Dear Father,
My Nigerian sisters and I congratulate you on the occasion of your inauguration and wish you all the very best. However, we are saddened by the ridiculously low number of our mothers in the National Assembly. If there are only 8 women out of 109 members of the Senate and 14 women out of 360 members of the Federal House of Representatives, how can our voices be heard?
It is high time; the female folk stopped being treated like toys and second-hand goods. During campaigns you see a lot of women gaily dressed and swaying their backside in excitement in the hot sun for their candidates most of whom are males and what do we get in return? First Class marginalization in elective and appointive posts. I would never preach gender equality because it is against divine order but the female is the mother who builds the home and the home is the bedrock of the society! As long as we continue to have a poor participation of women in politics, we can never have enough role models for the girls who would determine the fate of the future Nigeria. No wonder an average Nigerian girl doesn’t know Malala Yousafzai the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate but know Kim Kardashian, a social media personality and model and her likes so well. You may please go to town and ask even girls who have the privilege of attending private schools and hear their response.
Why can’t our girls who have been brought up in so much hardship become global champions? You will agree with me that hardship is a must to climb the ladder of greatness. The pain these girls feel when their parents can’t meet their needs should make them dream, dream and dream big. But unfortunately, an average Nigerian girl believes she has to pay with her body to meet even her basic necessities. Even their mothers encourage them to “sell their bodies.” I know a 14 year old girl who has to sleep with her uncle-her jobless father’s immediate younger brother before he gives her #1500 weekly allowance. A lot of girls are pushed into prostitution because of poverty arising from their parents’ unemployment and they are surrounded by people who lack moral dignity who encourage them to use what they have to get what they want.
Can you imagine the type of children they would bring to the world? Grand High Harlots and thieves of course. Sad, very sad! How can corruption ever be stamped out? A dirty vessel produces nothing but filth. If these girls are not re-orientated, there’ll be greater corruption in future!
Due to this madness of the flesh, girls now bring children into the world indiscriminately through unwanted pregnancies and end up becoming single mothers who can’t fend for themselves least of all their kids and then continue sleeping around just to have food to eat. Can we ever have a stable and morally-upright society with street kids? How would corruption ever come to an end?
Daddy, a lot of girls who were destined to be world-changers, solution providers and environmental transformers have been badly damaged and had their glorious destinies diverted due to lack of basic necessities and the right upbringing. God knows why He made you president and would give you the grace to make an effective change in Nigeria that would last till eternity.
While thanking you in anticipation of a total freedom of our sisters from the bondage of Boko-Haram and a complete cleansing of Nigeria from such evil, we also expect the following from you.
1. More appointive and elective positions for women so they can represent the women and girls, look after them adequately and be an encouragement for young girls to aspire to be.
2. Encouragement of moral rearmament and instructions in schools including campaigns for chastity.
3. Encourage the National Assembly to come out with a legislation that will bring an end to girl-child marriage.
4. A legislation to make education for girls in all parts of Nigeria compulsory.
5. Create an enabling environment for parents to work. Create enough jobs so girls can get jobs when they graduate. And of course their husbands-to-be need jobs as well.
6. “Conference material” penchant among government officials should be stopped. During conferences, female secondary school and university students are usually mobilized to warm the beds of interested government officials.
7. Stringent measures must be taken against sexual harassment in tertiary institutions and work places.
8. Female hostels should be built for homeless girls in all the States.
There’s so much more but please start with these and you’ll be wiping the tears of so many girls who wish they were never born. May your era become Nigeria’s golden era and may you live long in Jesus name. AMEN!
Yours sincerely,
Barrister (Miss) Temilolu Okeowo