A Nigerian professor of English and Literature, Pius Adesanmi, has hit out against what he believes is the continuing trend of sexism in Nigeria.

In his recent article titled ‘I have your type at home; your own too much self’, Adesanmi argues that aides of President Goodluck Jonathan have reacted to a fierce critic of his government Oby Ezekwesili condescendingly because she is a woman.

Prof. Adesanmi writes: “Ever since she (Ezekwesili) got into the trenches for the Nigerian people, she has been the subject of all kinds of verbal violence from the spokesmen of the establishment. Her most virulent detractors come from the ranks of President Goodluck Jonathan’s, notably Doyin Okupe and pastor Wendel Simlin, also sometimes known as Reno Omokri.

“Compare how these presidential doofuses respond to the president’s imagined male enemies like Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and Lai Mohammed and how they respond to Oby Ezekwesili and you will notice an added layer of condescension in the case of Ezekwesili. After all they have her type at home! Even with their current station on life, Okupe, Omokri and Abati do not qualify to clean Ezekwesili’s shoes.”

Ezekwesili is a former Minister of Education in Nigeria and an ex-World Bank Vice President for Africa. She has been recently an active voice in the efforts to hold the Nigerian Government to account over the continuing search to free the over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, since April 14. This has brought her some backlash from the government.

Prof. Adesanmi is also pained by what he believes is a wider problematic phenomenon of sexism against many ordinary Nigeria women. He writes in the same article that discrimination against women “is an ever present, constant threat” to women’s “civic experience in the Nigerian nation-space. Sometimes it is benign, frequently, it is open and brazen ‘how can an ordinary woman challenge me?’ ....we disempower more than half of our population.”

Prof. Adesanmi teaches English and Literature in Carlton University Ottawa, Canada. He usually posts interesting views on social and cultural happenings in Nigeria on his Facebook page. Even though he belongs to the Nigerian scholarly community in exile, his many articles on Nigerian affairs show that his intellectual soul is still very much in his home country.

•Photo shows Professor Adesanmi.

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