National Integration: Women’s Role In Leadership and Mentorship – Joe Odumakin

Excerpts:

National integration is a critical building block for the harmonization of the socio-political as well as economic life of a heterogeneous society into one whole entity to enhance rapid and sustainable development. There can never be development if there is no growth. Nigerian women constitute about half of the population of our great country and are known to play vital roles as mothers.  I like it as I see a lot of women in leadership. Women have come, there is no country that leaves half of his population behind that will ever succeed. As women we should always use our numerical strength to assert ourselves.

All of us here are mothers and that is a vital and key role. I will never forget March 2nd, 1998, when we were to have a press conference at Apapa with Papa Adesanya and I was the secretary. On our way, I was feeling unpleasant within and I hadn’t reached my expected delivery date but when I got to the hospital, the doctor said it was labour, and I told the doctor to stop it because I was going to Apapa for a press conference but the doctor said it was an advanced labour. I was very lucky that my mother was around that day and before I knew it, I gave birth to the baby around 9:10 am, the baby cried and I looked at her and I went to Apapa for the press conference. But I first played that role of a mother. When I came back, I told the doctor to discharge me.

Yesterday(October 25), we were in Ago-Iwoye, a naval officer of about fifty nine (59) years old got married to a young girl of 27 years old. The girl observed that he takes some drugs everyday and when she asked him, the naval officer said it was to boost his fertility and help them have triplets but when one of the girl’s friends, saw the drugs, she alerted her that it was for those who are HIV positive. The girl in defense innocently said her husband was using it to boost his fertility so that they could have triplets. She then proceeded to the hospital where she was confirmed HIV positive. The case is in court now, we are still fighting the cause and the man has written to threaten me that he would sue me out of existence and I am ready for him. We are not going to stop till the end.

We should understand that there are different types of abuses; abuse of religion, traditional practices and others. Somebody died and I went for the burial, after washing the husband’s corpse, they told the woman to drink from the water. They said if she refused to drink it, it means she killed her husband and I told her that she mustn’t drink it. They turned to me and said you have mouth? If she doesn’t drink it, both of you will die.  This is ten (10) years after, she is still living. If she had drank it then, she would have died and become the witch. So you see different unlawful traditional practices. If it was the wife that died nobody would tell the husband to drink that kind of a thing. But men should take note that we still protect you and we defend you.

I can tell you that today is one of our clinic days and those who have their rights violated would come. Men have been coming to tell us that their wives were beating them although they are very few and when the men come, we invite their wives. Last week, we recorded two men in this category and we have invited their wives. If you are a man and you are being beaten by your wife, come to us, we will defend you. We also fight for the men folk. We defend everyone.

National Integration is the feeling of oneness that comes from an atmosphere of integrated and harmonious co-existence of the diverse ethnic nationalities and culture in a rumpled nation as Nigeria. It can only be built on the pedestrian of true recognition and respect for the nation’s diversities which will in turn engender a true sense of nationhood. So, integration is very important.

While we were carrying out our series of awareness , we took it to the police headquarters where the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and others were in attendance, we said if we are talking about unity, Nigerians must unite against terror and we carried out the campaign and we have taken it to different places.

A woman who was beating her husband complained to me that they have three children and the man gives three thousand naira (3000) per month and not only that, when he comes back at night, he would take her legs up, tie it to the window, take the other one and tie to the burglary proof and he will just sleep with her and wound her everywhere. And at the end, she would be in pains, so that day that the man ran, she had to beat and beat him and the man’s eyes got cleared. We reunited them, empowered the woman and the man said that if we have any programme except that his in laws might ostracize him, he is ready to come and tell people, not to beat their wives.

We reconciled Gloria, her husband used a wine opener to open her forehead and she said for twelve years she had been consistently beaten. We went to court and when the husband saw me he realized it because he is stupendously rich and he was made to eat the humble pie. I am not a lawyer but the magistrate asked me “you want to reconcile these two people, are you sure it will never happen again?” Gloria later told me that since she was born she had never seen her husband say “I am sorry” but he prostrated and said “I am sorry”. She said “Dr., you have helped to restore my dignity”. We have helped to set up a daycare for her and her dignity has been restored.

Another one at Ibadan, a lady was alleged to have killed the husband, people told me, Joe forget about the issue, what is your business? They said the woman killed the husband and you are there carrying placards and I said justice and death “any of them has no checker” and I will continue to stand firm for the truth.

If we select our leaders from only half the population, that will amount to a waste of talent. So 60% of graduates in all the African countries are females and that is the fact. 80% consumer decisions are made by women and companies with women on the board have better corporate governance and that is the truth about it. This is a current statistics for this year.

All the things we said have benefits; women in leadership positions play influential roles. I know that our chairperson today, Barr. Margaret Orakwusi has influenced lives. We have had several other women that have influenced lives. They are playing influential roles for other working women because they have learnt from their experiences on how to excel in their career. Two weeks ago, Prof Wole Soyinka just called and said “Joe I am coming to your place” but unfortunately,  I didn’t check my phone while he was calling later to inform me that he was around;  after almost fifteen (15) minutes of waiting  and wasn’t able to trace my office. He left and the following week he came back but I know that the inspiration I draw from the person called Wole Soyinka is that he is extremely committed to whatever he says. When he says “No”, his “No” is “No” and when he says “yes”, his yes remains “yes”.

Women in leadership offer important mentorship. They have impact on what economic and political policies are. Women in leadership help to foster national integration and you will see that there are lots of women in leadership.

There was another scenario where over hundred people were killed. I had gunshots on my leg but through divine intervention, I escaped but I was later rearrested and spent six months in detention.  It is leadership by example. We went through mentorship and you see Pastor Tunde Bakare today of Save Nigeria and some of our leaders. I remember when we were marching on the streets. Not only Abuja but everywhere and I have been engaged in lots and lots of campaigns.

It is not secret that women have historically faced greater barriers than men when it comes to fully participating in the socio-economic and political development of their societies. Across geographies and at all levels, there is disparity between men and women, uneven opportunities for advancement and unbalance representation in important decision making. Like politics, we see at the lower and upper chambers, that our women are underrepresented. That is why we are saying that our women should not accept “Deputy” positions. If I have a car, I might not use my spare tire. The spare tire would just be there. We can never agree to become anybody’s spare. Therefore, we must be involved in decision making. Then we should start to make our voices heard by organizing ourselves for more political and economic involvement and the society will benefit greatly. We must not be made a cheering bag, we need to always assert ourselves.

 Finally, the  more united we are as women, the more we believe that we are the lubricant to the survival of the entity called Nigeria. I know that all of us can stand firm to say that yes we came, we made our part and posterity will judge us. You can never and ever become relics of historical past.