Jemimah Musa: Showing the way for women in Nigeria

By Achowah Umenei, UGC Correspondent

By Saturday, the Uniting General Council (UGC) will close and delegates will return to different parts of the world with various "takehome" packages of what they have gathered and plan to do.

Jemimah Musa's package will be filled with knowledge.

"The most important thing I learned in the Women's Pre-Council is unity of spirit, reconciliation and justice for women," said Musa, who is attending with her clergy husband, Mannaseh. "I come from the part of Nigeria where women still have a long fight to get their rights. And I will organize conferences for women to share and empower them with knowledge gathered from this meeting."

Musa, who holds a bachelor of divinity degree from the Theological College of Northern Nigeria, is the first woman in her country to benefit from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches scholarship programme for women in the Global South studying theology. A seminary teacher of Christian education as well as nutrition, she represents the District Council of Lupwe where she serves as a women's leader.

"We organize women for evangelization, seminars, pay visits to the poor and needy, help orphans and do exchange visits among women of different districts." When Musa studied theology in 2003-2007, it was something new for women in her area. She paved the way for a second woman to obtain a scholarship for the same discipline. She believes in the future women will be ordained as pastors in the Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria.

Married for 21 years, she is involved in teaching, counseling and empowering women within her community. She returns to Nigeria praying the spirit of communion expressed in Grand Rapids will spread to member churches worldwide -- and particularly to those countries in Africa where women are still not regarded equal to men.