The Death of Lion Man, the failure of NWF

A professional heavyweight wrestler Lion Man died last Sunday shortly after his fight was called off Three Minutes into his Fight at the National Stadium, Lagos. I do not think that the reason for his death has being established up till now. Lion Man, Christopher Okechukwu whose wife is due for delivery soon, had his fight called off when he was noticed not to be fit for the fight. I wonder why there was no test for fitness in the first place before Lion Man went up to the ring. The Blessed put it this way on Nairaland " These wrestlers, if at all, were not medically/physcially and pyschologically assessed and certified fit to fight..." This is really the truth. This neglect is unacceptable.


There were lots of sad drama surrounding Lion Man's passing as was captured and reported by the PM News. Lion man whose fight was stopped and nearly collapsed when he stepped outside the ring as I saw on TV, was not attended to by any medical personnel but his friend who supported him and led him out of the Stadium. The organisers Wrestling and Charity Organisation of Nigeria in conjunction with DAAR Communications, Accolades and Ratinwa Communications obviously did not think of any complication even from the fight that might require any medical attention or first aid. The Nigerian Wrestling Federation too, did not seem to think it is important to have a team of medical personnel and first aid providers standing by.




Lion Man was taking in a Pick Up Van to an hospital where he was rejected for lack of money for his medical care. The same pick up took him back to the Stadium and they left him there lying unconscious. If any necessary measure has been taken Lion Man would not have died. So, the question is, who provides medical facilities and treatment for our sport persons in Nigeria? My hubby who is into Taekwando, told me how so many times they were responsible for themselves when they go for orgnised, supported and sponsored sports. A case in point was a fight they went for in Abuja, where one of thier colleagues fainted while fighting. They not the sport organisers did all they could to wake up the fainted sport man while the whole stadium watched. What happened after was the organisers asking them to write and sign that if anything happens to them, they choose to fight by their own freewill. Where then is safety? Where then is care? Where then is responsibility and the protection of human rights?


RIP Lion Man! I hope things will change, I hope NWF will get sued for this and I hope a big lesson is learnt from this.

Different Faces of Abuse.

It's being a month or so that I am back home. ' Home sweet home- Nigeria I hail thee'. It was as if I was not away for a year but a millisecond. Getting back into the scheme of things didn't take time. It is already in the blood but can I stand the traffic jam in Lagos again? I just can't but I have to. There are still darling friends to see but I am stalling and looking for appriopriate time to go and avoid plenty traffic but work cannot wait . I am doing a research consulting at the moment and it is very interesting. It means also that I have to be in a lot of places to do a lot of things and taking buses a lot of times. I have being challenged by friends to buy a car not that I have the money or that I really want to but it is looking like I have to. Well, I think too that running from buses 'palava' cannot make the problem go away as there are many bad road users on Lagos roads but there will be lesser hassles if I am in my car I guess.

For one, I won't have to listen to so many things I will rather not listen to. It is really amazing how people can complicate issues when they think the first thing that come out of their mouth will resolve whatever it is on the ground. How at times we subjugate women further in our attempt to be peacemakers without fore sight. There have being many cases I have witnessed or that have being victims of. So, I can say this is not a one off issue. Imagine a woman for instance that is asking politely for people to create more space in her seat and the jerk next to her find that offensive and the peacemaker can only say "madam, at least you have a husband at home, you know how men are, we just have to manage them". First if we think about this properly, it means women don't have a choice but to cope with any situation they find themselves and men are what now, idiots? But no one will analyse the latter...

I was on one of my research trips today and after a long day, I was coming back home. I took a bus, sat in the front and dreaming of getting home to rest and spent time with my partner. I didn't enjoy the solitude for long when one fella asked me rudely to move to the middle seat in the front. I ask him to seat in the middle seat if he wanted to but he was upset and he started talking down at me with his friend at the back chorusing. The driver found it his duty to interfere and what he can come up with is "You know women only have mouth and not power" before he went ahead to indicate to the fella that he is older than me. All I asked him - I mean the rude fella was to please take the other seat and now women have mouth? Statements like this only broaden gender inequality and instigate violence. The assumption that this fella was older than me was ridiculous and rest of the statement was appalling. The Drama went on for a while but I just ignored the misbehaved fella after I corrected the driver. I just wonder how many more of these incidents would have led to abuses- both verbally and physically if not contained?

That reminds me, a colleague of my friend was beaten up by her husband and did not come to work for 2 days, when she did, it was with bruises and swollen face. She refused to take the case to women organisations for mediation. What do you think of this decision? My neighbour's pregnant daughter was beaten up by her carpenter who is also their family friend because she got angry that he did not do the job she paid for. Today is the last day of 16 days of activism against violence against women and the journey seems longer...

Men are stronger than women? by Rachael Uwah

Here is a thinking mind of a sister, asking questions, pondering...

Men are stronger than women? Oh Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Can you bleed for a week and survive?

Can you squeeze a 14 inch baby from a 9 cm hole?

Can you carry a 7 pound baby in your stomach for 9months & @ the same time carry other heavy things like 20litres of water on ur head etc?

Can you take care of a child, cook,clean, and talk on the phone @ once?

Can you carry a 108 pound shopping bag?

Can you go a week only eating salad?

Can you face heartbreak?

Can you watch the love of your life be with someone else?

Can you accept lies then smile like you have heard the best truth in your lifetime?

Can you hurt your fingers while cooking and all you get is horrible comments like Its salty, Tasteless...?

Can you burn your forehead with a straightener & not complain cus u just want 2 look beautiful for someone?

Can you walk all day on 6 inch stilettos?

Can you cry all night then get up the next morning like everything is OK?

OF COURSE NOT!

WOMEN ROCK!!!

Note: this is not my work but Rachael Uwah's who has agreed that I share this.

Recruitment for Research Work- Field Officer/Agent

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is looking for 10 dynamic and hardworking women to partake in its current research project as field officers/agents. The research project ” Radio, Convergence and Development in Africa” is trying to research on how the purposes and functions of traditional radio in Africa are influenced by new ICTs and how these programmes are improving the lives of Nigerian Women.

The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is a Nigerian non-governmental organisation working to empower girls and women economically and socially using information and communication technologies (ICTs). This is done through technology literacy training, technology-based projects, mentoring, work placement and research. Our alumni are women and girls who are well-equipped for working and living in an increasingly technology-driven world.

Under the direction of the Research Coordinator, the Field Agents will:

• Administer the questionnaires
• Review questionnaires for invalid or incomplete responses
• Conduct Face to Face Interview with respondents

Qualifications

1. At least OND or its equivalent
2. Previous experience with research, gender and/or information and communications technology
3. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
4. Demonstrates strong inter-personal skills, initiative and commitment to team works

The position is available to women only.

Deadline for application is 28^th Nov, 2010 and all applications which must include an application letter and a CV should be sent to teeajao@yahoo.com.

Nigeria @ 50 - Day 31: A call to duty that can no longer be ignored

Day 1 on Nigeria @ 50 was OluSimeon. cent. I' m using this opportunity to say a wonderful birthday to all October born bloggers, especially Myne Whitman, many more years of success in you. .writings .


It's being 31 days of interesting postings from 31 committed and progressive Nigerian Bloggers on the theme, Nigeria @ 50, an initiative of Rethots. What happened when you are the last to make a post is the danger of having any more ideas. All has being said from the hurt, the betrayers of our leaders, the wrong mentality prevailing in our society to leadership and civic duty to the efforts, hope and the joy of being a Nigerian. Many drew from their personal experiences in a way that speaks to the urgency of what we need to do as individuals. I therefore do not really have anything different to say but remind us that we all should fulfill or continue to fulfill our part of the bargain, we need to keep acting out our NATIONAL ANTHEM/pledge for real. In it is every stance of change, duty, commitment, respect for others and ourselves to mention a few.


Of a great importance was the reference made by many bloggers in their posts, the call to duty, our ‘ National Anthem’. It was surely a call to duty,a call to do what is necessary to develop our nation and respect the rightsof its people. A duty that have being failed many times but that we cannot permit anymore, if the next 50 years means something to us all. We have to act for it is not too late for us all to do “something” about this. We have enormous challenges and enduring strengths as many bloggers pointed out. We need to tap to our individual strengths for the change we seek to see. This is not the Nigeria we desire and we can all be part of that crusade of what we want.



Talking from personal experience one would see that we have all being through what poor leadership is doling out and many of us surviving without the State but if we truly want to carry on hoping things will change, we have to contribute to the State. Yes, it is tough and seems impossible. In Myne Whitman post, she emphasized the importance of ‘policies’ to have effective institutions and structure, I agree! I ask us now, what are we all doing about this? The political terrain is tough but how are we lobbying in our own little way to see that those in leadership do not forget what matters? What do we do with our votes? What are we doing do not forget what matters? What do we do with our votes? What are we doing to get into that leadership seat and make a change?


How are we above all, as individuals in this country that houses us all behaving for a change? Do we embrace ourselves as people and not as tribes or ethnic groups Do we constantly stereotype against ourselves or have we seen pass that substandard belief? How well do we tolerate one another, what do we know about diversity, do we embrace it? Have we changed the attitude of condemning our own very beloved country by saying “that is Nigeria for you”, “ Nigeria cannot change”, “ Na Naija be that”, “ What do you expect from a Nigerian”. No, that is not Nigeria for us! We need to see what is rubbing us of our development as a vice and call it what it is! We need to start acting now in our own little space. We need to fight corruption by not being part of it. We need to stop religion intolerance by loving our neighbours no matter their religion belief, we need to love and respect ourselves for being individuals in our great Nation. We need to be a part of ending injustice and not a part of aggravating it!


This is the time for all of us to say no matter how hard it is, I will not throw waste on the street but I will look for a way to have this done properly. No matter how hard it is, I will not steal from my boss….If my mentality is wrong, then I need to fix me, so I can fix Nigeria. We all have to keep doing something or continue to seek change. Remember Rosa Parks did something that started the revolution aimed at ending black segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that never died...God bless us, God bless Nigeria! One love, One hope, One call to duty!

For day 30, visit Rita's mind.

DO something, SAY something - Original Article by Fungai Rufaro Machirori

Note: This is a recirculation of this post by a Zimbabwean Blogger Fungai- Visit her blog

This shouldn’t be happening in 2010.

In fact, it shouldn’t be happening ever.

When I saw the images of this woman’s plight, I felt my heart plummet into my bowels. I felt the anger seeping into my blood. I asked myself if it was possible that a man could be so heartless as to inflict such pain onto another human being, especially since in my last post, I so fervently celebrated the joys of having men in the world.

Over the weekend, I received an email from the Zimbabwe Gender Forum about a young woman who was recently attacked by her husband. In the physical battle that ensued, he plucked out her hair and caused so much damage to her abdomen that she needed an operation to reorder her intestines which had premusbaly unravelled and torn due to the impact. The same woman was hospitalised at one of Harare’s hospitals while her husband was remanded in custody. And the story only gets worse. The hospital where she received treatment detained her for failure to pay her medical bills. Only through the efforts of Musasa Project (an organisation working to end gender-based violence) did she finally receive assistance.
What kind of a health system is that anyway? What has the world come to when those who have already suffered oppression at the hands of an individual must also suffer oppression at the hands of a system?!!
What would have happened to this woman – also the mother of two children below the age of 5 – if no one had been there to help her? Does anyone care?! I am very worried by this situation on many levels because it just reflects the ugliness of our society. Zimbabwe has had a Domestic Violence Act in place for over 3 years now but implementation thereof is still a massive challenge due to lack of financial and political commitment. Men still get off scott-free if they know the right buttons to press within the system. A bribe here and there and a whole docket of information can disappear from the police records.


What social protection do we as women therefore have? In June, I was at Harare’s ONLY adult rape clinic and learnt with shock, anguish and fear that the centre is facing severe funding shortfalls and due to to this cannot expand its services to become a 24-hour service to provide full attention to rape survivors. For now, the clinic only operates on week days from 8am-4pm. This means that if you are raped on a Friday evening, you can only get assistance from the clinic the following Monday morning. And because the nature of a rape investigation entails the survivor keeping evidence of the incident on their body, one must not wash off the traces of semen and sperm from their body until they can be examined.

A woman at the clinic had to endure that plight – just take a moment to imagine how horrendous that would feel. The shame, the reminder of it all, the smell, the feeling of filth covered all over you.By the time she could be attended to on the Monday morning, the staff at the clinic described her as “stinking”. What protection do we as women have from our men, from a patriarchal society that keeps telling us it’s all our fault for not being good enough women, that we deserve a bashing every now and then to keep us one th straight and narrow?


Men, you are both the problem and the solution. Value us as human beings. Respect our bodies as the vessles that house our souls, our creativity, our womanhood.
Do not invade us.
Do not kill us.
We are your sisters. And you are our brothers.
I began this post with a story that shouldn’t be told in 2010. The pictures of this tragedy shouldn’t exist. I shouldn’t even be writing this all.
But I am. Are you going to do anything about it? Or are you just going to close your eyes and walk away from it all?
Do something! Say something!
Help spread the word that this is not acceptable.

The highway of life- An Esther Ajayi-Lowo's Reflection

Life is a highway, and we are all drivers. You live the way you drive; you drive the way you live. are only safer when u are learning...the better u become, the more risks u take Sometimes we choose a new lane and we are either contented or disappointed. Some stay put while others would change again and again, bearing the risks associated, if and when there are any. Some would even regret. When u change a lane, u never stop to monitor others who maintained it because you want to be sure that your choice is wise. You somehow keep a track of your colleagues to measure your achievements...on the highway of life.

We are not able to choose people who drive around or ahead of us....a likeness of our inability to choose our parents or relatives. But we have the choice to overtake, balancing the pros and cons, and taking responsibilities for outcomes...good or bad. Beware of envoy, but it can be pleasantly fast. The choice is yours. Always watch your back. For a good driving habit...the back is as important as the front.

We sometimes batch people around us or get brushed by them. There could be accidents....and it may be due to no fault of ours but of someone we are unfortunately sharing the highway with. Patience can sometimes be a virtue or vice: you need to be sure that time and space is best for it You have to think for other drivers. Sometimes your pace is determined by that of the driver in front of u. You just may have no choice! But to follow on- even if grudgingly and frustratingly.

If he/she is stupid, u may be doomed....He may even escape the calamity which he caused! People cause trouble for people...on the highway of life.Your vehicle type has a part to play. You may be given ‘SHIT’ or be respected for it. No one cares it if is hired, borrowed, on loan, all you have got, or the least u chose to drive....

No matter how expensive...an accident may be its end. Even beautiful ones die in accidents... on the highway of life. Sometimes the old rickety ones last for just too long....and you can only wonder...Some would drive a 'big' car when a balanced meal is a luxury that they can't afford. The value we place on fancy things of life is sometimes ironically hilarious.

You are only a good driver when u get home safely...your story is only history. Can some drivers be on a suicide mission? Nothing is impossible. You are just the way u drive! I dislike to say that some people who are afraid to drive are afraid of the highway of life, but I am almost convinced.

On the highway of life, we should beware of drivers without destinations, trying to figure out their destinations/or just driving for fun....They will always hinder those who have a focused destination and need to arrive there in record time. Drive along only with those heading same destination....Birds of a feather, flock together. Who you marry is a key factor to destiny/destination... on the highway of life.

Breaks are very important...on the highway of life. It is the best caution that you should use with caution. Now I think of my mouth and ability to slow down when need be. May my break never fail...on the highway of life. How good are your shock-absorbers? The highway of life is far from been only smooth...expect to be shaken...on the highway of life.

Beware of drivers ahead who may divert too much for little obstacle- pot holes...they may mislead you. Remember too that that which works for the driver ahead may not work for you: time and chance always come to play...on the highway of life.

On the highway of life are not only drivers, but also pedestrians. Be careful to consider them.You may be in no way better than they are....Time and chance can also change for you, and for them. The unusual/abnormal/reverse happens every now and then... You may see a vehicle move the driver...Situations in life do take the control of peoples’ lives. Do as you would be done by. Give someone a life/ride, but beware...on the highway of life.

Caution at every bend: quality decision is best. Take care at every junction to avoid those who may not consider your coming. Always expect them even at unexpected times....You do the thinking. You cannot always be right, even when you have the right of way. Compromise is necessary when it actually costs you little or nothing...on the highway of life.

We desire forward ever on the highway of life...yet reverse is possible, and may become necessary for further forward movement. Some several routes lead to some same destination: You are sometimes as fast as the route you know or choose. Sometimes, there are just no shot-cuts on the highway of life!

There can be only one driver in a vehicle. Sometimes, you are left with no choice than to be driven. You entrust your life to a driver: you seat, sleep or snore...taking all the risks. You may choose to control or alert your driver, but this also may either make you safe or open you up to more dangers....on the highway of life!

The highway of life is not an island....You cannot always have your way! You cannot always retaliate....There may never be an opportunity for it, or it may simply bring more harm. If you do not care, it is your choice. It pays to obey the highway rules. Assume the possibility of everyone breaking the rules, and then you have assumed the ‘state of nature’ where there is but only CHAOS...on the highway of life.

A reflection of Esther Oluwashina Ajayi-Lowo;

© September 2010