Lagos — From the proceedings at the 54th United Nations Commission on the status of women (CSW54) which took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York from March 1-12, it is obvious that the United Nations has allowed itself to be captured by a narrow interest.

As I said in the first part of this piece, the United Nations is an organization was founded in 1945, in succession to the League of Nations, to promote world peace, security and cooperation.

But the foremost global body has now been disappointingly hijacked and made to be protecting some selfish interests. Any wonder some now agitate that the United Nations be abolished since it has outlived its usefulness. Hiding behind human rights, the United Nations agencies and some international organizations working in developing countries keep on promoting the radical feminist agenda. They dictate to us how we should live our lives.

They complain that some aspects of our culture are obstacle to women empowerment. But unfortunately while pretending to empower African women they end up imposing a particular social philosophy proper to certain radicalized feminist women in Western countries.

This was demonstrated at the CSW54. Under the guise of promoting egregious women's rights, the United Nations through UNFPA, UNIFEM and International Planned Parenthood Federation of America and others were imposing the radical feminist ideas on the rest of the world. For example, during one of the parallel sessions on maternal mortality, the first speaker lamented the increasing maternal mortality in the world.

The second speaker, a Nigerian lawyer, concurred with the first speaker and urged African governments to summon the political will to improve primary health care deliveries in their different countries. But when it got to the turn of the International Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a lady got up and started canvassing for universal accesa to women contraception and abortion.

Of course, maternal mortality is preventable. But what is required is the political will to break away from international agencies that seek to promote their own hidden agenda in Africa under the pretext of tackling Africa 's high maternal deaths. The main cause of high maternal deaths in Africa, Nigeria inclusive, is lack of access to primary, health care, which by extension, include, lack of drugs, lack of access to skilled birth attendants; lack of consumables, medical equipment, poor transportation and general lack of access to basic emergency obstetrical care associated with save birth delivery in Nigeria.

For example, severe bleeding (hemorrhaging), during birth and after birth accounts for about 44% of maternal deaths in Nigeria . Most important, most general hospitals, Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria are presently in bad shape. Therefore unless Nigeria overhauls her National Health System, high maternal death will continue to be recorded in the country.

Sri Lanka , for example, reduced her maternal deaths from 550 per 100,000 live births in the 1950s to 80 per 100, 000 live births in the 1970s. Ireland , where abortion is illegal, has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. Also, Honduras , which lowered its maternal mortality ratio by 40% in the last 12 years, has some of the world's strictest laws prohibiting abortion. Whereas Great Britain and United States where abortion has been legalized for decades, still experience high maternal mortality rates.

But the truth of the matter is that for organizations like the International Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the phrase: "maternal health" is another euphemism, another highly-abused phrase for the marketing of abortion in the world. The radical feminists who attended the CSW54 argued that a commitment to family especially commitment to bearing children hinders a woman from attaining her full "sexual health" in life and exercising full influence in society.

In opposing this radical feminist view traceable to eugenic Margaret Sanger and the Sexual Revolution of the 60s, the other women participants at the conference especially the African participants argued that the true empowerment that women need at the moment is economic, social, educational, cultural and political empowerment and not unrestrained sexual freedom.

According to Dr. Alveda King, niece of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King jr. "any program that seeks to assist mothers should begin when motherhood begins, at pregnancy. A woman's access to proper food, clean water, and prenatal care should be a basic first step, especially in countries where such fundamental resources are not readily available " According to Zainab Bio Ibrahim, the family is the basic unit of every society.

Therefore the destruction of the family engenders the destruction of the nation. The Western concept of liberation of women is incompatible with the values of African civilization; it intends to separate the well being and the rights of mother from the well being and rights of the child.

But unfortunately the United Nations and the organizers of CSW54 rejected any submission that sought to promote of dignity of women or sought to strengthen of the family. Beside the CSW54 was poorly organized. Communication was poor. Lecture venues could not be located on time. Some of the organizers were rude to the participants. More importantly, the whole thing was hatched in secrecy and closed doors.

The United Nations staffers who chaired the conference sessions were already biased in favour of women abortion rights, compulsory contraception, "safe-sex", "condom-sex" and western liberation of women. The delegates from different countries were compromised delegates. Many of them went to the United Nations to act as rubber stamps to the unilateral resolutions of the United Nations on several issues affecting women.

For example, during one of the closed-door delegates meeting on maternal mortality at Conference Room B on Wednesday 10th March 2010 one of the delegates stood up to oppose the inclusion of abortion rights in the draft resolution on maternal mortality, the United Nations chairperson shouted him down by telling him that the United Nations language was a universal language acceptable to all nations.

There was no mass participation at the CSW54. Many of the participants including African women participants were not given enough opportunity to express their views on variegated issues affecting women. While many of them were left to loiter about the UN premises for lack of something to do, the organizers of the CSW54 were busy discussing among themselves.

In sum, the CSW54, for me, was a failure. Like Beijing ' 95, no consensus was reached on many issues affecting women. The women who attended the CSW54 were not given a fair hearing. The United Nations simply wanted to use the CSW54 to launch its own hidden agenda.

The United Nations should learn a lesson from the failed CSW54. In the future it should learn to act like the father of all. It should learn to be transparent. It should learn to be an unbiased umpire. It should learn to accommodate the interests of all. It should not allow itself to be captured by a narrow interest. That is the only way it can fulfill its functions successfully.