Gender Equality Bill - Matters Arising

Sometimes, I wonder what goes on in some ladies' minds. Let me give some frank talk here...You can't buy love with money...

I'm on a post where the Senate's rejection of the Gender Equality bill is being analyzed. I'm stunned that the Senate is talking about Sharia Court of Appeal judgments as the reason why the bill cannot sail through. It makes no sense to me. The bill itself seems like a repeat of existing laws to me but let me review it again.

I'm actually more stunned about how the right of a woman to inherit her late husband's properties is cropping up. I have never understood why women refuse to make their own money and are waiting for their husband to die so they can inherit his property. I can't understand how a man will rather leave his siblings as his next of kin and not make a will to protect his OWN children but that's a topic for another day.

I was busy one day but my ears caught the gist between 2 of my male colleagues. One of them was telling the other one that he wasn't treating his wife right. The gist is that the wife will invest in property and put it in her husband's name while the man would invest in property in his own name. The man said he had asked her to invest in her own name (women can own property in Nigeria o) but she refused because "God has made him the head". That part is confusing me o. If God made him the head and the head instructed you, Madam, to invest in your name, are you not rebelling against God if you continue to invest in his name and disobey instructions? The man knows what he is seeing and you're doing your own thing...Kontiniu.

If something happens to the man now and what the man saw that made him give such an instruction happens, the same woman will begin to tell us #StoriesThatTouchTheHeart. I don't get this thing of women expecting the men to take care of ALL their bills yet they're talking about #GenderParity. We need to make up our minds o. If we're talking about parity, we need to up our game as women. If we expect men to pick ALL our bills, we have to dance to their tunes and hope they are good & faithful men. We can't eat our cake and have it ooo.

Back to "Hallowed Chambers", I hope they know that the female population in Nigeria is not a small thing...These women gave their all to get this government in (I'm not one of those that voted for this government so I can say "Those"). I'm tempted to mock the women that put in their all to install this government but I'll resist the temptation... I asked during the campaigns what this government was offering the women. The answers I got were insults and questions on what the past administration had done for women. I hope women begin to wake up and realise that there is strength in numbers. I hope we begin to focus more on collaboration, instead of competition.

We need more responsible women in leadership and governance. If we can manage to rise above our differences as women and #LeaveTrashForLAWMA (eg the smear campaign against Olori Wuraola disguised as "harmless gossip), maybe, just maybe, we can begin to get more of the change we're looking for.

In conclusion, I hope the Senate realize that they don't want to annoy about half of their population to please the minority. I also hope that the sponsor(s) of the bill will do a better job of informing the public and getting support for the bill (and similar bills) if it is truly reintroduced, as rumoured.

Enjoy your day.