ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES
Two days ago I had cause to rewatch Senator Florence Ita Giwa’s interesting perspective on the raging controversy between the Senate President, His Excellency Godswill Akpabio and the Kogi Central District senator, Barrister Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Many people, including, Rufai Oseni and Ayo Marie-Ese, misunderstood and disagreed with Ita Giwa’s perspective on the issue of sexual harassment and why certain levels of women should be seen to have outgrown such harassments when they attain certain positions in their careers. Quintessential Ita Giwa, she stood her ground and made sure she educated the TV anchors and some unfriendly audience on her points.
The former Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on National Assembly Matters and one of the most outspoken agitators of the Bakassi people was simply amplifying a very popular theory of feminism as advanced by the American activist and writer, Marie Shear who defined feminism as; “a radical notion that women are people”.
Marie Shear’s definition of feminism is the most appropriate and aligns with my personal philosophy of feminism which are obvious across the corpus of my films, poems, plays and essays which tilt feminists, even though I prefer to identify as womanist. Women should see themselves as people and not some sexual objects or pretty props that could be used to blackmail men. A woman makes herself less powerful when she is always accusing men of sexual harassment. Such a woman would be indirectly and maybe, unknowingly, giving out the impression, that the only thing appealing about her is her beauty or that she is as powerful as the piece of sweet meat in between her legs. That’s disrespectful of women.
Senator Ita Giwa also pointed out that she doesn’t believe in “Affirmative Action” for women. That should have given those who misjudge her argument a better perspective of where she is coming from. Affirmative actions, while meant to give minorities a seat on the table and voices on issues could be misinterpreted to mean that women and those who benefit from Affirmative Action are less suitable for certain positions and responsibilities than their counterparts who competed on neutral platforms to rise to where they got to in life.
When someone at the level of Natasha comes out in public to accuse her presiding officer of sexual harassment, it makes little sense. Everyone can understand it when less powerful women and girls are made to pass through such harassments by those who are a lot more powerful than they are, but not Natasha. Girls and women can only be sexually harassed because it is believed that they cannot stand up for themselves. That they are not powerful enough to resist attempts by a more powerful man to take advantage of them, sexually. A Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any country for that matter cannot be sexually harassed.
I cannot say that Senator Akpabio did not make passes at Akpoti-Uduaghan, but I am sure that the lady Senator has the powers to decline respectfully or even accept. She cannot be laid without her consent, and as an adult, who is powerful and wealthy, she cannot stop people from admiring her or even imagining things with her on the bed. The good thing is that through a dint of hardwork and God’s grace, she has been elevated to a position in the society that no one can sexually harass her. She can speak up for herself.
If Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan believes that she was been denied some of her rights and privileges in the Senate, then, she should also know that some of her male counterparts do not also get what they believe they deserve from the Senate President. These men might have had some personal fallouts with the Senate President. It could be on the basis of politics, business or any other thing, but they might not come out to tell us. Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan should be able to see herself as equal to her male counterparts in the Senate who could be punished or deprived of some privileges at the discretion of the Senate President.
In trying to portray themselves as feminists, many women are guilty of the most unfair characterisation and objectification of women. The easiest way to gain the sympathy of people is for a woman to come out in public and accuse a man of sexually harassing her. Many of such cases have been proven to be false alarms even in the Western world where such accusations are not taken lightly. It is no longer always the case that once a man is accused of sexually assaulting or harassing a woman, he goes to jail or he is thrown out of his job. Men get listened to now, and there have been many instances where men get acquitted and the women are made to pay damages for false accusations.
It should also be noted that it is not a crime for a man to admire a woman to the point of asking her out, just like it is not a crime for a woman to make suggestive moves towards a man with the intention of seducing him. What would become a crime is if one tries to force the other to get involved with them against their will. Women also admire men and try to make passes at them. We fall more easily than women fall for us, but there are still other special men who are quite disciplined and wouldn’t fall. Would it be correct for the man to accuse that woman of sexually harassing him when she starts being less friendly?
Senator Ita Giwa is one of the most outspoken women politicians of her generation, who has found herself, many times, as the only woman in rooms dominated by men, but was never intimidated by the presence of men. She had quarreled with men and even fought with men on the field of politics, but she knew that it would be derogatory to women if she always comes out to accuse men of sexual harassment whenever she couldn’t get what she wanted. She rather focused on the politics of the issues and fought it out. At 79 years of age and given the positions she had occupied, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan couldn’t ask for a better role model.
