Whilst we are still on the subject of countervailing religious identities and their impact on postcolonial politics in Nigeria, it is meet to report on developments in other departments. Arriving very late due to an epic traffic gridlock to a meeting of Yoruba cognoscenti somewhere in Ikoyi penultimate Saturday yours sincerely found himself immediately raising some awkward posers.
The gathering of elders was convened to harmonize and streamline Yoruba position in the light of the unfolding Babel. But to our consternation, no woman was deemed as worthy of being invited. Is this how it is going to be in the putative Oduduwa Republic or in a fully restructured and decentralized Nigeria? This is not a moot point, particularly in a world in which gifted women are seizing the commanding heights of politics.
Upon snooper’s objection, our host, a suave and urbane banking plutocrat, noted that someone had earlier raised the same point, but a former gubernatorial ogbologbo shot him down by insisting that the merit of the objection notwithstanding, a conclave of Yoruba elders is always meant for men.
Oh dear, oh dear! This reminds us of a famous scene out of Things Fall Apart when a fellow who had neither taken the requisite titles nor could boast of barns overflowing with yam tubers began punching above his weight at a meeting. The hero of the novel cut him short and bellowed: “This meeting is for men!”
But while Okonkwo’s fearsome haughtiness was a reflection of a self –made man whose rise to stardom was facilitated by the fluid republican ethos of the Igbo society, our man’s riposte is the product of an enduring feudal patriarchy and gendered prejudices in the Yoruba world.
Yet the point of convergence is that any society ruled more by brawns than by brains is likely to make a short shrift of female puny efforts or reduce women to spiritual duties. We have not heard the last about countervailing identities as we move towards the full emancipation of Nigeria.