Women Academics From Nigeria

"It has everything to do with the nature of the culture. The areas you talked about are centralised societies which also have centralised structures that allow individuals to rise. In Igboland, we have egalitarian society; it is not a centralised society."

"Honestly speaking, I don't want to publish another book or article that does not have an advocacy purpose to it. I want to use my work to potentially change lives."

"If you want to be an ally, you have to listen and truly hear what it is that African people are saying. We are equal partners. It is not one group dictating the way the relationship should be. It is a partnership where we listen to each other and truly hear each other. We can learn from each other, but it has to be an equal relationship."

"My parents want us to live the best way we possibly can and that is what I have been doing in terms of my education. I am doing the things I want to do. Again, it is not just my father’s achievements; my mother was also one of the senior professors in Nigeria from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. So, I have two extremely phenomenal role models who have brought us up to be the best of what we can be."

"The Igbo people have a saying that a child who is carried on the back does not realize that walking is a painful activity"

"Advocacy work is hard, and at times, it is thankless and even dangerous. But, it is the work that I choose to do - to use my voice and my scholarship to attempt to make a difference"

"I try to use whatever voice I do have to speak out against injustices, and that’s what I hope I continue to do in this part of my career. When I see bad things happening, I can’t just pretend I didn’t see them. I want to use my voice for good"

"Because I wanted to see myself in writing the history of the African woman. I started off as a Theatre major in my first degree. (Theatre, Music and dance) and after that, I decided to do documentary and film making. I wanted to do the kind of documentary that tells our story and in order to do that, I felt that I needed to do history, although I didn’t like history. I didn’t have a good history teacher, but when I went to University of California, where I did my Masters and PhD, I met a professor who later became my mentor who turned me around. He told history as a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. A story that I could relate to and I remember. I looked at him and said this is exactly what I want to do."

"I want to write the story of my people especially women. That story has not been written. Women have been silenced in historical study. If you pick up a book, if women were mentioned at all, they were mentioned in footnotes. So, I want to change that and write a story that other women can pick up and be proud of."

"For me, growing up when I was young, I thought everybody’s father was famous because that was my norm. But my father still writes with long hand and whenever I was with him, I type his notes and in that way you might say I was helpful. But now, it is a different kind of relationship. We talk about issues now that we are older."

"I have written and published two books, the first: Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings published by Heinmann ; the second book is called the Female King of Colonial Nigeria and other numerous journals and articles and chapters but my area is women history."

"Sometimes when women come out, others think they should not be in politics. They prefer to vote for their male counterparts rather than to vote for a fellow woman. But I think whatever the challenge is, women who are interested in politics should summon the courage to venture into it fully."

"A woman I believe will do better in laws that will benefit women because she understands what marginalization should be. Men should sit up to make more appointments for women and women should strive harder to go into elective positions."

"Male rulers of the land must implement any policy already made to achieve inclusion for women. For me, what comes to my mind is gender policy. We are not asking for much. What women are asking for is not equality. Sometimes when you ask for women’s empowerment, they say: Ahahaaaaa, Feminism!!! We are not asking for equality. Equality is 50-50. In Affirmative action and the gender policy, it is 35%. It is about 1/3 and I don’t think it is too much"

"as long as elective positions are concerned, not many women were elected. The culture and religion have so intimidated women it takes a lot of courage for them to go into Nigerian politics. Nigerian politics is discouraging, so to say. But for those who run, there is also discrimination from fellow women. There is a combination of factors why women shy away from politics. Cultural, religious, financial, and women themselves are part of it"

"Many people see women politicians as wayward, irresponsible which is terrible; and that belief even among the educated men in Nigeria is still common. Many men will not encourage their wives and even their daughters to go into politics and that is a major handicap. So both before and after the last election, I’m disappointed. I’m even heartbroken. There are two ways women can go into politics. Either by election or through appointment. In many states like my own, the governors do not appoint enough women and there are capable women. Suppose women don’t have the courage or the finances to go into elections, don’t they have the capacity or the brains to be appointed by governors or by the president to support them through appointive positions? So, whether it is through elective processes or through appointment, the number of Nigerian women in politics and leadership positions has not been impressive"

"I think some smaller African countries are small in quotes because we keep claiming we are the giant of Africa yet marginalization is very high here. Look at Rwanda which suffered so much recently. They have bounced back and women are doing very well there. This is because they are supporting women through inclusive policies and laws but when we make our laws like affirmative action nobody is implementing them. In these African countries like Rwanda, I mentioned, Kenya, and others, they make these laws and implement them. Rwanda has 40-something percent women inclusion in governance and yet we claim we are the giant of Africa."

"Do you remember the gender bills that were proposed recently? All of them were dropped; none of them were passed. I used to say I don’t believe in tokenism or quota system but it seems ideal in Nigeria now and women need encouragement and support through the quota system or policies to include them in governance or leadership."

"The country is in a bad shape and on the brink of collapse, so much so that even those Nigerians who were apathetic towards politics are now sufficiently alarmed to show interest in who has the capacity to salvage the country. The intelligentsia are no exception."

"You have to decide where to belong as regards professionalism in reporting because ethics in journalism is not negotiable. It is either you decide to do the job ethically and with best practices or not because truth, accuracy, balanced reporting, impartiality and objectivity are the hallmarks of journalism.”"

"As long as I can remember, women’s participation in politics and visibility in leadership positions have been major problems in many countries and not just in Nigeria. The entire world knows that women have not done well in politics in Nigeria. I’m sure you know there is supposed to be a gender policy in Nigeria which came to effect in 2006; affirmative action of 35%. The only time any leader approached that policy was the time of Jonathan’s regime and since then nobody is even trying and each time I think about women in politics and leadership, I like to give example from my own State, Anambra State. Anambra women are well educated, they are empowered. They are confident and knowledgeable about local and international affairs. Yet the number of women in politics in Anambra is laughable, so to say"

"Some countries allow the press to have that freedom unfettered. But in some places, there are impediments on the path of the media. Basically, the media often performs as well the political structure allows them to perform. We all know that in this part of the world, press freedom, freedom of speech and other watchdog functions don’t aways apply. Most government-media are practically lapdogs for the authorities."

"There was a time we thought we were improving. Before this last election, Anambra had two female Senators which was very good. There are usually three senators per state and women had two. But in the last election those two women lost their positions and so there is no single woman at that level now in Anambra state. In the House of Assembly, there was only one woman and the last election did not improve the situation."

"Most of the things people do in government is driven by greed. People are there no matter how badly the governor or the president or their boss is doing. They stick in there because of the money"

"Women are handicapped when it comes to politics and part of the handicap is religion and culture. I don’t think any culture in Nigeria encourages women in this regard. May be Yoruba culture; but even then, most of our culture and religion in Nigeria don’t believe women should be in politics. Even up till today 2023, many men think women should not be in politics. If any woman wants to go into politics they shout: What is she going to do there?"

"Dr. Ayoola not only met but also clearly excelled in the critical leadership requirements established by the committee."

"Dr. Ayoola has prioritized interprofessional collaboration among our departments, West Michigan communities, and globally."

"I focus on unintended pregnancy because it was a concern from the women in our neighborhoods."

".... I think of Christ, He’s come to give us life, so what can I do myself being a woman, and what can we do to improve women’s health?"

"Reproductive health problems are not just problems for developing nations, they are right here in Grand Rapids."

"Everything we do comes from listening to the needs of the women in these communities."

"I’ve seen a lot of women go through tough times."

"I see health as an important part of what God wants for us."

"I am motivated to act when I see people or members of my community hurting —physically, emotionally, and spiritually – and when the vulnerable population experience health challenges."

"The idea of serving as a founding dean of the School of Health is exciting because it will provide me with opportunities to work with stakeholders to shape the School of Health’s programs."

"My vision is also for the experience in the School of Health to be transformative and for our future health professionals to be well-prepared in their calling to serve as great advocates for their patients"

"One important part of HEALTH camp is leadership"

"I love creatively designing new programmes in collaboration with people and in response to identified needs."

"When we asked women in the community about unplanned pregnancies, they said that we should teach them about their body. They said we should teach them about ovulation, about pregnancy symptoms, and that that would help them to plan their pregnancy."

"We visited this individual’s home, and because of the infestation we worked to help connect them to the Kent County Health Department."

"In addition, the institutions that are responsible for bringing about positive transformation of these critical social indices must be well supported by government in order to guarantee equitable access to these institutions with resultant improvement in the living standards of the people."

"Vulnerability of children to ill-health can be markedly reduced by taking steps to respect, protect and fulfill child rights. This is indeed one of the significant hallmarks of good governance."

"Fulfilling children’s rights by providing them with basic education, adequate nutrition, health care and protection from harmful practices, breaks this cycle. Their chances of survival and of a productive future are greatly increased – as are the chances of a truly fair and peaceful global society."

"In conclusion, economic development alone cannot get us to the promised target year of 2020 as one of the first 20 leading economies of the world. Economic development must go hand in hand with socio-cultural and political development."

"This means that social developmental indices such as the number of children per family, the number of children receiving uninterrupted schooling for a minimum period of 10 years, the number of children who have access to basic education and health care and the numbers whose inalienable rights are protected, which are intermediate indicators of maternal and child mortality rates are just as important as the indicators that measure our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI)."

"They must be protected from physical, mental, sexual and other forms of abuse such as child trafficking and subjugation to hazardous labour. A child’s first few years are critical not only for survival, but for her or his optimal physical, intellectual and emotional development. Therefore, deprivations especially during this period greatly hamper children’s ability to achieve their full potential thus contributing to a society’s cycle of endless poverty, hunger and violence."

"Thus, critical social indices must be measured regularly and put on the same scale as the economic indices so that the true balance can be revealed. Government, NGOs and the private sector must work together in order to give the needed support for the achievement of appropriate economic and social objectives through the application of appropriate strategies."

"We bring in people from many departments on campus."

"Usually, the immediate caregivers of children are their mothers and it has been shown that the survival of children is dependent on the survival of their mothers who in turn has the major responsibility for ensuring that family practices do not jeopardize the survival of the breadwinner and other members of the family."

"Unfortunately, the current participation of young mothers as co-breadwinners has often led to the restriction of the time devoted to what is usually considered as their primary responsibility. This calls for greater flexibility in task sharing between couples especially in parenting. Of course, in polygamous relationships the arrangements could be even more complex. Whatever be the case, the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Nigeria is a signatory stipulates that the welfare of the child must be the first consideration and decisions taken at all levels must be in the best interest of the child."