Mrs. Ojo Akijide, a Nigerian business woman reiterates’ the difficult position of women in the fight against corruption but reaffirms the positive contribution of women in the fight against the ugly menace. She clearly states that a key step will be the involvement of more women who are educated, equipped and supported with necessary resources. Besides women are not as materialistic as men, hence the desire to embezzle public funds running into billions of Nigeria currency is difficult.

Her determination to bring about a change has pushed her beyond limits she never imagined, despite continued opposition to her work in the home front. To her any form of opposition is in principle because those who oppose her work are directly responsible for the destruction of the environment, privatizing the forest, public lands and disrespecting human rights.

As an environmentalist the first thing is to ensure that the right thing is done to protect the environment. This gave birth to the planting of trees several years ago. Some of the reasons, at the time was the reelection of her husband into public office. The realization of the huge problem Africa will face if its environment is not protected. There is no doubt that the resources available to the continent have made it susptible to conflicts, as access to the resources and its distribution continues to be a problem. Another reason is the attraction people from outside the continent have to the existing resources, resulting in exploitation quite often at the expense of the African people.

After the colonial period many African leaders changed positions with the colonial masters so Africa ended up with leaders who instead of exploiting the resources to the benefit of the people rather exploited the resources to their benefit accumulating resources quite often excluding large numbers of Africans either because of their ethnicity or political affiliations resulting in conflicts that have caused damage to the economies of the continent.

Her message, which the Norwegian Noble Committee recognized is that Africa, has a lot of resources, a rich continent that must use its resources to the benefit of its people. Africa has to ignore the system of governance to better manage the resources more responsibly and sustain ably for the benefit of Africa, only then would Africa preempt many of the reasons why she and its people are fighting.

Furthermore, Africans should have an obligation to plant trees to help the environment. If each person has a responsibility to plant at least ten trees, the environment is beautified and cooled. This ensures that our planet stays alive.

With the many challenges facing Africa such as poverty, dependence on primary resources is the norm as such majority use energy from the world therefore contributing to the emission of carbon monoxide, making it difficult for poor people to think of tomorrow. They worry more about survival and tomorrow never arises therefore it is the responsibility of the leaders to address the issue. But, a problem arises when leadership trivializes the environment, and then of course the rest of the environment does not care.

Scientists tell us that Africa has not contributed very much to the emission of green gases, nevertheless, because of Africa’s geotropically positioning within the tropics, poor technology in agriculture dependency is on the subsistence level as such agriculture tends to destroy the environment and bring very little yield. Examples are the encroachment of the Congo forest and National forest, because value is not added to the timber, many companies try to access it to sell at give away prices.

Desperate measures are needed within Africa to ensure that Africa appreciates and takes care of its environment. To counteract the negative impact of climate change, better methods must be adopted. Knowledge, skills, more technology and capital are needed.

However if African leaders open their eyes to understand the threat of climate change, a lot can be done to reduce its impact.

If everyone is involved in the planting of trees to protect the forests; investment in alternative sources of energy is a priority. Implementation of these factors will make a lot of capital available to Africa and Africa will follow in the path of fossil fuel and invest in other sources of energy like solar.

The Nigerian woman must recognize the fact that she has the potential to succeed. The society does not define her true worth. The subsisting issues which try to keep her down are numerous, but her desire to excel has seen her in recent times occupying sensitive positions. Truth be told, the Nigerian Woman is new in these positions as it takes a while for people to get into positions of authority but I must say that women who are into important positions like the finance minister etc in this country are doing quite well. That is not saying that a lot of them too, do not understand what the whole thing is about. Our worry is that women represent ing Nigeria in various public offices and I want to say it is not only a Nigerian experience , this is an experience that has being recorded everywhere not just in Africa because I read about a similar thing in the United Kingdom. We discover that because of not being grounded in gender issues, a lot of the women when they get into public offices do not really understand that besides the general issues there are women issues. If women do not take up their issues, who will take it up. This is a crucial point that women in positions have overlooked. Some of them because of lack of knowledge and understanding do not think it necessary to take up these issues, issues in the area of health, certain health issues are peculiar to women simply because they are women, an example is high maternal death rate in Nigeria; it is the second largest in the whole world.
These women get there and believe because she is either Minister of health or she is being elected by her constituency, her entire duty is about the whole community, so she starts talking probably about health clinics all over the place and never really talks about maternity, she is not asking questions on how the ugly situation can be erased, neither is she concerned as a woman to make sure this high maternal death rate is reduced. The truth is death arising from complications of pregnancy and childbirth is very common in the country. Rather, when you listen to them in parliament they are just rehearsing some of the issues that are quite general whereas women issues suffer.

Even in some cases when civil societies bring up a bill and it gets sponsors into parliament, you find the women are either scared or not very equipped to take up such issues. There is an example of the bill to demonstrate the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women in Nigeria. Nigeria rectified it as far back as 1985 when former President Ibrahim Babangida came into power. The chairperson of the women’s committee in the National Assembly was working on it, until she got to a point where she was overwhelmed by religious issues and she back peddled and up to now I do not think there has being any person bold enough to chairpion it. There was also the health bill, which Daisy Danjuma who was representing a senatorial district in Edo state took up. She was called all sorts of names; they called it the abortion bill. The whole thing was about women’s health rights, and it was actually meant to address the maternal death rate and other complications women face because they are on women and of course, she was alone. They were writings in the papers abusing her, saying she was promoting prostitution and abortion. The other women could not care less.
At the moment I can say there is an emphases on women participation but it is not just increasing the number of women in public offices, there is also the need to create awareness in them, to sensitize them on women issues because we know there are some gender sensitive men who will stand firmly and defend women issues and bills that concern women matters.
EDUCATION AND THE NIGERIAN WOMAN?
They are having the education and because of education, so many areas are being opened up for them because like in politics we have minimum education to qualify for any position that you want to aspire to. Having said that, I think that public office seems to be most glaring. On women economy, it is not improving even with education, and we think the education is somehow skewed because you see with science and technology; education is actually deteriorating in Nigeria because of traditional attitudes that say it is not for women. If it is deteriorating, it is more for women so at the end of the day you will find that it is not easy for women to get what you call decent work even though they are educated. So, their economy is going down because economic position is not commensurate with increase in education. Again, it has to do with the general economy of the country , at the end of the day men have a head start, they inherit property from their parents, they have many opportunities here and there, chronism and school matism which women lose by changing their last names. So men are still doing better.
We had hoped that 2011 political landscape for women would be better. Unfortunately, it is worse when compared to 2007 because we did not see a spectacular increase in the number of women participation in politics. At least at the national level and this is very sad because public office is where decisions are made about our lives and it is important women participate and their participation should reflect in whatever decisions are being taken
WHY WAS THIS SO?
Like I said earlier, women are not even familiar with women issues but the sad situation is the decreasing number of women actively involved in public office. The important issue at the end of the day is to give support to women in their aspirations particularly in the area of creating awareness. If I begin to talk about political parties in Nigeria, you will understand why women have no chance. For instance, the lack of democratic practices within political parties is an issue for concern. That dictatorship thrives in Nigerian political parties where this is supposed to be a democratic society (country) is sad, In any case, how do we run the political parties and how do we pick candidates. We have spoken about affirmative action because affirmative action has been practiced in other countries and we know by research that it is the fastest way to increase women participation in public offices but somehow in Nigeria there is a very serious opposition to it because in Nigeria, politics is a do or die matter. If you decide to give women whatever percentage, it means you have excluded men from there and the men are so desperate about this thing.
However, some discussions have been held with each party claiming that they do not charge women nomination fees, that they are generally favorable towards women. Women on the other hand prefer to pay the fees so they would be regarded as full-fledged members of the political parties that the fact that the political party says they should not pay this or that is quite patronizing. When the time comes they actually look to the side of the people who have been financing the political party so women who have been having things easy in quote, are not looked at as candidates. There are also issues of societal expectations why do they think a woman cannot be Governor or President for instance? The solution is women should be groomed from their political parties.
HOW FAVORABLE DISPOSED, ARE THE POLITICAL PARTIES TO FEMALE CANDIDATES THEN?
If you look at their manifesto, it is like every political party virtually promised that they would do something to empower women to enable them contest but we have not seen that. Parties have the usual practice of giving appointments here and there; women are not remembered so how do you empower them.
IN THE AREA OF ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT, HOW ARE WOMEN DOING?
In the area of economic empowerment, we took up promoting agriculture, export based agriculture and we took up cassava. Are women really involved in cassava export? We found out that women are mainly processors, they farm and they process into garri etc. We found that men are into the export of cassava and we did a research to find out if women are aware of the policy in cassava export. Unfortunately, they are not aware of it. Again, women are the people that plant cassava but the men are aware of the policy, so they buy the cassava from the women at ridiculously low prices and they export the cassava and make huge profits. So, the economy of the women has not improved even with the incentives on export agriculture.
Having worked with open society initiatives of West Africa on trade, women and gender trade particularly trade policies. The general idea is finding how responsive Nigerian women are and how they are profiting, benefitting from this policy. It is an ongoing process.

I was born in Warri, now in Delta state. I was a rather sickly child and did not get to school until I was almost seven in 1939. I enjoyed learning and I moved on quickly in class, though we did not have any Science teachers at my level so we could not do any science courses. I finished my primary school in Warri, and then attended secondary school in Queens College, Lagos and went to university college Ibadan. In those days going from one school to a higher institution depended on two things, one if your parents could afford it but quite important for the government schools if you could get there on scholarship because many parents could not afford it and Queens College was the only girls’ school. When I left Ibadan with an honor’s degree in mathematics, I taught at Ede for three years. Then I got a job at Vermont in the United States as a graduate assistant in mathematics. I taught for three years and for two years got my masters in education from there I was lucky I got a fellowship at the University of Chicago where I went in the summer of 1959 to start a course in comparative education but it was necessary to work part time in some colleges to put body and soul together. The University of Chicago was a big boost to me and it afforded me an opportunity to do a doctorate and then I carried out a research in the development of education in the late fifties.
Most important I aligned myself with the changes in the curriculum of mathematics in the United States. In the late fifties before I came back to Nigeria I carried out a research on methods of improving the teaching of mathematics. I eventually carried out the same experiment in Lagos. At the same time I worked with the African mathematics programme, Machechusts where every summer from 1963 on we wrote textbooks in mathematics and tried them out in schools.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA TODAY?
In 1969, we went into deep discussions on the state of schools in Nigeria. Some of us who had been abroad and had experienced another system of education felt that many of us where privileged to have had parents who could pay for our school fees and had gone to secondary school because then the secondary schools were geared only for those who would get a degree and go on to white collar jobs in future. At about that time, the issue that secondary and primary education should be free to many people if possible began to take root, so we started working on a policy of education for Nigeria. It took some time but the ministry of education was keen on building up a philosophy of education for Nigeria and what came out of it was that we must have primary education that was useful for everybody at the primary school level.
We must remember as much as that was possible, at least 40% of the children should go into secondary school. In some areas in the western region of course it was more. but we now saw the curriculum as providing not just for the grammar school type as we had copied in the colonial days but the comprehensive type of education as in the United States and that was what we recommended, that we should have two layers of school, what you might call a junior school, the first three years of education at the secondary level where there was options especially in practical work to do secretarial work, to do home economics, to do carpentry but above all to make sure we that we could train artisans and we could learn to be artisans, all of us and then after that you could have those who would go into technical education, those who could go into more education, that would lead one into the university but many people who could have a general education and could perhaps not go on into higher education immediately but there would be room in future to go on to higher education but many of us wanted to go into teaching but the changes that where taking place in Nigeria at the time did not allow many of the changes that we had envisaged to take place.
For instance our technical section was very weak , we did not build technical schools and our science areas were not so bad so most people felt it was necessary to have every person who had school certificate to have five, six areas which must constitute English, mathematics and a Nigerian language. After that you could have three other areas that would enable you go into any of the professions, In our grammar schools then we had work in physics, chemistry and biology but we did not have areas where people could go into technical work, into carpentry etc. that was directed mainly at practical education and physical education that would make sure that we could apply our hands as well as learn our theories. It became a bit of a letdown because even though many countries helped us we did not emphasize sufficiently teacher education in these areas. Even with one good example we had in the late fifties and sixties, a comprehensive school set up by Ford foundation at Aiyetoro in Ogun state, we did not build up on this and so it has become a recurring decimal.
We have people who are ready to go to school but we do not have teachers’ sufficiently in science and technology and it has bothered us all along. So, this is a major problem; we have in our educational system. Though, many of our teachers are still very good, however when you consider that we are all going to the same market, given the position of our teaching and perhaps our inability to comprehend that it was necessary to review the position of the teacher’, salary wise and benefits wise etc. we lost a lot of people.
For instance, when I was finishing school it was a pride and joy to go into teaching, the difference between what you got in the teaching profession and what was outside was not so great but ten years after it was quite a bit and in addition we had not built our polythenics as much as we should have done. So it was not a question that our teachers were not good, it was a question that the people going into education, we could not get the cream of the lot because there were other more useful , more newer areas, more challenges outside of education, very soon the medical profession was beginning to feel the heat.

THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION RECENTLY SAID OVER TEN MILLION CHILDREN ARE NOT IN SCHOOL, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM HERE?
Several, they are not in school because their parents are not wealthy enough to send them to school. They work with their parents at home, so the parents do not feel the need to send them to school. Second, if you say you have a free and compulsory education then you must have an arm that actually makes it compulsory. We cannot afford that arm we need more people to actually teach and we have not got enough of them. Then of course there has been a lot of discussion as to the disparity between those who have gone into some industries and have become quite wealthy as opposed to people who have not done so and the disparity is getting greater. Again, we have a lot of private schools, very well set up where if you cannot get your children admitted into the unity schools then you can get your children into these schools and this has been a major problem in our education. Well I should not say a major problem; it is a way that is open for people who can afford it to go into private education, private schools. However I have not done the research, I cannot afford to do it, although I would like to do it, there is a feeling that that a large number of the private schools are not as good as they tend to suggest and we ought to do something about ensuring that the standards are upheld in these schools. Whatever it is you can see that even with the government schools expanding and the private schools burgeoning with private initiative helping in various government schools, the schools show a large number of pupils who cannot get the basic five subjects, get five credits in five subjects that is one step towards getting into a good tertiary institution

AS THE FIRST FEMALE VICE CHANCELLOR NOT ONLY IN NIGERIA BUT IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA WHAT WAS IT LIKE?
Mixed, very challenging to get the position and right from the start I had this feeling that I had to show that women could occupy positions where responsibly you take decisions that are good for everybody and that in a military regime of course, it is a different thing where you get a situation where there are strikes in your university everyday but I had quite many years in Nigeria as a university teacher before I got the position, twenty years in Lagos, two years in Ibadan, ten of that I had been director, institute of education where I had managed a substantial unit that was interested in working with the university and getting a good douse of relationship with the teachers colleges.
Therefore, at the University of Benin, I saw a bigger base, diversities of teachers, diversities of subjects in various areas and the university had quite a number of faculties. We had medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, social sciences, the arts, the humanities, creative arts etc. At the same time we had other challenges like the number of students who could be admitted into the university every year because we had no space. There were opportunities for the university at that time to start part time courses and we took advantage of that quite well. There were two major areas I concentrated in, in terms of part time courses; one was part time in business administration where we had classes set up Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Young men and women with first degrees in any area working in various industrial sectors could come in and work towards a master’s degree in business administration. To start with we had to fund it ourselves and we managed to do that.
There was another challenge, one I had always had in mind that young men were needed who had sometimes not a first degree in law and with most of the changes coming in after the colonial period, you needed people who understood the law, understood the law that pertained to business , that pertained to financial institutions, pertained to growth and if you needed such people faculty of law producing 30 lawyers a year, even 60 lawyers was not enough so the other area I went into was part time studies in first degree law and that was most welcome

TELL US ABOUT EDUCATION IN RELATION TO THE GIRL CHILD IN NIGERIA?
At the University of Benin if we could get 20-30% of the students in the universities as girls it would be a move forward and at one time given the part time courses, the diploma courses in education, post graduate diploma courses also in education we came near to it. I think we were approaching a place where we had as many as 30% of the students as females, girls in the university. I don’t think this was good enough because if you look at the distribution you would find girls where mainly in the arts and in the humanities. We were increasing the number in law but we were not getting the same increment in the sciences and medicine but even in medicine we were making progress.
Later on, there were many more girls coming into medicine, parents were bringing their daughters hoping they would pass and they were passing, they were doing well in their courses so this was a cause of satisfaction to me. It was a cause of satisfaction because you know when you look at the hindrances that make it not possible for the girl child you find quite a number socially we have hindrances, politically we have hindrances, religious wise we have hindrances but mostly economically we have hindrances. The girl child is the best helper in the house and where the mother is a trader she is going to be the stay for her mother to make more money and if she is off to school then there is an economic problem. Many women seeing living examples of a university vice chancellor as a woman, university women lecturers, would now make the sacrifice. If this is the one thing I have to do, I would do it, my daughter will go to school and I will make sure she goes to the university and this was a rather difficult time for Nigeria, It was the era of SAP (structural adjustment programme) with all this, we did make progress.
Though, I can’t say this without coming back to the fact that all over Africa, women were beginning to feel that the question of girl child education was not being properly tackled and in 1992 the year I finally left the university, the African ministers of education were meeting with their male counterparts in mash ester in the United Kingdom, at the meeting they listened to the men talking about girl education, education generally and they felt that the men did not understand the problems of the girl child so they came out and decided, five of them, none from Nigeria and said No! We have to meet and see what we can do about the girl child and so they set up an organization known as the forum for African women educationalists. Starting with five ministers, pretty soon that same year joined by two female vice chancellors from Africa, Prof. Makubu from Swaziland and myself.
We started in earnest, pushing the organization forward, each of us had a task to go back to our countries and build up. In Nigeria, a large country with a large population we introduced it, particularly where women were interested, something would be done. Quite often too, it meant that in parts of Nigeria we had 80% girls in schools, in other parts of Nigeria we didn’t have. It was slow but steady and the organization helped us. We had enormous help from the United Nations; we built up the forum for African women Educationalists. This we also did at the university of Benin and many more girls where in schools and today you can still see that surfacing and it is going more and more into the northern parts of our country, where particular example is being paid to the girl child because the disabilities and the challenges she has in going to school are a lot more complex than the challenges the boy child has. Many of our families accept that the boy must go to school but it is not quite the same as the girl because they see the future of the girl that by 15 she should be married, luckily we are not doing that in Nigeria

HAVING BEING INVOLVED WITH SO MANY PROJECTS, HOW DID IT REALLY COME TOGETHER FOR YOU?
Well, first and foremost my mother did not give me a second place in the family because I was a woman. She got my brothers into schools and got me into schools. Another thing was the female influences from the girls’ government school I attended. That was especially useful because in this girl’s school you saw girls from different parts of Nigeria in school. We did not speak what was referred to then as the indigenous languages, you came to school and everyone spoke English except in your lessons were you were learning Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. The language of exchange was English and that was to put us all on the same level. I think that was good and we had some teachers that were good. Like I said the policy in education then was female teachers in female schools.
WHO WERE YOUR INFLUENCES BACK THEN?
There were some Nigerians who had a lot of influences on me, just looking at them and knowing what they had achieved was very important to me My mother took me to lady Ademola, she was not lady Ademola then, she was Mrs. Ademola inWarri when I was a little girl but when I came to Lagos I met her as lady Ademola, Mrs. jibowu, Mrs.Doherthy and women of her type taught music, mathematics and religious studies and they were exemplary. They worked hard they were all married. The English teachers were very good, they upheld discipline and somehow you felt that being in school you didn’t but emulate these characteristics of discipline, hard work, fairplay using your time well, distributing your time between sports and learning and hoping and achieving and looking forward to doing more things. Then we had Mrs. Hobson, who was principal of my school and Dr. Whitiker, also principal of Queens College when I was in form two. They were both women of high quality characterized by smiles and hard work. You could see direction in what they did; you could see they wanted to increase the population of the schools. There were constraints but they must have worked hard to ensure the constraints were eased by the colonial government. So in my time at Queens College, a small school but by the time I left it was quite a large school. Lady Abayomi was an example too; she had a boarding house where people from other parts of Nigeria could stay.

WHEN YOU LEFT SCHOOL WHAT FOLLOWED?
By the time I came back to Queens College following the mode of administration at the time we had regional governments so we had queens school in every regional area. Queens in the North, West, East, and one in Lagos. They existed before the unity schools and they still are the same sex schools today. Those in authority, felt that especially after the World War 2 that something had to be done for the girls in Nigeria because people were talking about independence as such they would need partners, if they needed partners this was a ready pool to choose partners.
HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN DIFFERENT PROJECTS OVER THE YEARS WHAT HAS GIVEN YOU THE MOST FULFILMENT?
It is rather difficult to say , in the sixties I was head over heels in love with modern mathematics and I thought every teacher must also provide spare time for us to have at least one workshop(seminar) lasting two weeks every three months so that the teachers would be well involved in this. With the African mathematics programme that I told you about it was easy for me because it dovetailed into my work, I could write and this was a great benefit to the community. It also was of great benefit to me because that was how I got my professorship. I thought this was the end of the world. Then a little later I became director of the institute of education, university of Lagos, and I said to myself am I not being selfish we have to spread this, science is badly taught and at that time in 1988, I think when we first thought of the first organization for women in science. This was important because we knew we had to do something for women in science. At the same time we did not have women in science to help us but there were other areas that where important, for instance early childhood education, one thing was happening , the young men who went through these classes got the basic ideas in mathematics and improved their way of teaching mathematics and left. They improved themselves and we lost them to education. However the older women were not lost, but the older women wanted to retire to something. I thought I was making progress. What I am trying to say is, each phase has had a particular excitement for me. This was a boost to teacher education at the same time Lagos for instance was upgrading it teachers training colleges. What was Bendel state then was starting teachers colleges, I happened to have being the chairman of council for one of the colleges and later on for all of the leaders there. So teacher education was most important to me.

There was another area again concerning women, in the civil service, as a typist when you get to a particular level you can’t go any further, level seven I think it used to be and only few people get there except you are a graduate so to have women who learnt to use the computers, you could not choose them all without putting the men. Again, we put the young men and women to learn to use the computers. If you had a group of say ten of which four were women and six were young men. The six young men would disappear within three months, the banks took them from us but the women would continue, so something to be said for training the middle aged woman who has children of secondary school level and many of them were not ashamed, they braced themselves up and went to the university and got a first degree, went into computers, they were a different breed altogether. This was a step forward and as far as I could see, it was the height of my career.
WHAT KIND OF BOOKS DO YOU READ?
THE books that talk about character, the books we read in school, 19th century novels, Georgetta hayett, I still read those books. Today, I read anything I find my daughters reading but I can’t remember their names. I also try some of the modern author’s men and women it does not matter.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?
Oh! I don’t have very much, well, I don’t know if can call this a hobby but having worked with NGO’S in the spread of mathematics and the spread of better treatment in early childhood education, changing the policy there and so forth. At the moment we have a project we refer to as city prompt academy, a few of us old women are involved, all teachers, former teachers and administrators. There are lots of poor children in school who cannot have very much to do after school as far as learning is concerned so we started this two hours of working, getting some teachers to work with them and the whole idea is to do a bit more mathematics with communication, reading spelling and writing English and we have done this now since 2007.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?
I like to be remembered for the work I have done in mathematics I have written books. I still can teach if I am called at a moment’s notice, Pre University teaching. I only taught at the university up to the second year because my work was in the teaching of mathematics than in pure mathematics. It is a bit hard to say because each time I have worked with girls and with women I have found them exciting I have found them ready to go the extra mile and it is always a great pleasure for me when more women are breaking the glass ceiling because as you learn more, you may not remember the bits and pieces of mathematics you learned but when you have built up your character, you have a clear understanding of what can be done and what should not be done and that builds up your character . If you face any other challenges you know how to go about it. Once you can do that for any other human being I think you should be extra grateful to God that you have had such an opportunity.
LOOKING BACK, DO YOU HAVE REGRETS?
NO, NO, NO, I lost my husband almost two years ago. We were a bit separated before he died, separated about twenty years or so before he died, but we were good friends. The children are doing well. God has been faithful. I have ten grandchildren.

 In Nigeria, it is generally accepted that women should accept whatever situation is ongoing in the home and if she cannot, then the problem, whatever it may be lies with her. Mrs. Akin lost her four month pregnancy when her husband kicked and beat her. The sad part of her story is she refuses to press charges as her main concern is keeping her home. She had another baby four years later, though the doctors never linked the delay in getting pregnant to the abuse. One can safely draw conclusions. Recently, The Punch’s editorial of April 15. 2011 carried the story of a monarch who allegedly raped a youth corper. Many found it strange that she actually reported the case. The fact is many women are suffering silently. The stigma attached to such cases says a lot about the need for a re-education and re-orientation.  I spoke with Mr. Owolabi on what he thought about the monarch raping a youth corper. He shrugged his shoulders saying the lady was simply lying to get attention, that she must have wanted it.

Four years ago, May 2007, the Lagos State government passed a law into place “The Domestic Violence Law”. The law which is in place to assist women and men in the society is largely unknown by the general public. The law was enacted by the government due to high prevalence of domestic violence. So, what is Domestic Violence? The Oxford dictionary defines it as violence or physical abuse directed toward your spouse or domestic partner; usually violence by men against women.  As defined by law it is the use of force to cause physical injury, harm or damage within the home. Acts such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse all fall under this category. However the act of domestic violence cuts across all strata’s of the society, a person’s social class does not exclude violence in the home. Statistics have shown that it does not respect religion, culture or tradition.

In 2001, a survey was conducted by Project alert on violence against women; interviews were conducted with women working in markets, women in other work places and with girls and young women in secondary schools. They were asked about physical abuse in the family, rape and reporting incidents of violence in Lagos state. 64.4 percent of the 45 women interviewed said they had been beaten by a partner, boyfriend or husband. 56.2 percent of 48 market women interviewed had experienced the same type of violence.

Amnesty international says the government of Nigeria is partly responsible for this “shocking numbers”, because they are doing nothing about addressing the problem. The issue is women are faced with the cultural factor, keeping silent rather than voicing their problems because of the stigma attached to such behaviors. Paramount is the Police who say it is not a problem as it is our culture.  So, considering that the society condones the behavior, women in Nigeria would continue to endure the torture of suffering silently.

Women are beautiful and should be treated as such. Therefore as women our voices must be heard to ensure that this ugly trend is curbed, measures must be put in place to effectively target these attitudes. To do one’s duty is to eat the prized fruit of honour.

Tamasin Ford

Culled from IPS News

March 8th every year, women all over the world celebrate and are celebrated. This years’ theme is ‘Equal rights, Equal opportunities, an idea central to the general empowerment of women. The day should particularly shed light on how far women have come since 1975 when they were first celebrated at the first International Women’s day organised by the United Nations. Thus far women have achieved a lot and done quite a lot to earn their place and respect.  That a day is set aside to celebrate women irrespective of their colouring is a noble gesture because women are victimised, discriminated, intimidated against everyday.

So, women coming together under a platform to adderess these myriad of issues will continuously move women forward and empower them to rise above economic pressure, ignorance and  illiteracy that sometimes affect them.

In Nigeria, women realise they have achieved a lot and much more could be done to empower them to attain their potential. Mrs Atta, a trader says it is a day worth celebrating as women play crucial roles in their families and countries. Besides, if women are given more opportunities they can do more. She says she has worked hard all her life and believes more could be done to empower women.

In Uganda women’s rights activists say equal rights for women are Non existent, Mothers still suffer and deliver babies on the floor.  According to Wangari Maathai, a 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and founding member of the Nobel Women’s Initiative “For years, we have been hearing African leaders calling for African solutions to African problems. And for many years, we have been waiting to see our leaders rise to the occasion and demonstrate strong leadership to resolve the many conflicts that are plaguing our continent. She was speaking at a

Maybe it’s time African women take the bull by the horns and rise and shine, articulate their problems and proffer solutions to them.  According to UNESCO, the gender divide world wide is one of the most significant inequalities within the digital divide, and it cuts across all social and income groups, of the 774 million adults who cannot read, two-thirds are women. Women make up only one-quarter of the world’s researchers.
And of the world’s one billion poorest people, three-fifths are women and girls.

Nike Okundaye is one of Nigeria’s prominent Art ambassadors, having taken Nigerian Art and forms to all parts of the world.

With the death of her mother at just six, Nike was brought up by her Grandmother who started teaching her the art of weaving, a traditional practice of the family for generations.  Originally, from Kogi state, the Northern part of Nigeria, she spent her early years in Oshogbo, a town very well known for its Art and cultural heritage.  In this environment, her natural flair for art was nurtured, eventually becoming a product of the Oshogbo Art School where she had the opportunity of working with Susan Winger who became her artistic mother.

HOW DID IT ALL COME TOGETHER FOR YOU?

I began the Nike centre for arts and culture based in Oshogbo in 1983. It was set up with about twenty girls randomly picked from the streets. These girls had been on the streets with no tangible means of sustenance, I was drawn to them because they reminded me of my early situation when I was married to a man with 15 wives. Particularly, because I knew they were vulnerable to danger and in need of my assistance for survival.

 HOW DID YOUR WORK WITH TRAFFICKED WOMEN BEGIN?

That was much later. I was contacted by the Italian government to come over and organise workshops and train young Nigerian women on the importance of using their hands to earn a living through arts rather than selling their bodies. My focus at the time was textile arts, which I believe adequately, empowers women to be self-reliant.

OVER THE YEARS YOU HAVE IMMERSED YOURSELF IN DIFFERENT ART FORMS, HOW DID THE DIVERSITY COME ABOUT?

It is inborn. The diversity in the arts creates many forms and clarifications, but the essential point is realising that an artist is always an artist.  I believe artists for some reason tend to focus on areas that appeal to them. In my case, my love was for textile and of course, our peculiar setting, makes textile art more akin to women. I used to weave but you will rarely find me in front of the loom today, because of my busy schedule. All I do now is to show slides of my work.

RELIGION AND ART IN AFRICA ARE BOTH CONFLICTING SUBJECTS, HOW DO YOU RELATE TO BOTH?

Some Nigerians visit the gallery – Mostly Christians and they go away saying most of our works are demon possessed. This idea is simply preposterous, besides
 creating art either by moulding or carving is not the same as worshiping these Images. The Bible is clear about this; it says we should not make graven images for the purpose of worship. I put the blame on the doorstep of the colonial masters who did not want our culture to thrive; this is why art is not valued today. It is unfortunately affecting a large number of people in our society today.

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THE NEGATIVITY THEN?

I tell them they are ill informed. It is sad that the Bible has been misunderstood. Pastors who discourage the use of artworks surprisingly come to gallery to sell artworks, art works they have instructed people to throw away.

NIGERIAN ART – WHERE IS IT TODAY?

People tend to forget that the world began with the Arts. We had a major set back in Africa during the colonial times, because the colonial masters tried to kill our customs and traditions. They called it fetish, backward and devilish. Unfortunately, our parents grew up believing that, and passed this doctrine on to their children. Parents preferred to have their children study Medicine or law at school directly killing the need for tradition and customs to be preserved. This is what has caused the problem of the Arts in Nigeria today.

It should be our Nationalistic interest to see that our culture does not die. The youths prefer the European clothes to our traditional attires, everything has become westernised, the way we sing, eat, dance and talk does not reflect our culture. Our tradition is slowly being killed and completely being altered. An example is my daughter who neither pronounces nor understands the meaning of her father’s native name. Are we going to continue like this?  The youths should learn early enough the essence of culture and its practices.

HOW WIDELY ACCEPTED IS YOUR WORK IN NIGERIA?

My work is a guiding tool at schools and Universities in the country.

YOU ARE INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPTED AND SOMETIMES NOT APPRECIATED IN NIGERIA, HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THIS?

There is a girl visiting from a University in Canada, currently going on a tour of Nike’s centres in other parts of the country, she is here to understudy me. On the other hand, Nigerians rarely come to the centre to study my work. This is because Nigerians do not view art as a way of life. Ninety –nine percent of those who visit the gallery are foreigners.

 One reason is that the Nigerian government and leaders have not given art its true meaning and place. Let me give you an illustration, gold will be valued at any bank in the country but if you take an artwork for valuation, the opposite is the case. The government has not been able to build an intrinsic value to art to enable it achieve it is proper position in our economy. However, the interest is growing which is why books focussing on traditional art are presently been published.

HOW CAN ONE GENERATE THE AWARENESS?

The Federal government recently created a ministry of Arts, culture and tourism and a directorate of national arts. Now, that we have these agencies and ministries, it is now left for the officials to create public awareness highlighting the importance of art and  culture, run workshops for schools, all kind of things that relate to arts and culture so our children understand that these are important tools of driving our economy. Also, organise trips to villages to learn how we danced, plaited our hair and carved wood.  Also, empower women in the rural areas to teach children these traditional practices. Finally, enact a law that will accept art as a veritable means of exchange, while putting checks and balances in place.

MANY HAVE ATTRIBUTED FESTAC 1977 AS THE BEGINNING OF NIGERIAN’S WOES.

I do not believe this. The festival was a bold attempt by the government of Africa to exhibit the culture of its people. The initiator of that festival did not say that the festival of arts should die a natural death. It was to be a tool of revamping our own tradition and to create awareness. A follow up should have taken place and an organ in place at the time to ensure continuity

WHAT WORD BEST DESCRIBES YOUR WORK?

The best, my work is the best, whether on oil, brush, batik form or on the canvass. My works all show life in its totality.