Why are prostitutes not presidents?

The first woman came from man. Thereafter, all men have come from women. Otherwise speaking, without a man there wouldn’t have been a woman… and without a woman, there wouldn’t have been men!

This lends credence to the fact that even in a man’s world so-called; it would have been absolutely incomplete without the existence of women.

Women are our helpers. They are as creative as men. They are as intelligent as their male counterparts. Women are not sex objects in human form. They are neither kitchen wares in human skin!

As human as you are, you came from a woman, thus, you owe womanhood tonnes of thanksgiving. If a woman gave you her womb as your residence for at least nine months with no pay, then you indeed can’t be ungrateful enough to think a woman can barely get to the top in life until she has cheated her way there through sex.

Some weeks back, a political figure alluded to the fact that our Electoral Commissioner (EC) had gotten such an enviable position because she probably traded it for some sexual favours. I shook my head in awe.

In this era of modernity, we still have some folks thinking as such!? Well… we are in 2016… not 1616! We live in an era where women can achieve everything men can achieve, too.

We are in an era where women can lead their generation with their heads… not what is in between in their thighs! Welcome to an era where women are as good (and bad) as men. Welcome to a generation where the higher echelon of society can be occupied by women, too. Femininity is not inability!

Women are as (in) competent as their fellow men. They don’t need to give away sexual freebies to get to the top. If you think it is such an extraordinary thing for a woman to be at the top, especially in politics, I guess you don’t belong to this generation.

We live in a generation where great minds rule; where mind power rules over manpower… regardless of whether that mind is blue, black, white, man or woman.

Guess what. If all one needed to get to the top was to give some sexual takeaways, prostitutes should have been leading chief executives. Prostitutes should have been the driving force of this economy. Prostitutes should have been presidents!

After all, they can return sexual favours best. They could have cheated their way there best especially with their rich sexual experience. However, if they are none of these, at least, it goes without saying that it takes more than something in the panties of women to climb the ranks of life.

It takes hard work. It takes gradual self-development to reach the heights of life. It takes determination and belief in one’s dreams.

We need to get serious as a people. We scream when others discriminate us per our skin colour yet here we are glaringly shutting others up because they were born with a womb. We make trivialities like gender, tribalism and what have you get in the way of our decisions.

Little wonder we are still grappling with ‘little’ challenges. Competence/incompetence is not gender bias. What a man can do, a woman can equally do; whether good or bad.

We were all born as Ghanaians until we allowed politics to ride on the back of our differences to tear us apart. Today, everything is seen in the lens of politics. Even if we had our way, we would have shared the Sun and moon between our political parties. Chai!

We don’t need rocket science to solve our challenges as a people. They are simple, everyday challenges. However, because we have chosen leaders who have the next election in mind and not the next generation, we are still stuck in our tracks.

If anything at all, politics should have been the last to separate us. In Africa, however, it is the first! Until we get politics out of the way of governance, we would still go back and forth as far as development is concerned.

We would perpetually battle the same problems every four years because all someone is thinking of is how to stay in power. What’s the essence of staying in power when we don’t even have power to power our stay in Ghana!?

Until we separate what is wrong or right from politics, we would have more of such needless utterances heating up the political tension, especially in this election season.

We have labelled some things wrong, depending on who’s doing them. Wrong is wrong even if the masses are doing it; even when our political masters are doing it. Right is right even when just one person is doing it.

We need to stand our grounds lest the politician tears us apart. We need to resist any mental oppression of the politician that makes us think that our sisters, daughters and mothers can’t make it in this life unless they gave in some sexual token.

We need to resist any parochial thinking that makes us think as long as someone has two juicy breasts, they are less human or competent.

Listen woman. Hard work pays. It is possible to build your mind to help you get to wherever you dream to be. You don’t need to go spreading your legs to gain offers. You don’t need to go prostituting in any institution to be promoted.

Hone your skills. Sharpen your talents. Develop yourself. Be a better person each day. Build your personality. If a woman has little or no talent and so badly wants to get to the top, it is that ‘thing’ in her panties that suffers most. In all your having, have talent.

I respect women and will never underestimate their capabilities. If despite all their many roles in life, some still find their way at the top, then we can’t help but throw our weight behind them.

I love womanhood. I am because they are.

The writer is a playwright and the Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications, a writing company in Accra.