Justice Jombo-Ofo
Nigeria is 52 years after independence, yet its citizens are not given that assurance of security and protection in many ways. It's only in Nigeria that some people are still strangers in their own country if they are not living in their State or their city. The women are worse off.
Justice Jombo-Ofo by birth is from Anambra State. She married an Abia State man and has been living with him since her marriage. She is not divorced from the husband and has been working in Abia State Judiciary. even before the State was created 21 years ago. She has served the Judiciary “meritoriously” according to the State Governor, Theodore Orji, who recommended that she take up Abia State’s slot in the Court of Appeal when the vacancy came up. She did and that is when the problem started.
A petition was written to the Chief Justice of the Federation, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, stating that Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo is not an indigene of Abia State and therefore should not take up a seat reserved for its indigenes. Based on this, the CJN refused to swear her in.
All these years that she has been toiling to dispense justice in Abia State , no one said that she is not an indigene but now that promotion has come and she is to reap the fruit of her labour, the enemies of progress sprung up to put her down. This is so unfair. Is Nigeria moving backward or what? Why should we be talking about a married woman not being an indigene of the state she is married to? The Bible says what God has joined together let no man put asunder. Are the petition writers saying she is not one with her husband because she is not from Abia State?
I remembered an incident in 2005 during the recapitalisation exercise in the banking industry. My husband's cousin working in First Bank recommended me to one of his bosses for employment and he asked me to take my CV to the man. I went and when I entered the man's office, I greeted the him in English language but the man answered in the local dialect. I responded and the man asked why i used English. I told him that i am not fluent in my husband's dialect. That was a minus. After going through my CV the man then said, using his words "oh you are not from our area." I was shocked and i said i am but the man firmly said NO. Not wanting to spoil my chances of getting a job by arguing with him, i stopped. If I had known that I will still miss the job simply because I am not from the same state with my husband, I would have given the man a piece of my mind.
The movement towards creating a nation where everyone would find fulfillment was alive in the minds of our Nationalists when they fought for independence, why have we gone back to tribalism and Statism? Shouldn't we by now have gone past this and be able to settle, integrate and struggle with fellow countrymen in any parts of the country like is done in America that we claim to emulate?
America is full of examples of people moving from their states of origin and attaining their dreams and ambitions in their places of residence not even marriage. Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the the Secretary of State . She was born in Illinois and married an Arkansas man who was American President for 8 years, Bill Clinton. After her husband's two terms in office, she moved to New York and was elected as a federal senator in 2000.
Why can't we have the same here? This Justice Jombo-Ofo case is definitely an eye opener for all of us. In Nigeria, It is the lot of women to leave their families at maturity and relocate to strange new families, sometimes strange new lands and cultures after marriage. Wherever married women find themselves, they work hard and Justice Jombo is not an exception. From testimonies from people around her, she has been using her God-given talents to serve her husband’s community and State with all her strength. She actually started from the bottom and worked hard getting to the top helping to build the State in which she was married. While she was stressing herself and sacrificing time, energy and quality family time, nobody raised any objection. But now that the time has come for her to to reap, someone is writing a petition against her. This is so cruel and unfair.
I do not know why the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mukhtar is delaying the swearing in but she needs to set aside the evil petition and a help a fellow woman move up the ladder to occupy the higher Bench.
