The annual August meeting of Igbo women is the home-coming and gathering of married women living outside Igboland in collaboration with the ones resident in the rural communities. The main idea is for them to assemble and form a common front in their matrimonial homes in order to fashion out ways of bettering their immediate families, churches and communities. The reason is that when you have a good and peaceful family, it could translate to the community and ultimately to the entire country.
The founder and President General of Umuada Igbo Nigeria and in Diaspora, Lolo Kate U. Ezeofor explains the philosophy behind the formation of the August Meeting which she said is the product of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO), founded by a strong Christian women leader and mobiliser, Mrs Victoria V. I. Okoye.
“August Meeting is a product of the Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) formed by a lady, Mrs V.V. I. Okoye of Onitsha Province before the Nigerian Civil War. Lady V.V.I. Okoye opened many CWO branches in provinces in Nigeria and beyond.
“In actual fact, she started it. And because of her activities, the Pope gave her papal honour. She is a great woman. So, August Meeting is actually the coming together of Igbo women to their respective hometowns every August,” said Lolo Ezeofor, in an interview with Daily Trust on Saturday in Enugu.
Both the time and preparation for the all-important gathering of Igbo married women somehow varies from one community to another as the case may be. In each community or village, women are expected to prepare themselves with new hair style, uniform, new shoes, wrappers which they wear throughout the one-week duration of the meeting. Also, within this period, women are not expected to engage in their farm works, trading/business, or other personal jobs until the end of the meeting.
It is a binding duty for women to attend the August meeting as non-attendance attracts surcharge by the leadership of the organization. Vital and topical issues discussed during the meeting include domestic, church matters as well as communal. Ezeofor again provides an explanation.
“It starts on Monday. First of all, the women have executive meeting on Monday and the following day, they have meeting of various villages. And then there is the general meeting; while the Catholics will be having theirs in the Catholic Church, the Anglicans will have theirs in their Anglican Church, same with the Pentecostals and even the traditional religion people. Then on Saturday, they all come together as a body. Now, while they were in their churches, they discuss how to build halls for the Church, the priest’s house and how to help in building the Church.
“When the women finally come together, they have professionals such as doctors who talk to them on health, lawyers talk to them on legal issues such as inheritance matters. You know it’s in this part of the country that women are not allowed by custom to inherit their late husband’s property. And the women are trained on how to take care of their finances and live a happy family life.
“Still on Saturday, when all the denominations come together, they are people who talk to them now as a general group. They can discuss their communal problems where people give their opinions on how to make their community a better place. The person in charge of that particular general meeting is the President General. I happen to be the first PG of Amesi Improvement Women Union National. During my tenure, we built a petrol station called Akalabor Petroleum Nigeria Limited and it’s still operational till date.”
According to Ezeokafor, one of the most important advantages of the August meeting is the “coming together and seeing people you have not seen for a long time and then having interactions.” At the nuclear family level, she explained that families also have time to talk about their own peculiar family matters.
She said further: “The thing that impresses me is that the meeting is a forum to foster unity. When two persons or groups are quarrelling, they settle it at the August meeting. And women love to attend August meeting because they learn a lot from it.”
Ezeofor quickly added: “During August meeting, you get to see your friends and when you see the project you started growing, you now think of initiating another one. It’s good for the town. The women relax and unwind, and talk about their experiences while the younger women learn from the older ones. And it radiates peace; you don’t think of negative things.”
Interestingly, the gathering of Igbo women on Thursday, September 1, 2016 at the International Convention Centre, Owerri, capital of Imo State, at this year’s August meeting has been applauded and considered as a genuine and positive one by those in government with the intention to harness it for better and future result that would add values to the development of the communities, the states as well as the larger society.
The meeting for the first time brought together all the women and wives of the South East governors for a deliberation on how to complement the efforts of their husbands (governors) to move the Igbo race forward.
The meeting with the theme, “Looking at the Next Generation of Mothers,” was championed by the wife of Imo State governor, Mrs Nkechi Rochas Okorocha, and supported by the wives of other South East governors.
With the number of prominent women leaders from within the state and the entire South East zone irrespective of political and religious affiliations, the women agreed to work together for the progress of the South-East people in particular and Nigeria in general.
The August meeting was attended by wives of South-East governors including Nneoma Nkechi Okorocha (Imo); Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu (Abia); Mrs Monica Ugwuanyi (Enugu); while their Ebonyi and Anambra counterparts sent in representatives. Also, notable women leaders from the zone who graced the event were Chief Mrs Victoria Aguiyi Ironsi, Chief Mrs Josephine Aneni, Senator Joy Emordi, Senator Nkechi Nwogu, Mrs Pat Jim Nwobodo, Mrs Dorathy Nwodo, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, Mrs Vivian Okadigbo, among others.
Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyawu, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, and Senator Jim Nwobodo who was the chairman of the occasion were equally in attendance to encourage the women.
Addressing the gathering, the host, Mrs Okorocha, stated that the women gathered for their love for Igboland and for their country, Nigeria.
She said they didn’t gather for politics and that “was why women across the political divides and even outside the political box” were all in attendance, adding that they have resolved to get it right by taking up their roles as mothers. She noted that the women’s contributions would complement those of the men.
Governor Rochas Okorocha who had earlier welcomed the women, said that the initiatives from Igbo women agreeing to work together is an indication that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Ndi-Igbo.
According to him, it is a thing of joy to see prominent Igbo women converging on how to make their own contributions towards shaping the Igbo nation for good, adding that Nigeria and Africa are waiting for Ndi-Igbo.
In his brief remark, chairman of the event, Chief Jim Nwobodo, said it was a good development that both Igbo men and women have not only seen the need to unite but have all agreed to unite, adding that once there is unity among Ndi-Igbo other things would naturally follow.
Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu and Mrs Monica Ugwuanyi extolled the essence of the August meeting which is “centred on how to protect the dignity of womanhood through promotion of the girl-child in the zone.”
While Ikpeazu stressed the need to give education to every girl child, by mothers, to enhance their upbringing, she described the meeting as the best thing that has happened to the women of the zone.
But Mrs Ugwuanyi regretted that a lot of mothers do not have time for their children anymore, pointing out that future mothers deserve to be taught how to prepare good food and live happily with their man.
She said that to achieve the project, there is need for women to respect each other’s dignity, especially those in positions of authority, and appealed to mothers to always teach their girl-child how best to live a good and modest life.
