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LOUD WHISPERS: Wairamini- Beijing@30

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Tuesday, September 10th, 2024
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I recently gave the keynote address at a seminar to commemorate the retirement of a dear friend of mine from the federal civil service, Princess Jummai Idonije. The theme of the seminar was ‘ACCELERATING GENDER EQUALITY: AN INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE ON BEIJING PLUS 30’. This is an abridged version of my speech.

It gives me immense pleasure to be here with you this morning, to celebrate a great daughter of Africa and a citizen of the world, Dr Joan Jummai Idonije, fondly known as Princess, as she bows out from one phase of her impactful life. I am humbled to have been asked to share my thoughts at this important inter-generational dialogue which is meant to reflect on almost 30 years of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.

I was a young woman of 32 when I attended the UN Beijing Conference in 1995. The Beijing Conference was crucial because it gave women of the world, regardless of their backgrounds or contexts, the opportunity to table their vision of transformation for generations to come. The Beijing Platform for Action was the first global policy framework to confirm gender mainstreaming as a key strategy for realizing gender equality and it called on governments and other stakeholders to apply this to policies and programs at all levels.

I was the Executive Director of Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), an international development organisation for African women based in London when I attended the Beijing Conference. I was responsible for a group of 20 women from the UK, other European countries and some from Africa. I was going to be in Beijing for both the NGO Forum which took place in Huairou (an hour outside Beijing) and the official UN Conference which was in Beijing. Some women on the delegation opted to stay in Huairou for the NGO Forum and return home. Some were coming in for just the official conference and others like me were attending both. This meant different accommodation arrangements for some of us.  We arrived at the hotel in Beijing around 11am. I did not finish checking in till 4pm, my colleagues left me there to go to their rooms while I was at the front desk. What took so long you might ask? I tried to explain to the person who first attended to me that some people in our group would be leaving on certain dates and others would come in to take their place, so the bookings we had would not change, only the names of the occupants of the rooms. After listening to me for a while, the Chinese guy said, ‘Wairamini’ (Wait a minute) and called someone else to listen to me. I had to start all over again with this new person, only for him to ask me to ‘Wairamini’ while he called someone else who knew a few more words of English. I had to tell the same story four times, growing increasingly frustrated but knowing that it would be eventually sorted out, I just needed to keep explaining till everyone understood. When they eventually understood what I was saying, they made me write my full name, address and passport number at the back of every single traveler’s cheque I presented to settle the bill.

The progress of African women since Beijing has been one of five steps forward and ten steps back, with many ‘Wairamini’ moments where we have had to say the same thing over and over again to different audiences, with progress made, followed by regression.

Most of us at AMwA were young women below the ages of 35. We were concerned about the future of the women’s movement on the continent, and our struggles for peace, democracy, political participation and economic empowerment. We knew that as young women we needed to have a say, but we needed to prepare ourselves. I started the African Women’s Leadership Institute in 1996, a pan-African training, networking and information forum for young African women aged 25-40. This was a deliberate way of shaping the future, using different platforms and spaces. Our thinking back then was that we needed a cadre of women across the continent who were grounded in feminist theory and practice, gender mainstreaming and analysis, with strong leadership capacities. We figured that the next generation of women leaders would emerge from this process, directly or indirectly. Guess what? We were right. Today, the AWLI has produced over 6,000 women leaders across Africa and many of them are in key decision-making positions, including here in Nigeria.  

With the success of the AWLI came the need to consolidate the gains we had made with the growing number of women passing through the leadership program. It was time to help shape the future on another platform. I teamed up with two other African women, the late Joana Foster of Ghana and Dr Hilda Tadria of Uganda and we started the African Women’s Development Fund in 2000, the first Africa-wide grantmaking foundation for women. AWDF has funded over 3,000 women’s organisations in 42 African countries with millions of dollars, and is now one of the leading Women’s Funds in the world. Here in Nigeria, there are at least 300 AWDF grantees in 15 States.

I stepped down as Executive Director of AWDF when my husband became Governor of Ekiti State in October 2010, though I am still on the Executive Board. Ekiti State is now acknowledged as one of States with the most comprehensive legal and policy frameworks in the country that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Almost thirty years after Beijing, Nigeria currently features poorly on most global indicators measuring Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE). The progress of Nigerian women continues to be hindered due to entrenched patriarchal power, violent conflict and displacement, endemic poverty, sexual violence, the lack of educational opportunities for many girls, lack of political will, low political representation of women, discrimination in almost all spheres of life, and religious and cultural conservatism. Not only did Nigeria not meet any of the original Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we might not meet most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030 either. If by a miracle we manage to meet a few of the targets, we will not meet SDG 5 which aims to achieve gender equality by ending all forms of discrimination,

There is however some good news. We have a few legal and policy frameworks in place to ensure that women’s human rights are guaranteed and protected.  Nigerian women and girls have more access to educational opportunities than ever before, not only is the enrolment of girls in schools at very high levels in Southern Nigeria, in some places their enrolment in schools exceeds that of boys. There is now more awareness of women’s rights and gender equality across all our communities. The notion of women as leaders has been popularized, and it is no longer strange to see women campaigning for very senior positions in public life. The women’s movement has been able to build consensus around key issues of importance to women, such as rights to livelihoods and economic empowerment, access to decision-making, reproductive rights and health, non-discrimination and the critical importance of peace.

We have seen committed feminist activists who created institutions and nurtured them at home and abroad, mentoring and encouraging younger feminists. Permit me to mention some departed Sheroes such as late Professor Jadesola Akande, late Professor Felicia Ekejuiba, late Chief Bisi Ogunleye, late Chief Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, late Professor Omalara Ogundipe-Leslie, late Oby Nwankwo, late Hajia Bilikisu Yusuf, late Hajara Usman, late Hauwa Shekarau and many others. May their souls continue to rest in power and may the labour of our Sheroes past never be in vain.

There is also a significant amount of thought leadership in the area of feminist thinking, organising and activism, enabling theory and practice to accelerate action. Nigerian women scholars, activists, community leaders, writers, thinkers, professionals, rural women and politicians who are part of a progressive women’s movement have been able to create a body of knowledge, thought and activism on women’s rights and gender equality.

How did we get all these gains? We researched, wrote, analysed, advocated, marched, fundraised, travelled, mobilised, empowered others, taught, learnt. We did not get these gains overnight and we did not get them easily, and some of them are slipping from our grasp. It is however easy for those who were not a part of these struggles but who are reaping the benefits today to disparage what they do not understand. I urge all of us to commit to collective humility, reflection and memory.

Even though we have cause to celebrate all these achievements, we continue to face reversals and backlash. We therefore need to intensify our efforts to ensure that as we mark thirty years of this ground-breaking gathering, we are counting more gains than losses.

Today, we are here to celebrate a woman who leaves a wonderful legacy of service behind as a senior public servant. Princess Jummai has been an outstanding leader, known for her deep understanding of gender issues, sound institutional memory, technical knowledge, integrity, dedication to professionalism and a very warm personality. As a woman in leadership, you have to be able to envision a legacy you would like to leave behind and put all you can into it. It is that legacy that will determine whether you have made an impact or not. A visionary leader, regardless of gender, has to have certain skills and capacities. You need the ability to listen, learn new things, understand trends, serve others and not yourself, seek counsel, build an effective team, manage partnerships and relationships, negotiate complexities and create a brand that is known for competence and clarity as opposed to ignorance, confusion and incoherence.

If you occupy a leadership position as a woman, and you are unable to develop an agenda for change, if you are incapable of serving and supporting other women and unable to leave an identifiable legacy of transformation behind when your time is done, I am afraid you have wasted that space. Worse, you have made it more difficult for others coming behind you. Thank you, Princess Jummai for such an incredible life of service.

At this point in time, when we are facing a serious anti-gender backlash here and around the world, we need to draw on our strengths and capacities across generations. For the older women here, there is so much unfinished business. Our gains are being eroded.

Yes, we would like to relax and celebrate what gains we do have and enjoy the fruits of our personal and professional labours, but we do not have that luxury right now. We need to keep working hard, we need to write about our experiences and share lessons, pass knowledge down and up, mentor, teach, anything we can do to ensure that we secure what we have all worked so hard for. For the young women, this is your time to rise and shine. Remember, no one’s light has to be dimmed for yours to shine. If you think there are some women who need to get out of the way for you to be seen, then you will remain where you are. The sky is wide enough for birds to fly without colliding. Princess Jummai is retiring today. She will be known as a retired Director and senior public servant. We have retired Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, former First Ladies, former Ministers and so on. There is no such thing as a retired Feminist or Women’s Rights Activist. This struggle, this space, this movement, belongs to all of us. Let us occupy it with mutual respect and a recognition of the value we all bring in different capacities.

You are all familiar with my call to bring out our wrappers. I told the story a few years ago, of a woman who went into labour in a market somewhere in Uganda. The women in the market rallied round to help her, and they brought out their wrappers to shield her from prying eyes. I use the wrappers as a metaphor for solidarity, protection, responsibility, compassion, empathy, respect, all those values that make us human. I use it to get us to understand and act on our class and age differences as well as our privileges as women. Let us bring out our wrappers for other women every day, at work or in our private lives. Every woman has a wrapper and every woman needs one.  The more wrappers you extend, the more will come out for you in your time of need.

If we find the recipients of our wrappers unworthy (this sadly, happens often) we simply look for other wrappers and give them to women who appreciate them. Please note, our wrappers are not meant for women who will use them to strangle us and lay all our work to waste. Let us bring out our wrappers for another woman every day.

Even when you run into Wairamini situations and you feel like giving up, remember that one of the most important things in life is being able to survive to tell your story.  You can’t Wait a Minute. Just like Princess Jummai has done, use your spaces and power well, in the service of others, particularly women and children. We are done waiting, 30 years is long enough. Congratulations Princess Jummai. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours, I know you have many more tasks ahead of you. I know you to be one of those women who will not ‘Wairamini’.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Policy Advocate and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com

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