According to her, Nigerian women have done well in business and public service, adding that there is a need to get more women to be involved in politics and governance.
Ihyembe-Nwankwo spoke on Thursday at the 21st Annual Conference of WIMBIZ with the theme, “Firing Forward” held at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos.
The WIMBIZ board member, in an interview with our correspondent on the sidelines of the conference, said, “Firing forward is being intentional and wanting to make progress, and that can be progress for yourself and wanting to be in various ways, better. There isn’t one way to progress but there must be an intention and commitment. Firing forward, for me, embodies the starting and finishing of a race, especially at the time the gun goes off for take-off.
“When you look at the statistics, Nigerian women have not fared badly in most sectors. Nigerian women are leading in commerce and industry, not just in petty trading. We can look up the ladder to the distributors and women who own large stores over the years consistently. This is the same for formal employment.”
Lamenting the low representation of women in parliament and other elective and appointive political offices, Ihyembe-Nwankwo, who is also the Head, Client Coverage at Rand Merchant Bank Limited, stated, “The one area that we haven’t done as we ought to be in politics and governance. I personally think that we need to fire forward on that. We need to be committed to the idea that women can and should be leaders. When you see a woman on the ballot box, let us be party agnostic, tribe agnostic. Let us see her as being from one party. Let all women have one party and objective which is to see more women irrespective of the person’s party, we have to put more women in the front and centre of governance.
“That is the only way we can truly see a true representation of all the politics that affect our lives and also the way we can get other women to see that it is possible and want to do it. We will certainly see a country that is more inclusive in the way that things are done.
“Take the messages above the two days and really show it everything that we do. We need to know that we came, did things and that our lives were imparted.”
In one of the plenary sessions with the theme ‘Leading Beyond Borders’, the Nigeria High Commissioner to Jamaica and Permanent Representative to International Seabed Authority, Dr Maureen Tamuno, described the representation of women in the Nigerian political space as a ‘work-in-progress’.
Tamuno said, “I agree that we haven’t started yet. Women are very much underrepresented as we know, but I think we are a work in progress. We need to keep pushing and praying. The issue of the 35 per cent affirmative action as you know is just said by mouth; it is not being implemented. More laws and policies have to work in favour of women.”
Also speaking, the Nigerian High Commissioner of the Republic of Namibia, Humphrey Geiseb, noted, while making his remark on the topic that, in all spheres of life, especially in the fight for a nation’s independence, “women have laid down their lives for freedom”.
He said, “When in 1999, the representatives met to draft the constitution of Namibia, we had a lot of women on the table to do so.
“I am coming from a country where women have played a leading role in the struggle for independence. This is not just in agitation. We have a lot of vision documents as a country that affects women, like the issues of gender mainstreaming, equality and protection of women and the girl child. They are daily issues of the Republic of Namibia. We don’t attend to them once in a while; they are constantly on the agenda.
“Some years ago, when we sent a peacekeeping contingent to Sudan, we sent an all-women contingent (rank and file). That shows you that it is not something that we preach. It is something that we live and put into practice. In Namibia, in a few weeks’ time, the ruling party will do a congress where it will choose its flag bearers. Right now, there is a campaign for the Vice-Presidential seat of the party. Two of the three candidates are women. This is a process that started at the beginning of the Bergin Conference.”
The session which was moderated by the Vice Chairman of the Channel Media Group, Olusola Momoh, has the Ambassador of France to Nigeria and ECOWAS; the Country Director, United Kingdom Government Department for International Trade, Ms. Chim Chalemera; and, the United States Consul General in Nigeria, William Stevens.
The conference also saw the announcement of new members of the Board of Trustees of WIMBIZ, with the CEO of DCSL Corporate Services Limited, Bisi Adeyemi.
Other members include the Non-Executive Director, Punch Nigeria Limited, Dr Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi; Head of Marketing and Communications, Access Bank Group, Chioma Afe; Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah Ahmad; Chief Commercial Officer, Meta Africa, Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani; Contracts Advisor, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Ebisan Akinsanya; CEO, ACT Foundation, Osayi Allie and Director, Google West Africa, Juliet Ehimuan; Branch Head, Quantity Surveying, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing (Housing Sector), Dr Celestina Eke-Mni, amongst others.
