Today I take a trip through the minds of various women I have known. Who have given everything to have a home or children. Women,who have suffered through cruelty of a parochial society. I’m also dedicating this to some men who hace helped shaped my view of the feminine gender and have lived through the cause.
This is not a female liberation campaign. Its just a note to say thank you to women who understands what being a woman is and have fought for it against all odds!
Growing up with my mother was/ is a bitter sweet experience. She’d scold and beat if there are any infractions. Heaven bless you watch tv before (ITV),-instructional tv on NTA,or go to play on the balcony without permission. Oh you could watch videos,only on saturdays and its what she picks and that ranges from bigfoot,quo va dis to ABBA&boney M musical videos. I remember she’d give us an heavenly breakfast like toast,baked beans,omelete&cocoa;then a lunch of garri without sugar(I still can’t take garri with sugar) alongside “kulikuli” the amount of kuli kuli you get was dependent on how good your grades were that day in school. A lot of funny stories,one stands out right now,a kulikuli saga. I love that piece of snack! And I was aloted 2 this day I just wanted more,so I took 2 without permission needless to say that what happened after that will today be regarded as child abuse of the 1st grade.
In the midst of all these, I can’t remember her smiling,oh she played with us worked two jobs. Oh she had a husband but that’s a story for another day. I remember getting to my teens with so much anger towards my mum,how she was so strict,how she wouldn’t let us get bad grades in school-my brother has a lot of stories about that. I was so miffed that for a long time I was rebellious in thinking and everything I did determined not to be like her!
Then I turned 20,we became great friends and I started to see her life through her eyes and not my own tinted lenses…… I discovered that at 20 when I was still busy looking for myself, she was getting ready to be married. At 21 when I was fighting tooth and nail to get a university education she was getting married and carrying me. At 22 when I was in my second year in higher institution,she just had her first baby me! At 25 when I was serving Nigeria, she had had three kids and lost one to death. Trust me this is only part of what she’s been thruogh. But She stayed……
I travel thruogh the minds of a 21st century woman,who having seen how building a career can be detrimental to building a home, wants better for her and hers, but has to cope with all the social emotional psychological issues mitigating against her dreams. She however tries to juggle all these and works to be a woman!
Finally I say thank you to Prof Dipo Salami& Dr Chimaroke Anyadike who stands by woman rights and through their lectures in the halls of Obafemi Awolowo University they taught me to love being a woman. Not in words only but in action also.
Most my class mates won’t know this but Miss Akande though lived unconventional to the view of women in the academics,I loved because she was true to her.
So this note is for You,call you ma today no matter how horrible you think she was, to You career woman,know someone is saying a prayer for you. To my role model who turned 54 yesterday! You are truly a gem. To all men like mine who believes in their women,may you enjoy the woman of your youth.

“Love yourself;Love your neighbour;Love your country;above all these Love God,He is the essence of Your being”