I would rather avoid discussing the article in Thisdaylaw. It is impolitic at best to quarrel with a daughter writing about her Mum.
However, two truths can often co-exist in history & one does not have to constitute a denial or evisceration of the other.
We start from the premise that women have historically had a tough time at the Nigerian Bar. They have come a long way and we shd be happy and grateful to be witnesses to this moment in our history.
Read Also: Much Ado about ‘First Elected’ Female NBA President, By Onikepo Braithwaite Onikepo
Priscilla Kuye is the 1st woman to be President of the NBA. She achieved that in a season in which the organisation was essentially misogynistic. Nothing can or should detract from her place in the NBA’s pantheon.
Yet, it is also factually accurate that a woman had never succeeded in running to be elected directly as president of the association until now.
That is not an effort to reduce the standing of Priscilla Kuye in my view. If anything, it is a statement about the masculinities that have defined the NBA historically.
Playing up that point in an election is not denial or revisionism. It is framing.
In the end, one factoid should help to clarify why these two truths can happily co-exist.
It is not in dispute who the 1st Female president of the NBA is. That is Chief Mrs. Priscilla Kuye. She originally ran and won to become 1st VP, beating out two big beasts in the association at the time. When the elected President left to become Attorney-General of the Federation, she succeeded to the presidency as the Constitution of the NBA required.
It is also not in dispute now who the 1st female “President-elect” In the history if the NBA is. That is Mrs. Oyinkan Badejo-Okusanya. Running & prevailing in a contest for the presidency of the NBA is an attainment in its own right.
One fact does not dent the other. Two truths can co-exist.
The suggestion of belly-aching is a tad disappointing and, in my view, ill-advised. It could easily be a lot more graceful and better seasoned.
The generation of Chief Kuye can take both pride in and credit for providing the shoulders on which the current generation of women can stand & advance. Rather than belly-ache about this moment, the reality is it could not have been achieved without the foundations they laid.
That is as it should be. No race makes progress by thinking or believing that it has exhausted the boundaries of attainment.
