This is the third of a four-part series commemorating International Women’s Day 2018 written by Charles O. Anyiam-Osigwe and Michael Igaga.
WOMEN, THE PEACE PROCESS AND THE NIGERIAN REALITIES
In Nigeria, the social order is in chaos from ethnic mudslinging, terrorism, and a number of social upheavals ignited and aggravated by poverty. In the South East, we have the challenges of the Indigenous People of Biafra and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra to contend with. The Fulani herdsmen issue has assumed a national spread that rears its head unexpectedly anywhere in Nigeria. We have the Boko Haram crisis which has assumed prime position in the catalogue of terroristic activities and organisations globally. At the root of our social melee is poor leadership in the political space.
The major victims of these challenges are women. This is even more apparent with the Boko Haram crisis. While the recovery of the Chibok girls is celebrated, fewer stories are told about the immense number of other women that are being kidnapped by Boko Haram insurgents on a daily basis. And this is different from the women who are raped and murdered in the presence of their children and husbands. Terrorists in our country and other places have found the need to use women and their bodies as sites of warfare.
Nigeria and indeed the better part of Africa, lag behind the rest of the world in properly appreciating the quality and dignity of womanhood. No wonder, a woman who does not to have a male child for her husband is denigrated and seen having some type of bad luck by her husband’s family. The large population of women kept under perpetual bondage through illiteracy, the commercialisation of the female child through untoward bride prices and the inheritance culture which negates the status of women also create barriers for women in the country.
In the public realm, very few women are privileged to find a place in institutions of governance. Where women are given the opportunity to lead government parastatals and agencies, it is more often than not viewed as a response to affirmative action rather than the capacity and quality of the woman to deliver in that office. In other words, such appointments are viewed as showing favour to the women rather than it being a manifestation of their own achievements.
FINDING A PLACE FOR THE NIGERIAN WOMAN IN OUR QUEST FOR SOCIAL HARMONY, INTEGRATION, PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
If women suffer more in wars and other political crises, their position as stakeholders in the resolution of these crises becomes fundamentally justified. If we acknowledge that women bear the greater burden of conflict situations, it is therefore follows that women should play leading roles in the peace process. It is often asserted that people who have experienced war try hard to avoid the commencement of another one.
We note that peace has its own language. The language of peace is best spoken by those who desire genuine peace. Perhaps as the major victims of conflict situations, women are more attuned to understand that the whole concept of an eye for an eye leaves every person blind. This understanding underpins the language of peace and the peace process.
If women are primary victims in all forms of violent conflict, as primary stakeholders arising therefrom, women ought to be given the opportunity to play leading roles as drivers of the peace process. It is time for Nigeria to escape the negative expression of chauvinism and create a level playing field in which the most capable person earns the votes and confidence of the people to rule.
The political space must be opened up for equal opportunity for women and men alike. The political space must be driven by quality of minds rather than the limited confines of ethnicity or gender and religious biases. It is also not just enough to have women appointed into ad hoc committees that will negotiate peace, it is important for women to be given leading roles in governance according to their abilities. As a country, Nigeria must explore the unique potentials of womanhood in advancing the evolvement of a more stable nation.
Charles O. Anyiam-Osigwe is the Co-ordinator General of the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation and Michael Igaga is the Administrative Secretary of the Foundation.