Though they reeled out the odds against them, women also revelled in their achievements, and sent a message that they will soon knock men off their perch. OKODILI NDIDI reports from Owerri, the Imo State capital
When women gather, what do they discuss? The jury may be out on that one, but at an assemblage in Owerri, the Imo State capital, women looked back at their past, examined the present and peered into the future. What did they see ahead? Well, they said the table will soon turn in their favour, and that they will reverse the odds stacked against them by men.
This year’s International Women’s Day in Owerri offered a good opportunity for them to express themselves. They analysed their unique role, their strength, and capabilities in driving growth.
It was an assemblage of women of substance, female captains of industry, successful businesswomen, entrepreneurs, traders, housewives, students, and various organisations. The women took turns to applaud their achievements in business, administration, politics, and governance, among other professions.
They advocated for a greater role in nation-building, arguing that if the women can succeed in building and sustaining the home front, which is the bedrock of every society, they should be allowed to contribute to the development of the nation.
The many ills suffered by women, especially domestic violence, official intimidation, gender discrimination and sexual harassment, were also highlighted and extensively discussed with a view to proffering a solution to challenges and other growing cases of infringement on the rights of women and the girl-child.
Although it was sufficiently established by the various speakers that the agitation for a better place and more visible roles for women does not in any way amount to competition or rivalry with the menfolk, the fire in the eyes of the women showed that very soon, sooner than anticipated, the aphorism, ‘it is a male’s world’, will no longer be applicable.
From one speaker to the other, the ecstatic women were challenged to stand up and take their rightful place as ‘unique creatures’ who are created to be change agents. They were charged to defy all forms of intimidation and alienation. They were also reminded of their responsibilities to their families, especially their husbands, who they were told to revere, irrespective of whatever social status they may have achieved.
Some of them were chided for displaying attitudes that have projected the womenfolk in negative light, majorly the inordinate appetite for wealth and position, which they identified, have driven some women into prostitution, corruption and other forms of criminalities.
It was indeed such a day one could wish to be a woman. The eloquence of the speakers, the glamour and beauty exuded by the colourfully dressed women confirmed the silent fact that women are indispensable in forming a completely beautiful society.
In her speech, wife of the Imo State Governor Nneoma Rochas Okorocha charged the women to be courageous and take control of their immediate environment as nation builders.
Mrs Okorocha, who is also the Chairperson of the Southern Governors Wives Forum, asserted that women have strategic roles to play in the development and advancement of any nation.
She said that by being conscious of their roles and responsibilities, women could guarantee positive change in the society.
The governor’s wife pointed out that women are “unique and special”, insisting that “to be bold for change entails a courageous woman rediscovering herself and potentials, to discover who she is and what God deposited in her to rule her environment.”
She further advised the women “to be mindful of the people they associate with, opining that “women have the potentials of making positive change as nothing could be perfected without the inputs of women”.
Mrs Okorocha enjoined the women to jettison low self-esteem, noting that the “position of womanhood calls for responsibilities and re-examination”
According to her, “very soon Imo women will be reference points in terms of positive change in families and our society”.
She urged the women to be ready to recognise God’s Supremacy in their families and endeavours.
Earlier, in her speech, the state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Ngozi Njoku, applauded the Governor’s wife for being a role model and a visionary Leader.
Njoku who expressed gratitude at the turnout of women at the occasion, described the crowd as an “assemblage of women of substance from different strata of the society ranging from the academia, rural women, market women, women professionals and political appointees”.
Also in her sermon, tagged “Speak Lord for your servants heareth’, Mrs. Mercy Onwunta, observed that “a virtuous woman is not born but made”, adding that “women in every society are agents of positive change”.
Onwunta who drew her sermon from the Bible book of Numbers, stated that change starts from the inside.
She cautioned the women against carefree lives.
Another cleric, Pastor Mrs. Ada Ezeka in her sermon, pointed out that “women were not created to compete with men but to be partners in progress”.
She admonished that, ”womanhood is not a gender issue, it is an empowerment issue, the problems of women are not in gender but lack of sense of mission, vision and responsibility. What a man can do, a man can do, but what a woman can do, the woman can do better. A woman was not created to depend on the man but to be a Helpmate”.
Ezeka further argued that “the world will be incomplete without women”, insisting that “a woman must have the potential of influencing her family positively”.
Representatives of the various women organizations at the occasion noted the theme of this year’s celebration was apt, considering the ongoing change in the country, adding that it will prepare the women to take up more visible roles in the process.
Though they agreed that the plight of the Nigerian women has improved significantly since the Geneva Conference, but more still need to be done to better the lot of the women.
They identified illiteracy, poverty and some cultural practices as some of the challenges confronting Nigerian women.
