Date Published: 09/26/09

Dear Sir,

Ama Ogan and her women liberation stance?

I do not understand what Ama Ogan of Next newspaper is all about. She has granted interviews indirectly, seriously propagating that there should not be any respect for marriage institution. It is un-African. If she feels that she is propagating women liberation, she is wrong.

She posits that a man should bear his name and a woman her name. But what name for the woman? I have some issues for “Ms” Ogan, since she has refused to bear “Mrs.” whatever her husband name is. I would want to know where she got the name ‘Ogan’. Is it her father’s name or what? If it is her father’s name, what name does her mother bear? Furthermore, what names would her daughters bear when they gets married? I believe Ama is a confused person, not knowing what she wants or what her contributions to our culture is. 

Even most stars bear double-barreled names (their maiden name and that of their husbands’), therefore if she considers herself a star, I expect her to do the same. Anything short of this would mean that she is suffering from some kind of complex especially now that she relived her experience at Police checkpoints when she was working with the Guardian newspapers. According to her the Police normally ask:  “You be man abi woman”?  Ama has also compared herself to the world’s 800-metre South African sensation, Semeya, who looks more like a man than a woman. Is that why Ama would not bear her husband’s name; and what is her husband even saying about those insults she hauls at him in those interviews?

A friend of mine tells me that mostly lesbians behave like Ama has exhibited, nevertheless it is a personal choice, I hope she is not one.

Nwadi Okoro

Plot 324 Wetheral Road

Owerri

Imo State