Church leader advocates woman presidency in Nigeria as female Magistrate bags integrity award

A university lecturer and Church women’s leader, Associate Professor Nkechi Njoku, has expressed belief in the power of women to lead Nigeria out of her present socio-economic and political troubles.

 

Njoku, who is the Abakaliki Synodical Women’s Guild President of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria maintained that going by most women’s excellent performance and prudence in positions of trust, the problems of the country which seems to have defied the ingenuity of male leaders require the extraordinary strength of the woman to fix.

 

She enjoined Nigerians to join in the call for a woman to ascend the apex leadership of the country to make a difference.

 

The Women’s Guild president made the remark on Saturday while interacting with newsmen at the grand finale of the maiden Abakaliki synodical Women’s Guild Conference.

 

The event was held Saturday at the Saint Peters Cathedral, Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital.

 

Njoku was speaking in relation to an Award of Integrity bestowed on a female Magistrate, Elder Grace Iheanacho Chima, by the Women’s Guild, in recognition of her excellent, accountable services to God and humanity.

 

She said: “Women can solve the problems of this country, yes, they have all it takes to do it.

 

“If women can perform excellently in coordinating their homes with all incumberances, there’s nothing hard they cannot do, especially when you talk about coordinating the country.

 

“Women have the capacity and all it takes if they are given the chance, to do better in the apex leadership of this nation.

 

She further urged journalist to assist in the campaign for Nigeria to give women the chance to lead the country, adding: “if women can be the stronghold of the Church and the family, they can also be the stronghold that can sustain the country.

 

“So, let Nigerians give women the chance to rule.

 

“I think they will do better.”

 

Chima, who is also the immediate past Chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, Ebonyi state, was honoured alongside other women at the Women’s conference.

 

All those honoured were selected from the eight presbyteries that make up the new Abakaliki Synod of the Church with the awards reflective of their various areas of competence in service.

 

Explaining the reason for the awards, the Synodical Women’s Guild President, Njoku, said they were given strictly on merit, based on track record of the recipients through their various levels of services in the Church, public service and the society in general.

 

She explained: “By this awards, we are trying to express our joy and gratitude for the services these women offered and are still offering in their presbyteries and the Church in particular, and humanity in general.

 

Speaking to newsmen, Chima, the recipient of the Woman of Integrity award, said the honour was an encouragement for her to add more value to her spiritual and social services.

 

She said: “As is often said that to whom much is given much is expected, this will strengthen me, and by God’s grace, to further those attributes for which they found me worthy of the honour.

 

“One thing I know is that it has been part of me to speak up in any platform I belong where I notice the lack of integrity and accountability.

 

“This has often caused me some problems, but I really do not mind, even if I stand alone.

 

“I believe that being accountable and maintaining one’s integrity is part of doing God’s work, in line with the character of our model, Jesus Christ.

 

“All I have been; all I’m yet to be are by the grace of God.”

 

Husband to the award recipient, Justice Iheanacho Patrick Chima, while appreciating the Church and the Women’s Guild for the recognition, described his wife as a woman who exudes integrity in everything she does; a woman of honour personified.

 

Chima narrated: “My wife is such a person that if she is going to the market and tells me that a given item costs a certain amount and I provide the fund, and she gets to the market to discover that the item is cheaper than what she told me, she will strictly return the balance to me.

 

“The preacher said that any woman who honours the husband is a woman of honour.

 

“My dear wife here is a woman of honour personified.

 

“Put simply, I am her business.

 

“As her husband, she does not do anything without putting my feelings in the picture.”

 

While admonishing the Church to consistently preach the raw message of the word of God without fear or favour, he pledged to sustain the character of integrity in his family by inculcating the attibutte in their children.

 

Some friends, Church members and colleagues of the awardee who also reacted to the award, including the Director of Programmes, Nigeria Television Authority, Abakaliki, Evangelist Abigail Eze-Iheukwumere and the Assistant Board Clerk of Abakaliki Urban Parish of the Presbyterian Church, extolled the Magistrate’s emulable life style describing her as selfless, committed, hardworking and sincere in her services.

 

Eze-Iheukwumere added: “Grace is indeed a total woman; an epitome of integrity; a woman that radiates peace wherever she is.”

 

Earlier in a sermon, the National Women’s Guild Desk Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Reverend Mrs Uchenna Chigozie, who was the guest preacher at the event, described a woman of honour as a lover of God, a defender of the faith, decent and modest in appearance and actions; compassionate, peace loving and a woman of prayer.

 

She enjoined Christian women to always live exemplary lives in their homes and outside the home, lead their children through the right paths and honour their husbands, stressing that any woman who honours her husband, honours God.

 

•Photo Caption: The Magistrate at the point of the award flanked by other women at the conference.