Edem Dorothy Ossai – Founder & Director MAYEIN
Speaker at African ChangeMakers Women Network Event
March 2022.
Theme: Stopping Bias Start with YOU.
Thank you Africa Changemakers Initiative, it is a great platform. I think your mission statement, as demonstrated by today’s convening is something welcoming and a development landscape.
Let me thank the men who are here too. Often when we say gender, I don’t know what has happened in Nigeria. It’s a word that has become qualitative for women. It’s not true. Gender covers men and women. And in fact, in societies where the definitions are no- binary, it covers others too.
So this is a gender neutral platform, we must do better to signal to you that you’re welcome as foreign actors. If we continue to grow ourselves and talk to ourselves, we’re preaching to the converts. We have you in the midst of these conversations so that you know, we can lessen the tensions. There are too many tensions now in society because women are certainly aware of their rights and we didn’t equally educate men about the knowledge of women’s rights, to reduce the friction, avoid it and we should do better.
I confirm all of you men here the status or the title of women’s advocates of Africa, it’s an honorable title a man can have and I think you should you know, find a way to beat your chest proudly. You are somebody who is concerned.
So we must re-examine our values, our beliefs, because we all have it. We have all been programmed. And it would interest you when you discover that you yourself, you’re perpetuating certain biases and you don’t even know. So, one of the tasks I encourage people to do when I go into spaces is to draw picture of a boy and a girls. When you have that picture, you’re having an exercise with yourself.
Basically, you can start writing what is acceptable? What do you feel? What do you believe? What do you hold in your mind and in your heart dearly as something that is acceptable for boys, and behaviors that are acceptable for the girl?
We have some laws in Nigeria for instance, the police Act One of the provisions in police Act says that an unmarried police officer who becomes pregnant should be terminated, unless she is brought back at the discretion of the Inspector General.
All human beings are of equal and we have equal value. The sacredness of your life as a male is just as sacred as a female being is just as equal to the sacredness of your being. As the fundamental, I am just sacred, my life must be just as you known, protected. My life is just as worthy, valuable sacred as yours.
If I had a set of rules in my house, and then my household expanded from two members to a six member household, well, the rules that I was practicing when I was a two member house will not be as applicable when I’m a 10 member household. It doesn’t you know, you have to be able to re-evaluate or re examine things, having done those tests, and I’m trying to make this as practical as possible.
Because at the end of the day, we’re very good at pointing fingers, but we neglect the role that we play, perpetuating or reinforcing a lot of the barriers that young women and young girls face.
As women we must not receive leadership as tokens. We must not also only receive leadership as affirmative action, we must prepare for leadership because you are going to be tested by people for what you fought for and space you demanded at the table. There’s onus on you because everybody is watching to see you fail.
I saw in the new dispensation where women will be more involved in leadership. There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny of women to see what kind of leadership you bring to the table, whether it’s in business, where we are now seeing the next future as strongly as executives in banks and financial institutions
Going forward, what one thing will you do? One, just one, if everybody wakes up today, and decides I want to do one thing, one thing that ensures girls or boys have equal opportunity to grow to develop, to participate, to add value.
Men alone we cannot develop Nigeria. Women alone will not be able to develop Nigeria. We are co-actors co-developer, we must work hand in hand we must complement each other. So gender spaces don’t signal war they should not signal war. Gender is not all men should not be threatened. However, patriarchy must be uprooted. Anything that says that you know the value of one life is higher.
Automatically one person should have opportunities to be an economic actor, should have equal opportunities in political space. That’s simply what gender equality is asking for. Every boy and every girl has equal right to participate in the economic, social and political span of any society, including my society, Nigeria.
Therefore, make a commitment today, find something, one thing and make an active commitment and begin to practice it, so that we don’t just engage in a talk shop, whether through this platform and convening.
About the Speaker: Edem Dorothy Ossai is a lawyer with over 15 years working in child rights advocacy and the education sector. She is the founder and current director of MAYEIN, a non-profit based in Nigeria working to advance young people’s development through equity in education, entrepreneurship development and practical civic engagement, ensuring that girls are not left behind.
Edem initiated Girls without Borders, a school-club-based program that teaches adolescent girls about their rights and how to exercise their own agency. As a result of her work in girls’ education and agency, she was appointed an Echidna Global Scholar in 2021 by the Brookings Institution, Washington DC and has since published several resources including a policy brief on gender responsive education in emergencies in Nigeria
Presently serving as a country consultant for the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) in Nigeria. Edem holds a master’s degree in international development and policy from the University of Chicago, An Inaugural Obama Foundation Scholar and Mandela Washington Fellow.
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