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Let us reason together ...

Political will.  What exactly does that mean, especially when the common man or woman doesn’t realize that is where their power lies?  This article is about what we as up and coming female leaders in our respective fields can do to impact our nation. I am sick and tired of hearing that “we are the future”. Rather than the future, we are the here and now, and we need to do what we can to lift Nigeria up from the cyclical problems She keeps getting into.

I can’t say I have the solution to the nation’s problems, but I do know that women and children are the ones bearing the brunt of it.  The first step to solving Nigeria’s problems is to help the women.  Instead of women continuously being the victims of war, poverty, and diseases, it’s time they become the educated leaders that they are naturally meant to be. I am not talking of women who already have the luxuries of life; but I am talking about the women who wake up every morning thinking of how they will feed their children for the day. These are the strong ones who have to be shown their potential.

I think one key solution is to make women self-reliant. Women should no longer be dependent on their husbands, who are further dependent on the government to create jobs. The jobs need to be created by the people.  Nigerians are generally intelligent. Seriously. If you disagree, how come Nigerians emerge as leaders in institutions and professions in foreign countries?  How come such traits of leadership are not widespread in Nigeria? My personal answer is the environment/economy is choking people’s creativity. We should find avenues to encourage such creativity again.

We are proud to say we graduated from one of the best girls’ schools in the country, well, it’s time we show it.  How many of us can say we have positively influenced a child’s life? Or encouraged women to be financially independent from men? I think we can do our bit wherever we are.  As a chapter of the Queens College Old Girls, we need to come up with events where we can talk with women and young girls in the low-income areas about how to start their own businesses, protect themselves from diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and empower themselves generally.  For those of us in the business sector, we have a lot of skills, and ideas we can share. Those in the nonprofit sector can volunteer in the areas of community development.  For every field, there is so much that can be contributed. It is only when women especially are empowered that they can become politically strong. 

It’s great that we have our website up and functioning, that is but one legacy we can leave behind.  The greatest legacy however, is one where we have affected people’s lives in such positive ways, that Queens College will never be forgotten.