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Funmi Iyanda
Lagos, Nigeria
Funmi Iyanda is a multi award-winning producer and broadcast journalist. She is the CEO of Ignite Media and Executive Director of Creation Television
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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Hope Rising

Hardly ever in the Nigerian media space do you see powerful and well-written pieces by women. It is not because there are no women who can write well or who have brilliant informed opinions about any and every subject under the sun. The new Nigerian female lights in literature and blog ville shine bright. It just appears as though the print media seem even more Neanderthal than other industries in Nigeria. Too often do you find imbecilic, sad, sorry, idiotic articles, opinions and stories of, about, on and by women. Pity about that as I grew up idolizing the like of Ama Ogan. A few women bravely stand out, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, Ibim Semenitari and a smattering others.

Thus I was pleasantly surprised to find that the opinion page of Guardian on Wednesday had all three articles by women. The first one generated a sigh of frustration especially the line (in reference to the Gbenga Obasanjo saga) about "if his father-in-law was sleeping with his wife and she was a victim not a willing participant". Excuse me madam, child victims of incest or any other sexual crime are NEVER willing participants. They may become active participants because the abuser seizes their minds but NEVER are they wiling or consensual participant in what is an aberration. That is why I was so glad about the Lagos judge who refused to allow the family of an abused child settles out of court. The crime is against a minor who cannot defend herself and is therefore the charge and the responsibility of the state who must defend him or her. We must develop zero tolerance to child sex offence and begin to prescribe stiff penalties for offenders. Sorry I digress.


Anyways, back to guardian, the second article was good, raising important issues about the need to accept our areas of dysfunction and do something about it. The last one by Hope Eghagha was very good. It drives home the importance of doing away with feudal leaders and the need to examine, exhume and become intolerant of abusive sexual behaviours by men and women trusted with power and leadership. Well done hope, thank you Guardian.

People, if you find more well written articles, stories, features and intelligent interviews of, by, on women (not those over branded babes pushing something or saying what people want them to say) in the Nigerian media space, I beg l go like see am o.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funmi, you know i was thinking yesterday. How can 30 million (Nigerians that is, my statistics might be off) people, allow their lives and futures to be ruined by one person. ONE PERSON! Do d math. One to 30million, surely we have the numbers to take him on. But we do not, instead we continue to foolishly saying to each other e go better one day. Which day now? But how e go better, if you do not do something about it now in that direction. Will an egg cook, simply by putting it in a pot of water on the stove? NO! It needs fire to cook, and that’s what we (Nigerians) need, FIRE! We need to get up our behinds and do something, if you want change you need to fight for it. Nigeria is so morally bankrupt, it is disgusting. And it will continue until we as a society begin to fight for a change. No one wants to speak up, and anyone who does has no supporters and is basically OYO (on your own) to deal with the powers that be. This battle cannot be won by one man; we need an army to deal with the idiots in power. Anything won in battle is always cherished and preserved. So if we are waiting for change to just fall on our laps. Well do not hold your breath.
I think maybe we are cowards and are undeserving of betterment, because we are already dead. As they say a coward dies many times before his (physical) death.

Anonymous said...

Hope Eghagha is actually a man.Check it out.

Anonymous said...

your ideas are brillant.i love the way you write.how i wish i always have enough time to read your articles thoroughly since it is now expensive to browse from a local cafe.mean while,my regards to aunty seki.

Anonymous said...

have you read awaiting an angel by halen habila

Brilliantly Me said...

The article that almost made me lose hope was the one I read a while ago about the rape victims at one of 2face's parties. The author of the article (a woman), basically concluded that the women were dressed too provocatively and that is why they were raped. I quote, "But need we blame the rapists, what with the dressing of some of the girls, who were scantily dressed?"

Here is the link to the article
http://odili.net/news/source/2007/nov/11/424.html

Mojirayo O. Adepoju said...

Ms Funmi beautiful.
You are right on point about this women for/on /about women writing.I have also come across articles written by women for and/or about women and i found them to be profound and totally liberating. However, only few women who are willing to invest their time in writing for the liberating cause of other women that's because more women have simply choosen to focus on the superficialites of life rather than those things that'll project us to better self worth,on the other hand some people simply dont want change or anything that'll promote change therefore they critizise, condem and judge instead of embrassing the truth.