By Chuka Nnabuife
I am not sure of the truth on what women are worth given the fact that reality is not exactly what one reads in books or hear in popular tales.
A look around from public service to business, academics and other sectors, would not emperically butress the oft-held notion that female human gender are in the backwaters of society whether literally or implicitly.
I still recall reading the Frontiers of Psychology journal in 2018 and encountering Adeoye O. Akinola’s essay in which he posited that African culture and social practices appear wired to subjugate and make women poor.
In the piece, entitled, ‘Women, Culture and Africa’s Land Reform Agenda.’ Akinola, a Public Administration, scholar in University of Zululand, Richards Bay, South Africa, cited landed property as a major source of wealth in African societies.
The researcher argues his treatise with succinct citation of Odeny, 2013, thusly: “Land is one of the cornerstones of economic development on which farmers, pastoralists and other communities base their livelihoods. Land is also a significant component of business assets, which play significant role in business investment strategies. Thus, securing land rights can have a profound impact on economic development… land is a source of identity and cultural heritage”.
Akinola also brought up the viewpoint of Allendorf (2007), stating that based on the prevailing land relations, “most women remain dependent on the existence and goodwill of male relatives for access to land.”
Indeed, going by Akionla’s concentration on land as basis of wealth, women may not rank high in richness index. But there are other benchmarks of wealth which is what the Igbo expression, nwanyi bu ife (the female gender is treasure) implies.
There is a lot to the values in a female child than cash, land and material property. Events of contemporary times are buttressing this in very vivid ways. One of those evidences is the new helmsperson of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) who, if one should take the views of some gender studies gurus, hails from a country where the world is skewed against women.
The fact that the new director-general (DG) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a woman who hails from Nigeria whose name is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is poser, if shocker to many of such experts and media sources.
Some of such global authorities will ensure that the supply the information that she is a United States of America (U.S.) citizen by naturalisation so as to hint that without the America link she would not have risen to the zenith of global public service. Some would state outright that her nativity is “Nigerian-American” or “American-Nigerian” – whatever that implies. Success always has many friends.
But one thing that cannot be erased, no matter how the facts are contrived or compromised is that the daughter of Okonjos from Ogwuashi Ukwu land in Delta State, Nigeria who is a wife of the Iweala’s in Ibeku land, Abia State, Nigeria is a thoroughbred Nigerian woman. Born, June 13, 1954 in Nigeria, the economist and international development expert who has resumed work on Monday, March 1, 2021 as DG of the WTO is the first woman and first African to hold the very influencial global position. This comes after she had excelled in several top posts globally and locally.
Among her recent roles were sitting on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and the African Risk Capacity (ARC). These come after over a decade of outstanding service to her native Nigeria as co-ordinating minister of the economy, finance minister, foriegn affairs minister among others during the regimes of President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan.
Added to these is a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist. There she rose to the second topmost position, managing director with responsibility for operations.
These feats, among many others of Mrs Okonjo-Iweala are being highlighted to establish the point that a woman born and raised in the interiors of Nigeria – a Sub-Saharan African country can has risen to the top of the world by dint of healthy strive and tenacious pursuit. She rose from her homeland where she made a landmark record of being the first woman to serve as the Nigeria’s finance minister, the first woman to serve in that office twice, and the only finance minister to have served under two different presidents.
While on the job, she established her universal distinction through her performance when In 2005, Euromoney named her the global Finance Minister of The Year among other laurels. She also left a track record of high sense of duty and beaurucratic sagacity.
No doubt, in patriarchal cultures as in many African societies, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala may not have a lot of land and property to inherit or own but one wonders whether any of such materials can purchase her current position, global recognition and esteem. What makes all these worth celebrating is that the woman was brought up in Nigeria before she went for tertiary education in Harvard University (bachelors) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for her masters and doctorate and she proudly makes the world note where she is coming from without ambiguity.
When I behold her in her trademark, Nigerian mama nnukwu (iya arugbo) dressing, replete with loosely-tied headgear and abada blouse and skirt, I derive a deep joy in a home-bred universal star. My bigger joy is in the 66-year-old mother of four and grandmother being a ‘complete’ Nigerian ma’am who never hides the identity.
Therefore, when the leader of the Nigeria-based Virtuous Widows Association, Lady Ify Egbosiuba disclosed that her body is planning a celebration of Okonjo-Iweala’s elevation to the apogee of WTO, I was happy with the development. Upon probing Mrs. Egbosiuba further, I learnt that the windows find in Dr. Okonjo-Iweala a rare source of hope.
The widows deem the economy technocrat’s story one that should motivate all women to aspire to best thing, possible, in their realms of life.
“We are also holding the event in Abuja to tell the world that Nigerian widows are solidly behind Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala because there is no group of persons that can relate with the denials of opportunity that a woman faces like widows. So her getting to such a global height is a special thing of joy to my people and I,” Egbosiuba explained.
Indeed, windows, being about the most unfortunate in anything related to inheritance and access to opportunities should be able to appreciate the larger import of feats like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s break through the iron ceiling.
Without doubt, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala epitomises the Igbo maxim, nwanyi bu ife.*
*Nnabuife, MD/CEO of Anambra Newspapers and Printing Corporation (National Light Group of Newspapers), wrote from Awka
