Now is the time to take our rightful place at the helm of affairs in society —Akangbe

Mary Akangbe, a specialist practitioner in minimally invasive surgery and robotics in the UK, is the president and founder of Zenith Global Health, a platform for healthcare professionals for shared learning, collaboration and strengthening. She is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Glowing Future, an organisation that supports women to be the best they can irrespective of their life journey through training, skills transfer and counseling. She shares her ideas on women in politics, women preparedness for leadership and other issues with YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE.

What influenced setting up women empowerment?

Both organisations are founded on the basis of my personal experience. Glowing Future is about my biography and Zenith Global Health is about my experience in the NHS with global input and also in teaching in Africa and Europe. In healthcare, we realised that not many women are given the opportunity to reach their full potential, so our aim is to bring together everyone globally for equity and also for identified opportunity for personal and professional development and also for shared learning. My work cuts across Africa especially in Nigeria

How will you assess Nigeria on the 35% affirmative action?

We have made progress but I don’t think we are there yet and I will say that in anything at all, we need to, at the beginning, identify our target audience. For instance, when we talk about the affirmative action, are we targeting the one percent of the one percent or are we targeting the population in general irrespective of where they are and their social status just to support, encourage and empower them to progress in different aspects of life. That’s why I cannot say we are compliant but we have made progress and we can only get better; we have our work cut out for us as well. As women, we need to support other more and make the best of men that actually support the progress of women.

What’s your advice for women aspiring for political office?

One main challenge for women aspiring for political office is that politics has been dominated by men over a long period of time but that landscape is changing. It takes a lot of guts to be able to put yourself forward for political office; they look at you and ask what has she got to offer, what is she bringing to the table? This goes back to personal and professional development. If you are ready and you prepare yourself for whatever position you want to go for, you will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with men but some will want to undermine you; she’s married, she’s not married, ‘she’s got children, she doesn’t have children,’ they may not be able to focus, but I think largely, we have overcome that hurdle. Because there are not as many women in politics as men, we need to watch out for one other and support ourselves. Sometimes, one of the challenges is finding women who will nurture other women through their own experiences and support them. So my advice is, do your homework, as with everything in life, sharpen the axe before you go out to cut the tree, spend more time sharpening the axe, study the landscape, know what it involves and what it will take, prepare yourself psychologically, physically and emotionally because it’s a very long hurl and also don’t be distracted by the noise around you. Most importantly, put people at the centre of the mission just like in any other businesses and do it wholeheartedly, don’t give up, when you face disappointment pick yourself up and go for gold because if not us, then who? If not now, then when. Now is the time to take our rightful place at the helm of affairs in the society.

Are women ready for leadership positions?

Of course, women are ready for leadership positions. When you look at it, women are known to multitask. So you see some women who first have their family then go back to education or start a business. We see lots of women entrepreneurs. We are beginning to embrace risk as part of growth. We are beginning to focus on personal and professional development, we are beginning to invest in ourselves and that can only mean that we are ready, I will say that one thing that no one can take away from you is what you invest in yourself, your personal and professional development because once you have done that, you will be able to reassess, evaluate where you are, where you want to go and how to go there and most importantly, identify mentors and sponsors. A lot of us are aware of mentorship but not sponsorship. And in the corporate world, that’s one area where men tend to excel more than women, they have sponsorship and we are not talking about money, we are talking about somebody up there who sees you and can support your personal and professional development, hold your hand and signpost you. As women, we need to put ourselves out there to look for sponsors and those in position of authority should put themselves out to sponsor the up and coming because we rise by lifting one other

You know the saying what a man can do, a woman can do it better, in the present climate, that is truer than ever and the more leadership roles we take, the more we excel, the more the world begins to take us serious. Studies and researches have shown that when women are at the realm of affairs in corporate world, in organisations and even in the world, they excel; look at female ministers and presidents, during COVID-19, the countries that did really well; the first five were countries led by women and we can break that down to less powered jobs and it has been proven that in areas where women are leaders, they do well, their return on investment is high, the retention level is high, I suppose empathy plays a role in this. So the more we support one other, the more we see ourselves in roles that are traditionally meant for men, the more seriously they will take us and see us less as sex objects and cheer leaders

Are women supporting women?

I always say that it is important to surround yourself with value added people and that includes men and women. People ask how do you know who is value added; it may be through trial and error, you see people who want you to succeed, who want you to excel and they will be consistent in the way they support you, they look out for you, find opportunities for you and it doesn’t have to be one person, it can change over time. Some women do support women but we can do more.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE