NBA OFFICES MUST NOT BE FACETIOUS OR FOR DECORATION

 NBA Offices Must Not Be Facetious or For Decoration. 

Now that ECNBA has given candidates 48 hours to produce their manifestos and email by deadline 6pm Monday 6th July

This means candidates who are now in NBA race blank on vision and mission would have no choice but to gather a few juniors in some firm with zero law practice experience  to start writing one.

I have been asked by someone who shall not be named on WhatsApp text with respect to the office of NBA GS he was critiquing candidates and he said Joyce Oduah may not have the capacity for GS but that she is a Church lady Anglican.  He opined that some NBA candidates are irreligious. 

I said to Joyce Oduah what are your visions for NBA Secretariat 2020. She said she is waiting for the official knod for candidates to write and email their manifestos.  

From the day you decide to run for office you must have some ideas how you intend to run the offices of President and GS if elected. 

NBA should  not approve APC PDP types looting of NBA Treasury. Although he took AOO's mandate in 2018, in the conference year 2019, Mr Usoro had collected hundreds and hundreds of millions of naira from lawyers hard earned resources and other sources such as State Govt etc under TCCP 2019 and couldn't make a simple provision for tea/coffee or even bottled water for all registrants.  

Also colleagues had to trek long distances from the conference  venue in Eko Suites V/Island to lunch venue and when they got there they had to wash the dishes before they were served some poor plated lunch and then trekked back. Irresponsible bar leadership.   

Kindly NBA presidential candidates the office to be held to serve members and not for the title. How you intend to serve NBA members as a servant leader is key. Everyone ought to address issues of appropriate  remuneration for all legal practitioners. Not only juniors cos the juniors are paid from what you seniors earn. Emphasize the  Remuneration of Lawyers generally. President Trump cut tax across board you know. 

NB The Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order 1991 some may not be aware of but it exists and NBA has yet taken a step to implement it.  Clannish Usoros  not what you emulate. Doctrinaire  Selfishism took more than twenty clans should. Post August 2020 EFCC has to interrogate that  cheque practice of cutting out both Treasurer and GS. 

COVID 19 stopped them from taking more in 2020 AGC hence they plot to install a President and a GS they will be collecting and passing filthy 'tax' to the clannish neophytes.  

If you are elected President or GS do not support looting of NBA.  Please

2) NBA Stamp and Seal the LP Rules didn't say you must change stamp and seal every year. Imposing expiry dates on NBA stamps and seal creates avenue for fleecing poor members.  As a notary public you don't change your stamp every year. Do you? The NBA ought to issue stamp and seal without imposing expiry dates on it under the lame excuse that if you are disbarred you won't be able to use it in subsequent years. 

NBA Looters should be disbarred.  Usoros corrupt and incompetent regime has not issued stamp and seal months after collecting the fees from colleagues.

The presidential candidates should seek to elevate these common problems and do not hold NBA office as proxy for the three Grreedy neophytes Alegeh and the Usoros.

GS candidate: 

Someone wrote and posted on Facebook lately that Oduah at NEC meeting Abuja March 2020 informally told members she is prepared to kneel down to every NEC member to make her GS. That is Desperate. The infradig of kneeling to your contemporaries and colleagues. Where is your dignity as a lawyer? When Prince Olateru-Olagbegi and I conceded assistant Secretary NBA Lagos Branch to you in 2000 we didn't ask you to kneel or jump. We treated you with dignity and  respect for human rights even though you were a stranger to NBA and you had just come want office office office any office available? Asst Secretary Social Secretary? PR? Treasurer post. GS post. Grabby Desperado.  

CV profile 2020 as published by Oduah has yet disclosed  the name of any University that Oduah purportedly attended. Called to bar in 1991 had seen a few who gained admission into Law School on the basis of some obscure law degree. 

Ask them to write their manifesto they will frown.

Answer via email

Sincerely, 

Dame Carol

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2020 NBA ELECTION MUST NOT BE RIGGED, ECNBA CAUTIONED

https://globalsentinelng.com/2020/07/03/2020-nba-election-must-not-be-rigged-like-previous-one-ecnba-cautioned/

Condolence and Steer Clear of Corruption Cordelia

Learned Cordelia Eke (Esq)

My condolence on the death of your Dad and may his gentle soul rest in peace. Amen

As you know NBA elections this year for the offices of President and General Secretary etc are being keenly contested and it's not gonna be like 2018 where the backend of the portal showed results were manipulated to achieve a hidden outcome.

Should ECNBA 2020 attempt to manipulate the election it could be reported to EFCC by some aggrieved candidates like the election year before it and this time ECNBA will be held to account. Although Usoros may add it to ML pending charge. It might not necessarily be so for ECNBA members such as the Secretary, the Chairman

Do NOT listen to those notorious extremely greedy whose work ethics remain unworthy of the calling of the learned and noble when they tell you to cook up books under any circumstances whatsoever please conduct a free and fair NBA election.

Already the signs are looking non-transparent with the disqualification by ECNBA of candidates who were duly nominated and reluctance to announce their clearance weeks after your mistake was corrected which seem like it was more of a mischief than unintentional act or error. ECNBA called a few of the disqualified cases though and said they still stood disqualified for obvious reasons of not satisfying certain constitutional criteria and for the majority of those wrongly disqualified ECNBA kept suspicious sealed pen.

Less than honourable!

Furthermore like an indolent committee, that it shouldn't be ECNBA snoozed whilst deadlines moved past it to the extent that the election date was rescheduled from 24-25 July to 29-30 July yet ECNBA is not willing or ready with the final list of voters;

Still not willing or ready to release the final list of candidates;

ECNBA yet to officially lift the ban on NBA campaigns;

ECNBA haven't called candidates to meetings;

still haven't asked candidates to upload their CV profile & manifestos etc.

ECNBA's overt incompetence and seeming confusion speaks to behind the scene possible Manipulations.

Final steps yet to be taken and extremely limited time as though ECNBA is planning tenure elongation for the present crop of national officers under the leadership of a lawyer who had stolen another lawyer's presidential mandate in 2018. Should this be the case you will meet a constitutional brickwall hence ECNBA must move up quickly with the electoral exercise.

All the Best

Attorney Carol Ajie

LL.M Georgetown

Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa 2010-2020

Vital Voices Lead Fellow

Founder Rules Watch in Defence of Human Rights

Copy ECNBA Chairman

forward to Mr Tawo SAN

Copy NBA candidates

Copy NBA national officers

Copy Members

WE WILL PROBE THE USOROS!

Dear Brother Barrister Chigbo. Bless you, when you walk many meters from the conference venue to queue for lunch. When you walk long walk from Eko hotel many delegates who couldn't go through that suffering and pain ditched it. Some who could afford to order lunch at the hotel at N9,000= nine thousand naira had private lunches very expensive in five stars resorts. Then why did the Usoros collect humongous conference fees to dish that. Those who have no culture of service don't even know when a lunch arrangement is humiliating, it is deemed as zero as those who rose from NBA zero to NBA zenith and remain ungrateful to NBA for elevating them. 

Don't they know what tea and coffee break means. So called IBA gate Crashers. If the Usoros were really trained in the tradition of IBA they'd know better. 

The key query is why didn't they send the email forwarding the NBA financial report after they made corrections on the first copy circulated. Are they still hiding figures? When we probe the Usoros they will become like President Jonathan and Diezani. It's when someone leaves office you see their atrocities more... Hard as the Usoros are covering their shame, many things are being exposed imagine what happens thereafter. Which is why they are desperate over a successor whom they will not be able to install 2020

NBA ON THE PATH TO COLLAPSE

NBA ON THE PATH TO COLLAPSE.

The NBA is on the path to collapse following the AGM.

To start with, Chief Obafemi Adewale was indicted more decades ago when Mrs Adekoya was Treasurer and
Charles Idehen President. She presented her annual report on ten Million naira donation to NBA by the then military regime. Issues of accounts became thorny. Do you know Adewale lost his seat. At the time elections were annual and manual general election all voted.

Alegeh and Usoros railroaded a so-called NBA Constitution 2019 to officially endorse looting ad the officed of the Treasurer and Financial Secretary now been scrapped or so they purport.

Not mentioning the stench Usoros EFCC trial for money laundering and corruption brought up NBA house.

Usoro also had planned to force a clause that only rich men will be allowed to vie for the offices of President and General Secretary. Thanks to Hero of the AGM Monday Ubani Esq who successfully moved to strike that down.

However there are issues of proven administrative skills. Undefined to enable them start disqualifying lawyers. Before you are allowed to contest for the office of the President and GS 2020 you must have proven admin skills. Note that neither Alegeh nor Usoro were anything in NBA before they became Presidents and these same hypocrites talk of prior administrative skill. Skills that neither of them possess prior and at tenure.

Usoros organized their first AGC Lagos 2019 for the first time in history many delegates had to buy their lunch and water after paying huge registration fees. Upon arrival a school bag which they call conference bag is handed to the registered delegate. That is all you gat The program arrived late.

The few lawyers who said it's the best conference are irredeemably dishonest. I sent a text message to one of the so called sudden supporter today and I quote my text: " The Supporter of a Thief is a Chief Thief".

Usoros received N200million money pledged to AB Mahmoud's regime for last year's AGC but paid by the pledgee Lagos State Govt to Mr Usoro and he failed to capture it in his report. You call that transparency? He also lied that N450million of NBA'S money was fixed in Access Bank when in deed actual sum is N550million.

Could face litigation to strike down the 'decisions' of that kangaroo 🦘 AGM taken Thurs 29th Aug., against protestation that you cannot amend the NBA Constitution to enable official looting. Because the new Director of Finance a staff & employee would pander to the President he or she serves in a new master and servant setting. Note further that all assistant positions for young lawyers were scrapped safe for one, safe for assistant Secretary. All others scrapped by Looooni-Usoros. It is beyond hypocrisy, this is sheer lunacy against the AGC theme 'facing the future' intended to energize young lawyers. Ironically this is the poor package from Usoros to youngsters anxious to serve our Nigerian Bar Association. ++++++++++++

CRASS INCOMPETENT AND CORRUPT USOROS MOVED AGC TIME THURS TO 2PM DUE TO INCONSISTENCIES AND INACCURACIES IN THEIR FINANCIAL REPORT TO NBA

Crass incompetent and corrupt  Usoros last minute moved time for the AGC today Thurs 29-8-19 to 2pm. Because of inconsistencies and inaccuracies in their Financial report.

*NOTICE OF CHANGE OF TIME OF NBA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FROM 12PM TO 2PM*

Dear distinguished colleagues,

Recall that by an earlier published notice, the Annual General Meeting was fixed for 12 pm, today Thursday, 29/8/2019 at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos.

However, we find it necessary to adjust the time for the Annual General Meeting to 2pm, today, Thursday, 29/8/19 due to the following exigencies -

i. We just circulated the Revised Audited Financial Statements this morning following the fundamental errors that were discovered in the previously submitted Audited Financial Statement.  These errors were discovered by the Treasurer working with our accounting department, yesterday afternoon, 28 August 2019, at about 2pm while preparing for the Annual General Meeting..  The errors required the complete replacement of some pages of the Audited Financial Statement and it wasn’t until close to midnight that we got the corrected versions from the Auditor which is why we are circulating them this morning for the members to study ahead of the meeting.

 ii. Furthermore, it is our modest take that moving the Annual General Meeting to 2pm allows lawyers to have their lunch ahead of the meeting considering that NBA is not providing lunch for members and the Annual General Meeting, if we start at 12noon, given the Agenda Items, could conceivably drag up to 4pm.  We believe that it is actually convenient and makes for proper planning if the meeting starts at 2pm, after lunch, and, assuming it lasts for 4 hours (cannot last beyond that), we will be through by 6pm. 

iii. As a corollary to the second point above, the Sections are having their Annual General Meetings at 9am and we consider the possibility that they (or some or any of them) may not finish by or before 12noon.  If they finish by 12noon, a 2-hour break thereafter allows lawyers to refresh, have lunch and get ready for the 2pm Annual General Meeting.

We regret any inconvenience that this change of time may cause any of our members.

NBA PUBLICITY TEAM

NBA REJECTS USOROS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

NBA REJECTS USOROS PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Dear Colleagues, 

Tomorrow is AGC the Green and Greedy Usoros want constitutional amendment without input from those of us the real owners of NBA. 

Wait a minute, Chief Olanipekun the Father of some SANs including one or two of his biological children with some Fmr NBA Presidents. AB Mahmoud's daughter has LL.M from New York. JB Daudu SAN has at least two learned kids.. Okey Wali SAN has a medical doctor and a lawyer. The Usoros children old as the Usoros are older than some of these NBA Fmr Presidents, the Usoros are in their 60's their daughter and son beautiful children but no known scholarliness.

 These past Presidents with scholarly and learned children, turned in views and memos and Fabian Ajogwu SAN who has not even as much as faced a single election in NBA,  junior to all NBA Fmr Presidents upto 2014 turned it out. 

Dear Fabian Ajogwu SAN  you used to be a man of ethics democracy and deep intellect even when you were not a SAN you great guy now working for impostors to the NBA throne. You must not let the Usoros railroad you into agenda selfishism. Back down now Fabian Ajogwu!. 

We reject your proposed constitutional amendment. 

Yours sincerely, 

Attorney CN Ajie Constitutional and Human Rights Lawyer.  

Copy to Usoros etc.

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USOROS PROFESSIONAL SINS: IBA PRESIDENT NOTE!

Monday 26^th August 2019

Mr Horacio Bernardes Neto

IBA President

Transmitted By Email

Dear Mr President,

We, RULES WATCH IN DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND GENDER EMPOWERMENT NETWORK (RULES WATCH) with utmost respect Welcome you to Nigeria for the 59^th General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association presently under the questionable leadership of Mr Paul Usoro a senior advocate of Nigeria who was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission December 2018 on charges of money laundering and corruption. No little wonder many lawyers shunned the conference. He won’t tell us the number of lawyers registered and income netted in and expenditure. Usoro’s regime lacks transparency. He has too many hidden charges, too many concealed profits.

 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/12/nba-president-charged-over-alleged-n1-4bn-fraud/

 Mr Usoro’s election was in August 2018 and he was the NBA presidential candidate of RULES WATCH Chair, Board of Trustees, the undersigned and many are aware  that although I did not rig the NBA election, Mr Usoro and some of his family members manipulated the figures to win the NBA Presidential election in August 2018. Hence Mr Paul Usoro SAN was reported to the Nigerian Crime authorities by the ICT Dept of one of the lead Presidential candidates.  https://lawnigeria.com/2018/08/how-nigerian-bar-association-2018-elections-was-rigged-by-arthur-obi-okafor-san/

The gentleman O. O. Oluwokore Esq who penned and signed the petition to EFCC, mysteriously lost his life a couple of weeks after the EFCC commenced investigations into his petition on electoral fraud. Till present there is a pending law suit filed by Okafor against Usoro challenging the manipulated figures.

By his own admission, Mr Paul Usoro bought gifts for Judges against the admonition of the Justice Sector Reforms Group that Lawyers it is unethical practice and that lawyers must stop giving bribes and buying gifts for Judges particularly Judges before whom lawyers/firms conduct cases being termed as bribery and corruption under the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers. The Usoros bribed a Judge of the National Industrial Court and also paid money to a former Chief Justice of Nigeria for a family wedding and two of whom have now been compulsorily retired, dismissed or forced to resign their positions. 

The question Lawyers are asking, what is Mr Usoro waiting for before he resigns his position as NBA President?

Sir, the IBA Report on Bullying and Sexual Harassment which you will launch at the NBA  conference speaks to issues you have said are unacceptable and thank you for focusing on Africa and looking forward to your focusing on Mr Usoro and requesting he turns in his letter of resignation, please. 

Note that Mr Usoro’s conduct and tactics are unacceptable by IBA standards. Whilst holding forth as NBA President, wrongly, did not constitute the numerous committees of NBA. Is Mr Usoro waiting to see how many women would accept his trafficking tactics before he would give the other women lawyers opportunity to serve an otherwise noble, learned and honourable profession as even my humble self deeply religious without fear,  the Usoros told me to ‘see’ Mr Usoro ref issues of nomination to serve the NBA and of course I bluntly refused the overtures on religious grounds. He sent his lackeys to insult me for refusing and without shame, rewarded them.

Yours respectfully,

Attorney Carol Ajie

Chair BoT, RULES WATCH

THE VISION SHOWN TO CELIBATE CATHERINE OF SIENA

THE VISION SHOWN TO CELIBATE CATHERINE OF SIENA

Sunday 25th Aug 2019, a Catholic Priest also delivered a Homily in another Parish, morning masses. The Rev Father named Two Saints in efforts to save humankind:

 1) St. Padre Pio he said a Nigerian asked him, the Priest Homiliest that what if the huge gate admits a huge number such that the fire🔥 in hell quenches. And the Priest said he responded to him in the language of Padre Pio "get there and see"😈. He said it is human to err but Devlish to persist in your error. 

The Homilest also venerated All Saints and cited example:

2) St. Catherine of Siena activist, virgin, she was not a Reverend sister, Celibate who closely associated with the Order of St. Dominic. Our model St. Catherine of Siena also gifted with vision was shown by the Holy Spirit the visions of Heaven and Hell.. She testified to what she saw as follows. A) Heaven you meet God face to face. The corresponding opposite is

Hell. You meet the Dragon the Ancient Serpent the Liar who deceives people of God. Do you want to meet Satan?

B) There is gentle breeze in Heaven and sweet smelling incense and flowers. You don't need AC or NEPA. There is everything good for everyone good right  there. The corresponding opposite

Hell. There is fire 🔥stench. Misery. Pains. Sufferings Weeping, gnashing of teeth. They curse Devil. 

C) While in Heaven the Saints and Angels are singing dancing happy thanking and praising God for Holy lives. In Hell you find regret for those sins that take souls to hell dishonesty, deceits, embezzlement stealing of public funds, moral and financial corruption, money laundering, scamming adultery, fornication, gluttony killing or even plotting asasination and kidnap etc.

The Homilest concluded by enjoining the congregation to live Holy lives pray often and beware of Workers of Iniquity because that is exactly what God calls sinners as stated in the Bible. DEPART FROM ME FOR I KNOW YOU NOT YOU WORKERS OF INIQUITY!

Thank you.

Carol Ajie: WHY DELTA STATE LOST AGF!

Carol Ajie: WHY DELTA STATE LOST AGF!: WHY DELTA STATE LOST AGF! https://refer.ng/p/34136/he-wanted-minister-of-justice-but-the-cabals-thought-otherwi            Dear All...

WHY DELTA STATE LOST AGF!

WHY DELTA STATE LOST AGF!

https://refer.ng/p/34136/he-wanted-minister-of-justice-but-the-cabals-thought-otherwi          

Dear All, the man who wrote as shown in the above link that Keyamo wanted AGF... Didn't he hear Keyamo say he will serve in any capacity assigned to him?.

Festus Keyamo didn't ask himself questions at screening. DSP Omo-Agege fired the 1st salvo and said as AGF what would be your reforms. Keyamo replied robustly. You all know him he is very intellectually savvy and serves. Omo-Agege also has very intellectuality.  

Having said that Delta State should have set up a think-tank to pre-screen the sole nominee Keyamo before NASS did. To prempt NASS Q&A . Look given Buhari's persona any sign he sees that speaks to regionalism is not approved. And you know one of the major planks of Keyamo's 3Ds  rested on regional supreme  Court. The progressives approve that but Mr President naturally loathe regionalism. 

So the think-Tank would have said questions such as ....made suggestions that would not ruffle APC's key political icons.  Another thing that I think frightened Buhari was when Keyamo said given FK's resounding human rights work that he would reflect that in the office of AGF.

You know PMB's human rights records, his penchant to deal with opposition and critics. Even I gentle as my pen is🤣😄  Buhari is still sitting on my fees in the Nigeria Airways pensions case after he approved N45Billion and released N22.5Billion to the claimants before his 2019 election. That case was assigned to me by President Yar Adua's AGF Aondoakaa in 2008-2009 just before I went to Georgetown University Law Centre Washington DC for my LL.M which was successfully completed. President GEJ's AGF Adoke between 2012-2014 would have recommended payment after he called all the lawyers to meetings in the FMJ he was waited for what I don't know when candidates for Sainthood place high value on their personal and professional integrity. Traits the Usoros particularly lack. 

Conclusion:  

Keyamo SAN and H.E DSP Omo-Agege showed their hands in NASS screening  and that scared PMB.

Now another male lawyer has called on Keyamo SAN to resign from PMB's government and face his law practice. It's too soon to resign. Let him accept this, his national assignment until they make it impossible for him to work even as a junior Minister.. 

Question: 

Has AGF Malami the intellectual sagacity to defend Buhari at this time? Standing in front of BBC Aljezera, CNN, NTA etc to defend government legal policies and legal positions? Speaking authoritatively and persuasively like Omo Delta? 

Answer:

Only time will tell.

Thank you.

Yours respectfully, 

Attorney Carol Ajie

LAWA Fellow, GULC Washington D.C., USA.

Acting CJN Tanko Mohammad: Will the Senate Clear HL or Not?

Tune in for the screening by the Senate at plenary of

His Lordship Justice Tanko Mohammad acting CJN

If he is cleared he becomes THE next CJN

And we will all have to work with him. However, if

Justice Tanko is not cleared the next in rank might.

Who is the next in rank... His Lordship Rhodes-Vivour JSC

What are the odds against Hon. Justice Tanko Mohammad.

South West Senators prefer Hon. Justice R-Vivour to Tanko as CJN

South South and South East Senators would likely with SWest

Because many South Easterners and South Southerners still

grumble over Justice Onnoghen's exit irrespective of political persuasions.

What of North?. This is going to be split between Senators of

PDP vs APC divide. Both APC and PDP have large following in the North.

Don't be surprised if His Lordship Justice Tanko is cleared also

Don't be surprised if His Lordship Justice Tanko is not cleared.

Watch!

C N AJIE ESQ. Ms.

Chair, BoT, RULES WATCH

https://thenationonlineng.net/breaking-justice-tanko-muhammad-arrives-nass-for-screening/

No Masculinity? Molara Ogundipe: Warrior, Feminist, Marxist Trudges On

Heroine Molara Ogundipe goes home. Gone the way of all flesh.   We pray Eternal rest grant her  O Lord and let perpetual light shine on her. Amen.

The Tributes speak to activist Prof Molara Ogundipe's literary giantessness. Great!   I was thinking Nigerians would slap a woman at death in whose name no man attached at the close of age?.  

No  man? as if men guarantee gateway to heaven.  Never mind Jesus Christ said everyone is on his own and on her own on judgment day. Marriage should be honoured though particularly those who respect vows of fidelity and religiousity.  

Please Celibacy is not a threat to anything.  It's healthy that is all.  Healthy for both physical and spiritual well-being.

Thank you 

CA for Chastity. 

On Mon, Jul 8, 2019, 12:21 PM Owei Lakemfa lakemfaowei@yahoo.com [OurCountryNigeria] <OurCountryNigeria@yahoogroups.ca> wrote:

 

Molara Ogundipe: Warrior, Feminist, Marxist, Trudges On.

By Owei Lakemfa.

Words went round the University of Ife, now, Obafemi Awolowo  University, that a leading literary critic, Ms. Molara Ogundipe (later, Professor)  from  the University of Ibadan, was visiting. She was at Ife to give a Marxist interpretation of Professor Wole Soyinka’s 1965 novel, “The Interpreters.” 

This was 1980/81 when Soyinka was  Head of  Ife Drama Department, and, still half a decade from his Nobel Prize.  Many found ‘The Interpreters’ a  turgid  and impenetrable novel.  The novel’s  very first statement: “Metal on concrete jars my drink lobes."  was a put off for some. But  this leading feminist writer was coming, not just to dissect it, but give a Marxist interpretation.

The presentation went well and the newest professor on campus made a response which I did not agree with. So in my contribution, I punctured some holes in his response. The man was furious! This was not just his first outing as a professor, but to be contradicted by a student, was intolerable. He interjected   saying: “ Much  as I do not want to kill a fly with a canon, I will not tolerate any  insult” Mr... Gordini G.  Darah (now a professor) came to my defence.. He told the newly minted professor: “ A canon can kill a fly, provided it has balls” The furious professor walked out. That was the first  time I met Ogundipe. She was cerebral, quite articulate, confident and persuasive.

Some radical intellectuals including Ogundipe held a Women In Nigeria (WIN) Conference at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria from May 27-28, 1982. The participants then established an organization by that name. The objectives included defending the rights of women,  working for their  liberation and fighting for social justice. Ogundipe and other founders of WIN were quite clear that women cannot be liberated without the society itself including the working class and the poor, being liberated.

Ogundipe’s presentation, which was on the theme of the conference, encapsulated her position on the various strands of women oppression.  On race, she argued: “ The oppression of women; economic or personal, is not solely a White-Black Race confrontation although the oppression  of Black Women is deeply tied to   the variable of race  in the history of imperialism”

She noted that one of the main challenges of  women emancipation  is that: “ The liberation of women is conceived as the desire of  women to reduce men  to housekeepers.  Since most men despise  manual work  for feudal and middle class reasons, women’s liberation is feared  as an effort by women to ‘feminize’ men, that is, degrade them”

  Ogundipe argued that women in traditional African societies   were quite active in the economy and that even where they  were driven indoors, they continue  to be productive, adding: “women work in purdah and sell their products through emissaries” Women, she argued, tend to be subordinated  in marriage, and  blamed for childlessness: “…as men  are never admitted to be sterile or infertile”  She added:    “ A childless woman is considered  a monstrosity…”

In this paper she presented 37 years ago, Ogundipe said: “Abortion  is not likely  to be legalized soon.”  and that women: “ can only claim  equality  within marriage  if they are willing  to share  the financial and other  burdens of marriage.”

 WIN  was also open to men, so I joined and helped to establish   its Lagos chapter. Ogundipe moved to Lagos to join the GUARDIAN Editorial Board and we worked together on the WIN project. She could not immediately secure accommodation in Lagos, and the Lagos-Ibadan shuttle  was quite burdensome. So she moved in to stay with my family in a flat in Bakinson House, Bakinson Street, Oregun.

In those days, we had endless debates, especially about her hypothesis of the seven layers of oppression she posited   the African  woman was subjected to.  Ogundipe’s  consciousness as a woman, a female in a male-dominated academic system, and being a witness to the place of women within a cultural, religious, capitalist, colonial and neo-colonial patriarchal society, firmed her postulations on the  woman.

She argued that while the woman is universally oppressed, the African woman is the most oppressed. She however insisted that rather than a blanket assumption,  women needed to be studied within their specific environment.  

Ogundipe   condensed her ideas  on women in an hypothesis she called, the Social Transformation in Africa Including Women (STIWA)  Explaining  STIWA, she said: “…what we want in Africa is social transformation. It is not about warring with men, the reversal of role, or doing to men whatever women think that men have been doing for centuries, but it is trying to build a harmonious society. The transformation of African society is the responsibility of both men and women and it is also in their interest. The new word describes what similarly minded women and myself would like to see in Africa. The word “feminism” itself, seems to be a kind of red rag to the bull of African men. Some say the word by its very nature is hegemonic or implicitly so. Others find the focus on women in

 themselves somehow threatening .....”

As a thinker, she was conscious that coining such an acronym would be useful for mass mobilization. It gave the sense  of an ideology; Stiwanism,  while a person who identifies  with the concept could be called a  Stiwanist.

Professor Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie as she later became known,  produced a lot of intellectual works including  books like  ‘Sew the Old Days and Other Poems’ 1985, ‘Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations’ (ed.) and  ‘Moving Beyond Boundaries.’

We lost contact when she went abroad. After I returned to the country in 2015  following  a three-year absence, I was unaware she was also back. Then on March 12, 2016, I got a request from her on Messenger  for my cell number and e-mail address;  vital information tools that were absent the last time we were in contact.  We were back in  contact discussing various  issues. Then on November 13, 2018, she sent me a message for advise on the media she should write for as she intended resuming column writing.

Earlier this year, I promised that when next I am  in  Lagos or Ibadan, I will visit her in the new university in Ogun State    she was teaching.  That visit will never happen as on June 18, 2019, the warrior-academic, Marxist-Feminist- Narratologist, departed the earthly battle field for other fields.

Let me end this tribute with a poem she wrote four decades ago: “How long shall we speak to them Of the goldness of mother, of difference without home How long shall we say another world lives Not spinned on the axis  of maleness But founded and wholed, charting through Its many runnels its justice distributive” 

 OWEI LAKEMFA

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