Christine Umoekereka is a philanthropy, a patriotic Nigerian who is passionate about the well-being and development of her country, despite the fact that she is not living in Nigeria.
Having lived in the developed world for over three decades, her only passion is to see Nigeria as one of the most developed and decent countries in the world.
Presently, she is a professional nurse based in Canada, a practicing nurse for over 20 years in the field of health care.
In 2015, due to her passion for her country, she embarked on philanthropic journey, which led her into spending thousands of dollars in collaboration with Agege Local Government Education Authority, Lagos State, Nigeria.
She embarked on a free health training for parents, teachers, non academic staff members and other stakeholders in Agege Local Government Area. The training attracted over 2.000 participants from around Lagos State.
Today, she is one of the advocates of change in different sphere of life, her passion for a better and prosperous Nigeria led her into putting a book together in to address some major challenges in Nigeria, and how, collectively, we can come together to change things for the betterment of our beloved country, where fairness, equality, considerations, peace and justice will reign.
Omoekereka is the author of “Our Collective Contributions To The Decadence in Nigeria.”
In this interview, she bared her mind on this year’s International Women’s Day theme.
Excerpts
The theme of this year’s international women’s day is Time To Break The Bias’, how does this relate to Nigerian women? In your perspective are they ready to break the bias?
Gender mainstreaming will always receive a front burner discourse around the world. Abigail Adam, the wife of the USA president fired the first salvo during the engineering of the American constitution.
She wrote a letter to her husband and urged him to “remember the women, who gave birth to you.”
Her call was noticed in the American constitution. Today, women suffragists, Anthropologists and Sociologists fought and gained ascendancy in many fields of human endeavours and they are still waxing stronger in the US.
Nigerian women are not sleeping and the global chorus for affirmative action sounds out daily.
I support women’s gender parity 100 percent. Women own the world; men are half balanced and naked without women. The potential of women is fully maximized on the table of leadership.
They deserve 50/50 modules from family to the municipal. The place of women in society can’t be undermined. Enough of women being marginalized, sabotaged and segregated.
There is need for a new world order towards women’s political leadership, cultural and value change; their wealth-well strengthens the cord of the world.
Women own the market, food, and life space. They are too powerful to be lowered. Women are the real and true agents of transformation. Life begins with the woman and so their place in nature must be respected.
In commemoration of international women’s day, it is obvious a statement be made and implemented by the National Assembly that without gender equality today, a sustainable future and an equal future remains elusive.
Women organisations worldwide recognize the efforts of some gender responsive government in Africa towards emancipation of their women citizens.
Rwanda is a case study and a model for other African countries to emulate
As the ‘ break the bias’ theme for this year’s commemoration is set on motion, it is needful, members and partners of women groups and advocates, take advantage to advance the csuse of gender parity in Nigeria which must seek to unify the tenacity in breaking the status quo and to celebrate the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women everywhere
Women in Nigeria have come along way since their voices were first heard in 1929 during the Aba Riot.
Today, woman like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala and Dorothy Akunyili have made known that their dynamism in their daily grind can no longer be subjected to patriarchal tendencies. This must be uprooted for society to develop equally.
Gender equality does not mean a reverse discrimination. The ascendancy of one does not mean the denigration or subjugation of the other.
Women must not be seen as an object of a domesticated wives or as a backbenchers.
As Martin Luther King jr stated, “a man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”
Similarly, a man can only relegate us if we, women, allow it to happen, we bent our backs for them to ride on it.
Saint Thomas Aquinas and Alberto Magnus speaking in the 17th century defined the woman “as an animal body, an imperfect man, dominated by passion and sensuality, carrying within herself the evil, which is an integral part of her makeup.”
Is this the perfect example of today’s women?. Common women, let’s raised our shoulders as high as it can go.
Women must therefore fight to break the yoke impose on them by institutions like religion, marriage, culture and politics.
They must fight for themselves and break the dependence on men. If you educate a woman, they would build the nation.
Women should take steps in Nigeria to prove that we can lead. Women are soft spoken, passionate, caring with motherly characteristics. Women should join together to help solve the problems that are ravaging now in our nations.
A plea to all the women around the nations, to our children, our husband, our brothers and sisters to stop the selfishness and greed that are causing us all pain, suffering and poverty.
If we, women, can come collectively to help solve this problem in our nation, then Nigeria will rise again and respect women impact to the development of our nation. The men will see that we can lead.
We need to do something for example like the brave woman of her time, queen Amina of Sokoto who stepped in and performed the leadership duties effectively. Nothing should stop any woman to assert her authority as a leader in the society if she has the potential.
A woman should not feel threatened or feel less adequate because of gender imbalance.
“What a man can do, a woman can do better,” so, they say.
As a women, don’t look at how the society define you but you define yourself in conjunction with your own known potential and fight for your rights and place in society.
Similarly, Queen Amina fought for her place, imprinted a legacy that contradicted all stereotypes of women’s leadership rights in Africa.
The take home, I will suggest to our African women to work hard on their potential in other to earn the respect in our society.
My clarion call for all Nigerians engaged in money rituals, kidnapping etc, Please stop these activities. I understand where the frustrations are coming from, I am sorry that you are all going though this ordeal, I deeply, from the bottom of my heart, feel you guys and empathize.
However, you are not solving any problem in the country, neither are you solving any problem for yourself too.
Rather, you are only compounding the problems we are already experiencing in the nation and making it worst for the innocent people.
“Fires cannot be used to fight forest fires.” It will go out of control as we have seen in our Nigeria today.
Reverse the case and imagine someone kidnapped you, your children or your family.
I plea with you in humility and as a mother to stop the killings and stop inflicting more pains to compound innocent people’s nightmares.
All Nigerian women please join hands with me to plea for the greatness of our nation. We come in peace and humility.