EDO COMMUNITY

You lived in Edo State for 5 years and, somehow, you gathered “empirical facts” from who? Even a 50-year old full blooded Ẹdo person raised in Ọrẹdo can be completely unaware of what happens in Orhiọnmwọn. So I wonder who gave you data. Anyway, my mother built her first house at Ohoghobi, my father’s community, while still in my father’s house. The man supported his wife through it. She built her second house at Ivbiotọ, and her third at Ọbadan, her hometown. All supported by her husband. No piece of my late father’s property went to my mother. She no need am. My elder sister is married and has almost completed her duplex. The husband’s mother is in charge of materials supply. Tells you the husband approves it. The husband’s mother also her two houses: one in Benin, one at an Estate in Ajah (Lagos). My mom’s younger sister lives with her husband at Utako (Abuja). Under her husband’s roof, she has built her own house close to Aiport Road, Abuja (around VON), and another in Benin. Note how I have not mentioned the men’s properties. Any man full blooded Ẹdo man without at least a landed property and above 30 years old is rare. I can go on and on and on. This is the reality in Benin. Women are given the opportunity and right (not privilege) to own, to earn, to build, to develop, and be a part of wealth. And, as we already know it, Ẹdo women are industrious and very tough in business. Want to get “empirical fact”? Go to sawmills, markets, business districts etc to find out that women match men in market space ownerships and economic and control. Perhaps, I can understand you come from a region where women are mere commodities to be traded or used, so it is really difficult to adapt it in your head that women can be this successful in Benin on their own.🦇