Women of the Year 2014
On the literal side of things, please tell Ayi Kwei Armah that the Beautiful Ones Are Born and gradually taking over. That is why I will never spend my money watching Chippendales. Yes, men are handsome, but most sponsors put their money on beauty queens not six-pack and ripped abs. Again I confess I love […]
On the literal side of things, please tell Ayi Kwei Armah that the Beautiful Ones Are Born and gradually taking over. That is why I will never spend my money watching Chippendales. Yes, men are handsome, but most sponsors put their money on beauty queens not six-pack and ripped abs. Again I confess I love women.
I was born by an extraordinary woman who raised eight lovely children by working herself to the bones. She got so tired she went home to rest before she could see them fully bloom. Of that number, two are women and mothers in their own rights. Me, God has blessed. Of the three that call me father, two are lovely girls, the flowers around my garden and the apple of my eye. Each time I read ‘celebrity divorce cases’ in the press, I wonder how my wife copes without that date with a divorce lawyer. Rough as I am, my missing rib would not have fitted the rib of another, she cradles me, loves me, mothers me and is the best friend who daily doubles as my shrink.
I know you’re looking back at the title of this piece; please be reassured, this is not a eulogy to the women in my life, but it could well have been. Every night before I sleep, I make sure the doors are firmly shut and that my ladies are all in safe and sound. It is a man’s sacred duty. When my kids go to school, I look forward to their return, even if it’s just to heckle them. They have never scaled the bar I set for them but they are working at it.
On the night of April 14-15, 300 Chibok schoolchildren with dreams of life outside their school walls had their dreams stultified that night by a murderous marauding group called Boko Haram. From that night, they became slaves of their captors, not to be seen or heard from, except in a poor video shot by a maniac and too emotionally devastating to be watched twice.
Over 200 0f those girls are in their hands. Their parents wake up at midnight, tiptoe to their rooms to see the clothes where they hung, the toys their cold beds untouched. In our traditional society where the identities of parents are subsumed under the names of their children, neighbours want to call these parents by their children’s names but stop halfway. The parents have become zombies, walking without moving; watching without seeing; talking without speaking –the tragic reality of the past nine months and counting. The state that swore to protect them has reneged. It lied about their rescue, and then tried to ridicule their plight, it tried to buy their parents loyalty and to divide and denigrate those who stand with them. It daily lies about rescue plans but does nothing in that direction.
By the last count, eleven of the girls’ parents have died, unsung and unmourned by their own children. The rest are clinging on the veneer of hope. To them I give my Women of the Year 2014. An Amazon has stood by them and become the prickle of our dead conscience. As a former World Bank executive and a former minister, Obiageli Exekwesili could have chosen the cosiness of an office and the warmth of a swivel chair, as an Ibo woman from the southeast she could have turned the other eye, but she stands under a tree, rain or shine, defied threats to her life and efforts to chip at her chastity. For standing against tyranny and the forces that want to bury our conscience, Ezekwesili shares the gold as my Woman of the Year Award 2014.
Most of us have just returned from reunion with loved ones. Such prospect looked dim in July when Ebola sneaked into town and threatened to take remnants of armed robberies, rituals and poverty. One woman lived true to her Hippocratic Oath and put her life on the line – a true patriot. Our country remains alive and active due to the vigilance of Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh. For paying the supreme sacrifice for a nation that hardly shows gratitude, she picks the gold as another Woman of the Year 2014.
I hate to end the year on a grim note. The light at the end of the darkness and gloom came when the Super Falcons won the African Women Championship in Windhoek, Namibia. In Montreal, the Super Falconets bowed to the Germans, but not before they had played their hearts out and remained inconsolable. They showed uncommon patriotism and qualify to win my 2014 Women of the Year Trophy. Happy 2015.