A chance for Ghana women

God made man and woman, He gave man extra strength in recognition of his title as head of the family. When God appoints you, he empowers you. So man was empowered so that in any event of a domestic brawl, he would not be found with a cracked jaw.

The extra strength God gave to man was not to be used to enslave his wife, but to ensure discipline if she became rebellious, disloyal and rev­olutionary. This implies that, it is in the nature of a wife to overthrow her husband and declare herself head of family, especially when the husband loses his job.

The power accorded man is, howev­er, meant to be exercised not abused. In some cases, men over-exercise their strength to quell domestic riots and their wives end up with an extra eye, half a nose and several teeth missing in action.

The man will justify his excessive application of force to the nature of her wife’s rebellion, the weight of her insults, the rapidity of her curses and the riotous nature of her emotions.

After a few days in hospital, the wife might decide to return to her marital home, loving her dear hus­band even more.

And she’ll tell her furious mother that it was all her fault. Her husband should not be blamed, because it was in her own interest that she was thrashed, and veritably so. The love between a wife and a husband can sometimes transcend into the bound­aries of stupidity!

KUNG FU

In Chinaland, the men don’t have a field day. The woman comes into mar­riage with a Blackbelt in Kung Fu (9th Dan). She can somersault and flip over ten times in 15 seconds in the small kitchen. So where does the man’s power lie? In his waist?

When a fight breaks out and the man isn’t as skilled in karate or taekwando, he’ll sure end up with a dislocated jaw and a crooked face.

He’ll not be able to tell his friends that he endured a good beating from his wife. What he’ll do is to go for further training so that come the next domestic tournament, he could give a good account of himself to earn the respect of his in-laws. A man who is beaten by his wife cannot earn even a dog’s respect!

Now, God also created the vine, so that sinful man can cultivate grapes and produce wine to gladden his heart. If man doesn’t gladden his heart, he would be too hard on his family. When he doesn’t drink, he goes about finding fault with ev­erything. And before you’re aware he’s slapping his wife left, right and centre!

God understands man better than man understands himself and it was not for any other reason that God created the vine, other than to gladden that heart of man. Unfortu­nately, the average man goes beyond gladdening his heart. He wants to booze his head off; to booze his eyes blind.

When alcohol goes past gladdening the heart, it becomes a mocker. A drunken man can cause mayhem. So God decided that those whose lives were dedicated to him should never touch alcohol, lest they denigrated His image. Those became the Nazirites!

PERMISSION

God, in His own wis­dom, extended the authority of man in the home to the church. So accord­ing to the Bible (not according to Kwame Alomele) women are not permit­ted to be pastors.

Fortunate­ly, the Bible doesn’t debar women from becoming rulers of nations. So a woman can be a sec­ond-in-com­mand in her home, but the chief executive of a nation. When she gets home from her office she must salute the husband. The President must prepare her hus­band’s morning coffee and bring it to him with a slight bow. No presidential pretentions about it!

In parts of Africa, women rarely aspire to become presidents due to the cultural dominance of men over women. So for decades, African na­tions did not have female presidents until Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson decided to take up the challenge against soccer legend George Weah.

Now, with history having been made with Sirleaf-Johnson as Afri­ca’s first lady president, the question being asked is whether this is not the much-awaited floodgate for the advent of women presidents in African nations.

South Africa has a woman vice-pres­ident, a novelty in that part of Africa. In Ghana, the clarion call has been offered for women not to sit on the fence but to participate in politics, society, wherever they find them­selves.

Today, we have more lady members of parliament than we ever had. So the time has probably come for Ghana to welcome her first woman president 2028, and why not?

Who says we don’t have women. I can mention at least one who readily comes to mind. Her name is Hawa Yakubu.

We have other academia and busi­ness, well-groomed, highly intelligent, who take up the challenge once.

Some people actually want women to lead because of pacifist nature, their avers violence and their milk of kindness. All over, the women who ruled made a Golda Meir ruled Israel, Indira Gandhi – India: Agatha.

Barbara -Malta, Corazon Aquino- Philippines, Chamorro- Nicaragua, Mary Robinson -Ireland, Chandrika Ku­maratunga- Sri Lanka, Mary Mc Aleese – Ireland, ( incumbent), Vaira Vike – Freiberga (Lativa), Tarja Halonen – Finland, Gloria Arroyo -Philipines, and Margaret Thatcher- Great Britain.

Hawa Yakubu, a very intelligent and experienced politician and those in her class motivated by Sirleaf- John­son’s achievement and brace up to it. This will also bring in a lot of excite­ment into Ghana politics which has so far been dominated by men.

This article was first published on Saturday, December 3, 2005