GIRL… BOY… WAREFA!

When I decided to start a blog, I didn't think it was going to be a stroll in the pack. Yeah, I know I am a lot of things, but delusional isn't one of them. So after my opening two posts post which garnered me quite a few comments (and had me feeling like some nouveau riche super star), major panic mode set in. What was I going to post next? How will I get inspiration? What if I have writer's block? (Seriously, I know one doesn't have to Chinua Achebe to have one).

So, there I was, taking a walk round the beautiful Gwarinpa neighborhood and mentally dissecting recent issues hitting up the polity, when I found it- my muse. You know that feeling you get when you find something and you instinctively know you have to stop and take a second look? Well, this one was in the form of a small crowd gathered in front of this beautiful house. As I got closer, I imagined that probably someone had died because everyone was trying to talk at once, and you could catch the occasional Naija, “eeyah”, “na wa o, “my dear just hand it over to God…”

Anyways, as a Mass Communication graduate, my almost non-existent journalistic curiosity reared its head and I knew I had to find out what the matter was. Upon inquiry, I was told that the woman was crying because she had just had a third baby girl and consequently, her husband had kicked her out. This woman was standing outside her house, in a chilly Abuja weather, straddling a  3- day old baby because somewhere in her chauvinistic husband's mind, having three baby girls is a cardinal sin. And to crown it all, his poor wife is to blame too!

 There and then, I knew I had to write about it and if possible get the views of people on it. because I don't get  why we (yes, you and I and every other thing human) enjoy to put ourselves under unnecessary mental and psychological torture. I mean, we, by ourselves, for ourselves, with ourselves, carry ourselves, and hand over to problem. Last time I checked we are still doing that.  I honestly cannot U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D why in this God given 21st century, we are still tormenting ourselves over, 'it's a girl again, chai, chineke'! We keep bugging the Almighty who finished and submitted his dissertation on “The Act of Creation” more than 2000 years ago, about how we won't let him go if he doesn't bless us with a male child. Like seriously???
There are millions of couples who will do practically anything to have just one baby they could call theirs. Whereas, some others are somewhere else, killing themselves over the sex of their baby.

Now don't get it twisted, I'm not saying it’s wrong to desire something, male kids included. Science has even made it easier for couples to per-determine the sex of their babies . All I'm saying is that something is terribly wrong in desiring something so much so that we lose sight of what we already have. To quote the scriptures, 'Children (male and female alike) are THE HERITAGE OF THE LORD (emphasis mine)! Children are said to be God’s blessing. They bring happiness and joy to a person’s life. God does not differentiate between a male and a female child, then why is it that people do? Something is mightily wrong with a man kicking his wife out of the house (this 21st century!) for being delivered of a female child.

For Pete’s sake, we are supposed to be in the jet age, and therefore know better. Back in the day it used to be that a boy was more important than a girl as a means to carry on the family name and take over the duties of the male role in the household as his father became older and eventually died. It is not like that these days. Any gender can take up any role in the society. The saying that what a man can do, a woman can do even better has never been truer than in present times. If that were so, why do we have to still deal with the harsh reality of the preference of male children to female. Why is it so?  Why should it even matter? Why does the sex of your child make a difference? Girl or boy it is still your very own flesh and blood? How can one have the heart to discriminate between their kids?

 

Why is it that a boy is given so much preference over a girl? What makes him so much more special than a girl? After giving birth to a baby girl how can one have the heart to discard her in a dumpster while she is alive for the only reason that she is a female and not a male. A baby regardless of its sex should be loved, cherished and looked after and it being a girl should not change the way one should feel about their child.

All over the world from Africa, to the Middle East, and even countries like the United States of America, stories abound of discrimination against female babies. China, for instance, has a law where couples are allowed to have just one child but does that justify killing the girl to be able to have a boy later? If that isn’t the height of injustice, I wonder what is.

If my future husband is reading this, he should know that I don’t care one way or another about the sex of my babies. I don’t care if I have 8 girls (by the way, I am one of 8 girls given birth to by my mother, and trust me, i wouldn't have it any other way), as long as they are healthy, I am good to go. Let us all join hands together and put an end to the discrimination against babies- whether boy or girl. Children are such huge blessings and should therefore be treated as such.

XoXo

Nawtiprof.