By Sunday Ani
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has urged the Nigerian women to participate actively in the political process as that is the only way their concerns could be addressed.
He made the call in Lagos recently at a security conference, ‘Women in Security (WIS)’ put together by a body of professional security experts, the ASIS International.
The Governor, who was a special guest of honour at the event, encouraged the women to stop lamenting about their exclusion in governance, but rather get actively involved in election processes by placing their issues on the table for debate by the candidates.
He noted that the major challenge of governance in Nigeria today was leadership, which excludes the young people and women from politics, even as he reminded the women that the elections were coming and that they should get registered to be able to take part in defining the agenda.
“You can’t complain after it’s all done if you were not part of telling what you need and how it should be done,” he added.
Obaseki charged the women to participate not just by attending campaigns and rallies but by making sure that their issues were on the table for debate. “They should ensure that issues on how the economic policies affect women and families, and how the political process guarantees their rights and freedom are tabled for debate,” he added.
He also stressed the need for education and empowerment of women right from when they were young girls. “Ensure that they have access to quality education and healthcare to put them in a position where they can compete in the global marketplace,” he said.
Speaking at the conference themed: “Developing Resilient Leaders for an Expanding Security Industry,” the Edo governor also emphasised the need for women to be involved in the security system of the country, stressing that they tend to suffer more from a failed security system.
“When the security system of a country fails, the greatest burden falls on women. The fall-outs, the challenges, and the pains are on women. We can’t have a security system without women in our structure,” he stated.
He condemned the current security arrangement where all the security operatives are controlled by the Federal Government, describing it as an anomaly.
“You should have to police at the federal, state, and local government area levels. We will continue to put pressure on the government to devolve security,” he said.
In his contribution, the former Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, said leadership and insecurity were linked to political leadership.
He said: “It is a collective problem. Sometimes, the leader is restricted because of the issue of human rights violation instead of doing some things that will protect society. All this makes it difficult to do security business.”
He, however, stressed that women were constrained in the security business due to cultural limitations, including issues of consent from parents and husbands, which might disrupt their career goals in the industry.
In her keynote address, the Chairman of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Bola Adesola, urged women to take charge of their careers.
“You need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Be continuously dissatisfied with the status quo. Build your own table if there is none; take charge of your career. Don’t outsource decisions that affect you to others,” she advised.
Chairperson, WIS Lagos 2022  Conference, Tanwa Ashiru, said the role of security risk managers today is more than just responding to incidents that have already happened. “Now more than ever, organizations understand the need to prepare for, respond to and recover from business disruptions through resilience building.
“Enterprise security risk managers operating in this season must learn to be leaders who possess the ability to inspire members of an organization to take the necessary actions that will counter security risks which could harm the organization.
“It is based on this premise that we titled this conference, ‘Building resilient leaders for an expanding African security industry.’ We recognize that the role of the security risk manager is expanding, thus how participants to this conference could gain the confidence and charisma required adequately to steer organizations through the volatility that seems to be all around us is of paramount importance to us,” she stated.