Are Igbo Women the most educated in Nigeria?

by Odimegwu Onwumere

Both the Federal and the State governments are patronizing Nigerian women much since the attainment of democracy in 1999 by awarding appointments to them, and Igbo women are not left in this banquet. This is very nice and wonderful. And they are making great inputs and outputs as they relate to leadership and family matters in their different offices and villages.

Somebody was antagonizing me and condemning my direction that Igbo women in government should not murder caution on the altar of stardom, but rather should respect their various families and husbands and the cultures and traditions of Ndi’Igbo. My antagonizer said, “Well, what do we expect to hear from an Igbo man than to condemn his Igbo women for standing out even with or without their husbands awareness?” And all that bla bla bla.

The other person said that I was right. That a woman, not only from the Igbo extraction, must respect her husband and the cultures and traditions of her paternal and matrimonial homes even if she is the president of the country. And also, even though she holds all the degrees the world universities can offer. The person also added that, that a woman is a professor or a PhD holder does not make her wise. The woman may be knowledgeable, but failure to apply her knowledge in a practical way makes the woman unwise. Wisdom has been said to be the ability to utilise knowledge and experience in a practical way. So, when a woman does not respect her husband and the family and cultures and traditions she comes from because she is in the government, she has woefully failed, and at the same time portraying her husband’s headship as irrelevant to her.

Another person said that I hit the nail on the head. And reiterated that hardly does any perceived educated Igbo woman respects her brothers, boyfriend, husband, cultures and traditions. But it is high time Igbo men shouted down on their women. The person said that all these Nna boy anwugo women which are typical of Igbo women and their craft should be exposed.

Is it known by other Nigerians that Igbo society is a matriarchy? The men may not subscribe to that. But, are they not trying to prove it to the world? If you read the articles written by an Igbo woman, you will think that Igbomen are like the apple skinned people that kill their wives. When an Igbo woman insulted Zik, by calling him Ogbaoso 1, could any Yoruba woman have said such a thing to Awo? Was the woman not Awo’s running mate?

But when Danjuma insulted Ironsi, he was challenged by his people that no one talks down on the dead. However, go to Kwenu.com and see what an Igbo woman said about the Owelle of Onitsha, a dead Igbo legend and patriarch. Is it longer a hidden event that in Igbo families women are running the show and if you contest it with your wife you are a dead man? Are Igbo women the most and only educated women in Nigeria? Yoruba women are even educated than, if statistics is taken. From where did this open eye come from among Igbo women?

Is it true that in some political meetings that men from other tribes fondle the fleshy bulbs of Igbo women in attendance at any slight chance they get and tell them to report to the press, and also tell them that they are not Igbo men that they “Igbo women” run over and insult? How true is the allegation? I do not know. But, is it not something to think about? Has Nigeria figured that to denigrate Igbo men, by using Igbo women to represent the men? Does it not worth it that Igbo people should be exposing any Igbo woman “hustler” for who she is and forget giving her all these glory and accolades because she is in the government?

Ask other Nigerian women their opinion or perception of Igbo women, you have earful. Is it not surprising that if not for the intervention of families and in some cases the Ohanaeze Ndigbo that most of South-East governors would have been divorcees? Contrast it with governors of other cultures in Nigeria. It is wow!

Does Lagos State not have eight women to one man ratio of lawyers? If Ndi’Igbo have that ratio, wouldn’t the Igbo women have upturned the culture of the race? Did one Igbo elite not say that culture is a word for subjugation of not only the women but that culture should be fought at every corner?

Have Igbo women not refused to enforce Igbo Language wherever they are to their children since they are closer to the children? But rather, they preferred speaking grammar, because they are “learned”.

Imagine that during a symposium in Imo State by the most revered Igbo novelist, one “PhD” Igbo lady got up the stage and was shouting and calling the novelist a “sexist” for writing a novel that Igbo women are told what the Igbo cultures and traditions are and no Igbo man or woman shouted the lady down?

Is it not true that when men from other tribes see Igbo ladies, what they just want to do is pregnant them? Many Igbo women say they do that because their men would kill them. Is it not only in ala-Igbo that men would be fighting and the women will not be taking part? In other tribes, women fight along with their men. Any doubting Thomases should conduct a research on this.

Is it not a widely known fact that Igbo women hold diary on their men while looking for confrontation to count “charges” for their men? Is it not a shame that to tell the hatred Igbo women have on their men, about thirty percent of Igbo women who are Medical doctors and PhD holders have babies for other tribes men without wedlock? But Igbo women’s brothers and fathers would want Igbo men to come and pay dowry? Not even that the women would “cool” down but will come to control and destroy the family and her husband.

Because Igbo women are not shouted down by their men, the effect of that is the more heinous crime in Igbo land today known as divorce. This was a shame before, but it has come to stay, being propagated by the “top” or “society” Igbo women.

Igbo men must first take their place by taking charge and stopping their women excesses in their homes and then find their place in the world around their women. Is it bad that Igbo is Y-chromosome and an Igbo woman cannot produce that unless she submits herself to one of her own?

If Ndi’Igbo do not re-orientate these women, kidnapping is even a child’s play. Is it not true that today’s Igbo youths, many are keeping their sisters in their place, like pimping them and in some music, using rhythms like Ara dara ada ada go, which was supposed to be an abomination? In the core Igbo culture and tradition, was it not very insulting to come to a party with one’s sister where such music is being played? Was such music not an abominable one in ala-Igbo? You may call civilization. But, that is a doom.

It used to be a happy thing that your sister is fighting because she slapped a man who came to excuse her for a dance. But today, Igbo women have turned to slap their brothers who came to ask them not to dance naked outside with a stranger.

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1 comment

Alujo August 13, 2010 - 9:16 pm

Igbo women are very smart. Education is the only key out of poverty. They go to school to stop their men from marrying new wives e.g. Anambra women. Men use the illiterate excuse to hook more women even when they are illiterates.

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