Speeches

8th Annual Confenrence Of Women In Mangement And Business (WIMBIZ)

Nov 3, 2009 - When I received the letter from the Chairperson of the Women in Management and Business (WIMBIZ), Mrs Bola Adesola, inviting me to be Guest Speaker of the Organisation's 8th Annual Conference, I excitedly agreed, without reading in detail the theme of the Conference.

I think my excitement arose from my personal knowledge of the sterling qualities of a number of the members of the Board of Trustees, and a general knowledge of some of the members, whose accomplishments I have always felt proud to be associated with.

My excitement has since came under control when I started planning to write this address, I scrutinized the letter more closely and focused my attention on the vision of the organisation which is "to be the catalyst that elevates the profile and influence of women in management and businesses" and also the theme of the Conference which was to "Change the Game and Make a Difference".

I asked myself if I had not walked into a veiled discussion of the gender issue. What was I going to say?

It is not because I do not like the discussion on gender issues. Rather it is because I believe very seriously that words have consequences than we care to think and because somewhat too often, we have, to my own personal discomfort, paid lip service to gender issues by saying many nice things and doing too little things. I did not want to be part of a number in directionless crowd.

However, having had the privilege of speaking at the opening ceremony of the 9th Annual Conference of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials recently, I have found a perspective that allows me to say again what I mean while hopefully addressing the theme and any sub-plots and themes that lie beneath it.

Although I have often wondered when the men whose wives work for the Lagos State public service will form their own Committee, as the number of women in the Lagos State public service continues to increase at a rate when Lagos can now be said to have become lIubirin (the land of women) and I mean this", as a compliment.

Nevertherless, I am here, and speak I must, even as I express my sincere appreciation personally, and on behalf of my Government, to the Board of Trustees for considering me worthy of such honour.

How do we "Change the Game and Make a Difference", unless we understand what the game is and the rules that govern it?

In a rapidly changing world, heralding the information technology revolution, I think all of us must realize how privileged we are not only to be witnesses but also critical individuals who will have a role to play in shaping this revolution. I have recently consistently asked myself how those who mid-wifed the industrial revolution will feel today if they were alive.

The face of international business has changed. The rules that worked 50 years ago have become inadequate to deal with today's demands.

Businesses that were the mainstay of families, states and nations have disappeared, and many more are threatened. The Swiss watch industry that prided itself on the art and craftsmanship of a generation of watchmakers has given way to battery operated watches; film developing and film developers, who• prided themselves on their darkroom skills to produce wonderful photographs have given way to digital photography and digital printers; and threatened the entrepreneurial acumen of world renown brands like Kodak.

It also remains to be seen how Xerox, who taught us to copy will react to the changing times as the newspaper industry is dying gradually as many more read their newspapers on the move from blackberries, with its adverse effect on the newsprint manufactures, and their suppliers of pulp and trees; everybody is now a broadcaster on the internet through Facebook, Twitter and many more that will emerge.

As Fareed Zakariya posits, on the information highway, "... everybody is connected but no one is in control".

The oil industry will be seriously challenged in the jobs it can sustain from exploration to dispensing of finished products from petrol stations as the world goes green in a race to protect the environment and• produce battery powered cars within less than a decade from now.

As more cities including Lagos are heading for sustainable mass transit solutions like trains and metros, there will be a change in the automobile industry and the millions it employs globally and if you care to think any further in this case of global banking and borderless transactions, you will ask questions about what the nature of financial transactions for international trade will be; will we still need Letters of Credit in their current shape and form? Will we still need the services of corresponding and collecting banks? How many jobs will be lost and what jobs will this new revolution bring? How will women be affected in the airline industry with increasing e-tickets and online check-ins?

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future that is here now. How are women in business going to be affected? How are their homes and our societies where they play an all too important role going to fare? How can" women in business "Change the Game and Make a Difference" to secure the future?

I must confess that I do not have any ready made answers. I have however in response to this invitation gone back into some history to look (or a guide from the past, to understand the present, and attempt to chart a course for the future.

I must report that the results were interesting and inspiring.

First, I must say that my views about the future are based on a bottom-up approach, in which everybody is allowed to playa role no matter how little. That of course comes with a caveat that no one must be expected to playa role in which he or she has a natural physiological or psychological limitation and that nature can not be wrong in making us different but complimentary to one another.

One of the first historical references that I came across is contained in Peter Iron's' book, A People's History of the Supreme Court, which discussed the role of Abigail Adams, who he described as " ... the strong-willed wife of John Adams" who was a revolutionary who later became the President of the United States.

This is what he said about her:

"Shortly before John Adams helped in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Abigail wrote to him: "I long to hear that you have declared an independency - and by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire that you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice and no representation"

Essentially, from those early times, she was asking her husband to create a role for women in the nation building process.

To our regret, he did not listen and we are only today opening up the space for women, as if we are doing them a favour, when indeed they have more than a passing role to play in nation building, which is the biggest business on the globe.

In Nigeria, there is a rich history of such women, who went beyond writing to their husbands, and actually stepping out from behind them or away from beside- them, which ever you prefer, to make far reaching and enduring contributions to direct business and indeed nation building.

In his monograph titled, "Culture, Gender and Development, Dr. R. O. Soetan recounted the outstanding achievements of a Yoruba woman in business, Efunsetan Aniwura.

These are some of the things he recorded about her:

"Efunsetan Aniwura of Egba origin, was a big-time farmer and producer of food crops in Ibadan. At a stage in her rise to wealth and fame, she was said to have had as many as 2,000 slaves on her farms (Johnson, 1963: 393). She probably went into food processing and trading (commercial) activities. She was conferred with the title of Iyalode of Ibadan and in the early 1870s ranked among the social, economic and political elite in the city.

He also spoke of Madam Tinubu as follows:

Similarly, Madam Tinubu, an Owu-Egbo, made her fortune in Abeokuta, Badagry and Lagos in the 1850s and early 1860s and was conferred with the title of Iyalode of Egba in 1864. These two wealthy women invested heavily in Business enterprises, attained to prosperity, high chieftainship and political power.

Apart from these women, history, particularly Nigerian history is replete with the names and achievements of many women of substance who have contributed invaluably to our nation building process and I must say some of them are also here with us today.

With what we have seen from history, the kind of businesses that were done by Efunsetan Aniwura have given way to more formal structures, which themselves are now at risk.

Globalization has come upon us. Man's most enduring form of exchange, capitalism, predicated on principles of free trade, market forces and credit has come under serious challenge.

The rules of the game have been changed and we seem unprepared.

I am reasonably confident that these changes have come to stay. What lies ahead of us is a common resolve to create a new legal order, a new body of rules to regulate how business will be done in a most uncertain future.

What should be our guide or compass to enable us conceive these new body of rules? What roles will women in business be expected to play in delivering these rules and in implementing them.

It is my humble view that the future of the whole planet depends significantly on the role that Africa assumes within the next few years.

As the most populous black race, Nigeria cannot stand on the fence. Our minds must be alert, our hands must be at work and our voices must be heard in the process of developing this new body of rules.

It seems to me that the biggest economic' activities that lie ahead will be found in activities targeted at protecting the environment because our planet is at risk.

New ways of doing business in a way that puts the environment at less risk and affords protection to all of us are a matter of urgent necessity.

As leaders of the world head for Copenhagen in December this year, hoping to find common areas of commitment to environmental challenges of the world, I anticipate that decision reached and submitted for implementation will affect women, businesses and their families in Africa and Nigeria.

For example, if we must stop tree felling and encourage tree planting, if we must reduce fossil fuel like coal, how many businesses and cottage industries, bukateria and the like run by Africans and Nigeria women to support their families and sodeties will be affected by these decisions.

I believe this is the time for all of us, and in this context, women, to be more proactive in the search for sustainable sources of alternative energy on which businesses depend.

As our Senate begins the consideration of the Petroleum Industry Bill, and the National Government commits to its plan to deregulate the supply and distribution of petroleum products very far reaching consequences will occur in the sector that represents well over 90% (Ninety Percent) of our nation's economy.

If we get it right, our economy will head north. If we get it wrong, very severe strictures of poverty will be inflicted on our people especially women, who bear the brunt.

In order therefore to change the "game and make the difference", I urge women here to sufficiently arm themselves with enough information about the proposed reforms in this sector and participate in the process "of formulating the rules that will govern the "game" of managing the petroleum industry.

Before I conclude, I will like to advert our attention to a major area where women can lead us to a most decisive change. This is in the area of population management.

It is now common knowledge that more than two-thirds of the World's population live below or in poverty. It is also no longer debatable that the most defining problem of the modern age is how to combat poverty which afflicts more of the population of developing nations like our country and the impact is more severely felt and borne by women in the very many injustices like abuse, trafficking and prostitution they are subjected to in order to survive.

I think that women in business more than any other people know and understand that in business and enterprise management, efficiency and success is dictated by the prudent utilization and allocation of resources that are always• limited.

It is therefore incumbent upon all of us to see our country, and each of the component States as enterprises that must be effectively and efficiently managed by judicious utilization and allocation of resources in order to reduce scarcity and poverty.

The question I have therefore always asked and which we must ask, is how many people can the resources of our country and our respective States support?

Will Lagos, for example, remain sustainable in terms of her ability as a State to continue to provide housing, roads, education, security and jobs, if the population continues to rise without control?

How far can the land boundaries of Lagos expand, how much more of our water bodies can we afford to sand-fill to create land to house an increasing population? Has the time not now come upon us, when we must begin to right-size our population through family planning to fit our resources.

Can a family with one bedroom rise out of poverty if they make 6 (six) children to live in that 1 (one) room on the basis of only the hope that life will get better.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, women in business, this is one game that you must help to change by leading the advocacy for the benefits of family planning as a way of improving quality of life and fighting poverty.

I do not wish to be misunderstood as suggesting that it is only your responsibility, but I appreciate that you can play more than an important role in leading this change.

The old arguments that were the foundation of very large families, such as the need for extra farm hands, poor healthcare that limited the survival chances of children and the preference for a particular gender of child have been' demystified as simply not tenable.

Mechanized farming has shown that you do not need so ,many hands to plant or harvest, immunization has improved the survival of our children from what is was over 4 (four) decades ago when I was born.

If there was still any doubt about what a girl child can achieve, the members of this organization of confident, intelligent and successful women provide the answer to the sceptics.

If we do not restrain our procreative urge, we cannot lift ourselves out of poverty. I urge you not to ignore this call to lead a most impactful change.

It remains now for me to conclude by once again thanking you all for this honour of this privilege to deliver this address.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State