WOMANIFESTO 2019: We are tired of being sick and tired – Erelu Bisi Fayemi [Video]

Foremost activist and First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, has expressed frustration over the incessant demand for sex from women before being granted favour or opportunity.

Fayemi, who delivered the opening remark at the ongoing 3-day national women dialogue ‘Womanifesto 2019’ organised by a coalition of feminists and women’s rights activists from across the country on the theme ‘The Nigeria Women Want’, Wednesday in Abuja, said Nigerian women were generally tired of being intimated, abused and marginalised.

“We are tired of sex-for-grades, sex-for-jobs, sex-for-food, and sex-for-appointments. We are tired of seeing the driver, gateman, teacher, policeman, politician, bank manager, lecturer, pastor, Imam, and traditional ruler, all go scot-free when they rape us or our children.

“We are tired of mourning our sisters beaten to death by their spouses. We are tired of searching for our children who have been snatched away from our arms and have not returned. We are tired of singing, clapping for political leaders only to end up with nothing to show for it. We are tired of not being able to go to our farms for fear of being raped. We are tired of watching our sisters die while giving birth. We are tired of being tortured and dispossessed when our husbands die. We are tired of being harassed, intimated and even burnt alive because we dared to raise our voices.

“In the famous words of civil rights activists, Fannie Lou Hammer, we are tired of being sick and tired,” Fayemi said at the event which had in attendance over 2,000 delegates comprising activists, policymakers, researchers, grassroots leaders, politicians, faith-based leaders and more.

See Video below: