Make no mistake; this piece is not about painting Nigeria in a bad light but stressing the odds that are more against women here than anywhere else. Making such a point will only be an exaggeration and that is not what I or this online media house would do.
The Girl Child Stands a Better Chance in Nigeria than in Many Other Places
You should even know that women in Nigeria stand a better chance than in many other parts of the world. This is especially true for some nations in the Middle Eastern part of the globe. Just as an example, women were only granted the right to drive a car 4 years ago in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
How does that sound? It is even worse in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is officially in power and their extremist laws against women are in full effect.
Nigeria Needs to do More
Been that as it may, we still need to make improvements that would better the girl child and female folks in Nigeria. The stats are there to prove this.
Speaking of political office holders, for example, the nation has never had a democratically elected female president or even vice president. You would expect that this would be history by now seeing how neighboring Liberia has gone on to have one, as well as many other nations of the earth.
The way many females in the country have also done well handling national and international appointments proves that Women in the country can do a good job. We are talking of the likes of late Professor Dora Akunyili, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and several others.
Negative Cultural Interference – Biggest Threat to Career Advancement for the Girl Child.
I believe that our culture should not be lost to foreign influences. But I also believe that culture should be dynamic. This means that some cultural norms are not relevant for this day and age. Well, many of such parts of our culture are those that affect the girl child.
For example, when you tell a boy child that he can grow up to become the president of the nation, why tell the girl child that she can grow up to become the first lady?
Being the first lady is something noble, but the girl child should not be restricted to playing backup to male folks because of expired and career-threatening cultural beliefs.
You should also make the girl child understand that she can reach the pinnacle of her career and that being a woman, mother, and wife does not stop her. It only means that she needs to do more because that is simply the truth.
