Coalition Blasts Dino Melaye, Sonala Olumhense

The Senator Representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye and columnists, Sonala Olumhense have received knocks even as concerns were raised over the threats they and their likes posed to women advancement in Nigeria with their recent utterances or positions they have taken on national issues.

Senator Melaye recently threatened a female senator and wife of the APC leader, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu with rape while Olumhense in his article, ridiculed the wife of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, with suggestions that they are not independent enough to own property or contribute to their family’s investment.

A women’s group, Coalition for Women Advancement in Africa (CoWAA)  in a statement issued on Monday said, both Melaye and Olumhense are symptomatic of an emerging undesirable breed of men that objectify and belittle women contrary to the global trend of promoting equality.

It has now demanded that both men apologise for their offences.

The statement signed by CoWAA’s Executive Vice President, Jummai Samuel lambasted both men saying their positions is suggestive of medieval men who lack respect for the women in their lives and women all over the world.

It lamented that “It is now glaring why the issue of rape and violence against women are treated with levity since a federal lawmaker could threaten to use rape as a weapon of retaliation against a female colleague whom he felt insulted him. Even if his colleague, Senator Oluremi Tinubu had offended him, the Senate has Rules he could have used to seek redress without resorting to the caveman approach he adopted.

“While the rudeness of Senator Melaye’s puke inducing rant may be shocking the greater worry should be the dangerous premise put forward by Sonala Olumhense, who suggested that women are mere fixtures in marriages and that they are not capable of being economically productive to the point of owning businesses or contributing the family.

“If Mr Olumhense had bothered to do a little fact checking, he would have possibly learnt more about one Sana’armu Micro Finance Social Scheme and a Buratai Farm. The COAS’ wives are brains behind these ventures even if as respectful women they make their husband the symbolic head being the head of the family.

“The way the Senator and the Columnists went after wives should make every Nigerian woman worried that the trend is now for those who want to hit at males they have issues with is to attack their wives. We find this unacceptable and condemnable. It is a practice that must not be encouraged,” the group warned.

CoWAA demanded apologies from both men with the explanation that it was necessary to discourage other menfolk from following in their infamous footsteps. “Senator Melaye and Mr Olumhense must tender unreserved apologies not just to the women they have slighted but also to all Nigerian women since their crime went beyond the individual women at which they were targeted and extended to womanhood,” it insisted.