The month of August is here again, and women in the South Eastern states are already in the mood for their annual summits in their various communities. The essence of the meetings, since inception, has been to find ways of helping in the development of the rural communities.
This annual assemblage of women, at one point, degenerated into a platform where the womenfolk flaunted wealth, elegance, and flowery radiance. Luckily, today, it has undergone a transformation and has eventually been shaped into a veritable vehicle for positive change.
The women no longer gather to quarrel over frivolities but to talk about how they can contribute to the growth of the community, knowing that the men need their help to move the communities forward. Their assistance became ever more important as the Eastern region, predominantly Ndigbo, appears to get little federal government attention, making them resort to self-help.
State governments and churches, at a stage, took interest in the August meeting. The governors gave it form when their wives began to reach out to the rural women, galvanizing them into action.
The churches, on their part, also made it a platform for evangelism, promotion of health, and provision of infrastructure for church use.
In Imo State, however, there seems to be no plans this year on the part of government for this annual ritual of the eves. Nevertheless, the meetings are holding.
In all probability, this year’s August meetings would centre on how many tangible structures the various groups have built or are about to build. We must, indeed, reexamine our concept of development in our communities since development is not confined to building halls, churches, skills centres, and hospitals. Human development, as a matter of fact, is key to the overall development of a society. Of what use is the infrastructure if the society is populated with miscreants and election riggers, drug addicts, and terrorists as we are experiencing in recent times?
This year’s August meeting gives the women a platform to discuss this growing anomaly of drug addiction and insecurity in the land. The do-or-die brand of politics we play should also feature in their agenda, especially as we expect a series of local government elections in the region. The women in the meetings are the wives, mothers, sisters, or even girlfriends of the men who spoil our country and our states. Through them, the known and unknown gunmen, the kidnappers, the armed robbers, the political thugs and professional killers could be reached and perhaps dissuaded from further carrying out their nefarious businesses, or offering themselves unwittingly to those who might want to use them to perpetrate violence in the states and the nation.
One of the lessons we’ve learnt in humanity is that the woman commands enormous influence in the family. Therefore, there is a sense in embarking on a crusade against all forms of violence through women. Just as eve offered an apple which Adam took without resistance, the women can also urge their children, their brothers and their husbands to reduce violence during elections, or to hands off kidnapping and to stop stealing from government.
What do the wives, mothers or sisters of governors, local government chairmen, legislators, party men and other men of influence discuss with them in the bedroom, on the dining table, at the sitting room? Do they push them too hard to smear their hands in corruption in a bid to acquire material wealth? Do they bother about how their men make the money? Or, do they sit back and relish the loot of their sons, husbands, and brothers, unconcerned?
At this August meeting, the women who prod their male partners into unwholesome acts while in public office or in government and other organizations should be instructed to retrace their steps. They should rather pull them back from pilfering public funds and rigging themselves into office.
Equally, they should talk about returning to the dining table most of our staple foods that have almost gone extinct, such as cocoyam (ede), three leaf yam (una), plantation, our local beans (akidi) as well as the vegetables that usually lined up the fences in our backyards. They should go back to subsistence farming to save their families from hunger.
Dr. Odu can be reached through dirimrich2018@gmail.com or SMS 07016722929