THIS IS TO CELEBRATE MY WIFE, EVERY WOMAN TODAY, AND SAY A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YEJIDE OSIBERU, THE BRAIN BEHIND ‘WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE’.
Today is International Women’s Day; the day of our mamas, sisis and omoges – all different appellations for the womenfolk in my country. The day to hug our Eves and acknowledge their awesomeness.
I like women, I indeed love them and I celebrate them today, just like I always do. Without women, we will not be here. Of what use is Adam’s emission without the egg Eve sheds? It is the woman whose egg accepts his ‘liquid’ and provides the fertile ground on which the seed germinates to yield the nine-month fruit. Little wonder the tag ‘womb-man’ was coined for them. They are the ones who keep life going.
I am not really a music person but Sola Allyson’s ‘Obinrin ni mi’ which translates as ‘I am a Woman’ resonates and is perfect for a day like this.
Now, this is not actually about paying lip service to the whole stuff. It’s time to actually change a lot of things pertaining to our Eves. Every woman is a girl and deserves to be treated as such. Every girl is a woman and should be treated just that way. We should show them more respect.
Lagbaja, the masked one, asked rhetorically in one of his songs “who is man without woman?” and answered, “Nothing, nothing at all.” Already, there is talk of the womenfolk breaking out of the cocoon and refusing to be tagged ‘weaker vessels.’
Can we as men begin to make conscious efforts to be better to this gender that though looks fragile, is nothing of such? Can we stop any form of humiliation and discrimination based on their anatomy and physiology? Can we again take the stand to treat them as fellow humans who are not in any way different? We can, we should!!!
Omo Baba mukomuko added in Who Man? “You cannot do without her, yet you disrespect her. The day she gets her due, mankind would discover justice long elusive.”
Women have a special place in humanity. Tend them like a garden that is dear to the heart, rid them of pains like you remove weeds and thorns. Let her blossom; don’t hold her back! Let her thrive, have her back! Let her bloom, take away her gloom!
Remember, Lagbaja said : “She bears with dignity, the stress of pregnancy. How dare you complain, it’s a daughter not a son? Would you have existed, were your mother never born? If you call yourself the stronger sex, let me see your hands in the air. Maybe you could bear the baby. What a sight it would be, to see man in labour.”
He then asked, “How would life be, a world without woman?” before answering “Empty as a ghost town…eerie as a graveyard.” I think the masked one has answered it all.
On a concluding note, I’ll still quote my favourite musician, Lagbaja, the masked one. He said, “Mankind shall never find justice, until first, we ensure justice between the sexes. For as the so-called stronger nations oppress the weaker nations, the stronger sex oppresses the weaker sex. May it not come to pass that someday, the extra-terrestrial cometh to oppress mankind.”
One point I will not fail to scratch however, is that women also have to quit being their own enemies. Women should help women thrive and climb to the peak. Humanity binds us all together. The genders should quit bickering. WE ALL ARE ONE! And so to my mother, my mothers, my wife, my friends and every woman in my life and the whole world, HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY. This post is for you!
OSCARPOEMS 