All for one, One for all
THERE is no perfect tool for future development in a nation more than empowering the girl child today. It’s certainly noon for some, dusk for some others, but for the girl child, it is, but a golden dawn, the birth of a new beginning. So, “it’s imperative we begin the search for the black goat before nightfall.”
The Female gender has been marginalized for so long Inequality is undoubtedly so entrenched in our society. The truth is, when the girl child is empowered everybody benefits, because she is the mother of tomorrow. She carries in her womb the continuity of the human race.
Having the right charismatic mentor instill in the girl child the spirit of self confidence, bravery, assertiveness, respect for her body; not giving in to casual sexual desires, knowledge on the importance of education, and make her gain as much information as needed to empower her, should be our utmost priority.
We need to really take decisive and proactive measures to bringing the girl child to a level playing field with the boy child. Gone are the days when women were consigned to the kitchen and taught culinary arts and men pleasing. The gospel of the paradigm shift in the position of the female gender should be carried to our rural communities where the cloak of nescience and back- ward traditional beliefs still hold sway.
The importance of investing in the girl child cannot be overemphasized and should be clearly understood by everyone.
A good degree of work has been done by the government in the area of skill acquisition: catering, tailoring, hairdressing, soap making, etc. It’s time to step up a bit to the IT world where there are vast and even more dynamic systems that will further empower the girl child to meet up with the ever growing world of affairs. Government should provide attendant facilities in the rural areas to this effect. The vast array of potentials that we will be harnessing and unleashing to the society when most of these girl children, who would have been condemned to mere rustic existence become exposed to knowledge and information on a global scale will boggle the mind. I’m very sure that this present leaders have the right political will and uncluttered vision to see the world from a different perspective.
While the focus is on the girl child, it must be noted that whatever gains we hope to achieve in fostering an egalitarian society will be rubbished if the boy child is groomed with a skewed concept of the place of his opposite number in the society. The boy child should be raised with the belief that all people, irrespective of gender, are in principle equal and should enjoy equal social, political and economic rights and opportunities in our society. That is the egalitarian mentality.
The boy child should be tutored to appreciate the girl child as worthy partner in all areas of life, not as underling. They should be taught that they can work in harmony in bringing up a better society. They should also not harbor negative notions about the female gender in the area of rape and other viles. Girls should be respected.
I believe that the degradation- as a result of decades of repression-caused by constraining the girl child to adhere slavishly to selfish traditional rules will only be repaid as soon as a structured framework on the girl child’s right of inheritance is passed into law in the South Eastern states and the issue of bride price is addressed accordingly. Traditions are set values for human well- being in the society, but even if traditional value translates injustice into a norm, in time, it will still be revealed as injustice. Our duty is to do our bit to restore the dignity of humanity where such has been trampled in the sewer of base minds as what is happening to the girl child.
The truth is, the emancipation of the Girl Child is so active in the cities/urban areas, but conversely, little or nothing is being done in the hinterland/villages where tradition has transformed the men into gods and the female gender to slaves even though they have no chains around their feet.
If our leaders will summon their godly will and give a positive resolution to the issues of
the girl child rights and freedom, they will be providing the means for her to stand up against exploitative and humiliating situations and claim her rights. It will also help in blossoming her traditionally hidden potentials and restore her self-confidence in her home and the society at large, and our leaders will be honored in generations to come as the pillars of the Crusade for the girl child’s emancipation.
My proposition is not an imposition but an appeal for fair play and equity. Liberating the girl child from the shackles of manmade rules and tradition, which are at variance with the tenets of truth and wisdom is a duty we are called upon to perform today. The tradition of enthralling and disinheriting the girl child were made a long time ago by men who dies, just to satisfy some selfish and parochial interests, not by God. Equality, fairness, justice, freedom and love are the total fulcrum of the message of truth. We know that such obnoxious traditions and practices should have no place in a modern society that stands for equity and justice.
Any value that supports enslavement, injustice, deprivation and inequality on ac- count of gender, color, race or creed is decrepit, obnoxious, obsolete, backward and reactionary and should be stopped.
Tradition is good but when it’s used as a tool of oppression, it becomes perverse and must be abrogated. “I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
Credit: Ada Chinyere Cummings Source: http://sunnewsonline.com/new/emancipating-and-empowering-the-girl-child/
