Who needs a gender equality law?

Truth be told, I am done nerve-racking about Nigerian politicians. As it is, nothing will make those who ply politics in Nigeria put the interest of the common man above their personal, class and party interests. At least, not until the common man himself realises the muscle in his own democratic rights and flexes same to his own advantage.

This is why my new found source of concern is the ordinary Nigerian.  I worry that we cry over small potatoes while the big ones rot. We sleep on our rights and allow politicians lead us anywhere and anyhow. We follow them without a whimper, like flock led to the slaughter. I worry that unless we wake up to the reality of our responsibilities as citizens, this country goes nowhere.

This is the sense I came away with when I read about the rejection of the bill on gender and equal opportunities proposed by Senator Abiodun Olujimi, representing Ekiti South last week.

I was shocked by the quality and quantity of interest that the failed proposition generated. I still do not understand the hoopla about the law and the response of the Senate to it.

To start with, how the rejection of the law shocked Nigerians when within the two weeks preceding, we had ample tokens of the disposition of two prominent senators.

Dino Melaye, easily the most outspoken member of the 8^th Senate, had two weeks earlier, derogatorily talked about women like they were pieces of items to be purchased from a shelf when he was talking about patronizing Nigerian made goods.

One week after, Majority Leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume (pictured) suggested that the only way the senate could help women was via multiple conjugal associations. To him, the ultimate misfortune of a woman is not having a husband and since so many of them are approaching menopausal junctures, it was better for men, whose capacity for nurturing the unfortunate is endless, to double their portion. That done, our women will not only feel accomplished in this world, they will also have automatic tickets into eternity, on account of the marriage they contracted while living, seems to be the Borno Senator’s thinking.

In this same senate is a man who, not too long ago, flew across Africa to woo a 13 year old and has unashamedly continued to defend the right of such children to be married. God knows how many men of his conviction warm the seats of the senate. It then beats imagination that Nigerians expected people of such disposition to support anything likely to deter their amorous proclivity for a moment. How could we be so naïve?

But away from that, how many of us actually realise that even if the National Assembly had a second reading and goes on to pass the bill into law, it may only have effect in the Federal Capital Territory?

Someone would say that a passage by the National Assembly would make it possible for states to adopt the law, and I agree. But what if the states refuse to adopt the law? What if they adopt it and do not implement it?

And before you imagine that this is no possibility, ask those who know about the Child Rights Act, domesticated and passed into law by the National Assembly in 2003.

This Act prescribes a life sentence for anyone who has carnal knowledge of a child, whether female or male and 14 years imprisonment for other forms of sexual misconducts. Today, 13 years after the Act was signed into law by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, only 24 of our 36 states have domesticated the law. And most of the 24 states are at various ineffectual state of implementation, with many of them watering down the definition of crimes and punishments for them.

We must know that our Houses of Assembly are the most impotent organs in our democracy as most of them operate from the pockets of their governors. And when government houses are occupied by characters like the husband of the 13 year old child from Egypt, how a law that emancipates children and women would be passed can only be imagined? Did you hear that Houses of Assembly voted against their own financial autonomy which the national assembly suggested in the constitutional review spearheaded by the 7^th assembly? This means that they prefer to remain tied to the aprons of governors? How much pathetic and spineless can a legislature be? And how ridiculous can we get as a people to expect much from these folks?

But again, why exactly do we need that law? On the broad issue of discrimination and equality in Nigeria, the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which is the supreme law of the land, is emphatic about the rights of all citizens and any law inconsistent with the constitution cannot stand.

Apart from the constitution, several other laws in Nigeria address some of the issues that I imagine this law would attempt to address, but do we put them to test? For instance, adultery is a criminal offence in some parts of Nigeria, so is bigamy Under the Marriage Act.  Also, just before he left office in May 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015 into law. This Act, among other things, prohibits female genital mutilation, forceful ejection from home and harmful widowhood practices. It also prohibits the abandonment of spouses, children and other dependents (without sustenance), battery and harmful traditional practices.

So how many shortchanged women have come forward to explore opportunities that the Marriage Act, the Criminal Code, the Penal Code and a number of such other legislations provide?  Don’t we always find some emotional or cultural reasons why a woman cannot file an action against her husband and father of her children? What new thing do we hope to achieve with this law that the senate gave us a song to sing about last week. Will the law initiate actions against those that flout it by itself?

My point is that Nigerians need to try and prove these laws and send offenders to jail. Let prominent women, who understand their rights encourage women who have no idea to explore the laws and stop suffering in silence. I confess to not being conversant with the provisions of Mrs. Olujimi’s proposition but if there is indeed any substance to it, Nigerian women should be mobilised to fight for the law and demand its passage.

Nigerians men and women of good mind, should insist on the adoption and implementation of the child rights acts by all states in the federation. I consider education to the best first step toward liberating any society. Women who have the benefit of education know what to do when men trample on their rights and every man, worthy of the nomenclature, knows how to accord women respect and give them their due. Curiously, a lot of such men sit in these same chambers where you have these rabid pedophiles.

If all states adopted and implemented the Child Rights Acts, without tampering with the definition of the age of a child, Nigeria would have all its children going to school and growing with the self confidence that makes them hold their own in future.

Most importantly, we need to begin to interrogate cultural, traditional and religious practices which are repugnant and against natural justice. My take is that a lot of the things that hamper the total expression of women in Nigeria are more cultural than legal and until we fight these cultural tendencies to a standstill, its custodians will stand in the way of the making and implementation of laws that favour women.

Women should desist from being apologetic about asking for an improvement in their condition because closing the gender gap and giving women equal opportunities is actually an important catalyst to economic productivity, improved development outcomes.

My take is that in limiting the opportunities available to the girl-child and woman, we deprive Nigeria of the benefit of having the best for its future. We however need to win the war against every harmful cultural and religious belief before we can hope that our laws will achieve anything significant milestone.

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