By Prince Ejeh Josh.
It’s without doubt that our generation is wasting away, and the hope of reconciling this social reality with a society that is in dire need of moral fortitude is in a bleak state.
The first quarters of the 21st Century in Nigeria has experienced a lot of social upheavals, corroding our moral standard in the name of Feminism, and the push to stand shoulder with men by our female species.
This has left us with a socially contaminated society, and an environment not only suffering from a moral decay but also from intellectual poverty.
This social decadence, to be lenient, has seen our young ladies as “endangered species” clutching towards a generation at risk due to ignorance of the mind, perception and lack of conceptual appreciation of demographic, physiognomic and social distinction.
Initially, I had decided to treat with utter levity, ignominy and disdain, the disorganised, disarticulated, disenchanted, disorientated and many poorly written, trivial and misleading articles being churned out daily, in tons, on social media by too many of our, “unmarriageable” old ladies in an attempt to mislead the younger ones, and initiate them into such corrosive way of life with the implication that, at the end, they could have also been in the same frustrated pedestal, wasting away. But to feel indifferent is to indirectly give a nod to this social anomaly which may haunt us at the end of the day.
I’ve decided to set the record straight. There are no two ways about it than to stand with the truth, for the truth and nothing but the truth.
If education is one thing to go by, it’s supposed to be a searchlight for true intellectual, political, moral and social enlightenment. It is, however, unfortunate and ironical that many of these old, single ladies propagating the movement of Feminism in Nigeria are not only educated, most of them are learned in Law and other disciplines.
They tried to fashion out their own brand of Feminism by resorting to “dogs-barking-style” without first ruminating on the consequential damage of their action.
In the field of Critical Thinking, there’s a fallacy of hasty induction and slotful generalisation that the “self-styled” feminists in Nigeria have constantly resorted to: they had only heard of the concept of “Feminism” either through print media, audio-visual media or social media without painstakingly scrutinising or critically making a comparative study of what the concept or movement entails.
Like Martin Luther submitted; nothing is as dangerous as sincere ignorance. But it’s even more dangerous when some people, although, wallowing in abject ignorance, arrogate upon themselves, repository of knowledge and make themselves the all-knowing goddesses. To these people, they are infallible. They posses monopoly of knowledge, and any attempt to correct them will be met with adverse, scathing, tantrums. This is the bane of Nigerian society today.
For those who managed to wriggle their way into matrimonial home, they are those quick to rush out as single mothers, or whatever negative nomenclature attached.
Frustrated, they are quick to attribute their misfortune either to their mother-in-law or village people. In reality, they feel that whatever they dictate out of their passing whims and caprices should remain unquestionable by their husbands. Unfortunately, they are quick to be thrown out like a pack of cards. My understanding of marriage, friendship and other social relations, is mutual respect. It’s all about reciprocity.
In a simple language, viewed from a global perspective, Feminism is nothing more than, a social movement that strives to achieve fair economic, political and social share of rights between men and women. It entails equality of gender in social distribution of benefits. It’s all about mutual respect for all.
The concept has, however, received a perverted mutation from a good number of ladies outside there which is currently on the trend. This brand of feminism, from available statistics, has dwarfed other brands of feminism combined by 75%. This is understandable: evil festers and thrives among humanity than virtue.
This aspect of feminism is called, Radical or Separatist Feminism. It’s essential to mention in passing, other forms of feminism which premised their belief on purely social norms as the problem engendering inequality in the society, and the need for a reform. These forms are; Social, Cultural, Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, and Green Feminism.
The meeting point of these forms is that, capitalism, class character, and other social set up have been the drivers of inequality which ought to be destroyed. Simple. It’s on record that this struggle has been able to achieve significant successes such as empowering the women; economically, politically and socially.
Mentions were made of the former Brazilian and Korean Presidents. They were able to attain the apex political seats of their countries neither because they were rubbing shoulders with men nor because they arrogated upon themselves monopoly of knowledge like the “all-knowing-almighty” Nigerian slay queens. The same applies to former Liberian President Hellen Sirleaf, former British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, our own respected Okonjo-Iweala, Funso Alakija, and a host of other old generation or considered old school women.
These were women who climbed the apex seats through series of hard work, persistence and determination, and not by fighting men or drinking or standing shoulder-to-shoulder with men. They had anchored their belief on the dictum which says that, there’s always a space for everyone.
On the other hand, the Nigerian feminists have fashioned their orientation towards the extreme Radical or Separatist feminism which believes that “men are the primary enemies” women have in the society. The logic of this brand of feminism is; if women are to achieve equality, they must sever relationship with men. They see their greatest weapon as sex, I mean, sexual intercourse, to achieving equality.
According to them, women should be at liberty to commit abortion, take contraceptives, have sex with anybody even outside their matrimonial homes, make the home unbearable for their husbands, smoke and take alcohols, etc. This is in addition to compelling their husbands to get maids, or asking their men to do house chores like cooking, watching, cleaning, and what have you.
This way, they can be equal with men. They strongly hold that women should refuse any form of pregnancy, rather, there should be a technology that would revolutionise human biological reproduction cycle such that a foetus be removed from the woman’s womb at its inception or conception stage into incubation machines.
They also advocate lesbian practices amongst women, use of sex toys, (apologies to the sex-toy-shop visiting senator) like the one recently witnessed in Anambra State (the cucumber’s effect), etc. This is where the Nigerian feminists borrowed their brand of feminism. Unfortunately, many of them remain, even at their late 30s, 40s, and 50s, in their father’s homes being fed by their parents all because they are feminists and slay queens.
Let me quickly note here that I’m not against equality struggle. It’ll help the society grow and develop faster. Such equality, however, should be economic, political and social orientation-based. I have always exercised sympathy for our female folks especially those disadvantaged by their parents based on their gender, and advocate for their rights.
It’s even my contention that such abandonment be treated by government as a crime as access to education would open new opportunities for nation building and reduction of systemic pressures on the Nigerian State. Nigeria once had a female Chief Justice of the Federation not through sexual struggle, not through drinking spree, not through war against men, but through education.
Next time these “cockroach” feminists want to talk about feminism, they should not disturb our ears with how big a man’s penis size should be before women would allow sexual intercourse with them. They should not disturb us with how to engage in lesbian acts, or how to carry out tens of abortions, or how to stab a cheating husband or a cheating and stingy boyfriend, but they should rather awash the social media on how to empower the less privileged, and how women can empower themselves; educationally, economically, socially, and emotionally through entrepreneurial developments, skill acquisition and talent developments, personal developments, and those to look up to; how those people climbed the ladder to reach their pinnacle of success despite harsh environment and competitions.
I look forward to seeing the positive aspects of feminism play out in Nigeria. When that time comes, I too, will be proud of feminism.
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DISCLAIMER: All views expressed on our opinion page are those of the writer and do not represent the position of INSIDER or any of its reporters/editors.