I read this somewhere and I just can´t help but share…
The Nigeria woman is extraordinary. She pops up at every equation that capture
Nigeria. She is the trader on the street, the tiller of the ground and the keeper
of the home – She is the economic powerhouse of the nation. She is the mother and at
the same time, father to her children, a position some men have voluntarily if
unknowingly relinquished. She combines a full time job with mothering Four children,
wife to a demanding husband, holding down a major role in church and studying for a
PhD in Applied Science. She is the multi-tasker no one expects to complain.
Without the Nigerian woman, there would be no Nigeria. She is the spine of the nation,
by virtue of being the spine of her husband, the spine of her children and the spine of
the extended family. She stays up to encourage her studying children whilst her husband
is fast asleep. She still has to rise long before dawn to dawn to prepare food and plan
the day. She is indefatigable, indestructible and indescribable.
She accepts her husband´s indiscretions with dignity and takes his intransigency on the
chin. She deals with her societal-imposed minority role with utmost diplomacy. She
smiles whilst suffering. She executes her roles with the utmost diligence.
The Nigerian woman is the ultimate homebuilder, engineer, medical personnel,
arbitrator between children and father, advocate on behalf of the children, human
resource specialist, Operations Manager, the Prime Minister of the family government,
the teacher of manners and etiquette, the prayer intercessor and the attentive
listener.
She comes in every shade of colour, shape and style. There are eight types of Nigerian
women: the dark-skinned, the slim-figured, the amply-shaped, the short and the tall,
the effizy and the traditional.
The Nigerian woman is stylish. Whatever her age; style and looking good are indelibly
programmed into DNA. She relishes the beauty of her naturally tanned skin, full lips and
her thick strong and healthy hair. She is effervescent and drop-dead gorgeous. She
beleives that God spent extra time on her and this makes her unrepentantly confident.
She is confident of natural allure, allure, confident of her body and confident of the
future.
As a girl-child, she already has a routine of making her hair every week. She is big time
into cleanliness and may even shower twice a day. She will speak with boldness and will
not be led astray by anyone.
Between 18 to early twenties, she knows how to style her hair into different looks on a
daily basis. She is either in the last lap of university or doing her National service. It is
also possible that she is working in an oil company, a bank or even pursuing her Master´s
Programme.
At mid-twenties, she has a clear mental plan of her future. She knows what she wants,
the type of man that will complement her plan for success in life. Except she chooses to
be deceived, an average Nigerian woman in her twenties is too mentally and
emeotionally sophisticated to fall for any silly tricks.
In her 30s, the Nigerian woman is an established businesswoman who knows every nook
and cranny of Naples, Dubai, Milan and the outback of Guangzhou. Whether she has a
shop in downtown Isale-Eko or the upmarket Isaac John Street in GRA, Ikeja, she is
financially savy, hardworking and consistent.
Nowadays, there is no industry or vocation in which the Nigerian woman is not actively
involved. The other day, I met a lady who says she is landscape gardener. There are also
women motor mechanics, photographers and Danfo bus drivers.
Nigerian women do not settle for the dictate that a girl´s fame and fortune depends on
her beauty, they will rather combine beauty with brain and brawn. At a perriod in 2006,
the Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the Foreign Minister, the Finance
Minister and the head of the Food and Drugs Agency in Nigeria were all women.
The Nigerian woman is also in many instances, the unassuming quiet woman at home, the
one who sold puff-puff and carried load on her head amongst other things to send her
children to school. She is the one who plays second fiddle to her husband and subjugates
her personal ambitions to that of her husband´s. The Nigerian woman is still sadly
repressed in many of our cultures and traditions, but the future is hers. I have no doubt
that the Nigerian woman is ably qualified for a Nobel Prize in longsuffering, sheer
industry and nation building.
For her strenght, indestructibility, dignity and her contributions to nation-building, the
Nigerian woman deservedly is a wonder of Nigeria, if not a wonder of the world.
The woman from Nigeria.
