As the controversy over the desirability or otherwise of the introduction of the N5,000 banknote rages on, Sulaimon Olanrewaju X-rays the lives of the amazons whose pictures are to adorn the new note and highlights the achievements that qualify them for the honour.WHILE announcing the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restructure the nation's currencies in August, the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, revealed the intention of the apex bank to introduce N5,000 banknote, adding that the new banknote would bear the pictures of three women viz; Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Gambo Sawaba. He added that the reverse side of the new note would have the picture of the National Assembly as a symbol of the nation's democracy.But who are these women whose pictures are to grace the highest denomination in the land'Margaret EkpoMrs Margaret Ekpo was better known as a politician and a women's right activist. She gained prominence by seizing the opportunity of an injustice suffered by her husband, John Udo Ekpo, a medical doctor working with the colonial administration.The colonial authorities were discriminating against the Nigerian medical doctors in matters of promotion but Dr Ekpo, being a civil servant, could not raise his voice against the colonial administration, neither could he attend meetings where the discrimination issues were discussed. However, on sharing his frustration with his wife, Margaret, she volunteered to take up the doctors' case. Thus began her voyage into the world of activism and politics. She later attended a political rally where giants such as Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, Chief Mbonu Ojike and Mr Herbert Macaulay were in attendance. She was the only woman at the rally. Finding out that women's participation in the process of making decisions that affected them was limited, she was determined to change that and with that determination, she decided to join the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons to fight women marginalisation.Margaret Ekpo worked with Mrs Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti to protest the killing of workers of Enugu Coal Mine who were protesting colonial practices at the mine. The women's protest got the attention of the colonial authorities and they were able to get a redress for the protesting coal mine workers. Learning from that experience, she established the Aba Township Women Association to unionise market women in the city. When she was encountering problem with membership because many men were averse to their wives joining the association, she devised an ingenious way of ensuring enlistment by the women. It was shortly after the Second World War and there was scarcity of salt. Mrs Ekpo went round all the shops and stalls in Aba and bought all the bags of salt, which she later sold only to members of her association. Since the African diet is largely dependent on salt, the men allowed their wives to join the association. The association later morphed into Aba Township Women Association. The association became a very influential pressure group which spoke for women beyond Aba. By 1955, the number of women voters in Aba had outgrown that of men. Mrs Margaret Ekpo was nominated by the NCNC into the Eastern House of Chiefs in 1953. In 1961, she won a seat into the Eastern Regional House of Assembly. With her election, she was better positioned to fight for women's interest. She holds the credit for igniting activism and political consciousness among women in the South-East and South-South.Funmilayo Ransome-KutiFunmilayo and her husband, Reverend Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, were joined by more cords than one; they were teachers as well as activists and produced children and grandchildren who became notable activists. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, an outstanding organiser, was probably the most prominent of all women rights activists of her generation. In 1949, when the colonial administration, working through the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Ladapo Ademola, introduced an unfriendly price control regime, which was affecting the business of Egba women, most of who were traders, she mobilised the women against both the Native Authority and the traditional ruler. She was able to present documents showing that the Alake had been granted the right by the colonial administration to collect taxes. She described this as an abuse and the king was forced to abdicate the throne for some time.She also fought against the tax regime which was not favourable to women.Sensing that the agitation against oppression would have a better effect if fought as a group, she founded the Egba Women's Union with Mrs Eniola Soyinka, her sister-in-law (mother of Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka). In 1953, she also founded the Federation of Nigerian Women Societies, which subsequently formed an alliance with the Women's International Democratic Federation.Mrs Ransome-Kuti was a member of the NCNC, where she served as the treasurer and later as president of the Western NCNC Women's Association. In 1953, she was nominated into the Western House of Chiefs.Mrs Ransome-Kuti, who later founded the Commoners Peoples Party when she fell out with the NCNC, was one of the delegates that negotiated Nigeria's independence with the British government.Gambo SawabaGambo sawaba was motivated by the activities of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti to work towards the emancipation of Northern women. Following the feat recorded by Mrs Ransome-Kuti which resulted in the temporary exile of Alake of Egbaland, Hajia Sawaba visited her and learnt a few things about women's right from the woman. On her return to Zaria her base; she joined the local branch of the Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU). Then, it was not a popular move for a woman to publicly identify with a political group but Sawaba found a home in NEPU because the focus of NEPU was to mobilise the talakawas to resist the overbearing influence of both the colonialists and the elite.Sawaba gained prominence when, during a political lecture, she mounted the rostrum (the first woman to do so) and challenged the men to allow women participate in making decisions in matters that affected them. After the meeting, she embarked on a door to door campaign to sensitise women in getting interested in the political process.But Sawaba's political careening was not without incidents. Once when she was in Kano at the instance of NEPU to solicit women's support for the party in an election, she was arrested and tried by an Alkali court. She was later found guilty of wrongful sensitisation and jailed. On her release she granted interview to a newspaper where she highlighted the inhuman condition of the prison. Again, she attracted the wrath of the leadership of the area and was requested to leave the ancient city by the emir.But despite her ordeals, she remained undeterred in her fight against the oppression of women. The cause she followed till she breathed her last.
Click here to read full news..
