Like the alternate government, the Women’s August Conference has raised the infrastructure profile in the region, upgrading schools, building health centres, markets and rehabilitating roads, among others. At this year’s edition, the anticipation is even more. OKODILI NDIDI and UGOCHUKWU UGOJI-EKE report
It has the colours and pull of Christmas, drawing women from every part of the globe to the Southeast. But unlike the feast of December 25, the August Women’s Conference has an enduring brief: to make better homes, improve infrastructure and encourage women to come away from apparent obscurity. The result on all counts has been fair but everyone, including the women themselves, seems to want more this time.
•From left: Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu; his wife Nkechi; wife of Abia Deputy Governor, Lady Vivian Oko-chukwu, and wife of Abia Deputy Speaker, Lady Ndidi Cosmos Ndukwe at the 2015 Abia Women’s August delegates conference held in Umuahia
Gathering every August in each of the Southeast states, the women have rehabilitated rundown schools, built and equipped health facilities, patched up roads, taken care of widows, and, among other things, saved many lives by providing medication to ailing people. They have even got apparently irreconcilable couples to start loving one another again.
Their agenda will expand when they gather later in the month. In Abia State, as women prepared for the conference, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu assured them of his administration’s readiness to help them achieve more, telling them to choose any project and forward a funding proposal to him through the Ministry of Women Affairs and his wife’s office.
That is not all. Governor Ikpeazu told the women that his administration will do everything possible to stop expectant mothers from dying during childbirth. He equally pledged to provide microcredit for Abia women in addition to increasing their presence in the political space.
In Imo, the state government has told the women to surpass their past achievements, go to rural communities and raise the standard of life there to augment what the Rochas Okorocha administration is doing.
The month of August may not mean much to people from other parts of the country but it is a month marked with glitz, fanfare by Igbo women. It is a time to take stock of the previous year and reposition and strategise for the next. It is marked with activities which include town hall meetings, free healthcare services and philanthropic works, which is rounded off with a grand finale sponsored by the state government.
At the grand finale, various resolutions reached by the various communities across the state are harmonised and prepared into a working document that will assist the government to identify areas of priority in the demand list of the communities.
The communities are wearing a new look, the women are working round the clock to ensure that they impress their husbands.
At the end of every August meeting, for instance, most community projects like healthcare centre, markets, schools and women empowerment schemes are often conceived and funded by the women groups.
Also, communal challenges like poverty, diseases and sometimes communal crisis are tackled by the women who usually influence their husbands to assist in community development projects.
•Some of the women proudly exhibited the work of their hands
The period also affords the women the opportunity to reunite after years of separation and build stronger friendship. Most times misunderstandings and business matters involving Igbo women in the cities are resolved during August meetings and appropriate punitive measures taken to discourage acts that could endanger the unity of the women.
It is also during the meetings that issues of scholarship to deserving but indigent students and empowerment programme for widows and other vulnerable women in the society are conceived and implemented.
This year’s edition from all indications is not going to fall short of the expectations. In fact there is strong likelihood that it may surpass last year’s edition by the quality of the preparation of the state government.
Already, the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, is one of the guests that will be coming to deliberate with the women and encourage them on how to build a virile community through mutual cooperation.
Imo State Deputy Governor Eze Madumere urged the women to deploy their wealth of experience to finding a solution to the many challenges confronting the communities.
He appealed to them to partner the government in any capacity they can to build prosperous and safer communities, noting that the responsibilities of building a better society should not be left in the hands of the government alone.
Prince Madumere assured the visiting women of adequate security as they converge, adding that the Rescue Mission Administration takes the issue of the security of life and property seriously.
He said, “May I use this opportunity to welcome our women to this year’s August Meeting. As you move around the state, even in the remotest part of the state, you will notice the tremendous change that is sweeping through our dear state, the unprecedented infrastructure development and you will indeed be proud to be an Imolite. I therefore urge you to explore all avenues to contribute in your own little ways to what the government is doing”.
Some have criticised the forum, saying it is fast losing focus and becoming mere political and social gathering. Worse, the critics say it has become a tool in the hands of mischievous politicians who manipulate its proceedings and outcomes.
Even the cost of preparationhas also been condemned, just as some women are accused of doing everything, sometimes, unimaginable in order to be available for the monthly gathering.
Commenting on the gains of the August Meeting, Sir Peter Okala, a community leader, said it,
“When great minds gather, they can canvass for peace and development in the society. It is highly important for people to come together, not just the women but also the men and youths to brainstorm the challenges confronting the society”.
Governor Okorocha, during last year’s grand finale, said that the August Meeting under his watch has well thought-out themes with a view to adding value to the gathering of families and communities.
In Abia, Ikpeazu directed women holding political appointments to empower their colleagues also.
The governor’s wife, Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu said that the Abia Women’s August Delegates Conference (AWADEC) was conceived to create a paradigm shift that would make the women at the community level to seek self-realisation.
She said, “We are trying to change the perception of our women to become empowered psychologically, socially and economically and also get them to re-evaluate whatever projects they have set out for themselves, to ensure that…projects match certain criteria…and have direct impacts on women’s economic and social status, and improve their knowledge across the spectrum of womanhood.”
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