NIGERIA is a land of deceit, deception and falsehood in all ramifications, the Nigerian woman is not the woman in our big cities, that is Westernized, urbane and opinionated, that craves equality rather than collaboration, that defies culture and all open norms as a rebel without a cause, the Nigerian woman is not that woman that lives big, selfish and dots every space of western cities nor as a black but a black in white mentality, the Nigerian woman is not that woman in our cities that dresses to look European despite our rich dressing values, that looks attractive and ageless because of body enhancement operations, though looks younger inside her she cannot stop biological aging, that is occupied with the business of looking good, spending huge money on face lifts, breast and booty enhancements to attract those in power, that spend huge fortunes on Brazilian hairs, nails and eye latches, these are not the women that would change the fortune of our society but rather compound them. These are women in our cities from Warri, Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other state capitals are political, social contractors who do not represent the values and identity of the true Nigerian woman, these are the women around our politicians, board room business moguls, in every non-government organizations as parasites, that organize programmes in the name of women in the cities, they hire vulnerable women, dress them to attend programmes and they are milked, used and dumped and that’s why most government programmes pertaining women don’t have impact on rural communities.
These amazons political contractors in most government programme hire the rural women for exploitation not empowerment, they give brown envelopes to the press to deceive government that she is working, whereas she is not on ground, the Nigerian amazon woman, elitist, independent, opinionated, self-centered, greedy, most of them unmarried because they can’t be controlled and even when married live as if they’re unmarried, that are well connected to powers that be in every federal and state capital, they are not the real Nigerian woman, these class of women are not only self-opinionated but selfish, they use the name of the true Nigerian woman as representative, in national and international forums to exploit, pursue aims that promote their personal interest in the name of selfless service, they don’t contribute anything good to the real Nigerian woman except exploitation and unfortunately these are the women in charge of most government programmes concerning women and children, they are gluttons and yearly recycled, most of these amazons are unmarried and if married only for convenient sake because in their marriage toga live lives as
if they are unmarried. These amazons acquire wealth, properties in cities and live ostentatious lifestyle defying law of gravity, they want to be everywhere, they want to be cynosure of all eyes, they are ageless because with plastic surgery equate their age with their grandchildren.
These amazons take the price, glory while they throw the crumps on the true Nigerian women, but why is it so? It is so because our life, hopes and aspirations is based on deceit and falsehood, we exploit one another with a dead conscience, the elitist woman of highbrow, disconnected from her roots and people but so connected to men of power knows how to showcase falsehood to the government, she knows she is not working whereas deceiving her dead conscience and what she represents, they organize programmes for government in cities, hire women groups who are well dressed in same attire for government functions, hires the press both electronic and print media to disseminate the information and sell herself for further contractual jobs, this type of amazons hire the real women to such functions with peanuts of two or three thousand naira each, that’s why government programmes geared towards women had no effect, they are of no effect because the purpose is defeated while pilfering reigns, powerful actors who are amazons become beneficiaries, we live in deception in every facet of our lives.
The true Nigerian woman is the rural woman and all must be done so that we eliminate middle woman known as amazons for the dividends of democracy to get to them, these rural women live in our rural communities, they are the moral armament, strength, conscience and economic provider of the nation, they are farmers and traders, house wives who are the food baskets in our markets and cities, their greatest strength lies in their moral values and conscience, they are the residue of good that is left in us, refined but not rustic, along our roads and highways we see them on tricycles going to farms with child strapped in her back, in the evening we see them carry firewood, cassava, yams, plantains and other food items on their tricycles coming back home, they provide not only the food we eat but also nourish and teach their young children values, morals, gains of hard work, discipline and culture of their various communities, these women don’t exploit one another but share ideas and use their collective numerical strength to enrich their various communities, they are generous and see every child as that of society, they nurse their children and support their husband, they are submissive and defer to their husbands for peace to strive at home so that their children will live in an enabling society to attain their goals, hopes and aspirations, their greatness lies in the greatness wellbeing of their husband.
If really we want to succeed as a government and as a people, we must put our enemies at bay, our enemies are not our critics neither are they those who bluntly tell us the truth, truth hurts no doubt while falsehood and lies is pleasant to hear, though misleading. Our enemies as a government are the contractors that cut corners to execute substandard jobs, they are the tribal chauvinists who despite good intentions of the government read ulterior motives to discredit good intentions of government, the political and social profiteers, the sycophants and jesters who are specialists in finding their way to government and discredit good people who could help the government sustain good policies, they are the corrupt and polluted persons in the public and civil service, in the educational sector, in the health sector, in government social programmes, in our security system, in our markets as traders, in our various communities and every public space that sabotage government good intentions, they are there in social programmes that are paramount to women and children emancipation.
These are the enemies of the state and its people, there is the need for government programmes to get to the people and reduce the influx of middle men/women if not eradicate them, so that government programmes have the desired impact and that is why most social interventions should go beyond impact from state capitals and government offices to various communities and villages so as to have desired impact, we should not only restrict determination of government programmes to only radio and television because what many don’t know is that majority of our population don’t have radio or television in their homes, endemic poverty and ignorance pervades and this is where community town criers are of greater affect and in doing so we must rely on community leaders and traditional rulers if we really want to shake the table in carrying the critical grass root along, this is where better life for rural women is essential in enhancing our society, women are critical to any society development and advancement, no society develop without women.
This is because women are the catalyst of any social development programme, the rural women has an open mind, the rural woman wants to learn and open to new ideas unlike the city amazon who knows it all, selfish and considers her personal interest first, the rural woman is patriotic, thinking first of others interest and good of her community, the rural woman is ready to make sacrifice because she sees the welfare and good of society as indications of a better life for herself, the urban amazon is fixated on her lifestyle, personal greed and unnecessary agitations on equality with men, in doing so she attracts attention to herself and create fantom fantasy not good for development, to get donations from local and foreign groups and
persons, these foundations are mostly a diversion for her personal interest and she does this to fleece the government and donor agencies, her influential friends and partners because she knows our security is weak, corrupt and ineffective and she will never be caught. This lifestyle of these amazons in our cities and government circles are like the mosquito that buzz in your ears just to suck blood in sustaining its life.
The rural woman has no comparism, she lives in her community, she trades and farm there, we need to take governance there because if we capture the Nigerian rural woman, we have captured all sectors of our social stratum, the Nigerian rural woman is married and have children, she influence her husband through submission and children through her moral strength, she should not be underestimated, within extended families they have deep networks and collectively in communities, they are one strong bond, we can get to the rural woman through conviction and sincere purpose not politics or distribution of handouts seen as bribes of failed politicians. We need good characters not dubious characters in reaching them, we need to sell government programmes to them and also get a feedback from them on what they want and how they see government, they also need to access government programmes on trade and commerce, women affairs, agriculture and other government programmes as it pertains women. We should deemphasize on glitz of what we want to tell others, let’s forget personal gain for doing the right thing in projecting society and this is why better life for the rural woman is important, if we desire a better society.
The Nigerian rural woman deserves the best considering its contributions to national development. There is no Nigerian, no matter how wealthy or famous without rural background, there is no Nigerian without a mother, every man must have been given birth to by a woman, when a woman is secured and well taken care of, be sure that the family she comes from, children, husband, relations and others are well taken care of. The missing gap in our development is negligence of the rural woman for the influential amazons in our cities who are more like western women that had lost not only their identity, conscience but their roots. These amazons have sold everything, their culture, their skin and all that made them African for a fleeting identity that cannot be located in an environment she operates, these noisy amazons that feast in the name of women groups and rights to survive live at variance with the true rural women that is the epitome of what our culture represents, the rural woman is the identity of who we are, they raise children with social ties and responsibility to their society, they are managers of their homes and strength to their husbands, they don’t want
publicity but they hide behind their husband and children to speak, we cannot have a better woman who represent our values than the rural woman.
That is why government and policy makers must think out of the box so that rural women can have access to government programmes and policies without the middle amazons who are seen in our cities but don’t have a base at our rural communities or even go back to their roots, fortunately Gov. Oborevwori MORE agenda represents the dreams, desires and aspirations of the rural woman in accessing a better health, we can touch them through establishment of health centers and making health affordable to curb maternal deaths during delivery, we can also touch them through social interventions by taking these social interventions beyond our cities to rural communities, in agriculture the rural women is the key, as we cannot have a viable agricultural programme without contributions of the Nigerian rural woman and this is where fertilizers and new seeds and farming techniques in form of technical assistance is needed for the Nigerian rural woman and also in terms of preservations of harvested crops, especially perishable products need to be preserved for all round season availability.
Agricultural banks should be closer rural communities organize co-operatives and also make loans available to our rural women who are farmers, if government machinery are diverted to rural communities to revive economic activities, it will curb rural urban migration and make our rural communities strength of our economic base as it is in Europe, there is no doubt that agriculture holds the key to unemployment, provision of raw materials for our industries including cash crops, agriculture is the only key to food production and its availability and the greatest suitable population that is best suitable is the Nigerian rural woman. That’s why a better life for the Nigerian rural woman is a better life for all including our communities and the nation, our women have the great potential in agriculture especially in cash crops and food production if they can get the support and encouragement of the government, doing this entails elimination of middle woman who I call political amazons who are after their glory rather than good of the state, developing the rural woman as government partnership is the key to illiteracy, economic boom and a stable society devoid of social stasis.
This is necessary because we must make programmes to benefit the people and avoid hijacking by political, social and financial profiteers, we must circulate wealth to create social stability instead of concentration of
wealth in a few, we must discourage corruption, political contractors who despite poor execution of jobs also input a percentage in such contracts for their pleasure, we must also discourage political jesters and sycophants who blindfold leaders in their deception into taking wrong decisions, governance is not about these shylocks, political barbarians but the people who elect their representatives and receive the negative or positive impact of government. We should discourage the idea that government is a huge elephant where those appointed or elected are to come to steal, help themselves and their relatives and not to serve, we must discourage these animalistic hindrances, we should discourage a situation where because we are in government we nominate our cronies who will do our selfish bidding rather than nominate the best that can give a better name to the principal the government that even those appointed or elected need orientation and advocacy as to why they are there, there is much to do but little efforts put to do the needful and without sincerity we cannot achieve anything, we are blindfolded by our greed and avarice, tribe and ethnicity, sectional and personal interests, rather than good of the state and our people.
There is no doubt that no government, institution can survive without contributions of women, when we say women we mean good women in the mold of the Nigerian rural women like Dr. Mrs. Dora Akunyili, Mrs. Ransome-Kuti and others who put aside their interest for interest of all, the Aba women riot of 1922 was a representation of who our women are not the self-styled amazons who are guided by greed and while in government use their position to amass wealth, stifle growth and promote foreign values that are inimical to growth and development, the Nigerian rural woman in late Mrs. Ransome-Kufi, late Dr. Mrs Dora Akunyili and others are the replica of our identity, they reject corruption because they know the consequences, uphold the rule of law, accept orderliness, no home, community, society and nation can survive without good characters of our women and that is why better life for our rural women will translate to better life for all because women not the amazons hold the secret key to unlock our limitations in all spheres of our local, state and national development.
