By Godwin Ajom
In a swift reaction during a knowledge enhancement meeting aimed at mobilizing support for Affirmative Action for women and the passage of the Gender Equality and Opportunity (GEO) bill in the Cross River State House of Assembly, Gender and Development Action GADA, has distanced itself from the recent appointment of 50 aids by the University of Calabar (UNICAL) Students Union Government (SUG) President, Blessing Alims.
Expressing displeasure in the development, the Co-founder and Board Member of GADA, Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, said the appointment of 50 aids by Blessing Alims is not the kind of leadership that her organization preaches.
She said the cause of actions of such appointment is mentorship deficit, a problem that she said her organization is planning modalities to tackle.
She noted that months after her organization collaborated with other organizations and groups to front the first female UNICAL SUG President, the appointment of 50 aids was received as a shock.
“We have wrestled with the issues of mentorship over the years and one of the issues we have is mentors and mentorship deficit and inappropriate culture for mentorship. Even the Mentees themselves aren’t open to being mentored. We need to think more about how to cross the rubicon. Many of us as development practitioners today, were nurtured by Dr. Aka Williams, several decades ago, and that is how we all transitioned into this kind of space.
“But you know, the Mentees and Mentors relationship is a big problem: only recently in Cross River State, We worked collectively with many NGOs and groups, Gender and Development Action (GADA) inclusive, to get the first female SUG President in UNICAL, and only for us to read a week or so ago, that she has appointed 50 aids, and we are like, really?
“We have a lot of work. We at GADA are very conscious that this is not the kind of leadership we are advocating for when we get women into positions. We are looking to increasingly get first female Leaders into leadership positions but women should know that they are actually door openers.
“If they don’t handle the door well enough, and keep it open for other women, we may end up having those doors closed again, and it would be very difficult to convince anyone to support more women in those positions. We are very mindful of these ceiling breakers. We are very mindful of the track records of all of you. We would want to have a session with all of you female first-timers in leadership. For at least a pragmatic lesson and experience sharing.
Speaking on the imperatives of the GEO bill in the State House of Assembly, Honorable Mercy Akpama, representing Yakurr 2 State Constituency in the House and Chairman House Committee on Women Development and Social Welfare, said the “Gender Equality Bill or Gender Equity bill should not be debated”.
Akpama insisted that she will present her bill and assured it will scale through: “I don’t feel comfortable being the only woman in the State House of Assembly, but am not intimidated at all. I am equal to all the 24 men. I have 12 by my left and 12 by my right, so we muscle ourselves and get things done.”
The women advocate averred that the main imperatives of the bill center on gender equality, violence against women, people living with disabilities, and the youth for the betterment of all.
She said that the word ‘equality’ is being disputed by some male lawmakers at the National Assembly; a situation that is giving room for the word to be replaced with ‘equity’.
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