In the face of worsening insecurity in Nigeria, women have been urged to be resilient and actively participate in the political governance and leadership of the country.
The Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki; former Director General of the Department of State Security, DSS, Lawan Daura, and the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Ecobank Plc, Mrs Bola Adesola, who were among the speakers at the 2022 Women In Security, WIS, Conference in Lagos, said women suffer most when the security system of a country failed.
The conference themed: “Developing Resilient Leaders for the African Security Industry”, was designed to tackle unique security challenges facing the country as well as to equip attendees to gain the confidence and charisma required to adequately steer organizations through the volatility that seems to be all around them.
Obaseki who spoke as a special guest of honour stressed that women needed to be involved in the security system of the country because they tended to suffer a great deal of the burden of a failed security system.
He charged women to be actively involved in the election process by placing their issues on the table for debate by candidates.
The governor also called for the education, and empowerment of women from when they are young girls and ensure that they have access to quality education, and a healthcare system to put them in a position where they could compete in the global marketplace.
He said: “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.
“I believe we cannot continue to lament that things are not working and that we are excluded without making attempts to participate. The major challenge of governance today is leadership, particularly by the political class and exclusion of a large segment of the country.
“Young people and women are excluded from our politics. And if they don’t participate in elections and party politics, then it will be difficult for them to play in the game. Women should not just participate by attending campaign rallies, but also by making sure that their own issues are on the table and are debated.”
Also contributing, the former SSS boss, Lawal Daura, stated that leadership and insecurity were linked to political leadership, stressing that women were constrained by cultural limitations, including issues of consent from parents and husbands, which disrupt their career goals in the security industry.
He said, “Leadership and insecurity are linked with political leadership. It is a collective problem. Sometimes, the leader is restricted because of the issue of human rights or violating human rights, instead of doing some things that will protect society. All this makes it difficult to do security business.”
In her keynote address, titled: “What it Takes to Lead: Building the Next Generation of Resilient Leaders in an Increasingly Volatile World”, 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.
Earlier in her address, the chairperson of the WIS Lagos 2022 conference, Tanwa Ashiru, stated that the role of security risk managers today was more than just responding to incidents that have already happened.
Ashiru, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Bulwark Intelligence Solutions, said: “Now more than ever, organizations are understanding 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 themed 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 this conference attendees could gain the confidence and charisma required to adequately steer organizations through the volatility that seems to be all around us”, she explained.
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