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Thursday, May 8, 2014
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Cost of motherhood in Nigeria CRITICAL STROKES
KAYODE
KETEFE
kketefe@nationalmirroronline.net 08032147720 (SMS only)
A
nother unsavoury report has just been published about Nigeria last Monday to add to the ever-growing unpalatable reports on the appalling standards of life in the country. This time it is by Save the Children International, a Londonbased non-governmental organisation. The report placed Nigeria as the eighth worst place on earth to be a mother. Nigeria occupies the unenviable 171st position out of 178 countries rated! She outshines SierraLeone,(172), Central African Republic(173), Guinea Bissau(174), Niger (175), Mali (176) and DR Congo(177). Somalia brought up the rear as the worst place in the world to be mother with its shameful 178th position. On the other hand, Finland is adjudged the best place to be a mother, followed by Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands. Other top countries where motherhood could be a pleasant experience include Denmark (6), Spain (7), Germany (8), Australia (9) and Belgium (10). Specific criteria that were used for the rating are maternal health, child mortality, education and
levels of women’s income and political status. Commenting on the report, the Save the Children International’s chief executive, Jasmine Whitbread, was quoted as saying: “Ending preventable deaths of mothers and children will not be possible until fragile countries become more stable and health care more accessible.” It is not surprising that the African countries inevitably occupy the lowest rungs of the rating ladder in this assessment as they always do on any rating based on human development indices. Our continent is a place of famine, incessant internecine wars, political instability, poverty etc. Save the Children International, further stated that 800 mothers and 18,000 young children die worldwide every single day from preventable causes with sub-Saharan African countries accounting for majority of these tragedies. In Nigeria’s case, it should be obvious to anyone living here that we could not have fetched any fantastic rating when the quality of life of our women is the criterion. While it is a truism that life for the masses is hellish and brutish, it is even worse for the womenfolk with our entrenched biases and discrimination against women. Our maternal mortality rate is still one of the highest in the world. Our society thrives on a lot of harmful cultural practices inimical to the girl-child and women like child-marriage, affirmative male-child preference and denial of education to female children. Many of our laws like anti-domestic violence laws and Child Rights Act are poorly enforced, while the international benchmark of the 25 per cent affirmative action
…SOCIETIES WHERE THE CULTURE OF
ANDROGYNY (THAT IS EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR BOTH SEXES) IS WELL-ENTRENCHED
ARE MORE ADVANCED AND PROSPEROUS THAN SOCIETIES THAT ARE REPRESSIVE AND EXPLOITATIVE OF WOMEN in appointment to public offices are mostly disregarded. While some progress has been made in the area of improved employment opportunity for women, there is still an appreciable degree of discrimination against women in the workplace. 0ver 90 per cent of the Chief Executive Officers of Nigeria’s top 100 companies are men. In the political front, women have not fared better; all what we have is snail’s speed progress. Ironically, our most important document, the 1999 Constitution itself contains some provisions that are gender-biased. An example of explicit gender biased provisions could be gleaned from its sections 26 and 29, which make differential provisions for both men and women on the issue of acquisition and renunciation of Nigerian citizenship, with
men being given better deal than women. Our policies makers certainly have very little or no regard for the doctrine of gender mainstreaming, making it tough for women to compete favourably in a society dominated by men. In the light of the above, it is high time we started working towards the actualisation of an androgynous society where the rights of every member are respected without recourse to irrelevant consideration of gender identity. This is not just for the purpose of fairness as dictated by concerns for human rights, adherence to culture of gender liberality also has proven beneficial. Empirical researches interpreting a number of sociological data across different climes have shown that societies where the culture of androgyny (that is equal opportunities for both sexes) is well-entrenched are more advanced and prosperous than societies that are repressive and exploitative of women. This, of course, is not surprising, given the fact that both male and female have been endowed with differing talents, abilities and capacities by the providence, which could well be harnessed synergistically for optimum effect.
On abducted Chibok school girls This writer hereby joins his voice to the BRING BACK OUR GIRLS campaign to secure the release of more than 200 girls abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, three weeks ago by the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group. I call on the Federal Government, which has the constitutional role of ensuring safety and welfare of all Nigerians, to fashion out means to liberate the innocent girls.
2015: APC and its credo of violence JOHNSON MOMODU
T
he recent “rig and roast” statement credited to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), should raise serious concerns for all Nigerians who care about peace in the country. Tinubu is reported to have said: “It will be rig and roast” during a speech at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, in reference to the Ekiti governorship election. Let it be clear that the conditionality of “rigging” before “roasting” being advocated by Tinubu does not in any way lessen the seriousness of his incitement of violence. Past experience has shown that wherever and whenever Tinubu political coalition lost an election, his first utterance was to declare that the election in question was rigged. The only elections that are never rigged, as far as Tinubu is concerned, are those won by the APC. How such an oddity is possible in a country with multiple political tendencies like Nigeria is something only he can explain. And he might also wish to explain how come no party has enjoyed questionable electoral victories at the courts like the APC. Setting aside the intemperate nature of Tinubu’s statement, it is important to revisit something similar that was said earlier by General Muhammadu Buhari, another national leader of the APC. Buhari, whose statement was recorded during a BBC Hausa interview, spoke in Hausa, perhaps
WITH BOKO HARAM STILL ON RAMPAGE, NIGERIANS CANNOT ALLOW THE APC TO CONSTITUTE ITSELF
INTO ANOTHER VIOLENT GROUP BENT ON WREAKING HAVOC ACROSS THE COUNTRY in the hope of restricting his words to his preferred audience. According to him, “If what happened in 2011 should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood.” Coming from a man, who still harbours the ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president, these were most inappropriate words. When taken together, Tinubu’s “rig and roast” utterance and Buhari’s “the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood” statement paint a clear and present danger of a very violent APC. The question that all well-meaning Nigerians should ask these leaders of APC is, considering the serious issue of insecurity brought about by the despicable acts of Boko Haram in some parts of the country, are these APC leaders really advocating more violence in Nigeria all in their quest to win elections? It is also necessary to ask if members of the APC heed the exhortations of their leaders and embark on a campaign of “soaking dogs
and baboons in blood” and “roasting” people, do they expect that others would merely fold their hands and watch? Is the APC, in its campaign of inciting violence across the land, seriously expecting Nigerians who are already suffering from Boko Haram mayhem to vote for a blood-thirsty party? Not content with inciting violence and bloodshed, Tinubu also used his Ogbomoso speech to attempt to ridicule the recent rebasing of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accounting. In his misguided attempt to poke fun at something as fundamental as the rebased GDP figures, Tinubu failed to provide answers to what should be done about the productivity in the country’s entertainment industry, the addition of which formed part of the increase in the nation’s GDP figures. Tinubu’s unwillingness to concede that President Goodluck Jonathan is doing anything positive in the country is clearly behind his ill-advised attempt to diminish the positive effects of the rebased GDP figures. But the reality is that whether he acknowledges it or not, Nigerians know well enough that things are getting better in the nation’s economy. Moreover, Tinubu’s reluctance to admit that things are getting better under the Jonathan administration pales into insignificance as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who is now a leading light of the APC, is on record as saying: “To the (Jonathan) government’s credit, an ambitious Almajiri education scheme has been put in place. This year, the Federal Government built and handed over tens of Alma-
jiri model schools to state governments. As part of this scheme there is a commendable focus on girl-child education.” Even Lagos, a frontline state of the APC where Tinubu served for eight years as governor, is a beneficiary of the transformation being pursued by the Jonathan administration. Amongst other projects, in 2013 the Jonathan administration approved construction of the first ever deep sea port in Nigeria to be sited at Lekki, Lagos State. And while Tinubu is making inciting statements, Jonathan has consistently insisted that no Nigerian life is worth sacrificing in order to ensure his success at the polls. The difference between the two could not be more pronounced. In the interest of Nigeria’s well-being, it is of utmost importance that Tinubu and other leaders of APC be called to order. With Boko Haram still on rampage, Nigerians cannot allow the APC to constitute itself into another violent group bent on wreaking havoc across the country. It must be noted that no single group has a monopoly of violence. This is a fundamental fact that those who urge others to commit acts of violence against their political opponents should never forget. Momodu sent this piece from Benin City, Edo State. Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@ nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@ yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.