Swinging my bag and walking around the area, I couldn't believe I had made it out. We used to sit out on the sand and admire those we saw on TV wearing green and white and marching. Today, I was one of them. I had finished school and I had been posted to somewhere to serve. We'd just finished the three weeks camp and I had returned home after years of staying away to tell my people that I had made it. After dropping my bags at home and showering, I had gone round to see my old acquaintances, friends, and the younger ones I'd left behind. My first stop was Aunty Pat's tailoring shop. She was the one that sewed all my school dresses because I couldn't afford to buy "ready-made". As I neared her shop door, I could hear her scolding someone. "You this girl! Why can't you focus? What is wrong with you?" she yelled. "I'm sorry aunty," a meek but strangely familiar voice replied, "I'm trying really hard to." "You...

 This is the 4th Edition of the event to mark International Day of the Girl Child I will be organizing. I have never been physically present for any Edition but I appreciate the support system I have in friends and those who key into this vision who ensure that everything goes on smoothly. Thanks to everyone who has been holding the fort, pulling this through over the past 4 years in my absence. The International Day of the Girl Child 2020 was done in partnership with Gertrude Initiative and the founder is Oluwabusola Olowo Adeyemo. The program started at exactly 10: 20 am with 43 participants ( 33 Adolescent girls with 7 Volunteers present and 3 facilitators ). Broadview pictures were initially taken of the gifts and everyone present before the program properly started. We started off with an opening prayer by one of the participants at exactly 10:22 am and we moved on to the welcome address by the Director of Gertrude Initiative; Oluwabusola Olowo Adeyemo. The program properly st...

 It is the International Day of the Girl and this year’s theme is My voice, Our equal future. For years, society has upheld the culture of silence. They have said time and time again that you should be seen and not heard. They question why you would dare speak back to a boy. They frown when you raise your hand in class. They hiss when you question agelong traditions and hit their head in wonder when you say you have an opinion. They tag you a rebel – a person everyone should be wary of. They expect you to be accepting of everything they throw at you. And they measure your goodness by how much you are willing to shut up and suck up the pain, the hurts and the second-class treatments.   For centuries, their goal has been to make you powerless. Their mission has been to lie and hide behind their prejudices to make you feel like you should have no place or say here. They used whatever weapons they forged and threw hard words at you to make you feel like you don’t deserve to be her...

 Lisa Bevere said that "God would never have granted women a voice if he intended them to remain silent. God knew that the world need the voice and influence of women".   Today is the International Day of the Girl. This year's theme is My Voice: Our Equal Future. We are a generation of women who would not cower in silence or hide our faces in shame. We are a generation of women who do not accept the status quo. We question the things we do not understand and challenge the things we do not accept.   This is your time!. Enough of letting your displeasures or discontentments go unheard. Enough of the silence. It is time for you to speak. It's time for you to be heard. Talk. Speak up. Roar like the lioness you are.   There is so much you can change by sharing your ideas, thoughts and opinions. There is so much we can gain by listening to you. You have a lot to offer. You have a lot to give. You also have a lot to achieve.   Stop hiding in the shadows or retreating b...

AND SO  THE CLOCK STRIKES A NEW YEAR! Well, the earth has gone around the sun for a whole year since I last marked my birth. Here I am again, a year older. I decided to mark this year in an unusual matter. I want to openly reflect on how the past year has been for me. The past year has been filled to the brim with lots of ups and downs. There were good times and not-so-good times.  Compared to previous years, I have been molded than I could ever account for this last year. I am grateful for the progress I have made. I am remorseful for the mistakes I recorded; I am thankful for the humans who had one hand or the other in my continued growth. I learned because learning is a continuum. I learned because I understand that change is constant, and we must embrace each phase as it comes. I would like to share some of the things that I have learned. They have shaped the past year for me. Who knows, others might just pick one or two talking points from my experience. I hope ...

I am active on social media. There, I get to table my thoughts, and share my views with like-minded individuals, receive criticism on my advocacy from genuine critics, and get tongue-lashed by narrow-minded humans. Yet,  it is what it is. I am used to the cycle, too. Recently, I was on Twitter, and I came across someone who, basing his argument on the global suspension of football no thanks to coronavirus, argued that more feminists will become busy bees about advocacy,  trying to win more hearts over to the cause . And from the precedents of his tweeted argument and the succeeding tweets, you could tell he had an ax to grind with gender advocacy. And like nectar (or honey) to bees, many people commented their support to his assertion. You should guess what most of them would say: the trite rhetoric that they are tired of feminists and their  cries  for equality. Was I surprised that the tweeter had such strong backing? No. Did I find it odd that the tweeter m...

A lot of people, including me, have never been comfortable with the "Wife-Material" tag. The reasons are quite glaring. When an average Nigerian calls you a wife material, they mean that you are a perfect definition of society's stereotypical woman. They see you as someone who is living a script, not necessarily as someone whose personality they admire, but someone who would fit into the descriptions of someone else’s future demands. Wife material, in the view of many, is a measure of how domesticated a woman is. It seems that is all a woman entails as if women should fit into a box the society has designed for them. Sometimes, it feels like being coerced into following some set of rules that one is not comfortable with. It feels as if one’s essence as a woman is subsumed in the definition of the tag. When some women revolt against the idea of wife-materialness, people argue that they are anti-marriage. But the truth is, that is not always the case. They are o...