DINO MELAYE IS NOT ALONE

Like most Nigerians I woke up a few days ago to the news that Senator Dino Melaye had (within the grounds of the national Assembly) verbally threatened to beat up another senator; Mrs Oluremi Tinubu. I immediately recalled that a few years ago the ex-wife of Senator Melaye accused him of domestic violence. This was enough for me to tilt towards his being guilty of making the threat; after all if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!

While it might have shocked some people that the Senator would threaten to beat a fellow senator, I on the other hand was not at all shocked. In case you have not noticed, the victim is a woman, as a woman I have also been threatened more than a few times by men in the course of my job and personal life. It is actually a common threat made by African men when they fall out with a woman. And it is also code word for “I will rape you”.

However this incidence is unique because both parties are Senators of the Federal Republic. Threats of violence are usually and commonly levelled by such men against women thought to be their subordinate; unless of course Mr Senator sees himself as superior to Mrs Tinubu; something which I seriously doubt due to the intellectually deficient nature of his utterances.

Even in the course of attempting to deny that he ever threatened Mrs Remi Tinubu, Senator Dino Melaye again tried to belittle and debase her by talking about her inability to no longer reproduce! It is unfortunate that she has been further subjected to this kind of personal attack. Whether you agree with her husband’s politics or not, it is obvious that she is being bullied because she is a woman.

 What has shocked me is the lack of outcry from the National Assembly and from the people who voted for Senator Dino Melaye. If a female senator can be so belittled and insulted without any serious backlash then there is no hope for the ordinary woman. It is beginning to look like Senator Melaye was right when he said he would do it and nothing would happen. In most other sane countries Mr Senator would by now have been suspended or forced to apologise.

As we go about discussing and condemning Senator Dino Melaye’s recent antics let us not ignore the fact that he is not the only man in Nigeria who would beat his wife or threaten to beat a woman, or would use a woman’s biology to belittle her, it is a very common phenomenon and should be condemned wherever and whenever it occurs. I have two sons and I constantly educate them about the fact that real men do not go around threatening, beating or belittling women. Let us all talk to our sons, nephews and brothers so that we can break this toxic attitude towards women.