The first time I came across the list of Nigerians who made a difference in the last 50years on the pages of a newspaper, I was almost certain that there was an error somewhere. However, since that was the same list everywhere,then that must be the accurate documentation for the organisers after all.
It is particularly disturbing that the media would choose to misrepresent the facts ofhistory or misinform the people. The dictionary definitions of history include, among others, the continuum of events occurring in succession,leading from the past to the present; a record or narrative description of past events all that is remembered of the past as preserved inwriting.
How then could it be that only 1 woman, out of a list of 52 names, has contributed to thedevelopment of our nation in the last 50 years? I guess I should not have been surprised because that is the norm; but I keep asking, whywould anyone or group of people seek to obliterate the efforts of those women that many of us draw inspiration from? If this is all that isremembered and preserved, then the type of education we give to our children is defective! In my early years, I thought that men were theonly active Nigerians because I read or heard about the role of such men as late Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,Ahmadu Bello, Hebert Macaulay, Festus Okotie-Eboh, Michael Okpara, Ladoke Akintola, Alvan Ikoku and several other males.
It was not until I became older and started reading other books outside the prescribedschool texts that I began to see the role of many women leaders such as Margaret Ekpo, Gambo Sawaba, Mbonu Ojike, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti,Oyinkan Abayomi, Tanimowo Ogunlesi and others as more than organising revolts to save men from colonial impositions or to depose a monarch. Ibelieve that it is because the account given of the nationalist struggle for independence did not include the part played by some ofthe women that leadership is regarded as the preserve of Nigerian men, even when they are making a mess of it.
In more recent times, though the opportunities available to women to function as equalcitizens are minimal and even non-existent in some areas, some women have made efforts to leave their footprints in the sand of times. In myown book of history, women’s roles and lives are rapidly changing.
Titans and builders
I believe that the women mentioned in the previous paragraph are titans and builders; BisiOgunleye of Country Women Association of Nigeria (COWAN) is a champion of entrepreneurship; Amina Oyagbola is a corporate champion; NdidiOkereke and Oby Ezekwesili, are emerging tigers; Joe Okei-Odumakin, Chris Anyawu, and the late Kudirat Abiola are champions of democracyand governance. Similarly, Ayesha Imam, Dora Akunyuli (who has been ‘lost’ since she became a Minister in 2007 but was ‘found’ last weekwhen she shed the cloak of government spokesperson for that of her true self), and the late Maryam Babangida (regardless of what critics say ofthe Better Life Programme) are visionary leaders and fighters.
Chimamanda Adichie, Mo Abudu, and Sefi Atta are most surely thinkers and cultural warriors. The list is endless.
I agree that history is oftentimes whatever we choose to recall and I know that when we choose to forget, it is for the benefit of a group.There are many ‘sheroes’ in our past than we care to acknowledge, thereby contributing to the defectiveness of our society. Though thedebate rages on even in the women’s movement about the contributions of some of the women on my list, my take is that we MUST acknowledge everyeffort that aims to improve the lives of the people, regardless of the diversity.
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