Eunice Atuejide who complained about not being part of an all male presidential candidate meeting was at an all female presidential candidate meeting on same day

On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, Atuejide who is the Presidential aspirant of the NIP tweeted a now deleted thread that can be described as a rookie blunder made by someone trying to grasp the intricacies of vying for power.

The 2019 Presidential election so far has two main contenders, the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. There are other minor contenders within the mix such as motivational speaker Fela Durotoye, Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore and Kingsley Moghalu.

In a bid to make sure the battle for Aso Rock is more than a two-horse race, these minor Presidential candidates had a consultative meeting on Tuesday, July 31, 2018.

The aim of the meeting was to "undertake to effect necessary steps towards consolidating on the process of building a united front based on shared vision and ideas."

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As you can see from the photos, all the candidates at the meeting were men. Here comes in Eunice Atuejide of the NIP. After seeing the thread made by Fela Durotoye on her timeline, she responded with her own thread which we can say was over the bar.

"See ehn, I am not a feminist and I will never become one, but I tell you, this gender inequality problem is serious faa!

"And the sad thing is, it is not only with our older generation in this country, it abounds with even our unborn children" she tweeted.

Now let's look at this tweet analytically. Now there is nothing wrong with her pointing out that she was left out of the consultative meeting that featured only men. Truth be told, there is something wrong about that. Atuejide is a minor Presidential candidate as well and should have been invited to the meeting.

However, here is how she goofed. She went down a serious and important ideal such as feminism to play 'pick me'. "I am not a feminist and I will never become one" are strong words for a female presidential candidate to make.

Feminism is an important ideal for any candidate to take seriously, male or female. In more advanced countries, male candidates do not joke with the idea of feminism at all. It is a very important cornerstone.

To say she is not a feminist and does not plan to be one is a disheartening statement to hear from a female presidential candidate of a patriarchal country like Nigeria. It just defeats the purpose of why she is running.

Also, her statement sort of suggests that there is something wrong with being a feminist. This just adds to the pile of wrong perceptions of feminism if a female presidential candidate wants to have nothing to do with it.

Here is the funny and illogical part. How can you want gender equality and not be a feminist? Gender equality is at the core of feminism. It's an ideal that we should all pursue. According to Chimamanda Adichie, 'we should all be feminists'.

Oh, we are far from done. In her deleted Twitter thread, she stated that during the meeting of the men she was at a summit for the female candidates that want to run for President in 2019. Luckily there is a tweet and photo of her at the event.

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Correct me if I am wrong, but an all-female political event is the same as an event that has only men in attendance. You can't preach equality and promote gender exclusivity at the same time. It doesn't work that way. You can't eat your cake and have it.

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It seems that Mrs Eunice Atuejide does not understand how feminism and gender equality work. An indication of this is how she deleted her tweets when she was pressed on Twitter. If she can quickly take down her reactions now, what will happen when she is under fire as President?

There is nothing wrong with having a female Nigerian President but we need a lady leader who is a feminist and understands gender equality down to the last word. This is the standard and Atuejide might need a course or two to meet up to the standard.