COLLAPSE OF CEASEFIRE: MEND issues two-week ultimatum

SUNDAY VANGUARD, JULY 10, 2016, PAGE 31
healthy living
BY OLAYINKA LATONA
Oluyemisi Alatise was recently
elected in Manchester, United
Kingdom as President of
International Inner Wheel, IIW, one
of the largest women’s service
voluntary organisations in the world,
active in more than 103 countries and
has over 103,000 members in its 94
years of existence. IIW draws its
membership primarily from the wives
of Rotarians and other female
professionals. Occupying the lofty
position that comes to Africa,
especially to a Nigerian woman for
the first time in history, Alatise, who
will pilot the club till 2017, took over
from Mrs. Charlotte de Vos of
Belgium.
In this interview, Alatise recounts
how she emerged the President of
IIW, and her childhood which gave
her entrepreneurial skills and
philanthropist lifestyle.
How do you feel becoming the first
African or, better still, the first
Nigerian woman to occupy the
highest position in IIW?
I feel delighted, I feel humbled
because, whilst I was active in Inner
Wheel, I was not working because I
wanted to be the President, but I
enjoyed what I was doing. I enjoy
serving humanity and it just fell on
my laps.
Was there any friction, campaign
challenges or battle during the
election?
There was no battle because you did
not even see your voters and our
voting was done by postal system, you
could not rig or canvass. Not that we
gathered in a place and members
were asked whether they liked a
contestant or not. Your country
nominates you and the nomination
will be sent to the administrative
department where it will be circulated
to countries all over the world. Then
from the nominees, members will
choose, through the postal system, the
person they want as their President.
Therefore, there is no way you can
know your voters; you are seen and
assessed by your activities through
your curriculum vitae which details
where you have served and what you
have done.
What impact do you think your
emergence as IIW President will
have on African women?
For Nigerian women, I am publishing
a book that has contributions from
about 42 countries and focuses on
female privileges, challenges and
abuse of girls and women. We are not
a political group, hence we cannot
force an enactment but we can create
awareness that women are
endangered species right from the
womb. In some countries, when they
realize you are pregnant and you are
going to have a girl-child, such
pregnant will be aborted. If they did
not know the sex, once the baby is
delivered, she will be killed. If a girl
escaped that as an infant, her genital
is mutilated in different forms while
some other girls are forced into childmarriage.
We are going to expose all these ills
in the book for more awareness on the
need to put an end to all the negative
Mutilators of
female genitals
can’t hide anymore
– Alatise, International Inner Wheel President
In some parts of the
world, if the parents did
not mutilate their girls,
the girls later on
mutilate themselves
because men refuse to
marry them out of the
fear that the sexual urge
of unmutilated women
cannot be controlled
practices against the girl-child and
women in our country and Africa in
general.
I do not understand why a woman
should allow anybody to mutilate her
daughter, we are going to stop the
vicious cycle because if it was done to
the mother, then it must not be done
to the girl-child. The practice is wrong
and does not have any medical
advantage on the girl. That is why
there is the need to educate upcoming
mothers not to allow their daughters
to be mutilated just because it was
done to them. It is paramount that we
save the girl-child, especially in Africa
because it is disheartening that in
some parts of the world, if the parents
did not mutilate their girls, the girls
later on mutilate themselves because
men refuse to marry them out of the
fear that the sexual urge of
unmutilated women cannot be
controlled, and it has been proved
that female genital mutilation can
only make a woman insatiable.
How do you feel when you see kids
on the street hawking?
Hawking is part of child abuse. But,
on the other hand, there is no harm
teaching a child how to trade but
such child must be guided. I was a
street hawker as a little girl; my
mother used to trade in Jankara
Market in Lagos while we lived in
Rika. When I closed from school by
I.30pm, I will go to my father’s stall
and help him till around 5pm. From
there I will go to my mother’s stall
where she will give me some wares to
sell on my way home and I will sell.
But my mother would educate me on
the route that I must
follow and warn me
seriously not to
follow anybody
inside to sell my
wares. There is no
harm doing it,
parents just need to
educate the children
not to follow any
customer inside
because we have to be
street-wise to avoid
the dangers involved
in street hawking.
We cannot continue to
pamper the girls and push
the boys. If you pamper the
girls, you are sending them
to the world where they will be
pushed because if you did not
push the girls, they will eventually
get to the world where they will
be pushed to the corner.
But some sell till late
in the night
I do not support
that. I will
advise
parents to
reduce the zeal to use their children
to look for money, hawking is not all
about looking for money. The
minimum their children can get
within a reasonable time should be
enough for them and they should not
exploit the girl-child because, in
doing so, they are exposing her to
danger.
What is your view on the banning of
street trading in Lagos?
I support the ban because I was
talking of 50 years ago and Lagos was
not the way it is now, it is a different
case now. The Lagos where I grew up
in, we walked on the street by 10pm
and nobody will disturb you. The ban
is for the safety of the child, the
parent and the society; such children
are being protected from harm and
moral danger.
Advice to Nigerians especially the
women folk
My advice is not only for Nigerian
woman but also to everyone that
whatever we like
to do for the
betterment of
our country
and society,
we should
do it without
thinking of
the monetary
aspect
because other
successes will
follow it.
Theme for tenure
The theme is
‘Touch a heart’, I
believe in
anything one
does,
•Mrs Alatise
should be done with kindness. Touch
a Heart is more than a philosophy of
the mind; it is a philosophy of the
spirit because you cannot touch a
heart; when it becomes touchable, then
it is diseased. You can only touch a
heart emotionally, by your words and
deeds. You can touch a heart by
listening, not necessarily giving
advice, just listening to someone
pouring emotions out, with patience.
Giving someone a put on the back, a
warm hug, when there is no one to
acknowledge, can give the courage to
move a mountain. A wink of an eye
means you can do it. The smile
expressed by the recipient of your
kindness is an experience more
powerful than words.
To become acquainted with touching a
heart, one must be prepared to learn
new things, and feel new feelings. It is
good to touch other people’s hearts
subtly, not allowing our tongues to
hurt those around us or hurt ourselves
but rather be kind with our words.