Dipo Olowookere
Of the 18 warriors selected for the Gulder Ultimate Search Season 12 Age of Craftsmanship, 14 of them were men while only four were women.
With seven contenders remaining after weeks of strenuous tasks, three of them are women and only one woman has been evicted so far while 10 men have been sent home.
Of course one would expect that since there were more men at the beginning of the show, it is only normal that more men will be evicted. What is however significant is the proportion of the number of men who have been evicted compared to women.
There were more than 20,000 applications for this year’s Gulder Ultimate Search across the different regions. Those that made the longlist were sent to the Sea School where they went through a rigorous selection process. The final 18 who made it into the jungle were selected not based on sentiment but their core ability to prove that they were better than the rest.
The same can be said of the women who made it into the jungle: Esitima, Chidinma, Omokhafe, and Jennifer. All four made it through the group task into the individual task stage. They showed that they were not mere pushovers selected only for gender balance as they have proven beyond any doubt that they can engage in physical and mental tasks as good as the men.
A notable example is Chidinma who can best be described as a no-nonsense lady. In words and in action, she has proven time after time that she can hold her own against anyone in the Amorokin clan. She told Kunle Remi, the taskmaster, that she would not allow herself to be looked down on by the men and has backed it up with her performance in the jungle.
In the ‘seek and find task’, Chidinma was the second person to solve her puzzle despite being the last person to find her bag. In the same task when there remained two contenders, Omokhafe and Tosin, the former controlled her nerves and was able to edge the latter to remain in the jungle.
If there is one thing the show has shown so far, it is that the women have outperformed the men by far. It is yet to be seen how much farther they will go as the tasks get tougher.
