HAD THIS OPPORTUNITY OFTEN. NO THANKS TO THE NIGERIAN STATE AND THE FIREBRAND ANAMBRA POLITICS WHERE EVERY ELECTION IS A CALL TO BATTLE. ( NOT A DEAL FOR THE LILLY LIVERED) SHE MOVED AS DIRECTED TO THE OTHER BOOTH WITH A LONGER QUEUE. THIS TIME SHE HAD TO TAKE A SEAT, OBVIOUSLY TO REST HER FRAIL, BENT BONES. SHE AGAIN PRESENTED HER CARD TO THE ATTENDANT WHO BEGAN ANOTHER ROUND OF FLIPPING THROUGH PAGES OF THE PHOTOCOPIED REGISTER. FOR THE FIRST TIME ANXIETY COURSED THROUGH THE OLD WOMAN’S FACE EVEN BEFORE THE ATTENDANT GAVE HIS VERDICT. NAME NOT ON THE REGISTER! THE ONCE LIVELY OLD FACE BECAME SULLEN, ANOTHER BOTCHED OPPORTUNITY AT THE POLLS, PERHAPS FOR THE UMPTEENTH TIME, PERHAPS FOR THE LAST TIME FOR THE OLD WOMAN. SHE WAS TOO DISTRAUGHT TO GO BACK HOME AS SHE TOOK HER SEAT AMONG OTHERS IN HER DILEMMA. THEY SOON FORMED A BAND OF HAPLESS SPECTATORS IN AN EXERCISE THEY WERE MEANT TO BE ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS.
THIS IS THE STORY OF MANY ELECTORATE IN THE JUST CONCLUDED ANAMBRA GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION. FROM DUNUKOFIA TO OYI, IDEMILI NORTH TO AWKA SOUTH AND ANIOCHA THE STORY IS ALL THE SAME WITH DIFFERENCES NOT IN KIND BUT IN DEGREES, ENTHUSIASTIC VOTERS TROOPING OUT TO EXERCISE THEIR CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY BUT TECHNICALLY AND IRRESPONSIBLY SHUT OUT BY THE VERY BODY THAT IS MANDATED TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR INTEREST. NOT EVEN THE LAST MINUTE, FIRE BRIGADE DIRECTIVE BY INEC TO ALLOW EVERYONE WITH A VALID VOTER CARD TO VOTE COULD HELP AS THE POLLING OFFICERS ON THE FIELD CLAIMED THEY HAVE NOT BEEN DIRECTED TO DO SO. ONLY VERY FEW ESPECIALLY THOSE CLOSE TO THE METROPOLIS WITH ACCESS TO THE COMMUNICATION NETWORKS WERE ABLE TO ACT. EVEN AT THAT VERY MANY VOTERS HAD WAITED AND HAD TO LEAVE THE CENTRES AS THEY WOULD NOT WANT TO PUSH THEIR LUCK TOO FAR LURKING AROUND THE USUALLY VOLATILE POLLING AREAS. NO WONDER THE ELECTION RECORDED A LITTLE OVER FIFTEEN PERCENT OF THE ENTIRE REGISTERED VOTERS. WHILE THIS MAY REPRESENT THE ACTUAL VOTES CAST, IT IS INDEED A FAR CRY FROM VOTER RESPONSE TO THE MUCH AWAITED ELECTION. THEY WERE SIMLPY DISENFRANCHISED.
THOUGH THERE WERE OTHER INFRACTION IN THE ANAMBRA ELECTION, LIKE SOME BALLOT BOXES SNATCHED BY GUN TOTTING YOUTHS IN NRI (EKWUNIFE’S PERCEIVED STRONGHOLD), MISSING BALLOT BOXES IN MANY CENTRES IN AGULU (GOVERNOR PETER OBI’S HOME BASE),AND VOTERS IN OBOSI (NGIGE’S PERCEIVED STRONGHOLD) REFUSING TO VOTE AS A RESULT OF ALLEGED MASSIVE thumbnail PRINTING OVERNIGHT BY SOME MISCREANTS OF A LEADING PARTY. BUT ALL THIS PETERS TO NOTHING COMPARED TO THOUSANDS OF VOTERS WHOSE HOPES WERE DASHED BY INEC’S UNJUSTIFIABLE AND RECKLESS TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT. RECKLESS BECAUSE SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE THE ELECTION NOT A FEW GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS HAVE CALLED FOR A REVISION OF THE REGISTER WHICH HARBOURS ALL SORTS OF NAMES AND IMAGES, FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS. THAT IF INEC DOES NOT KNOW THAT THE LIKES OF THE LATE GANI FAWEHINMI, JIM NWOBODO AND CO WHOSE IMAGES ADORN THE ANAMBRA VOTER REGISTER WERE NOT FROM THE STATE, AT LEAST IT STANDS TO REASON TO OF NECESSITY KNOW THAT THE IMAGES OF TREES,DOORS, WINDOWS AND OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS GIVEN NAMES AND ADDRESSES WHICH FORM A PART OF THE REGISTER ARE NOT JUST LAUGHFABLE BUT INDICTING TO THE ELECTORAL BODY, AND SHOULD NOT TAKE ALL THE EFFORTS OF THE WELL-MEANING GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS WHO CALLED FOR A REVISION BEFORE THE ELECTORAL BODY DOES WHAT IS INTELLIGENT TO DO. BUT INEC CARRIED ON ARROGANTLY UNASHAMED LEADING TO ONLY 300,000 VOTERS PARTICIPATING OUT OF ABOUT 1.8MILLION VOTERS. TODAY GOVERNOR PETER OBI HAS ANOTHER MANDATE TO RULE A STATE OF OVER 4 MILLION PEOPLE WITH A LITTLE OVER 90,000 VOTES ALL BECAUSE INEC WANTED IT SO. INEC AND OTHER AGENCIES INCLUDING ELECTION OBSERVERS AND MONITORS COULD CLAIM THAT THE FEBRUARY 6 ELECTION WAS FREE AND A DEPARTURE FROM THE USUAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA, (SAVE JUNE 12, 1993) I ALSO TESTIFY TO THAT. BUT IT WAS OBVIOUSLY FAR FROM FAIR. IT IS THIS ELEMENT THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE BANE OF OUR DEMOCRATIC EXPERIENCE WHICH HAS CONTINUED TO THROW UP ALL MANNER OF CHARACTERS IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS WHO HAVE NO COMMITMENT TO COMMON GOOD SINCE THEY SOUGHT NO MANDATE FROM ITS LICENCEES.
WHATEVER GAINS ARE ACCRUABLE FROM THE ANAMBRA ELECTION, AND THERE ARE MANY, FROM THE GOOD CONDUCT OF THE CANDIDATES, THEIR PARTIES AND SUPPORTERS THROUGHOUT THE ELECTIONEERING PROCESS, TO THE ELECTORATE WHO KEPT FATE WITH THE PROCESS AND DISCHARGED THEIR DUTIES AS FAR AS INEC COULD GUARANTEE, TO THE POLICE WHO MUST BE GIVEN KUDOS THIS TIME AROUND FOR NO NOTICEABLE ACT OF SABOTAGE, INEC BY ITS UNPARDONABLE WARPED PROCESS SEEMS TO HAVE MESSED IT ALL UP DENYING THE ELECTORATE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY AT THE POLLS, LIKE IN 1999, 2003, 2007 AND 2009 IN EKITI.
NOW, WHAT ARE THE TRUTHS ABOUT THE ANAMBRA ELECTION; THAT NIGERIANS ARE EAGER TO ELECT THEIR LEADERS, THAT ELECTIONS CAN BE CONDUCTED IN A FREE AND SAFE ATMOSPHERE, THAT RIGGING IS NOT THE ONLY WAY ELECTORATE CAN BE DISENFRANCHISED, THAT THERE IS NOW WHAT IS CALLED ELECTORAL TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT WHICH IS AS GRAVE AS SNATCHING OF BALLOT BOXES OR ANY OF THE BRANDED FORM OF RIGGING NATIVE TO NIGERIA. BUT ABOVE ALL THAT NIGERIA WILL BEGIN TO HAVE A WHOLESOME ELECTION WHEN THE ELECTORAL BODY IS DETERMINED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. IF THERE IS ANY FAILURE IN THE ANAMBRA ELECTION IT IS FAILURE ON THE PART OF INEC. IT SIMPLY TOOK THE SHINE AWAY FROM AN ELECTION THAT EVERYBODY WAS PREPARED TO SIGNPOST AS DIFFERENT FROM THE REST. A COUP AGAINST THE ELECTORATE, INCLUDING THE OCTOGENARIAN WOMAN FROM DUNUKOFIA WHO MAY NOT HAVE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY AT THE POLLS.
KANMI OLATOYE WORKS WITH A PRIVATE TELEVISION STATION IN NIGERIA.
Thank you for bringing the situation and the state of Violence during election in Anambra state. We do appreciate your time and courage.
We will do all we can to help improve the situation by reporting the issues as it affects the people.
If you ever have an issue you want to bring our attention to please, send an e-mail to the editors: editors@worldnewsvine.com. If the issue is found to be on human interest, am sure a Correspondent would be assigned to cover the issue.
Victor Ulasi, Says” The gender discrimination in Northern Nigeria has nothing to do with religion or politics…it has to do with culture.” In Northern Nigeria women are not allowed to look men into the eyes while meek speak,women don’t have handshake with men.I take it that most of the women in the Northern Nigeria are Muslims.That is the reason they are not allowed to do all that.I am sure they are not allowed to go out of the house alone. To me and any person who knows about Islam, this is all to do with Islam and being muslim.So please stop your B.S about culture.from Quran Sura 4:34″ Men have authority oer women because Allah has made the one superior to the others,and because they spend their wealth to maintain them.Good women are obedient.They guard their unseen(parts)because Allah has guarded them.As for those fro whom you fear disobedience ,admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.Then if they obey you,take no further action against them.Allah is High ,supreme” In Islam women are discouraged from education. BL@KBIRD, is right when he say, I see the word “Islam ” was only used once in the article.
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