Gender Identity

More About Dr. Ayoade Akalija

Today there was an article about Dr. Ayoade Akalija. You may remember her from my last post, Feb. 25 or 27.

Dr. Ayoade Alakija, an infectious disease specialist based in Nigeria, is co-chair of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA). In December 2021, Dr. Alakija, nicknamed Yodi, was put in charge of accelerating equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines for the World Health Organization’s global initiative known as the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator. 

She talks about getting the call from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. She was surprised and said, “Have you got the right number?” Then she recovered. Her first thought was, “Oh, my God, they will all hate me!” She realized she will have to talk to all the specialists

She discussed this with her husband. He said something like, “Yodi, after all the complaints you have leveled at WHO, you have to say yes!”

She awaits equity in her work. She knows it is slow, but when “We give the same value to the life in Africa as we do to the life in America, then we will have global equity.”

What She Does Today

Now she spends 16 to 18 hours a day, advising governments, health ministers, finance ministers and the ACT (Access to Covid-19 Tools) directors. She also advises colleagues on shipments, deliveries and bottlenecks.

She recalls on questioning the day she got a rejection letter from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Outraged, she went straight to the Dean. He protested, saying it is for more senior people. She said, “This is what I want to do and I am not leaving until I am doing what I applied to do.” She was let in!

With her work with senior people, she still reverts back to her earlier statement:

“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, pull up a chair. And if they don’t make space, then get on the table.” She did exactly that at a recent conference for young women. The men, who had invited themselves to the event, refused to make a place for her. They simply greeted her with an off-handed, “Oh, yeah, hi.” So she grabbed a mic – on the top of the table – and spoke to the men who suddenly had to listen!

Trust in governments, trust in people; these are necessary to make the system work. Today they are sadly lacking.

There needs to be a more regular, more consistent, predictable supply of vaccines. She says, “We have to look at the wider strengthening of the health systems,” to make everything work. Consistently in her talks to the top echelons of the people in each country, she encourages them to have trust in themselves and in the people they govern.

Gender Equality

Nigeria’s Struggle for Gender Equality Gathers Pace Amid Protests is the heading for an article on women’s role.

Today’s announcement by the Nigerian lower legislative chamber partially rescinding last week’s decision to throw out five key gender-equality bills is a significant victory for women’s rights advocates. It is also evidence that well-coordinated political pressure by civil society organizations can produce real change.

Wow! This is evidence of women who have taken up the challenge. They protested for their rights outside the Parliament Building in Abuja, including holding signs to express their needs. Even though only a portion of the bills were rescinded, still it is a victory for women. There were five bills on the table; two were rescinded (and thus taken back to their original position). So they continue to stand.

Currently, only seven out of 109 senators and twenty-two of the 360 members of the House of Representatives are women. All the governors of Nigeria’s thirty-six states are male. Yet—and to put their under-representation in perspective—women comprised 47 percent of registered voters during the last election in 2019.

More Protests are Coming?

International Women’s Day saw many protests by women. Still, as of February this year Nigeria ranks 184 out of 187 countries. This is the Inter-Parliamentary Union global ranking of women in national parliaments. We couldn’t be much worse!

And it is true that Nigerian lawmakers receive overall on average about $597,000, making them the second-highest in the world. Meanwhile an estimated 40 percent of Nigerians live below the international poverty line.

Guess what it is? It is less than two dollars a day!

So we need more challenges by and for women. We want at least some parity with others on the continent. Rwanda has 30% of its seats reserved for women, and in fact 60% of the seats are held by women. At least 13 other countries have some measure of success for women.

We can safely say that momentum lies with women, but they must use it to demand change! Yet so few of the women actually can demand that!