Education: In The Spirit Of NAWOJ Call For Women

Penultimate Saturday, the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Rivers State held the first ever South-South zonal meeting / conference in Port Harcourt. Though it was not a day for giving speeches, speeches were made that could turn around the lives of women in Nigeria for the better.

Among the various speeches that were made, three stood out: the one by the Chairman of NAWOJ, Rivers State, the one by the Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence Nemi, represented by Mrs Mac O. Solomon, and the one by the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs Ibim Semenitari.

Of these three, the speech by Mrs Semenitari served more like a call to arm for women in the Nigerian State, using NAWOJ as a pedestal.

In her speech, most of which was extemporaneous, the State Information boss harped on what NAWOJ as journalists could do to draw women out of the doldrums of mediocrity in their aspirations to come out tops in their chosen areas of endeavor.

She specifically adviced NAWOJ to celebrate every woman’s success in Nigeria as a way of creating role models in order to encourage the girl-child in a male-dominated society like Nigeria.

While she clearly sort to charge  NAWOJians to be role models, and also create role models, she, perhaps, ostensibly did not bargain for the fact that she, herself, was part of that personality in her speech to serve as a role model.

During the speech, she narrated her ordeal and experiences as a young journalist in Nigeria’s centre of communication, Lagos, amidst domineering males.

According to her, she pulled through all odds to ascend positions, robbing shoulders with some males and exceeding others in performance.

As a woman who married early, she was not only able to have all her four children in the heat of pressure from the job, but also excelled, wining various accolades in the process.

Her citation during the conference says her cabinet is parked full with local, continental and international Awards. They include continental merit Award (2009), Distinguished service Award (2006), Rainbow Book Club Writer of Note Award (2006), CNN/Multichoice Certificate of Communication (2005).

Others are Sonny Odogwu Business Reporter of the year (2003), Nigeria Leadership Award (2003), Bank of the North Financial Reporter of the year (2003) and CNN African Journalists of the Year Award, 2

nd Prize, Print Category (1999).

Beyond growing through the ranks to become an Editor, she had also worked for various notable media organisations, which include: BCC World Service Trust, Broad Street Journal (Published by Tell Communications); Tell Magazine; Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Pensylvania, USA; Newswatch; Sunray Group, Port Harcourt; EKO Magazine (Newswatch Group); and Daily Times of Nigeria.

She also set her own business concern, Shophar Nigeria Limited, Publisher of “Business Eye” Magazine, and became the Chief Executive Officer / Editor-In-Chief.

Mrs Semenitari, the citation noted “has demonstrated that where there is a will, no barrier can stand firm for long. She has conquered obstacles, especially in a male-dominated environment, and has risen to become one of the shining stars of her generation.”

Her emphasis for NAWOJ to develop the will to conquer all odds in their aspirations and excel reminds one of the story of current Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who, like iron through the furnace, went through thick and thin to become Liberia’s and Africa’s first female President.

Born October 29, 1938 in Monrovia, she studied economics and Accounting from 1948-1955 at the college of West Africa, Monrovia.

She married early, precisely at 17 years old, to James Sirleaf, and travelled with him to the USA in 1961, and continued her studies, earning an accounting degree at Madison Business College, in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1970, she studied at the Economics Institute, an affiliate Summer Programme of the Department of Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

She also studied Economics and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government from 1967-1971, gaining a Master of Public Administration.

Having equipped herself educationally thus far, the government of William Tolbert invited her to Liberia, her native land where she served as Assistant Minister of Finance from 1972-1973. While in that position, she attracted attention with her famous “Bomb Shell” speech to the Liberian Chamber of Commerce.

In the speech, she alleged that the country’s corporations were harming the economy by hoarding or sending their profits to overseas. She subsequently resigned after disagreeing with the Government on spending, but was later re-appointed Minister of Finance in 1979-April 1980, when Master Sergent Samuel Doe seized power on the 12

th of April 1980 through a military coup.

   It is important to note that from the point at which Sirleaf got the relevant education, which made her relevant in the governance of her country, she was never distant from power.

Following the Samuel Doe Coup, President Tolbert was assassinated and all but four members of his cabinent were executed by firing squad.

Sirleaf was offered the post of president of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment in the government, but had to flee the country, in November 1980 after publicly criticizing Doe and the ruling People’s Redemption Council over their management of the country.

She initially moved to Washington, D.C to work for the World Bank, before moving on to Nairobi, Kenya, in 1981 to serve as Vice President of the African Regional Office of Citibank.

Her first direct involvement in Liberian Politics was in 1985 when she resigned from Citibank and became directly involved in the country’s election that year. After then, she worked for Equator Bank.

In 1992, Sirleaf was appointed as the Director of the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Africa at the rank of Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General, from which she resigned in 1997 to run for president in Liberia.

It is worthy of note that during her time at the United Nations, she was one of the seven internationally eminent persons designated  in 1999 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to investigate the Rwandan genocide, one of the five commission chairs for the inter-congolese Dialogue, and one of two international experts selected to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women, and women’s roles in peace building.

She was the initial chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and a Visiting Professor of governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (JIMPA).

To ascend the presidency, Sirleaf defeated Liberian’s popular football idol, George Opong Weah in 2005, while her greatest opponent Winston Tubman boycotted the run-off election to hand her a second tenure in 2010.

From her first tenure till date Sirleaf had brought about numerous remarkable developmental changes that has gradually improved the economy of Liberia, much more than the previous 23 presidents of Liberia.

All of these achievements may not have been possible if Sirleaf had not taken the pains to fortify herself educationally, in the midst of all odds.

No doubt, the theme for the penultimate Saturdays NAWOJ Zonal Meeting, “Gender Balancing: the role of Education; aims to serve as a clarion call for NAWOJians to spearhead the emphasis for women to fortify themselves educationally, in order to place themselves in good stead to be able to vie for positions in Nigeria.

In the words of the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, “Education has been seen as the foundation for all forms of development. It is an entry point to other opportunities. As much as education is important for every one in the society, it is especially significant for girls and women.”

Buttressing this, she quoted Dr James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey of Ghana, saying “if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”

It is perhaps, in cognizance of the afore-stated quote as a fact that the present Rivers NAWOJ executive seek to improve the girl-child educationally and subsequently woman in Rivers State through the provision of the proposed Information Technology / Communication Skills / Adult Education Resource Centre in Omoku and Ahoada.

According to the State NAWOJ Chairman, Dr Enale Kodu “This should serve as a tip of the iceberg of what we (NAWOJ) as a body are required to do for our women, if we want them to aspire favourably with their male counterparts in the society.