A Tribute to Readers: For and Against

Personally, there is no better accolade for me as a writer than readers who not only spend their time reading what I write but who also take time to respond and share their views. So many people from within and outside Nigeria have written about one Pedestrian Lawyer article or another and after six months of writing this column, I have no better way of saying thanks to the readers who make it worth while than giving up the page to some of their thoughts, albeit with a little editing.

RE: CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED DISCRIMINATION (for)

“It is quite true and an undisputable fact that our legislators at state and national level have displayed all kinds of reluctance towards legislative proposals that have to do with discrimination against women and women empowerment. Unfortunately, the judiciary and the law enforcement agents have not displayed enough commitment to the existing sketchy laws for protection of women. We hear cases of rape, child prostitution, and young girls forced into marriage and most times the culprits of these inhuman crimes are found freely walking our streets with the clear zeal to commit more of such offences.

It is very painful, the way and manner most men, and some women, due to their cultural beliefs, react to write-ups on protection of the rights of women such as yours. You hear things like: ‘These women have started again’, ‘these women should better go back to the kitchen where they belong’, ‘these women think they can be equal to men’, ‘they better stay where God placed them’. Misconceptions such as these are made by even people who are supposed to know better. Imagine in a family where the parents were faced with financial challenges and had to decide to withdraw some of the children from school. The first thing the head of the family (father) said was that all the girls would remain at home while the boys, as the future bread-winners of the family, would continue. This is despite the fact that the girls are doing better in their academics than their brothers. I think our legislators and people in government think this way too.

Finally, I want to assure you that all the campaign, protest and write-ups on the protection of the right of women such as yours will not go down the drain. It will impact on the way we think. Several people and families have witnessed one type of disaster or the other due to the failure to uphold the rights of their womenfolk; and some have changed for good.”
Umar Abubakar


“A friend and I read your article "Constitutionally Guaranteed Discrimination" last Tuesday in This Day. I am an American male and she is a Nigerian female. We both found the content of the article disturbing although viewing it from different perspectives. The callousness and smug hypocrisy of bureaucrats in Nigeria is scary. For a Nigerian male in power to dismiss the problem because they say it doesn't exist indicates that the issue of discrimination and abuse will not be solved easily or soon. We both applaud your exposure of these officials and beg you to continue to publicize the issue until it is brought under control.”
Ag & Ti

Thanks Umar, Ag & Ti for sharing your thoughts, please do everything in your personal lives to address whatever wrongs you can against women, children and all the disempowered.

RE: CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED DISCRIMINATION (against)
“Dear Ayisha,I read your article in today’s Thisday newspaper about section 26 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria. You said it is discriminatory against women. I totally disagree with you.
Sometimes these laws are made for specific reasons and there is nothing inequitable about it.For example, in the UK, If an unmarried British woman gives birth to a child and the Father is Not British the Child born has British citizenship but if an unmarried British Man has a child from a woman who is not British the child does not have British citizenship.
Also, a British man cannot simply apply for a British passport without the consent of the British Mother, the passport officials will want to verify the documents of the British mother before issuing the passport.
Should the British men start writing that the laws are biased?” Abraham Zika

Dear Abraham, I think you’ve answered your own question. Isn’t it possible that this particular protection for women has been granted to address a situation where women are historically disadvantaged?

RE: ARE OUR LEGISLATOR’S SERIOUS? (for)
“Good day Ayisha,
I find your editorial as to whether our Legislature are serious very interesting, although I must confess I have always overlooked your column until two weeks ago and I regretted that because against my erroneous presumption I find them very concise. “Them” because a review of your past write-up reveals consistency. Please keep this up. I will like to ask you if there is something within the sphere of law that an ordinary citizen like myself can do to challenge the irresponsible decision of our Legislature. It is one thing for you to write about it and it is another for us to read it but it is altogether a different thing to take it up with them, I believe it is our duty as citizens to demand good governance from our leaders and the lack of it is due to our individual selfish desires, in some countries there would have been a peaceful protest against such a sabotage on our future, union leaders and workers from different field would have marched to the street - the recent AIG bonus decision in the US is a good example- to challenge them. But while selfish ambitions pervade the society those of us not yet infected and still sober can pursue the mission of injecting some sanity into our society, but how do we go about it without violating the law?

Personally I am getting tired of just reading about the atrocities of our leaders and doing nothing and I wish the likes of Gani Fawehinmi still have health on their side-although the old man has paid his dues and whether we like it or not we owe him and his ilk a lot – he would at least know how to go about it within the confines of the law, since any unlawful approach to correcting the Legislature would only exacerbate the situation. That I am a graduate and a working class citizen of this country with few months to three decade of existence and I know nothing about our basic law tells you a lot about our woes in this country. But for how long shall we continue to lament our woes? I think it is time for us to raise our voice and cry out against bad governance until every one gets caught in the frenzy of demand for good governance otherwise these avarice-ridden politician turn Legislature will not only destroy our future but when they have finished they will start selling us into slavery once again, but come to think of it Ayisha are we not indirectly their slaves already? We toil till we become worn out, pay our tax all along and what do we get in return? Please Ayisha let me know if there is anything that can be done.
John Onibiyo

Thanks John. Apart from being happy with your response, you made me feel a bit sad that all I am doing is ‘writing’…but that is my method for trying to precipitate change, to share and try to precipitate outrage or action. Please act.
PS not surprisingly, there were no contributions ‘against’ the article ‘Are our legislators’ serious?’

Published April 14 2009