Empowering women for an impactful participation/representation in Nigeria 

“Women are the highest untapped reservoir of talent in the world”

What’s interesting is that I hear a lot of people saying, when talking about girls empowerment and women as well, they say ‘you’re helping women find their voices’. I fundamentally disagree with that. Women don’t need to find their voices. They need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen”.

In a country like Nigeria, with a female population of close to 50%, ignoring the influence of that population will mean using half of the nations resources to power and run the entire country. We don’t need rocket science to tell us any nation that fails to empower its full population will be impaired and will never reach its full potential 

The subject of Girl Child Advocacy is not new to all of us, but then regardless of the progress made in advocating the project of the Girl child, more sociocultural norms keep emerging to limit her potentials. At first i thought only uneducated people fail to advance her course but I realised later on that many educated men strongly believe she should not function outside the perimeter of the home.

 

There are different core areas in advocating for the girl child, and this is the center of my discuss. They include:

1. Protection of Girl Child against sexual and Gender based violence 

2. Advocacy for Girl Child in Politics

3. Advocacy for Girl child in Agro Business 

4. Advocacy for Girl Child in ICT 

5. Advocacy for Girl Child in Career pursuits 

6. Advocacy for Girl Child Education 

7. Advocacy for Reproductive and Maternal of the Girl Child. 

 And so much more.

 

Permit me to use the Phrase “Girl Child” it translates to the female gender generally.

Almost every woman who has dared to break the ceiling on most of these issues met a brick wall, set up by our sociocultural norms or some quarters religion. I have recently been following up the situation of Girl Child Education with Talibans, they have banned all girls from going to school. Malala who happened to be strong voice for girl child education in the middle East has recently been making efforts to help those girls. I pray she succeeds.

Isn’t it clear that if we educate the girls in northern Nigeria, figures of maternal and child mortality would drop? 

 

Isn’t it clear that if we educate the girls in northern Nigeria, we would raise more informed children? 

 

Do you believe, if more girls are educated in Nigeria, the issue of gender base and sexual violence would reduce? 

 

Would the inclusion of more women in politics and corporate organization be a game changer in our politics and corporate organization? With reference to Rwanda’s women composition in their Parliament

 

Over the years, society has defined women as the weaker version of men, as subordinates. We are born into the school of thought that we can not be something, or do certain things because of our gender.

Being a woman authomatically indicates vulnerability in so many corners of the world and there are distinctions, exclusions and restrictions made on the basis of sex and gender. Affecting the purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, freedom, and exercises by women.

If you see something you don’t like, speak out, change it.

If you have no reason to create change, do it because you will have daughters someday and they will live in the world you have created for them. And if that reason is not enough, do it because you are human. And we owe each other the responsibility of having each others back, Through and through.

We are the people. We are the change. It is our first responsibility as humans to question whatever isn’t right. And as women to stand by each other.

Cheers to all the women out there. May we know them, may be raise them, may we be them.

Sent from my iPhone

2020 READING CHALLENGE

READ 1 BOOK IN 2 WEEKS. A TOTAL OF 26 BOOKS ON ONE YEAR📖📖📚📚

1. A biography

2. A political book

3. A Book about world power and economics

4. A book on self improvement

5. A book older than 100 years

6. A book about Israel, China, India, and US

7. A business book

8. A book by William Shakespeare

9. A book on love and relationship

10. A book published in 2020

11. An Islamic book

12. A Nigerian book

13. A Joyce Meyer book

14. An NYC bestseller

15. A book with a movie

16. A book with a purple cover

17. A book on poetry

18. A book with a black cover

19. A book on marriage

20. A book you own but haven’t read.

21. A childhood fairy tale

22. A nobel price award book

23. A book with the person on the cover

24. A John Grisham book

25. A book by an author you admire

26. A book on leadership

SET MBBS/BDS. 2017/2018

So I’m dedicating this piece to the entire set of MBBS/BDS 2017/2018. FOR ALL THE TIMES WE’VE STOOD BY EACH OTHER, AND ALL THE TOUGH TIMES YET TO COME. TO ALL THOSE DEPRESSED AND DOWN. AND WORRIED. ABOUT ONE THING OR THE OTHER, THIS IS FOR YOU!!!

“Sometimes we are exhausted from trying to be stronger than we feel.”
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

“Sometimes, the pressure from school, friends, family, relationships” and all areas can be suffocating. School can be mentally, financially, morally, and academically draining at the same time. And no one understands really.

DEPRESSION IS NOT WRITTEN ON THE FACE. PEOPLE WHO COMMIT SUICIDE DON’T LOOK LIKE SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THEM. THEY LOOK PERFECTLY GREAT AND OKAY ON THE OUTSIDE. BUT THEY ARE LONELY ON THE INSIDE.

SOMETIMES we need to focus and build on ourselves. Build our self confidence so that life will have a meaning or purpose for us. Apart from the medicine and surgery what else does life really mean to us? We look so much at who or what people should be to us that we forget who we should be to ourselves. We only have one life. And we don’t get to choose it. The best we can do is make the most out of it.

When purpose is undefined abuse is inevitable.

However, Because in the real sense. Life is too damn short and too damn long to live in sadness or being the regular or Even sad doctors. Life needs to have a meaning to us outside medicine. Otherwise, the wick of life will burn quickly to the bottom without us knowing profound joy.

So many times what people need is not a brilliant mouth that speaks but a gentle heart that listens. Be kind for everyone is fighting a battle. And if you wanna know how good people are, all you have to do is look. “DEPRESSION EATS LIKE CANCER”.

The worst type of crying isn’t the kind everyone could see–the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there was no way to comfort it. A section withered and became a scar on the part of your soul that survived.

LETS MAKE A DELIBERATE EFFORT EVERY DAY, TO LOVE MORE THAN WE DID THE PREVIOUS DAY.

SO MUCH LOVE ON THIS SIDE OF THE TABLE❤❤

PWAJOK, JANE KANGYANG

THE DUCHESS OF MAGNILOQUENCE!!!

EDUCATION, MONEY, POWER. NIGERIA.

Imagine having a new law that provides that the one criterion for being eligible to have a PVC in Nigeria was a minimum of a university degree or it’s equivalent”.

If you’re reading this and you don’t have a problem with this statement, you’re probably a southerner. If the statement pains you, you’re most likely a northerner.

I don’t know how many people are familiar with the geo political zones but I’ll do my best to explain. Of our 6 geo political zones, In Nigeria, we have:
NORTH CENTRAL: Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger. (ABUJA TOO)
SOUTH SOUTH: Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Edo, Rivers.
NORTH WEST: Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi
NORTH EAST: Adamawa Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe
SOUTH EAST: Abia, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo
SOUTH WEST: Lagos, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo

The southerners, oh well, education is a status quo. Over 70% of the population in the south are highly educated. It’s evident even in the number of Senior Advocates, Professors, Lawyers and Doctors the list goes on, in the country if statistically checked.

I’d love to think of the North however, as great determinants in elections. They have the numbers. Massive numbers. For 20 years in this democratic dispensation, Northerners have ruled Nigeria. Going down history lane, Coups and military Regimes, the North remains on the top of the food chain…
A very great achievement to the North, one will even say they are more zealous and optimistic about politics. They must be so proud of themselves.

Let me interrupt that school of thought by saying: Travel from Sokoto Airport to Enugu. Or Jos to Rivers, Jos to Lagos, Sokoto to Port Harcourt. Travel to Benin. For short, travel South. Within the same country, you’ll go to southern states and be awed by the wonders of infrastructures, beauty and aesthetics. I’m talking street lights everywhere, roundabouts with functional fountains, 6 lane roads and massive buildings. You’ll travel north however and think you’re travelling back in time. It’s a completely different ball game all together. You’ll even see cases where a highway is commissioned by a governor which was built by the previous. Setting up more billboards and posters than their achievements. And seeking reelection.

Once we had this conversation and we had comments like “the northern states have a high level of poverty rate that’s why”, “it’s because the southerners are more zealous about education”, “the northerners are more zealous about power”, “the southerners think education, and money is power. The Northerners think power is power”. We even had people saying ab-initio, the northerners were on the loosing side of the bargain.

But “when this country was amalgamated, every region has equal opportunities. In fact, Britain indirect rule makes us understand that the North was favoured more because northern leaders had more control over their subjects. So the British gave more to the North in other to control other regions”.

So I ask. “OF WHAT BENEFIT HAS THE 20 YEARS IN POWER BEEN”. Or better still, the millions of people who go out to vote and end up being majority have been a key factor to the emergence of the past governments. The North decide and divide. But “to what end?”

They say “build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs” i think one region has been BUILDING THEIRS while the other has been hired to BUILD ANOTHER PERSONS, or do I say PEOPLE.” good luck with however you conclude which is which.
Two things are involved, either The LATTER has a very misplaced and misfounded priority in terms of politics or the EARLIER is very precise and stern with theirs. Logically, I’m saying the same thing either ways.
The latter call themselves creationist. Well The only thing I find impressive about creationists is how they can be so consistently proven to be absolutely wrong about absolutely everything, 100% of the time for such a long time and still believe theirs is the absolute truth.

The probability of any of this changing are between slim and none. I’d be damned if I said i liked the odds. So, if you have read thus far, I’d love you to drop your comments on how you view this, I’m talking general comments, further problems, proffering solutions, anything just comment. LETS CHANGE THIS STATUS QUO.

PWAJOK, JANE KANGYANG
KABUK ALAMS

MEDICINE AND DIVERSITY

It is said that when the founding fathers wrote the second amendment, guns fired one round per minute. Today’s riffles have a cycle rate of 600+. Maybe its time we stopped using 18th century laws to regulate 21st century weapons.

Medical students are one of the largest untapped reservoir of talents in the world. Because we are medical students, people including ourselves set boundaries for us. Telling us who we should be, how to talk, how to behave and basically camouflaging ourselves and living in the shadows and prison of peoples judgement.

Being a medical student automatically indicated an expectation in so many corners of the world and there are distinctions, exclusions, and restrictions made based on career. Affecting the purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment, freedom and exercise by medical students.

Politicking, dancing, playing instruments, writing, catering, design, sewing. None of these activities reduce you as a medical student so you don’t have to drop your life and put a halt to everything totally because you’ve chosen the path of medicine.

Adding to that, because of so much hidden or unused talent in most of us, there is so much mediocrity and people not fit enough end up heading the sectors and aspects that affects us directly. The entire health care system is on the low and built against us.

However, Because in the real sense. Life is too damn short and too damn long to live in mediocrity or maintaining status quo. Otherwise, the wick of life will burn quickly to the bottom without us knowing profound joy.

TABULA RASA

No one ever tells you that being a survivor is a kind of curse. Not the doctors who remind you that you’re lucky to be alive. Nor your family members who are there when you open your eyes. Not the counselors who mean well, but have no more answers than you do. Nor your friends who are afraid of saying something wrong so they say nothing at all. Not the death that we all fear and dread its arrival. Nor the life that we live as though we will never die.

THE PRINCIPLE OF “TABULA RASA” by John Locke states that: “THE HUMAN MIND IS A BLANK BUT RECEPTIVE SLATE UPON WHICH EXPERIENCE IMPRINTS KNOWLEDGE. In other words: We are defined by experience. Emptiness of mind. Idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception.

WE DON’T get to choose our lives, when or where we’re born. Usually, even our names are chosen before we come kicking and screaming into the world. When we are born, our minds are empty but complete blank slates upon which experience imprints knowledge.

But then we drone through life, and we survive. Some do not. We are defined by every little detail around us. From the people we meet to the books we read. Life is delusional, life has no more answers than us. Life is as short as a brief and concise summary yet it is as long as boring essays and articles. It could be both suffocating and invigorating at the same time.

But we would survive through the darkest days and painful moments. Through worst days and bitter experiences. The strength that ensures this is some kind of curse that indirectly says “you must go through me”. It painfully reminds us that we are dust and made out of nothing. It teaches us lessons the hard way. Most lessons making us and moulding us, others breaking us, and shattering us into pieces. But we survive, because that’s all we do best.

Live in the moment and never waste time on worry, instead, focus on doing the next right thing…
Do your little bit of good deeds wherever you are. It is those little bits put together that overwhelm the world. We do not own the people in our lives, God borrows them to us and someday he will collect them back. We are not shareholders of our lives so God does owe us an apology or explanation.

Be kind for everyone is fighting a battle. And if you wanna know how good people are, all you have to do is look.

PWAJOK, JANE KANGYANG.

The DUCHESS OF MAGNILOQUENCE

Just “LIVE”

Funerals are for the living.

Time will pass for us than it would for the dead. Nothing we’ve done will matter.

“Omnis e cellula et cellula”

every living cell comes from pre-existing cells
Life comes from life.
All cells come from cells.
Life begets life…

Pain is like fabric, the stronger it is, the more its worth.

Grief does not change you. It reveals you. And time doesn’t heal the pain, it only changes the way we view it.

If you found out you were dying, will you live more? Well here’s the news. You are. Someday we will all die. But on other days, we will not.

Travel to that place
Make that call
Meet that person
text that SMS
Make that move
Book that flight
Make that comment
Resolve that uncertainty
Go that extra mile…

Fall in love. Not just in love, but so madly in love that it drives you crazy.
Breath. Live. Laugh.
Because its all that matters.
We are not shareholders of our lives.

Sometimes we love to think of ourselves as indispensable. But the truth is, whether you’re alive or dead, life will continue almost as quickly as it ended. One life ends, another is born and this is the circle of life. At every point , everyone we see is fighting a battle.

THE FALL AND RISE OF PLATEAU.

In July 1976, 4 Palestinian terrorist hijacked an air flight “139” crew enroute Paris from Tell Aviv. They forced the crew to land in Entebbe, Uganda. There, about 40 Jewish passengers were held hostage with their safety contingents

The terrorist demanded 5million dollars
After considerable debate, the Israeli government employed the elite commando unit “Sayeret matkul” during operation Entebbe to execute the daring rescue. His name was Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu.

To cut the long story short, it was a successful mission, the hostages were saved, but the last person to board the plane was Yoni. And he was shot in the back. He died. Yoni was the only casualty.

Fast forward to 1996- 1999 and 2009 till date. Israel elected her new prime minister. His name “BENJAMIN NETANYAHU” The younger brother to “Yonatan Netanyahu”. Anyone who keeps up with history and politics should know of the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine.

Now, through this spectacle of wanton cruelty that occurred in 1976, which lead to the demise of Yoni. And later the emergence of Ben, Undoubtedly, the Palestinians are paying dearly for what they did 32 years ago.

Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.

“BACK TO PLATEAU STATE”

We’ve bled, we’ve lost, we’ve lagged, we’ve been cheated, our homes have been raged. Parents burying their Children. Children burying their parents. Our lands have been seized from us. Our homes have been ravaged, burned and our ancestral heritage has been taken away.

Students have been kidnapped, wounded, and murdered in cold blood.

However, THE MOST DIFFICULT STRUGGLE OF ALL IS THE ONE WITHIN OURSELVES. LET US NOT GET ACCUSTOMED TO THESE CONDITIONS. THE ONE WHO ADJUSTS CEASES TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. HE BECOMES A SLAVE IN BODY AND SOUL. WHATEVER MAY HAPPEN TO YOU, REMEMBER … DON’T ADJUST. REVOLT AGAINST IT.

IF THE TERRORIST PUT DOWN THEIR WEAPONS TODAY, THERE WILL BE NO MORE VIOLENCE. BUT IF PLATEAU STATE PUTS DOWN HER WEAPON TODAY, THERE WILL BE NO PLATEAU

ISRAEL LOST “YONATAN NETAYAHU”
GOD RAISED “BENJAMIN NETANYAHU” .
PLATEAU HAS LOST KUMS and many other people.

GOD HASN’T CHANGED MY DEAR FRIENDS, HE’S THE SAME, YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND IN A MILLION YEARS TO COME. IT TOOK ISRAEL 40 YEARS TO GET TO THE PROMISE LAND.

HOLD ON PATIENTLY PLATEAU. AND AWAIT YOUR TURN.

LAW AND ORDER

THE GOVERNMENT. SECURITY. THE PEOPLE. CATTLE. FULANI HERDSMEN.

DIVERSITY

Nigeria is a country with a diverse people. Different in culture and lifestyle, ethnicity, beliefs, religion, interest, history, and ancestral link. But the beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people.

However, we have found more reasons to be differentiated than we have to be united.

Through our technological and scientific genius, we have made of this world a neighbourhood. And we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. If we do not live together as brothers, we will perish together as fools.

The Northerners, Southerners,Westerners, Easterners. The ones who have the oil, the agriculture, education, exposure, and development.

FULANI

The primordial lifestyle of the Fulani’s is one that defines them by cattle rearing and grazing. Clearly, the Northern states don’t have a favorable weather or soil for grazing. More so, with the increase in population, it is only sensible that the recurring genocide has been to harness new frontiers. With that, they will not just expand their territories but they will expand it to favorable conditions. Adding to that, if being able to prove citizenship to Nigeria, the Fulani fortunately have rights as well to graze, and to keep cattle. However, there is a common maxim in law: “SIC UTERE TUO UT ALIENUM NON LAEDES”. In other words the exercise of ones rights is subject to another persons right. Your right ends where another persons begins.

THE PEOPLE

Undoubtedly, the victims of these attacks are indigenous people who hail from the very places where they ate murdered in cold blood. These people have a right to life, to their lands, and to equal rights as awarded to them by the 1999 constitution. In the cause of living and an attempt to exercise their rights, there have been so much conflict and misunderstanding. However, the violence prohibition persons act says that there is no justification for violence. Whatsoever.

SECURITY

In the past times, there has been a break in confidence between the security and the people. In times when the security were needed, they weren’t there for the people. They haven’t lived up to what they should and hence, has lead to a loss of confidence in them by the citizens.

THE GOVERNMENT

Have not been very helpful either. In recent times, there has been little or no action taken by the government in regards to the people and what they expect. The government ought to set up a vigilante group. With members who hail from the villages that have been attacked. Members of all the communities should be adequately represented and be a part of their own protection. Anti-grazing laws should be set. KILL THE ELEMENT THAT GIVES LIFE. In a gentle way, you can still do what is right. Before its too late and you have not many options left.

Using the Fulani herdsmen in Plateau along with its neighboring States as a case study. It is important that we look into some questions.

Who are these Fulani herdsmen?

Who gave them guns?

Who have asked them to kill?

What are they fighting for?

Do Plateau and Benue have the highest number of herdsmen in Nigeria?

What are the government saying or doing about it?

Arguably, Plateau has the most favourable weather and rich soil in Nigeria. Fertile for grazing. And cool weather all year round.

LAW AND ORDER

Exists for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I think it is very important that the citizens get back their lands. Before the wounds are healed and maybe pardoned (because they can never be forgotten), there has to be a build of trust.

Of cause the Fulani cannot be chased out of the states, because as citizens, they also have rights. But the people can exercise their right by looking into the law.

With the nonchalant actions and ignorance of the government, one will begin to wonder why there is a lackadaisical reaction towards the insecurity.

I will state unapologetically that if the government do not stand for the people and fight with them, the people should feel free to replace the government with another who will. It Is enough that we are lagging behind academically and economically. We don’t have to loose out lives and lands as well.

The government of the day have failed woefully in their responsibility. Even to the most basic one of protecting its citizens. I ask, what is a government without the people?

Life is too short to stand for nothing. It’s too long to live for nothing. If the government cannot be charged for derailing and truncating the nascent democracy, do we really have a government?

As long as there’s blue sky above me. As long as there is life in my hands. As long as I draw breath and as long as I am sane, I will see to it that Plateau is taken and rebounded. My people will know Peace some day, The North will remember and Nigeria will rise again.

The question I ask again is how many youth feel obligated to do same? How many people in Nigeria still have hope for a better place for us? How many will take it upon themselves to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. POVERTY IS THE WORSE FORM OF SILENCE

Until we are fed up, until we crave for change and until we are willing to sacrifice, Nigeria will know true joy. And the wick of life will burn quickly, without its people knowing profound joy.

Those who are able to see beyond the lie of their culture will never be understood. Let alone believed by the masses.

PWAJOK, JANE KANGYANG

THE DUCHESS OF MAGNILOQUENCE

ASSURANCE

TO LIVE IS TO CHOOSE.
BUT TO CHOOSE, YOU MUST KNOW WHO YOU ARE, WHAT YOU STAND FOR, WHERE YOU WANT TO GO, AND WHY YOU WANT TO GET THERE.
_Kofi Annan._

Our world today has become a place where derailing and truncating the nascent democracy has become the business of the day. We now define people by what they have now, and what we can see in them temporarily

Look out for SOMETHING better than wealth and riches.

For the female gender: God made them male and female. Every promise of God is for you as it is for the male. God meant for you to manifest fully and be the best of yourself. Other wise… This is how it affects our nation:

Our population statistics will show you women are 49.9% and men are 50.5%. Only a mad man drives a twin engine plane and flies with one engine. When it is meant to perform at its best with two engine.

When a nation has a population split of approximately 50/50, and does not maximise its population of women fold, it reduces and limits it’s own productivity by 50%.

Because the talents and abilities in the other 50% is locked down.

For both male and female, we will not all emerge at the same level at the same time. All I ask from you is to be the best of yourself at every moment of your life.

A Yoruba adage says:

All 20 children will not play together for 20 years

Our clock is different. So celebrate each others success bearing in mind that out turn awaits us. Its called “The circle of life”.

Today may be someone else but they are not your yardstick of measurement. Your turn will come.

At the right time the right things will happen.

All I ask for everyone reading this today Is this… We have the capacity to make the world a better place. I commit into your hands, the responsibility of growing Nigeria. Tell yourself everyday you wake up that.. “I AM NIGERIA” I AM THE CHANGE I WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.

I challenge us to rise above mediocrity. We live in a climate where there is a break in confidence between the government and the people, the people within themselves and the government within themselves.

My pejorative opinion is our spirits are too despondent. Obviously as a result of status quo and primordial events. But things don’t have to stay the way they are.

THE TIME IS NOW

THE PLACE IS HERE

THE DIFFERENCE IS YOU

PWAJOK, JANE KANGYANG

(THE DUCHESS OF MAGNILOQUENCE)