Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is pushing for the inclusion and greater participation of women in leadership roles.
She emphasised this imperative during discussions with journalists following her engagement with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, and other women at the Nigerian Women in Leadership event held on Saturday in Abuja.
Okonjo-Iweala highlighted the numerous hurdles women encounter in their quest for leadership positions. She elaborated that during conversations with the duchess and other attendees, they deliberated on various challenges and explored strategies to enable women to ascend to leadership roles. Additionally, she highlighted the necessity of augmenting the representation of women in leadership positions at both state and federal levels.
“How do we improve the position of women in the country? We have a very low percentage of women in the National assembly. We have never had a woman governor, let alone something higher,” she said.
Recall, that Virginia Etiaba became the governor of Anambra for three months and then handed power back to the duly elected governor, Peter Obi, following a court order.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala added, “That has to change, but no one is going to hand it to the women. Women have to fight for it, but the men also have to support because you cannot have 50% of your population not participating. So, these were some of the issues we discussed today, and we have to proffer solutions on how women could deal with the challenges of leadership.
“Most of the women in the room here are already leaders; they are not even struggling to get to the top as they are already there.”