The Nation Newspaper

Tag: women

  • Women ’re still marginalised in politics, says Sonaiya

    Women ’re still marginalised in politics, says Sonaiya

    Despite women’s achievements in business and public service, their exclusion from politics has kept them perpetually marginalised in nation building, former presidential candidate of KOWA party in 2015 general election, Prof. Remi Sonaiya said yesterday.

    The professor of French Language and first woman presidential candidate spoke yesterday at a public lecture organised by the Public Affairs Section of the United States (U.S.) Consulate in Lagos to commemorate the International Women’s Day.

    Speaking on the theme: “Women in Leadership and Good Governance”, Sonaiya said women were still being marginalised despite the change mantra of the present government.

    Analysing the number of positions held by women in the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government, Sonaiya said only six women was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari into the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    Of the 469 federal lawmakers elected in the last general election, she said only 23 members are women, indicating a lope-sided representation in favour of male gender.

    Sonaiya said there was no problem with Nigerian politics, noting that seeming gender barrier observed in the system was created by political actors for selfish goals.

    In his short speech, the U.S. Consular General, John Bray, noted that good governance was more important than periodic election. He said it was time for Nigerian women to form a coalition that would enable them attain high political offices, since barrier against independent candidature had been removed by the Electoral Act.

    Sonaiya, Bray said, is a “trailblazer” whose courage to participate in presidential election empowered millions of women. The envoy said more political prominence would be achieved if women make effort to pull down the barrier against their aspirations.

    The Consulate Public Affairs Officer, Ms. Dehab Ghebreab, said gender equality would not be achieved until extant laws limiting women’s potential were changed. She urged participants to stand up and challenge the laws and policies put up against the women

    She said: “Nigerian women have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate their leadership abilities in other spheres of endeavour, successfully running organisations in both public and private sectors. The area where they are waiting to make a real mark is that of politics. Nigeria is shortchanged by keeping women out of politics.

    “The evidence of this could not be more glaring, since we are witnesses to the excesses of our elected officials, both past and present. It is time to make a change and begin to build strong institutions. The bad politics is keeping our good women out; scaring them away, leaving a few women who have connections to the strongmen.”

    On what women could bring to good governance, Sonaiya said women would effectively promote openness and honesty in governance, adding that they have high commitment to promoting policies that would address socio-economic and political challenges facing disadvantaged groups in the country.

     

  • NHRC seeks separate court for crimes against women, girls

    NHRC seeks separate court for crimes against women, girls

    The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has called for the creation of a special court to try cases relating to violence against women to ensure prompt and diligent prosecution of such matters.

    Its chairman, Prof. Bem Angwe, who made the call yesterday, said such court was necessary in view of the rise in reported cases of violence against women.

    He noted that the regular courts were usually occupied with civil and political cases, thereby engendering delay in the determination of cases involving suspects in cases of violence against women.

    Angwe, who spoke in Abuja yesterday at an event by the NHRC to commemorate the International Women’s Day 2016, regretted the increasing cases of female child abduction in the country.

    He urged the Federal Government and other partners to intensify efforts to end the trend and rescue those already abducted, including the Chibok school girls.

    Angwe blamed the rise in cases of women and female child related violence on the reluctance of women/children to ensure the prosecution of the culprits, where those involved are either their husbands or fathers, who are mostly the family’ s bread winner.

    “Because they are afraid that, once the man is locked up, where he is the bread winner of the family, the children and other dependants would suffer, the female victims of this violence are always reluctant to ensure that such husband is prosecuted and kept away in prison,” he said.

    Angwe, who expressed worry over the activities of those he termed “miracle merchants”, who subject children to torture in the guise of exorcizing “evil spirits” from them, said his commission would soon move against them.

    “It is so sad that we still engage in dehumanising cultural practices that subject women to all forms of torture, including drinking of water used to bath the corpse of their deceased husbands; forced to shave their hair, among others, when their husbands die.

    “We are working to end child marriage and forced marriage of the girl-child. We will begin by educating those involved. After education, if they persist, we will apply punishment.

    “We are going to begin to prosecute miracle merchants. These people, who claim to have powers to identify children with witchcraft and subject them to all forms of torture in the name of seeking to exorcize the witchcraft spirit from them,” he said.

    Angwe called for effective implementation of the recently enacted Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act because of their unique provisions, including witness protect and compensation for victims.

    “In line with the United Nations Resolution 63/155 of 2008, we urge the Federal Government to adopt a systemic, comprehensive, multi-sectoral and sustained approach that will put an end to impunity for perpetrators of violence against women.

    “It is regrettable that despite government’s efforts and the various campaigns to end all forms of domestic violence, particularly against women and girls, the practice has continued to rise steadily.

    “While commending individuals and groups that have expressed concern over the plight of the Chibok girls and other women abducted by the insurgents, we urge the Federal Government not to relent in its commendable efforts at ensuring the rescue of all the abductees,” Angwe said.

     

  • WACC calls for end of media sexism by 2020

    To mark International Women’s Day, the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) has called for action to end news media sexism by 2020.

    The call is part of several launches of national reports for the Global Media Monitoring Project GMMP 2015 taking place around International Women’s Day marked globally on Tuesday.

    In line with the recommendations of the report, WACC strongly supports the UNESCO initiative, Women Make the News 2016, which includes a commitment by media organization to achieve at least 30% of women interviewed among all sources in the news.

    The report of the 2015 GMMP, which WACC coordinates, found clear evidence of prevailing sexism in the news media, including in emerging online and social media news channels.

    Analysis of content, representation and presentation in media output in over 100 countries demonstrated continued significant under-representation and mis-representation of women as news subjects and as professional journalists and presenters.

    “The fundamental problem is that so much of our news today does not reflect the world as it really is,” states Rev. Dr Karin Achtelstetter, WACC General Secretary.

    “When women are invisible as experts and opinion makers, when they are portrayed as victims, sexual objects or non-workers, when men are stereotyped in macho roles, it invariably shapes the mindset of societies that perpetuate stereotypes and inequalities and inhibits the full contribution women and men can make. Ending news media sexism will help everyone reach their full potential.”

    The 2015 GMMP report sets specific targets and recommendations for all those involved in setting and implementing professional journalism standards to promote good practice and significantly reduce sexist and misogynistic content.

    “Whether as editors, journalists, trainers, or audiences, we all can take steps to ensure that the news we read, watch and listen to reflects balanced, accurate and fair representation and provides the space for informed and truly democratic participation in society,” said Achtelstetter.

     

  • Buhari, women and Christianity

    Not a little has been said about President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged hatred for Christians and women during the campaign period prior to the 2015 general elections, which eventually brought him to office last May.

    Two of the political sentiments played up then were the claims that Buhari didn’t love Christians and that women will not play key roles in his government.

    No stone was left unturned by the then ruling and now opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to puncture any defence and explanation given by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to support Buhari’s genuine love for all Nigerians irrespective of gender and religion.

    All the propaganda that played out before the Presidential election are now history as Buhari has been on the saddle in the last ten months.

    But has Buhari since taking office office done anything to show that he was partial against women and Christians?

    A straight answer may not be given here, but the number of female ministers currently in his cabinet is six and it would have been expected that none will make the list based on his alleged hatred for them.

    Fifty percent of the female ministers are substantive ministers fully in charge of key ministries including Finance, Environment, and Women Affairs.

    Buhari has also appointed women to other positions with the latest being the appointment of Ibim Semenitari as Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa

    There is also no doubt that female appointees will get a good chunk of the soon-to-be announced board chairmen and members of government’s parastatals, agencies and commissions recently dissolved.

    A remark by the Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Gideon Samani, while representing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, at a public function late last year drew the anger of the Presidency when he claimed that there were low number of female ministerial nominees because Buhari was shy around women.

    The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, wasted no time in a press statement to disowned him as a SSA of the government and described the claim as ‘totally fallacious.’

    While stressing that his government will not relent until women are empowered in the country, Buhari, in the 2016 Budgetary allocations have also increased provisions for ministries having direct bearing on the lives of women.

    The President has also made greater emphasis on girl-child education in the country.

    Showing that Buhari has nothing against christianity in Nigeria, his appointments so far are fairly spread between the two major religions.

    In his cabinet, for instance, 19 out of the 37 ministers are Christians.

    The President again has received many Christian clergy men at the Presidential Villa in the last ten months including the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Rev. Father Frank Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, and Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan.

    To date, records have also shown that Buhari has only received christians on Christmas homage at his official residence since he became a democratically-elected President of Nigeria.

    Buhari, who is a Muslim, have not received Muslims on homage at the Presidential Villa as he was outside Abuja during the Eid-el-Kabir festival in September last year.

    With all these, how partial or impartial the President has been on the issue of women and Christianity is clear to all.

     

    Special treat for Turkish President

     

    The visit by the President of Turkey, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Nigeria last Wednesday is not one to be forgotten in a hurry.

    It has the highest delegation of a visiting President to Nigeria under the current dispensation.

    The visit also recorded unprecedented coverage for such presidential visits so far witnessed in the life of this administration.

    There was live broadcast of the Turkish president’s visit with two Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) outside broadcast vans deployed to the seat of government 24 hours before the visit.

    While Turkey also brought another smaller outside broadcast van to hook up with NTA and beam the visit’s proceedings to its citizens at home and other parts of the world, other interested local stations also had the opportunity to hook up with NTA.

    This privilege was hardly extended to any past visiting President to Nigeria.

    What was similar to the Turkish President’s visit was experienced under Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who gave the same treatment to the then visiting Russian President.

    This treatment was never given to any visiting President under immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Turkish President, like many others, was also honored with a grand presidential reception, military parade and 21 gun salute.

    Indications that the Turkish President’s visit was going to be special was seen when 175 rooms were booked at the Transcorp Hilton hotel in Abuja for the delegation prior to the arrival of the President at the hotel around 12 midnight on Tuesday.

    The Turkish President came to Nigeria with 150 businessmen and women towards investing in various sector of the Nigeria economy.

    While in Nigeria, the Turkish were very thorough as they left no security issues to chances.

    They ensured that one of the President’s chef, Huseyin Okatan cooked his meal while Turkish security men also followed and watch hotel staff when blending soup and doing other things relating to preparation of the meal.

    Another interesting thing is that they didn’t use the hotel’s water for their cooking throughout their stay in Nigeria. They used Eva bottled water for cooking.

     

  • Violence against women dominates stakeholders’ talks

    Violence against women dominates stakeholders’ talks

    Concerned with the increasing spate of violence against women, stakeholders, including the British Mission in Nigeria, civil society organisations and the media, are pushing for the enforcement of the provisions of Violence against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015. ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA reports

    Violence against women has seemingly become a daily occurrence in Nigeria. Victims who survive it have sordid tales to tell.

    Some violence against women take place within the victims’ homes, others occur in the public. Most times, the culprits go unpunished; a development which emboldens them to commit more of the crime.

    Described as the violation of women’s fundamental human rights, discrimination or violence against women include all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in physical, sexual, psychological or economic harms or suffering to women, including arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether or not it occurred in public or private life.

    Whenever there is civil war, insurgency, terrorism, sectarian crisis, robbery and other forms of violence, women are always at the receiving end; with many of them serving as sex slaves and instruments for bargaining.

    Nigeria, whose legal system is adapted from its colonial master, the Great Britain, has laws which prescribe punishment for perpetrators of such violence against women. However, it is believed that such laws are not well implemented to deter culprits.

    It is against this background that New Initiative for Social Development (NISD), a non-governmental Organisation (NGO), with the support of the British High Commission, organised a three-day workshop in

    Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, for stakeholders. It was aimed at creating awareness among the people and sensitise them to a new law enacted to reduce, if not eliminate violence against women in Nigeria.

    The civil society group won a big battle in the National Assembly with the passage of the Violence against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Bill by the Seventh Senate on May 5, last year and the signing of the Bill into law by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on May 24, last year.

    It is on record that the Bill had been in the National Assembly for 13 years before it was passed and assented to by ex-President Jonathan. Since its passage, not many Nigerians know that the VAPP Law exists for victims to defend their rights and for the offenders to be punished.

    The workshop was attended by the officials of the British High Commission in Nigeria, the Department for International Development (DFID), media practitioners from both print and electronic media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith-based organisations, association of women lawyers (FIDA) and security agencies, among other stakeholders.

    •Participants at the workshop
    •Participants at the workshop

    The participants came from the six Southwest states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti to brainstorm on ways to promote the VAPP Law, ensure its domestication in states where it has not been domesticated to ensure that future perpetrators of violence against women are brought to justice.

    The session for journalists was very interesting, lively and revealing as they shared experience on their reportage of various acts of violence meted out to the women folk and in-depth enlightenment on the VAPP Law.

    In his welcome address, the Executive Director of NISD, Mr. Abiodun Oyeleye, said his agency, with the support of the British High Commission, has produced and distributed over 1,000 copies of VAPP Law, trained 20 journalists in the Southwest states in order to understand the contents of the Law and enlighten the citizens on its import.

    He explained that the NGO has also trained 20 senior police officers on strategic ways of enforcing the law in each of the six Southwest states while it also planned to increase the capacity of 25 judges in the

    zone in in-depth interpretation of the Law.

    Oyeleye stressed that the passage of the VAPP Bill and its subsequent signing into Law now gives a legal teeth to the law which aimed at eliminating cases of sexual and other forms of discrimination and gender-based violence in the country.

    In her remarks, the Acting Southwest Regional Coordinator of DFID, Mrs. Margaret Fagboyo, noted that her agency supports governments at national and sub-national levels and civil society groups to help reduce poverty, support good governance and achieve sustainable development goals.

    She further explained that one of the critical success factors towards the achievement of these goals is a free and egalitarian society, devoid of any oppression, suppression, discrimination or violence that can prevent individuals or group of people from attaining their God-given potential.

    She said: “Unfortunately, the legal and judicial systems do not offer much protection against violence and abuse. The ugly trend is further accentuated by our culture of silence. It has been realised that in these instances, silence is never golden.

    “However, the situation is more complicated in our environment. While, for instance, rape carries a punishment of life imprisonment in Nigeria, the arduous process of proving rape, the pain and shame of reliving the experience, coupled with societal pressure to keep silent, victim-blaming and stigma, often discourage women from reporting sexual violence.

    “Until the passage of VAPP Bill, there were a handful of states in Nigeria with specific laws targeting domestic violence and abuse but there was no federal law specifically addressing the myriad of cases.

    “However, the content of the new law is tailored towards our environment, as it reflects the realities of domestic violence and discrimination in Nigeria at present. In addition, the law incorporates relevant provisions of international human rights laws and principles.

    “VAPP Law has been in place for over eight months now. How many people are aware of it? How many people have gained insights of its provisions? How many people have been charged under the law or conviction obtained?

    “Here comes the responsibility for the media. The media is recognised all over the world as agent of socialisation, which moulds morals, views and opinions of the society. It needs, therefore, to step in and begin the education process towards preventing and ending violence and abuse in our society.”

    In his keynote address, the representative of the British High Commission, Mr. Wale Adebajo, regretted that institutions in Nigeria are very weak in rising up to tackle the issue of sexual violence while the situation is further compounded by lack of political will and low capacity of actors.

    Adebajo, who is the Communication Manager and Political Adviser of the British Deputy High Commission in Lagos also expressed dismay that the VAPP Law has a challenge of low level of awareness among Nigerians; with citizens having no access to the law, including the justice sector stakeholders which makes it very difficult to enforce.

     

  • Women Are Not Beasts: A response to Olatunji Ololade ‘Beasts Of No Gender’

    We have too many women reading too much meaning into everything and agitating about anything, like the television commercial in which a joyous father of a newborn yells into his mobile phone’s mouthpiece; ‘Mama na boy o’. To them, such an advert constitutes an offensive patriarchal mindset.’

    ‘To be a feminist, if not a defect, is at least a fetish; like porn. The feminist is that woman who dulls down to an artificially created set of sexual-political sensibilities, in order to satisfy her emotional lust for being perpetually ‘oppressed’…like porn addicts, paedophiles, rapists and racists, such woman is an emotion junkie – infinitely handicapped yet propelled by her lust for unearned benefits…’

    And it goes on and on. There is a Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The first time I read this very troubling rant by Olatunji Ololade against feminists/women’s rights advocates was three or four years ago when it was serialized in The Nation, a leading national newspaper  in Nigeria. I think one of two things must have happened. First scenario – Olatunji probably got so many horrified responses from women, it gave him a serious high which took him a long time to come down from, hence the need for another shot of adrenaline. The second possibility is that he did not get enough  push back the first time, so he became emboldened and decided to up the ante. In the interim, Olatunji became an award-winning writer, receiving CNN Multi Choice African Journalist awards back to back, as well as other local ones. Of course we are always proud of our fellow country men and women when they bring home well deserved laurels, it is great to have something to celebrate about Nigerians other than news about us being perpetual scoundrels.

    After wincing and grimacing through the January 2016 version of what passes for Olatunji’s analysis of the state of gender relations and women’s rights activism in Nigeria, I have decided to raise a number of issues with him in the form of some unsolicited advice as follows:

    Olatunji needs to take his responsibilities as a leading journalist and writer in Nigeria more seriously. Research, analysis, reflection, empathy and empirical evidence are critical to any nuanced understanding of an issue as complex as feminism and gender relations. The quality of debate you have in private spaces is not the same as the one you place on the pages of a national newspaper – in all its three part, problematic glory.

    I advise our award winning brother to do more reading. The more writing you do, the more you have to read. Olatunji needs to read the work of Nigerian feminist thinkers such as Ifi Amadiume, Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, Bolanle Awe, Ayesha Imam, Ronke  Oyewunmi, Amina Mama, Bisi Aina, Simi Afonja to mention a few. He would also do well to look at what other African women such as Sara Longwe, Abena Busia, Sylvia Tamale, Awa Thiam, and so many others have to say. These women, alongside scores of others, have worked to produce a body of knowledge and thought on African feminist theory and practice. The summary of their definition of Feminism is one of a global struggle against all forms of patriarchal oppression. Their analysis includes not only a critique of white, western feminist hegemony, but also serves to create a unique space for the conceptualization and practicalisation of a feminism that resonates with the lived experiences  of every day African women. One of the greatest contributions of African feminist thought, has been its insistence on locating feminist discourse within Africa’s historical realities of slavery, colonialism, globalization and marginalization. In essence, you cannot talk about an empowered woman in Africa without liberating her entire community from poverty and lack of opportunities. This includes the men and boys in her life. Some of these women I mention are my teachers and mentors, some are peers, and they are all my friends.  Most of them are mothers, wives and grandmothers. I am sure none of us ever dreamt that a day would come when a privileged, educated African brother would liken us to ‘porn addicts, paedophiles, rapists and racists.’

    Mr. Ololade needs to broaden his analytical horizons. Patriarchy is real. It is not in our minds. It has never simply been about Men versus Women. It is about the use of male dominated institutions and structures such as politics, religion, education, economics, culture and tradition to create a universe in which one gender becomes superior to the other. Olatunji said women made a big deal out of a seemingly innocuous ‘Mama na boy ‘advert. Even his fellow men understand why the fuss was made. Let us call the new baby boy John. In some cultures, on the 8th day of his birth, a goat will be killed. If the baby is a Mary, they will kill a chicken for her. John will grow up to be the first to have a shot at education if his family is poor. Mary will have to learn how to be a good wife because that is where her career prospects will lie, if she is to lift her family out of poverty. Perhaps Ololade missed the drama we all witnessed,  approximately ten years ago, when a wealthy politician celebrated the first birthday of his first son after five daughters, with the gift of a Rolls Royce to the little boy. Yes, Olatunji, ‘Mama na boy’ means something.   (To be continued…)

    Mrs. Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a renowned feminist, women’s rights activist and wife to Minister of Solid Minerals,Kayode Fayemi.                       

     

    Re:Beasts of no gender…

    There is no gainsaying Mrs. Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and her peer raised valid points reflective of their politics in response to my serialised article, “Beasts of no gender.” However, I reiterate, like I stated in the first part of the article that it is not an attack on women but a condemnation of feminist-misandry, the desperate politics and towering monstrosity of man-haters pretending to be pro-women.

    Adeleye-Fayemi has since asserted that she deliberately feigned ignorance of the thrust of the article in order to score a point against the writer. She disclosed in subsequent conversation with the columnist that, while she is aware that certain self-confessed feminists pervert the cause of feminism by engaging in misandry, she needed the author to know that it was insensitive of him to generalise in his postulations which categorised progressive African feminists with misguided feminist-misandrists.

    I see nothing wrong with feminism without its blemishes just like I see nothing wrong in the patriarchy without its shortcomings. We are hierarchical animals. Sweep one hierarchy away and another will take its place. The feminist movement thus flagellates between its campaign for women’s rights and an insatiable lust to replace the patriarchy with matriarchy. This is understandable as nature fluorishes by hierarchies.

    But as there are hierarchies in nature, there are alternate hierarchies in society fostered by survival of the fittest. Nonetheless, in Nigeria’s patriarchal hierarchy, there are protections for the weak. We simply need to weaponise them against the vile in patriarchy. Nigeria evolves even as you read, to protect the interests of every human constituent, the vulnerable girl-child, boy-child and woman in particular. This is good news.

    I understand that no form of patriarchal stricture could vitiate or supplant the traditionally-vested roles of a woman as mother, wife, vessel of life, nurturer of character, provider and conscience of humanity. Thus the need to protect and seek an expansion of the rights of the female folk within the ambits of fairness and probity.

    This is one of the reasons I engage in crusade journalism. With total humility, I stress that, my CNN African journalism merit award for “This marriage will kill me – Tragedy of Nigeria’s child brides,” addressed the evils of female genital mutilation and Vesico Vagina Fistulae (VVF) on underage girls forced into marriage in northern Nigeria. Most of my award-winning stories addressed vile cultural practices and atrocities being perpetrated against the country’s vulnerable divide comprising women, the girl-child and boy-child in particular. There is need to highlight this fact at the backdrop of injudicious feminist rage at my serialised article.

    I understand that misandrists that fall in the bracket I likened to ‘porn addicts, paedophiles, rapists and racists’ and other emotion junkies would naturally pick a fight with me. I also appreciate Mrs. Adeleye-Fayemi’s maturity and brittle wit in all of these. Like most progressive feminists, she expressed her dissatisfaction like a mature human seeking to prick my emotive faculties. But many others, in juvenile fits of exuberance, sent hate messages and incoherent vitriol. The latter remain the bane of the feminist cause.

  • Women’s battle against endometriosis

    Some women go through hell during menstruation because of acute pain. Yet the underlying cause,  endometriosis, could be misdiagnosed. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA writes on when it is advisable to seek medical help and the options.

    About 10  percent of ovulating women have endometriosis, and it takes an average of 10 years to get an accurate diagnosis. Endometriosis is a painful condition, a disorder really, in which the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. Despite the prevalence of endometriosis, there is no cure and medical researchers can’t even explain why the disorder results in such horrible pain for many women.

    Pelvic pain, heavy period, infertility, pain in going to the toilet and painful sex are the five main symptoms of endometriosis.

    The first symptom which is pelvic pain is often accompanied by unusually heavy periods, irregular cycles, and bleeding between periods. Some women with the disorder also have diarrhoea during their periods. A person is considered to be at greater risk for developing endometriosis if they began menstruating at an especially young  age. Some women don’t get diagnosed until they struggle with pregnancy and seek medical guidance.

    According to the Medical Director (MD), Nordica Fertility Centre, Dr Abayomi Ajayi, endometriosis, a condition that occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the womb (uterus) grows in other areas of the body, is considered as one of the three major causes of female infertility as it creates scar tissue around the uterus and ovaries which can impede fertilisation. The disorder can also result in irregular ovulation,another potential roadblock. Thankfully, women who desire to become pregnant can find help through in-vitro fertilisation or hormone therapy. He said during the period, the woman may feel pain or intense discomfort while urinating or having a bowel movement.

    Dr Abayomi Ajayi, who is one of the very few who understands the condition and treats women, said by the design of nature, endometrial tissue grows mainly in the abdominal cavity but sometimes, they are found in some other areas outside the womb and behave as if they are in the womb. “By this I mean, when tissue similar to the lining of the womb is found elsewhere like in the ovaries, recto-vaginal septum, bladder, and even in the bowel. They then behave as if they are in the womb bleeding monthly (as in menstruation) and so cause various degree of pain from moderate to severe and even chronic in the affected woman”, said Dr Ajayi.

    Dr Ajayi a Consultant Gynaecologist who has close to three decades of practice said, “Endometriosis often affects women in their prime of life, however, it is not a lifestyle disease and it is not a disease you get later in life. So endometriosis can attack teens, young women when they should be out there being active, working, having children and having sex; 50 percent of them are struggling with sex because it is too painful. Although, endometriosis could be very painful and could progress with age, sometimes, some may not progress and could just ease off overtime.”

    He appealed to parents and guardians with women that experience any of the above to report to the hospital and request the doctor to examine the woman for endometriosis, as he said: “Breaking the silence has its components and first, we are tired of the 10- year wait to make a diagnosis of Endometriosis. A doctor must always be thinking about it and there must be equipment for him when he is making diagnosis of monthly pains in a female.

    “Secondly, emergency room services must be available to patients with endometriosis so they are no longer told it is a chronic disease and we cannot treat you in the emergency room. Thirdly, painful menses should no longer be taken as part of life. Everybody is to be aware that menses is not supposed to disturb a woman’s normal chores. The moment it is disturbing normal chores, you need to see a doctor and you should not rest until a diagnosis is made as to why your own menstrual pain is more than others. These are all what are being put out to end the silence on Endometriosis, said Ajayi.

    In his little way, Dr Ajayi is demystifying endometriosis as he has joined the international body on the disorder to observe yearly, World Endometriosis Week. And for this year’s a walk,it was held on Thursday February 18 in Abuja and another has been slated for March 5, in Lagos. Take-off point is Onikan Round About.

    As the world marks another Week, Dr Ajayi said the key thing needed to empower Nigerians and the medical world is to raise the level of awareness on the condition.

    “The Endometriosis Support Group Nigeria (ESGN) came into being in 2005 as a Non- Governmental Organisation with the sole aim of assisting women, both young and old who are challenged with the Endometriosis condition. And from inception, we have been at the forefront, actively lobbying for better outcomes, education and awareness and care, treatment options and support for these women affected with the endometriosis condition”, said Ajayi.

    According to Dr Ajayi, “The most important thing in breaking the silence of Endometriosis is to raise the level of awareness and empower the common person. I have begun to see a lot of doctors who are proud to say they have started making diagnosis of Endometriosis and that to me means a lot. It shows doctors are beginning to think a lot about endometriosis and we should never underestimate that achievement.”

    To ensure more medics come on board of accurate diagnosis, he has organised a Physician Round Table to discuss the condition and it holds at the Civic Centre on April 8, and a fund raising on April 9 to help in raising more consciousness among Nigerians on the condition that has compromised the quality of life and caused many women infertility.

    He desired that more medics also undergo training to treat endometriosis. “Honestly, the day a funding agency is set up for endometriosis, people will start treating the condition. But until then, we should hold government accountable for training and providing equipment in our hospitals. One of the problems we are having in Nigeria is paying lip service to Public-Private Partnership (PPP). In the health sector, I don’t think this is working because it is not an easy task to bring both together where the private is for profit and the public is for the masses. The orientations of the two sectors are so different and obviously, healthcare is no longer a social service and it would seemingly be impossible to marry both at the moment”, Ajayi said.

    He shed light on the treatment options, “Diagnosing endometriosis is through using an instrument called Laparoscope. It is a long, thin, rigid tube specially equipped with thin glass fibres along wih light travels to spotlight internal organs. A Laparoscope allows a doctor to visualise the abdomen and pelvis. Some other instruments used with the Laparoscope allow the doctor to make photographic records of the inside of the abdomen, obtain biopsies of tissue for laboratory analysis and removal of abnormal tissue. Laparoscopy is still not widely available in the country because it is still an expensive procedure and so its use is limited to a few clinics and experts. Besides, there is no funding agency for endometriosis yet and therefore, nobody seems to be interested in it.”

  • Strengthening women’s networks

    Strengthening women’s networks

    The need to build the capacity of women in businesses at the state and grassroots in the six geo political zone was stressed during the week at a training which took place at the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE).

    The trainings featured two workshops which ran for two days with each focussing on mobile technology and strengthening women’s businesses with participants from 18 associations under coalition of the Association of Nigerian Women Business Networks, ANWBN

    Mrs. Titi Adisa, the President of ANWBN, and two other resource persons from CIPE Washington office, Maiko Nakagaki and Laura Van Voorhees, took participants through the interactive training. Participants took turns to share experiences as well as talk about some issues they had done in the past and new ideas that revolve around advocacy, lobbying, having a long-term strategic plan, building alliances, identifying search options for polling, research work and surveys.

    For the mobile technology training, apart from the theoretical presentations, the participants were taught how to design survey questions. They also made use of SMS polling techniques as well as designed their own websites.

    The capacity-enhancing modules were designed to help the women’s organisations to be more visible and be able to develop messages that are impactful towards understanding the needs of their targets. In the presentation tagged Advocacy through ICT, Lauren Dawes explored ways participants can make use of ICT tools as well as registering a strong online presence and live polling.

    “It is important to understand the information that you need and this would determine the data that you are collecting. It is important to know the data required to increase your impact. To do this, you must ask the necessary questions to get the data needed.”

    Understanding the tools of technology, Lauren stressed, was important because it helps to understand the issues with data and makes communication with the different audience easier. “The SMS poll technology is for a broad audience and it is best used by people working in the field. You can also go about to do the door-to-door or quick poll. The SMS poll is limited to 300 responses per poll.” She adds that “for surveys, you need internet connections for response, you can have longer surveys here, brand and tailor them as well as add video and multi-media for effects.”

    On the second day of the mobile technology training, participants learned about MMS and web communication tools. “In Nigeria, about 154.3 million people make use of mobile subscription and of this figure only 3 per cent are post paid while about 97 per cent of the users are pre paid. Only 24 per cent of the users have data and these are usually users from the urban areas. It is therefore important to know the communities that we are communicating with and how best to reach them. It is also important to look out for ways to reach out to those who currently are not reached.”

    Engineer Jani Ibrahim, Vice Chairman NACCIMA, informed the women in attendance that the activities they were involved in were goods and it was important to remain focussed and consistent. “I believe that our women are enterprising, dedicated and can help us solve the myriad economic problems that we are faced with at the moment.”

    CIPE has supported business associations, civil society groups and think tanks in Nigeria for more than 25 years to strengthen the private sectors active participation in the democratic process.

  • ‘All over the world, women are now doing better than men’

    ‘All over the world, women are now doing better than men’

    Vivian Okereke is the managing director/chief executive officer of TransRoyal Courier, one of the leading Nigerian courier companies. she was the image maker of one of the leading oil servicing companies in Nigeria. Okereke has been managing the TransRoyal Courier since the demise of her husband in 2007. in this interview with gbenga aderanti, Okereke speaks on her style, why Nigeria is the best place to do business; her attitude business, among other issues

     

    At what point did you decide to do courier business?

    Actually, TransRoyal Courier Company was inaugurated on the 20th of March 1998 as a private company to run courier services. But we actually started operations 2nd of May 1998, some months after the incorporation.

    How was it when you started?

    It was good but quite challenging; we had a crop of people, people who had been long in courier industry, they had worked in international courier companies previously, we all came together to form TransRoyal Courier.

    People say business climate is hostile in Nigeria, how true is this talking from  your own experience?

    The business climate in Ni geria is not hostile. Yes we have challenges, just as we will have in any country or industry. In Nigeria, I will say, Nigeria being a strong market with large population, I always tell people that it is very easy to be an entrepreneur in Nigeria because there is hardly anything you decide to do that you won’t get people that will buy. Yes, even if it is pure water you want to sell in front of your house, you will have customers patronising you. Yes, we have a huge population; the market is there for anything you want to do.

    And coming to the industry itself, we are talking about the population of about 150-170 million in Nigeria, so to the courier industry, it is huge, a very very big industry, so the market is there for the courier industry. The only problem we have in Nigeria and why people say it is hostile is in the cases where we have multi-taxing by the government. We have issues of infrastructure; that it is not how it should be and then other challenges that are peculiar to African nation. But apart from that, if you have been in the industry long enough, you will be able to device means to surmount all these challenges and still manage to run your organisation.

    You are in a business where men seem to have an edge and feel superior, how have you been coping?

    Well, I think Nigeria has come of age and women in particular, I think everywhere, particularly in  African countries, African societies where women have been made to be under men, the women have been made to understand that they can’t do what a man can do but for a very long time now, women have really been showing that they can perform and even if you check in the world today, women are in better positions and they have been performing better than men. And back home in Nigeria, a lot of women have been doing very well, they occupy important positions. we have women ministers. I think the next stage we are getting to is to have a woman president and it will come to that; but for me it is not a matter of a man or woman, but an issue of performance, commitment,  dedication, hard work and these qualities God put in everybody, both male and female alike but it just depends on who decides to make the best use of the talents God has given to the person. that  is why you have women excelling, you have some men not excelling, you have women not excelling and you have some men not excelling, the choice is actually that of the individual.

    I want to excel, I want to make it, depending on where you are coming from, your background. To excel or make it in any profession, it is hard work, you have to be focused, you have to be organised, you have to be dedicated, you have to have vision, passion and you have to have zeal for what you are doing and if you have all these and you are committed to it and with God helping you, the sky is going to be the limit.

    Some of the international courier companies control the larger market of the courier business even when you have good indigenous courier companies in Nigeria, how come this is so?

    Yes, they do in the sense that they brought courier to Nigeria you know even though there had been local means of doing things but just like every other industry, they in the developed countries are the ones bringing it to developing countries. Courier started  in Nigeria from having DHL and UPS, a lot of us who own indigenous courier companies have worked in international courier companies and that is where we got our training and experience, that is what we have put in to run our own companies because Nigeria is our nation, we understand this terrain so we can do it better because if you look around in Nigeria, even with DHL and UPS, I don’t think you will see any white man delivering letters or driving any truck, so it is still done by Nigerians though it is an international company. so, we feel that here in Nigeria they cannot do better than us because we understand the terrain better, they cannot beat us.

    Some years back, we had so many Nigerian courier companies, suddenly they faded away, what could have caused this?

    There are a lot reasons why a lot of them have exited. One was the capital market crash. We had a rosy capital market some years back and that was what prompted the  emergence of so many courier companies, a lot of them were majorly distributing materials from capital market, so when you had capital market crash, it dwindled the market, definitely those focused on capital marketing operation had to exit. Secondly, to run a full-fledged courier company is capital intensive. it is not something everybody has been able to do. we in TransRoyal have a huge branch network, we have branches in every state capital, so you know it is capital intensive to do that. It also requires a lot of resources, structure, logistics and manpower. If you are not really to invest a lot of money in it, you may not be able to have it . If you don’t have capital available to you unlike in other developed countries, where you get loan from banks at a very comfortable interest rate but in Nigeria if you don’t have the capital to run a capital intensive business like this, it is going to be very difficult. These are the major challenges that made most indigenous courier companies to exit.

    What were you doing before TransRoyal Courier?

    Personally, I worked in a oil industry, I was a corporate affairs manager for Petrolog, an oil servicing company. So I worked with them first but I started this courier company with my late husband. he was the founder; he had been in courier business for long. the late sir Obiora Okeke, he was a guru; we started TransRoyal Courier together and he died in 2007 unfortunately through a fatal motor accident but the company had already been formed, we just continued.

    Did you have any training before the career switch?

    I’ve been to many trainings not courier trainings, like I said, I was in the oil industry, I’ve received lots of training both in Nigeria and overseas, training in management, on how to run a company with entrepreneurial skill. I had a lot of trainings in that so, I was in corporate affairs and corporate affairs in oil industry was more of meeting clients and marketing. So when we came together, he had had the experience and expertise of courier, I also had my own experience in admin and marketing, we teamed together, but over time running a courier industry, I had no choice but to get training and now I have experience in courier industry.

    Would you say you are fulfilled?

    Yes. I’m  very fulfilled, TransRoyal has gotten so far but we are not where we ought to be yet; we are aiming to get there and we will get there. But I’m very fulfilled. I really thank God for where we are today. When we were starting, we were renting a small apartment at Adelabu, Surulere, Lagos there we had the vision of taking this place to a bigger place and all over Nigeria, though I did not know how it was going to be done but that was our vision, but we had the passion to do it and we started, gradually  and today we are every where in Nigeria; today we are competing with the international courier companies by virtue of our location, by virtue of the staff, the work we do. I always tell people why pay so much money for the service you can get for a cheaper cost?

    What are the qualities you need to possess to be an entrepreneur in Nigeria?

    The qualities I believe you need to possess to be a successful entrepreneur, for me, the first quality is honesty, integrity; let your yes be yes, let people know you are someone they can trust. then you have to be hard working. like I always tell my workers, it is only a thief that will want to reap where he has not sown, you need to be hard working, you need to sow so that you can reap. many of us are too much in a hurry,  we want the money now now. there is a time to sow, there is a time to reap.  You need to be committed to what you are doing, even if it looks like it is not making a headway. Like I told you, TransRoyal was not this big when we started, it was a gradual process. if you hang in there, you have the belief in yourself, you have the belief in what you are doing whether good or bad. you hang in there, at a point in time, there will be a melting point when things become better. We have paid our dues, we have been here for 17 years. Great things start from small beginnings.

    How does your wardrobe look like?

    I’m a very simple person. You’ll find both traditional and English dresses. If I’m going for social functions, I go for traditional attire and if I’m going to work, I dress formally.

    How do you relax?

    I do attend ceremonies if I have to, if the person is close to me. How do I relax? I relax by going to the gym, go to the club. I’m a member of Ikoyi Club.

    What is that fashion item you can’t do without?

    There is no fashion item I can’t do without.

    Where do yo shop for what you wear?

    I shop overseas because I travel a lot, so I won’t have time to shop in Nigeria most of my shoppings are done overseas.

  • ‘How women can avoid depression’

    ‘How women can avoid depression’

    Ngozi Okafor is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and TV presenter. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she talks about women switching roles, how to cope with challenges and more. 

    Why are you passionate about women? It is an organisation that has compassion on women and the youths.

    Over the years, we have been helping to create awareness about the different opportunities available for our women, how they can maximise their potential as well as be efficient at home by nurturing children that are healthy and intelligent.

    If you look around now, you would find that there is a lot of tension in our society today. People are aggressive at the slightest provocation and you find more cases of violence. So women need to understand their environment as well as how they can thrive in a difficult society by learning a couple of ways to survive unemployment.

    Developing entrepreneurial skills in women and young people is very important because unemployment rates are on the increase. You can actually do something apart from working for somebody. First, you must know what you have a passion for, then we let them know that they must work for it to be successful. Also for a woman you must know how to carry yourself.

    All this has to do with your mindset. So, we work with our women and help them to transform their mindset. We help them to unlearn the things that they have been taught through the environment that they lived in while growing up. We tell them that they can make it and that they can reach their goal as a women.

    What is the essence of the connect programme?

    The essence of the connect programme is to bring women together. I want to say that so many people and so many women are already doing a lot. However, I would say that the effort is still not enough and we need to do much more. Most times, I looked at my own environment and found out that so many things and so many women are really being depressed because of the challenges that they are passing through in their marriages. I also looked at myself and asked what I should do.

    I have got to a stage where, spiritually, I have received messages concerning the kind of things that we pass through. Personally, when I am passing through certain stages, I advise myself and I often hear voices that would tell me the next step to take. Each time I take the next step and I am able to overcome, I see that the voice tells me, “you were able to overcome, I took you through this path because some other people are passing through same and that someone needs to talk to them.” You might not be able to hear the voice, everybody may not hear the voice but someone needs to reach them.

    So the essence of the connection is to bring women together, speak with them. I hope that the women who need to connect would therefore make use of the opportunities available. Interestingly, I have found that most women usually don’t connect with such people. They worry about so many things, especially things that border on self esteem.

    Instead of connecting with someone that can help, they would say: “She is a big woman, who knows she would not answer me when I greet her.” No matter your level in life, you must have it in your mind that you were created by God and He has a purpose for you. I also say that someone needs you and the person who needs you is someone who needs a cleaner. So no matter where you find yourself as a woman, you are very important. God cannot make all of us the same.

    Apart from the dialogue, how else do you interact with them?

    We have a website and a magazine online where we have people contribute to issues and certain things that are going on in the society. We want people to tell us what they are passing through and we are also planning to have a counselling session where we can meet people physically and talk to us. We want to encourage ourselves; I think it is not good to just sit and suffer when God has deposited your solution in someone, not just your pastor. Most times, what the pastor does is the spiritual thing but there are so many other things that need to be done. Here you can find solutions from those who have passed through some of the physical things and they can also help you.

    They have passed through it physically because God is trying to raise that person to be able to raise other people. I want us to always look at the physical and spiritual aspect. It is important to work on the physical, spiritual, psychological and emotional life. For instance, some women go to church from Monday to Sunday and say ‘God bless me’, what do you want him to bless, when you are not doing anything? Is He going to throw money from heaven or look for business for you to do? The bottom line is, don’t give up.

    What inspired the project?

    I have this concern for women and I have always had this concern. Maybe because I grew up in a good family where everything is organised, but when I heard people say certain things I used to wonder. It was later in life that I knew that every family is not as organised as I used to know it. I discovered that some people came from broken homes and some lost their parents early in life. Their life is not always wonderful and they pass through a lot. I also realised that sometimes, it is those other things that make them think the other way.

    I have great concerns for womanhood. Whenever I see a woman up there, it makes me happy. Conversely, when I see women down or depressed I am sad. I look at some people and I know that they have some gifts in them but they do not know. Someone actually needs to tell them, encourage them and make them rediscover themselves.

    For us, the most important thing is to open your eyes to opportunities, learn about how to develop themselves as well as be friends with people that can open doors for them. There is no point hanging around people who would take away from you instead of adding value to your life. I also believe that everything is possible and that there is always a way out of every problem. We need to be connected, we need to help ourselves and stand out in whatever we are doing. In addition, I would also want to stress that integrity is very crucial in whatever we do. For instance, if someone helps us and we do the wrong thing, then we may just close the door for someone else.

    If you had to advise Nigerian women, what would you tell them?

    As Nigerian women, I believe that we have a great role to play in the nation’s development. We have a lot of women who are talented and those who should mentor others. We don’t have to sit on the fence because there is so much to do. We just have to come out of our shell because God has given us potentialities and we are expected to use them to develop this nation. If you do not talk to your sister next door, if you do not help to build and develop her potentialities, then you have failed in your life’s journey.