“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognising how we are.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

On Tuesday, March 15, 2016, the fight for gender equality, women’s rights and equal opportunities in Nigeria suffered a huge setback when the Senate rejected a proposed bill for gender parity and the prohibition of violence against women. The incident stirred anger, amongst other things, and reignited a long standing conversation on gender equality in Africa’s most populous nation.

Fast forward three months, and the clamour for gender parity in Nigeria has suffered yet another blow with the likes of Olori Wuraola-Zynab Ogunwusi, the wife of the recently installed Ooni of Ile Ife, ‘spewing garbage’ on gender equality. Speaking at the Emerging Women’s Forum in Maryland, USA, the queen stated, “I am not a huge fan of gender equality. We can’t be equal. We can’t be men.”

She then went on to give a seemingly inspirational but wholesomely incoherent speech on women tapping on their strengths to strive for greatness, as well as to build and maintain strong relationships within the confines of marriage. As expected, her speech has provoked a heated debate in Nigeria, with a majority of men lauding her, and a few women who have managed to move past the shock of this outright betrayal, calling her out.

Months ago, the move to pass the gender parity bill was a failure for the second time because the ‘Nays’ far surpassed the ‘Ayes’ in the Nigerian Senate. One can only imagine how defeated Senator Abiodun Olujiimi must have felt when deep-toned male voices thundered a resounding “Nay” once the bill was introduced and read in a predominantly male senate. But for a woman, a highly esteemed one, to speak against years of struggle in the advocacy of women’s rights around the world is mind boggling.

One would think that by virtue of her position and supposed influence, the Olori would speak up against sexism, but clearly she’s all for it with her “stay in your lane” theory. Permit me to ask, what lane? The lane traditionally mapped out for women is to be housewives whose sole responsibilities are domestic. This explains why girls are under-educated in most societies – 62 million girls are not in school – because parents would rather send their sons to school. The ideology is this, why waste resources educating a female when her ‘place’ as a woman is the kitchen.

“… Relationships are suffering today because women want to be men,” the Olori stated. “You want to be treated like a queen, but you don’t carry yourself like a Queen …” Perhaps, like a few have pointed out, Ife’s queen does not understand what gender equality is. The campaign for gender equality is not of women wanting, or aspiring to be men, but a campaign to create a world where access to rights or opportunities is unaffected by gender. It is an advocacy for societies to evolve to a level where women are not boxed in, discriminated against, or violated based on their gender.

As stated by USAID, women-owned enterprises in Africa make up a meagre 10 percent of all businesses; 3 percent in South Asia. In the world today, 1 in 3 women will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime. In developing countries, 1 in 7 girls is married before her 15th birthday. Globally, women make up over 40 percent of the agriculture labour force, yet only 3 to 20 percent own lands. And despite representing half the global population, women comprise less than 20 percent of the world’s legislators. It is such gender-based challenges faced by women that the fight for parity seeks to address and correct, yet the queen says she is not in support.

As foremost Nigerian actress, Uche Jumbo, has said, Olori Wuraola might be confusing gender roles for gender equality. But even gender roles form part of the ongoing global conversation surrounding feminism and cultural stereotypes that reduce women to objects of domesticity. It is such widely held archaic beliefs of gender roles that form the foundation of sexism. Such beliefs are at the root of male chauvinism, and consequently prevailing gender gaps, with women being over represented in lower paid sectors and under-represented in decision-making positions, like in the Nigerian Senate for example.

As if the sea of scared backward thinking men who constantly oppose the advocacy of gender equality, and will shut down a proposed bill at any given chance, is not problem enough, Nigeria has prominent clueless women like Her Majesty the queen of Ife, sabotaging the efforts of brave women like Senator Abiodun Olujiimi. So that the next time the gender equality bill is reintroduced in the senate, small minded men hiding under the guise of tradition and religion will not only reject the bill, but will do so armed with a popular, albeit ignorant reference in the person of Olori Wuraola-Zynab Ogunwusi.