The first time I came across this interview by BBC's Zainab Badawi, I couldn't concentrate on it because of the negative vibes it gave me. This was due to no fault of Mrs Mohammed. However since I have always taken on global issues from an unapologetically Nigerian bias, I couldn't help but take my mind back to the cultural millieu from which she was thrown up. Here I am referring to Nigeria's North-East, a.k.a. Boko-Haram land with all its sad connotations.
As a very educated woman, Mrs Mohammed deserves all the encomium extended to her by Badawi. I would hate to imagine that for all her education and the mentoring by the late Dr Kofi Annan, she has held onto her top positions in both the government and the UN due only to those connections. I often wonder if the male-dominated, sexists and mysogynists at the top of the Northern Nigerian establishment, proud to have their wife and daughter in such top positions, an ego trip for them, would readily support her activist side, if such would rise to the top. The connected issues of education in the north, Almajiri, girl child education, girl child marriage, the unpassed Child Right Act and the events at Chibok are staring us and Mrs Mohammed in the face. Would that she could come home and risk life and limb on the home front dealing with these matters.
However I am not all about criticizing a very visible member of the Northern elite, and a female at that. I always plead enlightened self-interest. A well educated, well informed, peaceful, economically and technologically developed Northern Nigeria is probably of more value to an Igboman than our northern brethren can ever understand. I wish Mrs Mohammed well in her endeavours on the global scene with every hope that it will rub off positively on us here. Congratulations!
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