Dear Nigerian women, you are the only one who can decide your place in life.
No matter how hard they try to undermine our position and influence in the scheme of things,
No matter how they consistently disregard our immeasurable contributions on our home frontiers and the society at large,
Regardless of their unyielding insistence in relegating our very existence to that of mere appendages to men,
We stand
Tall like an Iroko tree.
unyielding, unbending,
We will not give in!
Be it the pastors,
Be it the traditional rulers,
Be it the political leaders,
Be it the Mr.Nobody on the streets,
Be it a fellow woman who somehow have arrogated herself to the position of chief gatekeeper of patriarchy!
We will not give in.
We have and will continue to venture into territories many of our mothers and grandmothers feared to venture into.
We are the generation of Nigerian women that will clear the bush paths for the next generations of women to walk through freely.
And when the fear associated with patriarchy causes them to go low (jokingly or otherwise)
We put on our power suits, high heels, lipstick and smiles, and we catwalk into our boardrooms to shatter some damn glass ceilings!
That table in a corner of a tiny office,
That car trunk you do business from,
That salon,
That classroom, that lecture room,
That hospital ward,
That small kiosk, the shop in a mall.
That driver seat of a taxi,
That sewing and over locking machine,
That tray on your head,
That industrial gas cooker,
That well furnished corner office in a big multinational,
That off shore oil rig,
That aircraft aisle you walk up and down,
That pilot’s cockpit,
That plot of land you cultivate.
Whatever that thing is, if you earn legitimate income from it, that is your boardroom!
Dear Nigerian women!
Only you can decide where your place is.
So get up and step out.
Step Misogyny on the head and crush patriarchy into the dust as you make your way to your individual boardrooms.
Dazzle chauvinism into blindness as your skilfully display what you are capable of.
Stand tall!
Unbending, unyielding!
Women! You hold up the other half of the sky!
Written by Daisy Ify