By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District, Stella Oduah, has said that the society does not sufficiently accord mothers the respect and veneration due them.
According to her, women are the greatest gifts to humanity.
Senator Oduah made this claim in a statement to mark the Mothering Sunday celebration by the Catholic Church, on Sunday, April 25, 2023.
According to her, women watch their bodies go through the gamut of conception and persevere as a human being grows inside of them, with all the changes that come with it, only to deliver and spend what feels like eternity, nurturing and ensuring that that little baby turns out to become somebody the society would be proud of.
Yet, she said, many people still take that highly rigorous and indeed spiritual journey, for granted.
She said further that it takes patience, strength, humility, empathy and a somewhat deep level of decisiveness to be able to watch and nurture a human being from birth to adulthood; which according to her, include, nights mothers spend in prayers and supplications to God on behalf of their children.
The Senator affirmed that a mother is indeed, the first template a child experiences, which makes it bewildering how some people can even habour the thought of belittling “this very holy vessel.”
Senator Oduah: “To be clear, a mother is not only a woman that conceived and gave birth to a child for we all have that special aunt who though never gave birth to children of their own, but were part and parcel of the nurturing process that made us who we are today; such women are indeed mothers in their own right and should be celebrated by all right thinking persons.
“A mother is the very essence of femininity and it is interesting to note that sometimes, even little girls already understand this in the way they help their little sister or brother hence, I totally reject the idea that one is not a mother unless they have children of their own, for motherhood is not necessarily a function of Biology but a way of life lived in service to Humanity.
“Though I have children of my own, it is interesting to note that throughout the course of my existence on this plane, I have come in contact with numerous children, who either by an accident of association that has seen me positively affecting their lives, they call me mother and I’m sure that there are many women out there who continue to give beyond themselves by embracing every child as their own.
“I remain absolutely convinced that God has placed people in every woman’s path and by so doing, called each and everyone of us to motherhood and your task is to love those that are weak, unhappy, helpless, and unloved.
“Sometimes you can do this just by saying one word. At other times you’ll just have to listen for in every life, there is suffering; most people keep it inside but when they feel loved, they will open up and tell you about their suffering.
“Then you will find that by carrying other people’s suffering your own suffering becomes lighter.
“This is the life I believe every woman that deserves to be called a mother, is called to embrace and I use the opportunity of today’s mothering Sunday to celebrate every hardworking and God-fearing woman out there that not only sees every child as her own but takes conscientious steps to ensure they don’t go astray.
“You are the reason we all turned out the way we did and I cannot but thank God for the love, care and strength, He imbued you with in this journey called motherhood.
“Thank you for nights spent awake watching over our feeble limbs and thank you for the unimaginable sacrifice deployed to train us into the self assured and sufficient adults that we today are.
“May God bless those aunties that are not physical mothers but who painstakingly nurture us through adoption and role modelling and may He continue to bless and keep you all.
“May those currently praying for the fruit of the womb, have their prayers answered so that they too can experience the joy in doing this Lord’s work called Motherhood!
“I say this without equivocation; Women are the greatest gifts to Humanity.”