Women take pride in their honesty and, if you like, their holiness in comparison to men. Nothing gives them more joy than to snigger at us that they are better managers of men and materials. Nothing that is kept with them will ever go missing, they say. As our mothers and wives, we fawn over them. I daresay that a household is incomplete without a girl child. They start fighting for attention right from the cradle. It is as if they have been told that they must not yield ground to men if they wish to succeed.
Though the weaker sex, women pack a lot of power. Men dare not do some of the things they do. There are many things that a woman will do and people will overlook. But, if a man tries it, he is done for. Women can use their gender to make or mar society. Where women come together for the good of all, society progresses but where they are divided, things will not work fine. Women know how to manipulate us. They use their innate power to get what they want.
Besides, they can get away with anything all because they are women. They are delicate, precious, enchanting and cunny. Women can save and they can kill. There is no man born of woman who can escape their wrath once they set a trap for him. In the past, we looked down on them. We relegated them because we considered it a man’s world. Their job then was to take care of the home and warm our beds. They had their duty cut for them. When the men talked, they listened. Or better still, they stayed in their rooms with their children until they were sent for.
Gone are the days when women were sent for before they came out. These days, they lead the way. In some instances, men play second fiddle to them. Our women have come of age. In this modern era, gender is no obstacle to the height any one can attain, whether man or woman. Like their counterparts elsewhere, the Nigerian woman has grown socially and politically. They have their eyes set on the ultimate political office – the Presidency. There is nothing stopping them from gunning for that exalted office, if they feel they have what it takes to hold the post.
Elsewhere, we have had women leaders. So, our women will be in good company if their dreams of leading Nigeria come true. We have the women who can hold down the job. Their counterparts who did it elsewhere and are still doing it in some countries do not have two heads. But do our women, that is those aspiring to political leadership, have the impeccable character of the Golda Meirs (Israel), Margaret Thatchers (Britain), Sonia Ghandis (India), Corazon Aquinos (Phillipines), Ellen Sirleaf-Johnsons (Liberia) and Angela Merkels (Germany) of this world?
I ask this question because of what two women who found themselves in office between 2010 and 2015 did. The story has not been fully told, but the little we have heard is disturbing. One was the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, the other was Petroleum Resources Minister Dame Diezani Alison-Madueke. Mrs Alison-Madueke went overboard in her spending of public funds. She used the money just the way she came across it. Since it was free money, by her own reckoning, she felt she could do whatever she liked with it. She acquired a princely sum, but today, she cannot enjoy the wealth because of her health challenge.
Why then did she amass wealth when she knew she was ill? I am not rejoicing over her predicament. Far from it, I am just ruminating over the futility of some of the actions we take when we do not know what wil happen tomorrow. If Mrs Alison-Madueke knew that things will end this way, she would not have bothered taking our money the way she did. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is hard pressed today trying to locate where she kept all the money in dollars, pounds, euro and naira and the property she acquured across the country and abroad.
The agency has been able to trace some, which the court has said should be forfeited to the government. Rather than keep quiet, Mrs Alison-Madueke is going about, claiming that she is being persecuted by EFCC. Persecution in what sense? When did it become an offence for a public officer to be asked to return what she allegedly acquired illegally? As a mother, wife and daughter, Mrs Alison-Madueke is supposed to have milk of kindness. Did she show that kindness the way she handled public funds?
No, she did not. She misappropriated the money meant fi2r our collective good and today, she is crying persecution when the people should be calling for her crucifixion. We have seen how former leaders who misbehaved in other climes were treated. They ended up in jail after their tenure since they had nowhere to run to. From London, Mrs Alison-Madueke has been throwing stones at home, alleging that she was accused of what she did not do.
So, who owns all the billions of naira and millions of dollars and pounds said to have been found in her accounts? The money just walked in there, I suppose. What about the property she was said to have acquired? Well, someone is surely lying between her and EFCC and I am sure it cannot be the agency. What will it gain by wrongly accusing Mrs Alison-Madueke instead of going after the real culprit? Everything is not about beauty. What is the essence of beauty if not matched with integrity, honesty and the fear of God? Indeed, everyday is for the thief and one day is for the owner.
