Beyond the “other room”: Women in the board room 2

Mike Murdock once said, “Until you find your place in life, you will be displaced”. Until you live a life that is truly yours, you have not lived. Many women have been domesticated, rendered inferior and relegated to the back ground simply because they were unable to find their place in life! When you continually trim yourself to suit everybody, you will soon whittle away. Women are not just created to fit in; they were created to stand out.

As a woman, the hardest battle you’ll ever have to fight is the battle to be yourself; real freedom is being yourself without anyone’s permission. Steve Jobs said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”. I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself. You should never stray away from yourself to get close to someone else.
“A girl who truly knows herself is a girl that everybody else wants to know”- Mandy Hale

In the age of the individual’s liquidation, the question of individuality must be raised anew. In her best-selling book that I will like to recommend to every young lady and woman, “A Return To Love”, Marianne Williamson, an American spiritual writer and women’s advocate, gave one of the most fascinating and self- enlightening quotes ever. Marianne said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s all in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others”. Woman! Make the best of yourself because that is all there is of you. In a world where you can be anything…be yourself.

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.” – Kurt Cobain
The rise and rise of Dangote industries has been a mystic phenomenon in Nigeria and Africa despite the challenging environment. Aliko Dangote is a major employer of labour in Nigeria and among the top employers in Africa, with a total workforce of about 12,000 workers. In Nigeria today, Dangote group with its dominance in the sugar market and refinery business is the main supplier (70% of the market) to the country’s soft drinks companies, breweries and confectioners. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, producing over 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. The real genius of Dangote is his ability to transform challenges into opportunities and opportunities into wealth.

When other entrepreneurs termed the Nigerian environment unfavourable and uneconomical, Dangote surmounted the hurdle to open economical doors where hitherto there were walls. My great respect for Dangote does not only stem from his entrepreneurial savviness but the ease by which he has exposed and trained his daughters to become ‘women in the boardroom’. He has succeeded in grooming up his daughters to navigate the men studded executive terrain. Three of his daughters are actually rubbing shoulders with men in the business world, they are: Halima, Fatima and Sadia Dangote.

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee

Halima Dangote is actually the most conspicuous of the Dangote daughters in the business world. She works directly with her father, the President of the famous Dangote Group of Companies, where she has busied herself formulating strategies and coordinating multiple tasks in what is arguably Nigeria’s and even Africa’s biggest conglomerate. She is said to have her father’s business acumen and unmatchable humility. Halima was appointed an Executive Director of Tiger Brand Consumer Goods (TGBC) Plc. which was formerly known as Dangote Flour Mills on February 15th, 2016. Her giant strides in the business world have put her father’s business beyond the competitive reach of less dexterous competitors. Dangote has used his undaunted daughters to prove to the world the truth of the old axiom that “what a man can do, a woman can do better”.

Nigeria is an abode of executive women making impact in high places. Women like Maiden Alex-Ibru ( Chairman and Publisher of The Guardian Newspapers), Kemi Adeosun (Minister of Finance), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Ibukun Awosika(Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria), Folorunsho Alakija, Cecilia Ibru, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Betty Irabor, Folake Coker, Omobola Johnson, Joke Silva, Linda Ikeji, Modupe Ozolua, Mosunmola Abudu, Ndidi Nwuneli, Nike Adeyemi, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Oluremi Shonaiya, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Tara Fela-Durotoye, Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji and a listless number of many.

I have observed that the Nigerian political terrain is greatly flawed in its systemic ‘disregard’ for the Nigerian women. I want to encourage the Nigerian women to actively participate in politics. It is appalling to know that out of a total number of 109 senators, only seven are women! One of the major reasons why the Nigerian politics is so ‘dirty’ is simply because women are not actively involved. We need women in the National Assembly; we need women as Governors; we need women in high places. I want to also encourage the Nigerian women to be fully involved in policy making and to eliminate myopic apathy towards Nigerian politics. Women are critical to national development and they should be actively involved in governance.

“I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within. It is there all the time.”– Anna Freud Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one”. I am reaching out to all the young ladies and women out there in the words of Harvey Fierstein, “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself”.

You are designed by God not to blend in, but to stand out. It’s not about being who everyone else wants you to be; it’s about being yourself and finding someone who loves every bit of it. By being yourself, you put something beautiful into the world that was not there before. Your uniqueness is meant to be celebrated, don’t compromise who you are for people that refuse to accept your uniqueness; sooner or later, they will realize their folly and not yours.

I want to also reach out to the domineering ‘big guys’ out there with a striking truth: the greatest platform you can ever give to your daughter and wife is to give them a platform to be themselves. Empower your girl-child; empower your woman. Real men don’t compete with women, they collaborate with women.