Women advocate, veteran actress and politician, Hilda Dokubo says the fact that the federal government has over the years ignored women when immortalising notable Nigerians, shows a lack of respect for women in Nigeria.
Mrs Dokubo told correspondent Constance Mega that women have done a lot to deserve to be honoured like their male counterparts.
"People honour who they respect, people react according to their state of mind,” Mrs Dokubo says.
“It just tells you that whoever is in charge has no respect for women and does not even believe or have any kind of faith in women. Otherwise, is anybody trying to say that women haven't done anything for and in this country to have earned them that immortalising?
“There are too many women to name airports after, name streets after, name institutions after. But this is where we are, it's a masculine nation now we have,” the famous actress noted.
Hilda Dokubo, who was the Labour Party 2023 candidate in Rivers State for ASALGA/AKULGA Federal constituency seat, also described the renaming of the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa to Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo, as a distraction, saying the focus should be on fixing the airport.
"How about you change the condition of the airport, you change whatever regulation is beginning to affect the aviation industry for which you go to the airport for an 8am flight, you don't leave there until 6pm? Dokubo queried.
“(How about you) work on lights on the runway, or on the backup generator that helps very big aircraft? Paying people well who work at that airport, stopping extortion that you have to do every time people drive in there you take money, yet the driveway into the parking lot is not good? How about that?" a visibly worried Dokubo also asked.
The veteran actress however urged Rivers people to not allow agitation over the renamed airport to consume them.
“I saw Diette Spiff on that list. Diette Spiff was our first governor. One of Maiduguri's and other states have people from their states.
“So, the thing just tells you where we are: see Nigeria as a whole is sitting on the dock of the bay and it's important for us to know that, and just say to ourselves be calm because if you move unnecessarily, you might tip the country the wrong way and if you tip the country the wrong way, it will affect all of us, both the person that is right and the person that is wrong and the one that is sitting on the fence.
“A country where you think, oh I have settled one person, so nobody else can talk, because the one I have settled can swallow everybody."
On Monday 26th June, a memo from the Federal Ministry of Aviation said President Bola Tinubu renamed the Port Harcourt international airport after Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo.
The memo dated 1st June 2023 and signed by the Director of Airport Operations, Joke Olatunji, also listed other federal airports which were renamed after some prominent Nigerians.
They include, the Maiduguri Airport, renamed after former president, Muhammadu Buhari; Nasarawa Airport was renamed after the late Usman Dan Fodio; the Benin Airport was renamed after the late Oba of Benin - Oba Akenzua 11; Ebonyi State Airport after the late Senate President Chuba Okadigbo; and the Ibadan airport was renamed after Ladoke Akintola.
Recall that a day before leaving office, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved the renaming of the airports after some prominent Nigerians, including himself, in honour of their significant contributions to the development of the country
