BY ESTHER AKPOTOWHO
Women in previous times and climes were relegated to the background. Ostracized as second class citizens, women were slated for the kitchen and as PMB puts it ‘the other room’. With immense gratitude to education, enlightenment and experience that has faulted the theory that women have no potentials to make impact away from their domestic duties, women have proven this wrong.
Encouragingly, women in recent times have broken the ninche, pushing forward to achieve otherwise known insummountable heights to write their names in the sands of time.
Today, we have seen women who have become CEOs of multinational companies, presidents of countries and heading key organizations on whose engine the world is grinding.
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Away from the obvious fact that women are now venturing into professions and positions that were considered to be beyond their reach; experience has shown that women have the capability and capacity to cater for their aged parents. This should be comforting to men who have all female children.
On the 15th of February, 2021, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala was elected as the Director- General of World Trade Organization (WTO). She received acolades from all and sundry. Her achievements so far have brought rays of hope to many people that the sky is just the beginning for any woman who wants to go beyond her duties as a wife and mother to make positive impact in various spheres of human endeavours.
Indeed some men who have decided to drown themselves in the sea of ignorance, low self esteem, and slavemastery mentality have made it a self aclaimed profession to slander women who dare to make a difference. For such men, it is important that you take a causal look at women who have achieved success through the ardent support of their husbands who refused to be intimidated by their wives’ potentials to make names above them.
A quick question to the ogbuefi’s of Africa is pertinent. If your wife who bears your name achieves success and begins to make waves in a chosen field of human endeavor, is it not obvious that you are also sharing in the glory? Hence her success becomes your success. It is therefore important that men stop playing the devil and give all the support to their women who genuinely strive to make a difference. This will help to unleash the potentials in women; bringing about many innovations and inventions that will improve the cause of humanity.
Emerald News has decided to make a brief anaysis of Okonjo Iweala. We hope that this will help men to give their women a chance to unleash their potentials and will encourage women to begin to bring out all that they have so as to make positive impact in the society.
It is no news that Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has been elected as the Director- General of World Trade Organization (WTO). She is to resume duty on the 1st of March 2021 as the 7th Director -General of World Trade Organization succeeding Roberto Azeveto . The 1954 born Nigerian-American and International development expert who sits on boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for vaccines and Immunization and African Risk Capacity (ARC), becomes the first woman and first African to hold that office.
It is important to reminisce on key positions she has manned in Nigeria. Okonjo Iweala is the only Finance minister to have served under two presidents. She served as finance minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003- 2006 and under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2011-2015. Notable among her achievements is her ability to attain the key position of Managing Director of World Bank from 2007-2011; after a 25 year fulfilling and successful career in World Bank.
Okonjo Iweala is not a single, divorced or widowed woman.
She is happily married to a Neurosurgeon, Ikemba Iweala and is blessed with four children including author Uzodinma Iweala. It is worthy to pour encomium on her husband who did not use his position as the head of the home to pull her away from her dreams. Many people are of the opinion that she would not have achieved her dreams if her husband had not supported her.
