Educate A Girl, Empower A Nation
Don't we all have that one aunt or grandma that we wished went to school? Don't we all have that one aunt or grandma that is so knowledgeable but yet did not see the four walls of a school? We all sure do. It is quite interesting to all of us to project how those aunties and grandmas would have turned out had they gone to any form of formal school. I look at my great aunties and step-grandmothers sometimes with a lot of marvel, most times assigning career roles that I felt fit them had they gone to school. I had my step-grandmother assigned a physician, assigned yet another an accountant, I had one that would have made a good historian and yet another that would have been the best prosecutor ever. It is not enough to project what these women would have attained in life without x-raying the remote causes of their limitations. I could have sworn that Akuako, my step-grandmother would have been a good physician.
Akuako was the local one-stop, shop all pseudo-doctor in our village. Her specialty was predominantly pediatrics as women trusted her expertise so much that kids were brought in droves to our compound for her to treat. She was the leading doctor in the treatment of "Apa Afo". Most of the kids that were brought to her makeshift clinic were all "yellow" and sickly, with protruding tummies. Apa Afo in today's medical terminology will be referred to as jaundice laced with splenomegaly. They believed that the enlarged spleen was an accumulation of bad blood, worms, maybe evil spirits. I remembered vividly how we enjoyed her hot and spicy soups and concoctions meant for her patients. This soup was so spicy that it awakened every pore in one's body, everyone's nose was dripping by the third or fourth scoop and strings of perspiration slipping down foreheads and palms. The perspiring effect the soup had on us was an exact replica of what it did to her patients and it was a positive sign to show that they were on their path to recovery. I can relate that to today's remedies where hot, spicy drinks or food is used to soothe clogged sinuses and decongest the nasals. She had a lot of leaves and herbs that she ground and mixed with a boiling broth of some sort that added the magic twist to the treatment plan. It was not uncommon to blame diabolical contributions to mere ailments that defied explanations, we could not explain some other orthodox methods that she used in treating her patients. I remember kids that had their forehead incised with sharp blades to wade off some unforeseen spirits or so, and yet others with black like soot on their faces to stem rashes or so. Also saw a lot that had a lot of abdominal scarring from another interesting manner of her treatment regimens for the protruded tummies. My Akuako had a very sharp blade with stunted handles that was always near a fire, more like a locally made furnace. The kid with the protruded belly is held strongly by his or her parents while the hot blade is pressed unto the side that is swollen. I am yet to come around the " pathophysiology" but I will only think that her attempt was to shrink the enlarged spleen with heat. I am so sure if they had an informed decision that Malaria which was endemic at that time was predominantly a cause of splenomegaly, probably it would have changed their course of treatment. Rather than abdominal scarification, concoctions would have been preferred. But the sheer knowledge of attempting a solution to a medical need and problem was amazing. One wonders what would have become of women like her if they were allowed to chase their dreams or even allowed to go to school to discover talents that were inborn. It would have been phenomenal as a lot would have passed down to the next generation.
Around the world, stories that buttress this notion are similar and making great strides whenever they are told. I derive joy sharing views on the impact of educating the girl child as a critical standpoint for a bright and stable future.
"Girls are the future mothers of any society. Every girl that receives an education is more likely to make education a priority for her children.Its a ripple effect of positive change in the community and country." Tariq Al Gurg,chief executive officer,Dubai Cares
In Nigeria, it is not uncommon to hear about what was the norm in the past. A land law existed that bestowed a lot of importance to the male child. The right to the customary succession of the entire estate belonged exclusively to the eldest son of the deceased. The eldest son acted as a trustee for the other children. The male child hence became the primary focus of this primitive land law. Only the male children benefited from a sharing formula in the eventual demise of the father. The women were left out of this largess as they were considered to be outsiders since they would eventually belong to another family by virtue of marriage. Any property acquired by the females before marriage goes back to her family in any event of her demise. This singular notion had nailed the fate of the girl child. There was really no need to invest heavily on the girl child as it was considered a waste of time and resources.It was common to hear " Oru o ebe ndi di ya, ha zuruwa" which means " let the husband train her".The fate of the girl was already doomed at conception, her fate not only hung on a balance, but it was also determined to fail
This land law has been in place since time immemorial and has deliberately relegated and truncated the advancement of the girl child. However, the advent of English law into Nigeria, transformed to a large extent our rules on local inheritance albeit to say that the customary law still hovered decisively where it was considered first in any issues of succession. A reprieve, however, came with a landmark supreme court judgement on April 15th, 2014
'No matter the circumstances of the birth of the female child, she is entitled to inherit her late father's estate". Consequently, the Igbo customary law which disfranchises a female child from partaking in the sharing of her deceased fathers’ estate is a breach of section 42(1) and (2) of the constitution, a fundamental rights provision guaranteed to every Nigerian"
A little too late for the majority of my aunties. My grandfather had married five wives with numerous kids. As recounted by my own dad, his father was considered wealthy by every standard. His satiety for marrying more than one wife was not only for his affluent status but for the need to consolidate on the emergence of heir hopefuls. My dad had come after six or seven female outcomes. He needed male children to serve as able farmhands and sureties for continuity of land ownership. The females were then considered as assets and married off to consolidate on wealth and alliances. The proceeds from marriage afforded him more wealth to acquire more lands or invest in male children. It was a common trend to train the males at the expense of the females. My father benefited from this arrangement as he had gone on to college then to medical school in Russia where he acquired in addition, exposures to the need to carry the female folks along. He henceforth made sure that his younger female siblings had access to a form of education.
" Real change happens when we invest in girls. Every year, millions of girls are denied an education at a time when it has the power to transform their lives and the world around them. If a girl is able to make it through primary and secondary education, it can help them break the cycle of poverty and it can help put a stop to early and forced marriage." Nigel Chapman,CEO Plan International
I have over the years discussed with my father a likely scenario that would have been, had the girls been allowed to go to school. We were in agreement that the total outcome of the family's dynamics would have been different. We were also in agreement that if those girls were afforded the opportunity of seeing the four walls of a classroom, the impact on their offspring would have been profound. An enlightened woman will transfer enlightened and informed views to her kids. If the family as we know, is one of the first points of social interactions, then it will be totally in line to believe that a lot of lives would have been positively impacted if those women knew better.
"No country can reach its full potential until women reach their full potential" Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, founder of Leanin.org
A story that my father always told me to buttress this fact was one that emphasized the powers of first influences in one's life. Back in the days when there was an exodus of young men from my village to the bigger city Lagos in search of greener pastures, there was a startling trend that relegated a majority of those young men to a particular trade and to a particular area of the city. The first men that were already situated were all located around the Owode -ketu- alapere axis with sole business concerns bothering on recycled metal. The young men that left the village to the city had no choice but to have Owode as their point of entry and by extension, metal recycling as a preference for business. Over the years, Owode had become a mecca of some sort to a majority of our people with spanning business interest around the industry. The big disadvantage of this arrangement was that the young men lost out from other happenings around the city of Lagos and as such from other business opportunities. My father highlighted the biggest problem that I had overlooked initially "what if one of the earlier settlers had encouraged them to go to school ?","what if they were allowed to explore other business concerns that would have exposed them to the world ?" but that did not happen as they did not know any better. They were merely following in the footsteps of the pacesetters. Obviously, the impact of these trends was devastating as most young men from the village did not see education as important. A decline and deep hole still exist from that miscalculation. So what if the women were allowed to maximize their potentials? We would have had women as pacesetters to their kids. We would have had an exponential growth in the likes of my dad and a few of my uncles . A ripple effect would have been generated. An effect that would have had an enormous impact on the general well being of our community.
"some of the best people to invest on in a country are women" Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela
It is not late to salvage this declining state. We would be doing humanity a good deed if we collectively push for women to reach their potential and aid them to unleash the power of women so that we can secure the future for all. Let us all be positive first influences in this generation. Let our actions inspire the younger ones to surpass. Let our body language be of encouragement to attain unrestricted heights.
It Matters period.
Uchenna M Iwualla MD
It Matters.Period.