The Other Room

The Nigerian Internet has been buzzing following the recent speech given by her president on an international platform about his wife( and he gave that speech standing next to one of today's powerful women, the Angela Merkel)

Few days ago the world celebrated the girl-child. And with the accusations and counter accusations at the US presidential candidate, Donald Trump, over his derogatory remarks about women, the Nigerian president should have been more careful. Garba Shehu, his spokesperson passed it off as a joke. No matter, it was an expensive one; considering the timing of world events and at a very sensitive and unreceptive western audience. You should be reminded that these days, people are always up in their feelings, dissecting and scrutinising anything said.

More so, it goes to show why the gender equality bill is still a threat to his members of cabinet (and please gender equality is not about you and your husband fighting over who should be in which room at a given time). It further goes to show while there are just 3 female senators, there is a whooping 107 male senators. Little wonder Senator Oluremi Tinubu said she was 'scared'. Hopefully, that bill gets to see the light of day.

If you are good in body languages, you would have taken note of Merkel's stance. Not nice for Nigeria's PR.

But then again, despite all he said, all the chauvinists and the women who support or encourage them, directly or indirectly, should also note that he didn't keep his wife in the kitchen or any other room. She is a British trained beautician and does have a beauty parlour. He actually empowered his wife and equally doing the same for his daughters.

People in leadership positions need to understand their height of influence and quit with flippant talks. They have called it different names. From ' mere locker room talk' to 'just a joke' to 'it was just a male humour'. Just like Michelle Obama recently said, "strong men don't need to put women down to make themselves powerful".

The Nigerian seat of power needs to sit up and do the needful and stop committing gaffe after gaffe. This segment of his speech lacked tact and was very 'unpresidential'.

And on a lighter note, I would think twice about publicly humiliating my wife, especially if she 'belongs' in the kitchen.

Diamond in the rough.