The Women Are Coming -By Olusegun Adeniyi

On Tuesday, I was at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to chair a ‘Youth Governance Dialogue’ session. Participants were drawn from across West Africa, including the guest speaker, Mr Moussa Kondo from Mali, who spoke to the issue of transparency and accountability and the role of young people. The director of the youth centre, Mr Damien Oyibo and chairperson, Mrs Bisi Kolapo dwelt on the same theme. The premise of my brief intervention was on the powers held by young people today with all the tools that have been provided by technology to ask questions. And challenge erroneous assumptions.

Incidentally, this was the second time in five days that I shared a platform with President Obasanjo, though with roles reversed. Last Friday in Lagos, he chaired the African Initiative for Governance (AIG) Advisory Panel session which preceded interviews of shortlisted scholarship candidates for a Masters of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University. On Tuesday, I chaired the Abeokuta youth session where he actively participated as the chief promoter.

While the youth conference was quite engaging, I found that the female contributors distinguished themselves in their display of intelligence and the manner they spoke to the issue of integrity and character. This is not an isolated experience for me because in most of my interactions with young people these days the women seem to not only be brilliant but uphold stronger values. Last Saturday in Lagos, shortly after the round robin interview with 24 candidates for the Oxford scholarships, AIG chairman and promoter of the scheme, Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede asked me, “Did you notice how strong the female candidates are?”

For a society where patriarchy is still dominant, it is little surprise that so few women hold corporate or political leadership positions in Nigeria. But things have to change. If we are to develop as a nation, we must allow opportunities for women to take their place at the top. Because our women have proved to be as good, if not better, than the men, they may just be the catalyst Nigeria needs to take off.

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