Oshiomole Replies Melaye On Made In Nigeria Women Comments

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, berated the senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, Mr. Dino Melaye, over his comment on the governor’s choice of wife, describing him as a “childish” lawmaker who “cannot maintain a matrimonial home.”

Melaye had on Wednesday, while contributing on the floor of the Senate, called on Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria products.

He reportedly made a reference to Oshiomhole’s marriage to his Cape Verdean wife, Iara, while urging Nigerians to focus on “made-in-Nigeria women”.

He had said, “We will also move in order to encourage made-in-Nigeria products and begin to talk about made-in-Nigeria women.

“Apologies to my uncle, the Governor of Edo State, we must, as a people, stop paying dowries in dollars and pounds. It is time for my colleagues here to become born-again.”

But Oshiomhole accused Melaye of lunching an unprovoked assault and delving into a matter as confidential as his marriage to his heartthrob, even as a member of the All Progressives Congress.

He also berated the senator for regarding women as “pieces of items for sale,” a statement which he said was not only disparaging but disappointing.

The governor, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria, said, “As a ‘nephew’ of the governor and members of the same party, we expected Senator Melaye to tender an unreserved public apology to the Comrade Governor, to no avail.

“It is an open secret that Senator Melaye cannot maintain a decent matrimonial home, hence he could descend to this pedestrian level of using the hallowed chambers to ‘categorise’ women as if they were pieces of items for purchase. Any responsible individual that is truly worth to be called a senator, a position that convokes respect, decorum and decent public conduct, should know the limits of his verbal diarrhoea.”

He said that the liberty to speak freely should not be abused, saying, “The liberty of free speech guaranteed in the hallowed chambers does not impose lunacy on anyone to disparage other Nigerians, let alone pry into their matrimony in a very derisive manner.”