By TUNJI AJIBADE

Centre for Human Development (CHD), organizers of a writing competition to mark Ford Foundation’s 50 years existence in Nigeria with the theme:  Nigerian Women: Yesterday, today and tomorrow, had their reasons when they invited University of Lagos lecturer and award-winning author, Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, as the Chairperson for the award ceremony.

But they probably didn’t consider it ahead that the story teller in the professor of English would come to the fore. As they say, cover up a fire, its smoke will still escape. And it was fitting the story the NLNG’s Nigerian Literature Prize winner told as she performed her role as ‘the chair.’

She arrived the podium and said,  “I am always eager to participate in any activity that can empower our women.” Then she noted the larger number of males among the 22 writers which the judges nominated for the writing competition award out of  the 252 entries received.

The Chair read this as a positive development, and she went on to note that many of the women who have made it to the top in their careers got the assistance of men at one stage or the other. Her point was: women can’t do it alone, they need men to cooperate with them. “You will help as agents of change that we need on gender issues wherever you find yourselves,” she said, addressing the male nominees present at the event which took place at Ikeja Airport Hotel, Lagos recently.

Ezeigbo mentioned some of the challenges that confront women in her address. Education for women is good, it liberates, she pointed out. “But we still find ourselves a situation in our society in which the level of education of a woman does not necessarily change the way she is treated,  including someone like myself,” she added.  “Please allow me to tell you a story,” the prolific writer had continued. It would turn out that Ezeigbo’s story captured the very essence of why CHD organized the writing competition.

And the way she told it reeked of the story teller that she is. The reason she told it was equally clear to all present. It happened to her. What happened to her is a microcosm of what women still go through in some cultures.  “You see, it doesn’t matter that a woman is highly education, she is still treated like she does not matter,” she said.

There was a family meeting  her in-laws called not long ago. The professor’s husband was invited. Her children  –  boys and girls, were invited. As for her who was married into the family, “I was excluded.”  She arrived with her family for the meeting however.

While the wife of her husband’s elder brother was busy doing the cooking in the kitchen and was not bothered whether anyone invited her to the family meeting or not, Ezeigbo sat with her in-laws, waiting for the meeting to commence. It did not. Everyone wanted her out.

Her children did not know what to do. Her husband begged her to leave. The in-laws were angry, and they said so to her face. She had to leave, they insisted. She refused, saying, “You want to discuss land, my husband is here, all my children are here, but I am not invited. It doesn’t make sense. I should be here. I have been married into this family for more than thirty years. Do I not belong still?” Almost an hour passed. Everyone waited. No amount of begging could get her to move; no amount of  raging against her could.

“After a while, I just decided to walk out.” Ezeigbo sat at  another part of the family compound. “Where I sat, I was just thinking about myself: what kind of life is this? At my level, I can not be part of this kind of talk. I almost shed tears,” she told her attentive audience. Some ten minutes passed. The family sent someone to invite her to join in the meeting. Her husband’s elder brother’s wife who had been in the kitchen was also called in. They all had the meeting, and they took the decision together.

“Not only were we there in that meeting, we also signed the document that was produced at the end of the meeting, and my signature is there,” Ezeigbo announced to everyone. There was something triumphant in her voice when she said that. It was a flu. Her listeners caught it, clapping, obviously pleased that she made her point when it mattered. Everyone recognized the  little victory she scored in her little corner  on that occasion  –   one which signposts many of such womenfolk needs in the larger society.  “So I do not think we can over-emphasize the need to empower women,” she added, while calling on men to carry women along not only for the good of the family, but the nation at large.”