During the International Women's Week that was just concluded, I attended a conference and exhibition put together by SME100Nigeria.

At the conference, there were three panels in total and different issues were raised and discussed, all very key issues. But one was of particular interest to me, it was the issue of work related Sexual harassment. Sooner than had been expected, it shifted to sexual harassment in general for both boys and girls. Then the issue of Nigerians always too quick to jump on hashtags that originate from America especially was pointed out by Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peters who gave several reasons why it is a very wrong thing to do. The popular #metoo hashtags was cited.

A key reason, according to Mrs Austen Peters on why we should not be very fast in copying every hashtag on the internet is because they give wrong statistics and put our Country in a bad light. Imagine where people are using the hashtags just anyhow and when a group of people want to carry out a research, they decide to follow the statistics of people who have used the #metoo hashtags and eventually give wrong statistics and conclude that 99% of Nigerian men are child molesters where that is obviously not the case as we still have saner men here in Nigeria. She gave an instance of when she was in a room of people including foreigners and the issue was raised, then one of the people said all Nigerian men are child molesters and she corrected that wrong notion immediately saying, she wasn't molested, her husband has not done such before and her children too so where did they get their statistics from?

It all boils down to jumping on those hashtags. Mrs Chioma Afe ,a staff of Diamond bank then went on to say in Nigeria right now, the hashtags #metoo doesn't suit us, rather we should jump on #timeisup. The reason being that in America for instance, when someone comes out to say #metoo, xyz sexually harassed me, the issue isn't swept under the rock, it is looked into and sometimes, the molester is even suspended from work and has certain rights taken from him. Such movement may work in America because they have a proactive environment. In Nigeria however, the case is different. Instead of joining them to say #metoo where they will easily get justice and you may not, it is time to say #timeisup. The movement here should be #timeisup! A lot of people are getting away with sexual harassment charges here because we haven't learnt to say Time is up. It is not enough to say me too. Let these child molesters know that Time is up. Measures should be taken to make them know that enough is enough!

It was a very enlightening panel as I learnt so much on this topic and on other issues raises. I wish I could type more but I have to attend to other issues. In all, let us learn not to be too quick yo jump on those hashtags. People are keeping tabs and will use them to give wrong statistics about Nigeria.
Not all Nigerians are Molesters, so let us try to uphold the dignity of our Country.