The mega rally of Nigerian women held in Abuja has come and gone, leaving fond memories of one of the biggest women’s events in Nigeria’s history. The summit of the women has been adjudged a huge success. It was smooth flow without hiccups and unlike similar events of that nature, casualty-free.
An estimate of about 30,000 women participated at the mega rally, though the organizers targeted about 20,000. This shows the enthusiasm of the Nigerian women to participate in the first ever assemblage of women in Nigeria of that magnitude. For this, commendation should be given to the National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS), the umbrella body of all women’s organizations in Nigeria and the office of the First Lady of Nigeria that provided the needed fillip to enable the event run hitch-free.
As early as 6am, women in their colourful individual and organizational attires, and some in fabrics designed with President Goodluck Jonathan’s portrait had begun to assemble at the old parade ground for the road show scheduled to commence at 7am. It was drizzling and at times graduating to light showers, but the women were undaunted. Some came with umbrellas and others in their shower caps, while most people simply surrendered their bare heads or head-wears to the element. Such was the dedicated passion and zeal shown by the women. It was natural, spontaneous and religiously done.
Although the road show was billed to commence at 7am, it did not start until past 11am, partly due to the early morning rain, the screening conducted by security agencies to ensure that vagabonds did not infiltrate the ranks of the women, the huge turn-out of participants for the road show, and the heavy traffic it caused at the old parade ground at Area 10, Abuja. There were a total of about 50 floats, one per each state branch of the NCWS and the Federal Capital Territory, women professional associations, women religious organizations, and non-governmental organizations with women as focus, among others.
The road show started from the old parade ground, running through Area 1 roundabout up to Berger, taking one lane and allowing traffic to flow from the other, through Wuse Market and thereafter linking the Eagle Square. The entire procession lasted for about two hours. Traffic was not held for more than few minutes at any point as vehicular movement proceeded once the procession passed any road intersection. Sometimes however, commuters held traffic when they slowed down to catch a glimpse of the colourful floats. There was no heavy traffic gridlock as some tried to claim. And in any case, there had been several carnivals and conventions during which sections of Abuja roads had been closed for hours to traffic. The women’s road-show and rally was definitely not the first of such event to be granted that kind of privilege.
There were those who claim that there was no prior knowledge to commuters that certain roads would be closed to traffic for the part of the day in which the event held. Well, everyone knows that this is a trying time for Nigerians and matters such as this cannot be treated with levity. Non-disclosure of the carnival routes, especially when traffic was allowed on adjoining routes and intersections, should not be overblown. It was done simply to keep miscreants and people with bad intentions at bay.
The police, road safety marshals, civil defence personnel, VIOs, and even military personnel had been co-opted to maintain law and order and smooth flow of traffic when events of this magnitude were held, hence the women’s should be seen as an exception. This same point applies to the police helicopter that hovered during the procession and the rally. Those who criticize the high profile security for this event would rather wish that a shoddy security arrangement was put in place so that evil minded ones can take advantage of that to kill, maim and destroy property. Should we not therefore, praise ourselves that an event of this magnitude was held and no single soul was lost, no one fainted or was injured and no negative consequence was recorded? That to me should be what we should be talking about, not the traffic, man-hour or economic loss that some have exaggerated as if the whole of Abuja was shut down.
Again some argue that it was a needless jamboree. They talk as if the women are charlatans and do not deserve to be celebrated. These people see women only as the ones found in markets and kitchens or hawking in the sun and rain with babies straddled to their backs. To them, women do not include the nurses and midwives, the medical doctors, the engineers, the teachers and their peers in the armed forces and security agencies, among others. To them, this category of professional women ought not to partake in the road show or the rally and they ought to be ashamed to wear their uniforms or the emblem of their professional associations to take part in the event. They have simply forgotten all of these are women (not men) and their professional organizations are under the canopy of the NCWS, or they simply want to be mischievous.
Where were these set of people when for the first time in the nation’s history in 2011 women were allowed to be trained to join the combatant cadre of the armed forces, the first female DIG of Police was appointed, the first female Admiral in the Navy and the first Air Vice Marshal in the nation’s Air-force were decorated, the first female Head of Service and indeed the first female Chief Justice of the Federation were appointed, among others. These traducers are simply saying that the recorded milestones on women empowerment should not be celebrated, as if some of the women being celebrated are not their mothers, wives, sisters or daughters. How low we descend sometimes when we allow prejudice against some individuals or people to cloud our judgment!
Now these are the things the women are celebrating; unprecedented empowerment of Nigerian women. Rather than look at the substance of the women’s claims objectively, some people cry of foul play, veiled campaign for 2015, and meddlesomeness of the First Lady in politics. That’s obviously cheap. The event under reference was a rally and women came from all over the country, cutting across tribes, religions and party divides, with their banners and emblems. They chose their messages, some with party affiliations attired in Jonathan fabric, and some with portraits of governors of Anambra, Kogi, among others, but definitely there were more women in different regalia for those who cared to look deep. Thus, this cannot be a party thing, rather a movement of women for which incidentally the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has provided a tonic since her emergence on the national scene in 2010.
We should give the First Lady the credit for her prowess in influencing such massive turn-out of women. There is no doubt that the involvement of her office enabled the mobilization to achieve the huge success it attained. What more? The First Lady is the Grand Patron of NCWS. The NCWS obviously saw the personality of the First Lady as a booster to the event, hence its collaboration with her office. With the hues and cries over the women’s rally and her involvement, those afraid of Dame Patience Jonathan are betraying their fears each time they leave the facts and instead chose to impugn her personality.
Moreover, the presence of some governors’ wives at the event was because they are matrons of NCWS in their respective states, wives of service chiefs are presidents of the wives’ associations in the army, navy, air-force, police etc, while ministers who attended had one thing or the other to do with women (Minister of Women Affairs) or the event (FCT Minister and Minister for Culture and Tourism), among others. Those who talk of funding should also know that NCWS is funded by the states and women were either mobilized by their respective state governments, or private sources by the NGOs, but definitely not by the First Lady or some ministers as claimed.
One thing was certain from all these: no event from our recent history had been better managed or achieved the same kind of results as the women’s mega rally. For this, we must give kudos to the NCWS and the indefatigable first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
Written By Taofeek Adio
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