Nigerian chief says she does not want marriage for her daughters after woman's death

Chief Omekannaya Oyinna Ogbonna, a titled chief in her hometown, wrote on Facebook that she does not want her daughters to marry. Her post followed reports that a 24-year-old woman had died and left behind 1-year-old twins. The cause of the woman's death was not clear. The woman's sister wrote in a post that she might never forgive him for 'making her lose her sister.' In her Facebook response, Oyinna expressed frustration about Igbo marriages, writing that she was 'TIRED' and that bad news did not stop. She said women cannot reach old age in peace because she believes too many men harm women physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. She called such men 'ENERGY VAMPIRES' who drain life from women who married hoping to build loving families. Oyinna also said that when people discuss such behavior, expose misogyny and challenge what she described as the pathology behind men's treatment of women, they are called 'bitter, wicked, and anti-marriage.' She argued that this treats the exposure of destructive behavior as worse than the behavior itself. She said that giving men the benefit of the doubt, ignoring warning signs and rushing into marriage have led too many women to early graves, and that society continues to romanticize marriage while minimizing the suffering of women trapped in it. She wrote: 'I DO NOT WANT MARRIAGE FOR MY DAUGHTERS!' Oyinna said she went through too much to bring her daughters into the world and would be 'DAMNED' if any man born of a woman thought he could 'lay a finger' on them. She said she did not fight to give her daughters life only for a man to make their lives miserable or cut them short 'in the name of marriage.'