GENDER BALANCE: preach it until you see changes.

     You know that sermon that never seems to leave the mouth of a preacher? That one always finding a way out of his mouth every Sunday no matter the time or nature of the year?

Gender inequality and the long talks about it can never be enough. It is a topic we should never get tired of preaching about until we begin to see positive changes. Ranging from positions in offices, simple regards on the streets, in homes, in public transports, etcetera,.

A very disturbing example is an experience I had today while returning from work in a cab.

Rainy evening, heavy traffic, as people rushed to get home from work as early as the rain would allow. The cab was very silent, a very comfortable kind of silence, everybody enjoying the weather and the sound of the rain on the glasses until a scene in front caught our (myself and the other passengers) attention.

So these two vehicles in front of us were in a competition of some sort. It is important to note that at this point, we were at a narrow road, that is to say, a road big enough for just one vehicle with enough space for another but illegal by all standards. These two vehicles were; one very big and the other very small. Funny enough, the smaller vehicle was in layman's words, ‘ dragging for space ’ with the bigger one. It was quite interesting as we watched the dangerous yet amusing fight from behind. There were comments like, ‘ this person driving this small car has mind o’, ‘this big car too is very stubborn’ until we somehow miraculously saw the faces of the two drivers. It will impress you to know that the driver of the big vehicle was a ‘woman’ while the driver of the other vehicle was a man. From this point, the music changed. The two drivers finally had names and the comments too. ‘ This woman is stubborn o, she doesn't even want to give space. She's behaving like a Lagos woman, she's very crazy ’. Finally, this unofficial fight ended and the small vehicle overtook and went forward. 

I'm laughing here- as if on cue, the driver of my cab immediately took over, ‘ dragging for space ’ with the woman with silent threats and at an outrageous speed. And oh this woman kept on. She didn't relent because, without sentiments, the road was hers. Evil got its way and it so happened that the bigger vehicle scratched the smaller one.

Cutting this story short, a very interesting and unbiased show quickly turned into a gender competition. How?

These men, (if I may add that there were just two girls in my cab- myself and a lady I leave work with), began to make irritating comments. One said, ‘ as the woman saw that it was a man, she'd have let him pass for peace to reign ’. How?

     Let us begin to consider the rights of women as important. Let us talk to ourselves and preach truth to ourselves. A passenger even saw it necessary to state that, ‘ if it were a man, he'd have slapped him but since it's a woman and she's just troublesome, he'd let her go ’. 

The driver parked in front of the woman and got down. Both drivers exchanged words and as the woman refused to feel little or let down, the driver looked for more trouble. This man made a comment that hasn't left me- he replied to her saying she wouldn't take responsibility for any damage by stating that she ‘ doesn't talk like a mother ’. I do not know at what point this ‘ man ’ recognised that the ‘ woman ’ he decided to make trouble with was old enough to be his mother.

I couldn't hold it anymore and I directed a question at the man who'd earlier made the statement that the woman should have let the other driver pass because he was a man. I asked him, ‘ excuse me Sir, are you educated? ’. He replied that he had his masters. Wow! I didn't speak further and I think my silence made him realise that he'd said something wrong because he made an attempt to apologise. 

On behalf of all the official and unofficial advocates of  WOMEN RIGHTS, I want to kindly ask that women should kindly be treated as HUMANS. No, do not give us the ‘ special ’ rights accrued to MEN, give women a chance to be HUMAN BEINGS.