04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019 — 25
By Ema Clark
Recently, a tweet posted by a
Canadian-based, Nigerian-born
entrepreneur called Taiwo, relating how
a job seeker had praised her after she
interviewed him for a job, in her
company, Twinex, caught the attention
of many in Nigeria. The man had said
to her: “you smell nice!”Taiwo rebuked
the candidate and later tweeted the
following comment, deleted later, when
all hell broke loose on her page.
This tweet and a subsequent barrage
of others from Taiwo produced over
50,000 comments on Twitter,
immediately setting off what soon
became visible as the Taiwo Hashtag.
There were many who felt
complimenting a female interviewer
about her fragrance was familiar,
sensory, sexual and inappropriate
while there were others who did not
think that was the case. There were also
several who were offended at Taiwo’s
lowering of the job seeker’s self-esteem.
At first, it seemed that it was the men
who were not going to let her get away
with bruising the male ego but soon,
women also began to criticize her for
what they alleged was her nastiness.
These women claimed gender was not
the issue here.
Not surprisingly, there were some
who accused her of being constrained
by an opaque Nigerian/African
upbringing. To these contributors,
there was nothing wrong or sensual
about candidates complimenting
interviewers, even in a gender diverse
context. Many said both were
offenders, as the man shouldn’t have
complimented her, and neither for that
matter, should Taiwo have posted her
thoughts about this event publicly.
Indeed, many of these comments were
less than friendly, with a few of the
contributors suggesting that the young
man had been doing Taiwo a favour by
complimenting her. The same started
By Elizabeth Uwandu
The beauty and joy of seeing
women exchange
banter, discuss business and
network filled the air at Rite
Foods Limited’s Foods, drinks
and her event held at the Ball
Room, Oriental Hotel, Victoria
Island last weekend.
The gathering which saw
women - both young and old
in entrepreneurship - share
their experiences, challenges,
and success stories in what is
perceived as a male-dominated
world, had in attendance
students from various
institutions, youths, men and
women, including children.
According to Mr Seleem
Adegunwa, MD, Rite Foods
Limited, the event which had
over 2000 participants, 35
exhibitors and panel discussions
on gender balance; the
future of food industry in Nigeria,
and the need for mentoring
and collaboration
amongst women; was aimed
at gathering and celebrating
women who have blazed the
trail in becoming success
stories to tell their stories and
at the same time serve as
sources of hope and inspiration
to others.
Adegunwa reiterated that
Smelling nice and
the Hilary Clinton
syndrome
•A professional analysis of a tweeter debate
body shaming both her and her twin,
who had also jumped into the fray in
support of her sister and business
partner. Of course, this also gave birth
to the Kehinde hashtag.
As events continued to unfold, it
seemed like the trolls had taken over
the conversation, with someone
commenting that Twitter’s “children of
Wobe” had come out in full force! The
two hashtags then led to another called
#HRinNigeria, where users vented their
spleen about the harshness of
interviews, difficulties with securing
jobs, and the arrogance of HR in
Nigeria. These statements were not
surprising given that Nigeria’s
unemployment rate is currently 23.1 per
cent, third on the Sub Saharan African
Continent only to Djibouti’s 44 per cent
and South Africa’s 27 per cent.
People on social media platforms
began to debate on whether it was
appropriate for job seekers to praise
interviewers and on the propriety of
Taiwo’s behaviour. As is usual with these
sorts of things, the incident spawned
memes, T-shirts and comedic videos
with one of these videos coming from
the stable of no one less famous than
the great comedian, Frank Donga.
Variabless connect with each other
For example, in the case under review,
several people theorized that personal
compliments should elicit positive
responses from an interviewer. In other
words, while the male candidate’s
personal compliment was the
independent variable, Taiwo’s
response was the dependent factor.
Unfortunately, in pandering to this line
of thinking, these commentators failed
to consider the concept of context as a
moderating factor which can weaken
or strengthen the link between
variables. So, a better way of analysing
a situation like this would be to say
personal compliments should elicit
positive responses from an
interviewer, subject to the context in
which those compliments are made.
And it is this subject of context that I
will now like us to focus on.
In psychology, context is a complex
multidimensional stimulus that has an
impact on people’s perception of
events. In other words, context is a
hydra which we all need to pay
attention to if we want to get ahead in
IWD: Women mingle and network at Rite food’s Food, Drinks and Her”
empowering women has a
great economic impact on a
nation's growth and development.
"Many societies still
have a long way to go in the
appreciation of women empowerment
and the impact on
society. It cannot be over emphasized
that what women
teach has a positive impact
and where they fail to teach
results in a negative impact on
the society, the country and
generations at large.
"Of course, as a food and beverage
company, it was natural
that our thoughts gravitated
towards the idea of recognising,
celebrating and ultimately,
empowering female food
and drinks entrepreneurs by
providing a platform where
they can showcase their entrepreneurial
spirit, network
among themselves for positive
alignments for future successes
and most importantly, have
fun while doing it. That is why
it is heart lifting for me, seeing
this hall filled with a fine mix
of established names and fastrising
female entrepreneurs, all
set and ready to unleash. We
do hope that dreams come true
for you all."
Continuing, he added: "I
thank the panelists who
selflessly attended this event,
to share from their wealth of
knowledge and personal experiences.
I am certain;
many here will get new information
for the next step
in their business.
" This March edition with
the theme: Food, Drinks &
Her, is first of its kind in the
industry and done in celebration
of 2019 International
Women's Day, tagged:
Balance for Better, is not just
about exhibiting products
and services, buying, selling
and talking business; it is
about having fun as well because
at the heart of empowerment
of women is also the
need for women to enjoy a
support system," the CEO
stated.
The panelists included
Pharmacist Mercy Obiakor,
life. Accordingly, though many contexts
were at play in this case study, there
was a unique circumstance impacting
on the interviewer’s response. This was
the situation of female leadership,
which has birthed a plethora of
research around the globe.
Importantly, studies have shown that
in most cultures in the world, women
are often perceived to be neither
congruent with leadership nor
competent for this role and
interestingly, these negative
perceptions about female leadership,
can emanate from both sexes. While
congruence refers to suitability,
competence refers to ability. These
circumstances exist because of gender
stereotyping, which drives the
socialisation of the sexes, making males
imbibe the agentic traits of dominance,
competence, strength and toughness
and women communal attributes of
niceness, motherliness, warmth and
kindness. Research has also shown how
these socialisation practices are deeply
ingrained into our psychosociological
makeup, such that it is not uncommon
to hear boys in various societies being
continues on page 44
CEO, Naturelle Cocktails
and Cuisine; Nancy Nnadi,
Author & motivational speaker;
Uganze Ude Kalu, Restaurant
visibility builder and
Lawyer; Monsunmola Akinwamide,
CEO, IPC events;
Mrs Kemi Akintilo, 2018/2019
president, the Inner Wheel
Club, Gbagada, D911, Nigeria
and Mrs Tairat Tijani,
TBA services.
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