The country and the woman

That time-old advice was relevant when Labaran first penned it in an August 2009 Daily Trust article. It still is relevant in her new book Saving Nigeria Through You: A collection of transformatory writings.The book brings together 32 articles Labaran penned throughout her career—starting right after graduating from Usman Danfodio University and working through the […]

That time-old advice was relevant when Labaran first penned it in an August 2009 Daily Trust article. It still is relevant in her new book Saving Nigeria Through You: A collection of transformatory writings.
The book brings together 32 articles Labaran penned throughout her career—starting right after graduating from Usman Danfodio University and working through the ranks of Radio Nigeria and lately an information officer at National Hospital, Abuja.
Some of the writings are unpublished, but they all aim to correct “cultural and religious fallacies, misapplication, misrepresentation and misconceptions bedeviling the success of Nigerians and Nigeria as a country,” Labaran says.
And, oh, how misconceptions abound! Think how Rebranding entered Nigeria’s lexicon and what Labaran terms “modernized begging”. One chapter argues the merits of value remodelling; another attacks the enemy within.
Beyond its philosophical stance, the book gets down and grimy at some point when it dishes out tips for healthy living, successful parenting, time management and managing your finances as a prelude to comfortable life after retirement.
Labaran chose to write about transformation, she says, guided by the fact that “saving Nigeria is a collective responsibility and our youth are a larger part of this nation who that when redirected and mentored appropriately can move the country to greater heights.”
That is, if the country can wave off corruption. But even then, she argues. Though an entire chapter is devoted to women playing stronger, more visible roles in curbing corruption, getting rid of the stink is the business of what it means to be a patriotic Nigerian. It isn’t about holding out for the right person to come along, but being that right person, and staying sincere.
“Since Nigerians know what is right but would not want to make the necessary collective sacrifice to achieve what they want, then we have a long way to go,” Labaran posits.
But her claim is unassuming, and ascribes her sources to the “books that I have read, the experiences that I have gathered over the years.”
Her experience has ranged from student to worker to wife and mother plugged into the media, healthcare and sorting out all its red tapes.
if a chapter on dressing leaves you pondering the significance of a Muslim woman’s dressing or battle of the sexes, then you are in right company.
Labaran’s second book, It’s a Woman’s World: A Eulogy of the African Woman pushes the concept of woman beyond the strictures of religious expectation into the realm occupied by the 50-foot woman. Both books are due for release shortly after Ramadan.
The nine chapters of Woman’s World gives consideration to who and what a woman is, touches on how the Bible and Quran define her, before settling into what it calls “woman in the eyes of the Nigerian man”.
Sure, a woman’s status in Africa might come out different from how the Western world looks at the woman, but that might also be considered a misconception. Labaran argues women have made their mark around the world, and the example isn’t Cleopatra but women quite closer to home. Abike Dabiri Erewa and Malawi’s first female president Joyce Banda come to mind.
So too are the haunting openings to each chapter of Woman’s World. One is a typical Hausa proverb, mother is supreme even if the father is a king, leaves plenty of room for thought.
Labaran surely isn’t advocating that women get into the ring with men. In fact, the opening to Woman’s World’s third chapter drags invokes Timothy Leary’s “Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
The shocking nuggets are part of what holds the force through each chapter of Woman’s World until the grit begins to hit home. And in addressing her countryfolk using her own experiences, Labaran falls back on Islamic wisdom she’s imbibed growing up that defines a woman as the daughter who holds open the door of heaven for her father, the wife who completes the religion of her husband, and the mother under whose feet paradise lies. The quote ends rather hauntingly: “If everyone knows the status of a woman in Islam, even men would want to be women.”