Gossip

Husband disappears after wife gave birth to ‘another baby girl’

A Nigerian man has abdicated his responsibilities as a father and husband because his wife allegedly failed to give him a male child.

It was gathered that he abandoned her at the hospital simply because she gave birth to another female child.

According to a midwife identified on Twitter as @kemziekayy, the new mother has been at the hospital without any sign of her husband three days after giving birth.

She expressed dismay that men in this age are still displeased with the fact that they welcomed a girl child and they believe women are to be blamed for the gender of a baby.

The post reads; “I can’t believe in this day and age some Nigerian men still don’t know that having all female kids isn’t the woman’s fault…that’s how this man hasn’t come to see his wife in the hospital since she gave birth 3 days ago because she had another girl.”

Meanwhile, the immediate past Commissioner for Women Affairs and current Commissioner for Ministry of Water Resources in Kwara state, Hajia Mopelola Abdulmalik-Bashir has revealed that absentee fathers and husbands are penalised in the state.

She said men who abandon their families are compelled by law to pay a fine which ranges from N500,000 and N1 million.

Abdulmalik-Bashir, who spoke on her tenure in the Women Affairs Ministry, she said the state introduced gender composition laws.

She said; “There are penalties for any man to abandon his family. It ranges between N500,000 and N1m. The law was signed in 2020 and our partners have simplified it for us in Yoruba and English. The ministry has benefited from the recently signed gender composition law. That is why the ministry now has its gender equity unit. The unit will be handling issues of interest relating to the women and the girl-children.

Another major achievement of my tenure in the Ministry of Women Affairs is my facilitating the processes leading to the establishment of the First Kwara State Sexual Assault Referral Centre at the Kwara State General Hospital, Ilorin, named after the First Lady of Kwara State.

We have been empowering our people, especially women. During my tenure and not too long ago, we distributed gas cylinders to people, devoid of any political considerations. Beneficiaries of the empowerment programme, numbering about 4,100, were artisans, interest groups, International Federation of Women Lawyers, Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, etc”.