Nigeria, March 8 -- It is always said that great men are made by even greater women. These women come either as wives or mother, or as both, on very rare occasions.

Nigeria's patriarchal prejudices and paternalistic tendencies also make certain to paint the failure of a child as a failure of the mother and cast a man's failure as that of his wife.

With these extremely narrow prisms, everything that happens to a man or boy is cast as a woman's failure, with the buck ultimately stopping at the woman's table. This kind of mentality precludes personal responsibility, harms women, and ensures the continuity of a blame game that is as baleful as it is dangerous.

At 81, former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida recently left his quiet existe...