Sacrifice motherhood for politics -Oogbodo

Oogbodo while giving the advice

Oseyiza Oogbodo, author of The Good Life, Short Story Galore, The Newell Murder, poet, with his first poetry collection, Dedication To The Ugly, to be published this month, social commentator, and curator, Oseyiza Oogbodo Blog, has adviced truly ambitious Nigerian female politicians to sacrifice the joys of motherhood in order to become successful politically.

Oogbodo, who has also written for the newspapers, The Comet/The Nation, Nigerian Compass, National Mirror, The Point gave the above weighty and even controversial advice while speaking at a Media Round Table on the Role of the Media in Combating Gender-Related Hate Speech Online through Objective and Conflict Sensitive Reporting organised by the International Press Centre (IPC) Lagos, West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and Humanity Family Foundation for Peace and Development (HUFFPED) with the funding support of Peace Tech Lab and held on August 29, 2018 in Lagos.

The forum was all about proffering solutions to why female politicians are not really doing well in Nigeria and also to encourage them with good media mentions as well as shield them from online hate speech which would discourage them from politics.

And giving his view on the issue, Oogbodo didn’t mince words as he adviced Nigerian female politicians that it’s about time they should start realizing that life is all about sacrifice and that they start considering sacrificing motherhood for politics.

According to him, the top two female politicians in the world presently, Prime Minister of Britain, Theresa May, and Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, are both said not to have children and while this factor might not be responsible for their enviable success, it cannot be discountenanced as well, especially in the face of the fact that one of the most salient factors confronting Nigerian female politicians is their family life.

Reports have it that female politicians are first of all quizzed derogatorily as to if they are married and that will inevitably lead to if they are children.

Oogbodo’s stance on the whole of issue of factors mitigating against Nigerian female politicians is therefore that if May and Merkel are ‘childless,’ truly ambitious female politicians might also have to be so in Nigeria so they won’t be bogged down with the issues that have to do with taking care of children and this way and they’ll be able to attend night meetings, travel anywhere, anytime as no child will be a distraction.

And when they are asked about their family lives, they will answer that the only thing that matters to them is attaining the position of Governor, President or whatever political office they desire.