EMPOWERED WOMEN ARE WEALTHY WOMEN BUILDING WEALTHY SOCIETIES

Empowered women are the wealth of societies. They are no cheats. They do not sit on the fence. Neither do they fold their arms and watch things go wrong. They create good strategies to make things happen positively in the service to Humanity. Empowered women inspire and support other people to succeed in whatever they are doing. An empowered woman is not a jealous woman, instead, she joins those she admires to learn from them and after acquiring the knowledge, she creates opportunities and tools for others who didn't have the opportunity, to learn. She shares skills with others and craves for the realization of the rights of all to fulfill their potentials. Empowered women are committed to advancing Humanity.

As aI write this piece and with the mindset that empowered women do incredible things, I recall with a big smile how daring I was as a child. I remember some of the incredible things I did that have been to me today, the good technical background that prepared me for the campaign to project the latent powers of women and harness their potentials as we  equally, attempt to define the wealth of women.

I am the seventh child in an all-girls family, excepting my immediate elder brother. My four elderly sisters are not of the same mother. Two from another woman, and the other two, also had their separate mothers. I have only one elder sister from my mother and other siblings, including my only brother. This set up was sort of turbulent. There was a great disconnect between them and my mother and this affected our relationship as sisters. As a result, we never praised each other and never saw anything good in any of us, not of the same mother. I recall today with a big smile as I begin to understand that trying to fix things right has always been a part of me. While in Secondary school and during holidays, I designed a Duty Roster, spelling out job duties for all of us. I observed that the house chores were neglected and very body was waiting for who ever cared to clean some mess, sweep the house or wash clothes, to mention but a few.. and it turned out that, nobody really cared. So I thought that if I designed a plan for us all to follow, things could go right. But this didn't go down well with my half-sisters. They felt insulted. They felt that it shouldn't have been me-the youngest, churning out schedules for them to follow. Rather, it should have been the other way round. My father tried to make them see reason that I meant it for good, but they had their mindset at not seeing anything good from my mother or my others siblings from the same womb. They looked at me as showing off because my mother, unlike theirs, was in the home to protect me and her other children.

Today, I see this past as lessons learnt, with the experience, being the wealth I have going for me in the quest for real empowerment for women. My siblings didn't discover or didn't care about my craving to change things in extra ordinary ways. They  had hateful minds that thwarted growth in the family. I was the youngest no doubt, but I was different. I wanted things changed and I tried that in so many ways but I was challenged by sibling rivalry and polygamous woes.

Only my father discovered my talent and passion for mobilizing and pulling resources together to achieve positive results. To demonstrate his support for me, he called me very inspirational names that gave me the push I still carry till today. He was always with us at weekends and on Sunday when we had no farm work, I would sit close to him, flip through the magazines on the table just looking and admiring photos, without able to read any line. However, I would cut out the photographs that appealed to me and paste them on the walls of our then mud house. It brought out so much beauty and my Father praised my creativity. No wonder, I became a Journalist.

Another ugly incident that happened in the community that built my skills in fighting for the rights of all was when the politicians had some problems that led to the wanton destruction of people's vehicles and beating of opponents. As a result of the crisis, the Police came into the community arresting people at random. I had finished secondary education and was helping my parents in the farm. On sighting them entering our compound, I whispered to my brother who was with me, to run away so that they could arrest me. At that age, I was able to know that being a woman(girl), they wouldn't mal handle me like they would to a man(boy). My thinking was right. Truly, as soon as the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), sighted me, he demanded to know from the officials who arrested me what I was doing there at the Police Station. I was immediately released and asked to tell my father to report at the station, next day. Being who I am, I demanded to know why they would want my father the next day. Others tried to shut me up but the DPO corrected them that I should be allowed to ask questions. He explained to me that my father was needed for questioning over the political unrest that occurred.

On reaching home, I met my father talking about the matter with his bossom friend and he said something striking that caught my attention.  \" When I heard that it was Florence the Police arrested, I didn't bother because I know that she can take care of herself\".

These events make me see the wealth in me. Never wanting to let things go wrong and always willing to stand in for others for peace to reign.

I remember vividly now how I \"blocked\" plans of very tricky boys who took advantage of some girls who couldn't stand up to fight, even for themselves. I would go in between and \"spoil\" their plans whenever I saw it coming. This would lead to serious fight and at the end, we would be taken to our parents to explain what happened. They laughed when we displayed our childish disagreements and my Father as usual, would hail me with those inspirational names that boosted my confidence.

Today, I have found myself fighting for the less privileged in our society, nay, women. I am using my potentials to see that more women take up challenges boldly. Along the line, I ran into female politicians who claimed that they care for a better life for women. I join them in meetings and I see the eagerness in women to be empowered but I am sad that some of these female politicians are not genuine. Instead of empowering the women, they are rather taking away the little these women have in the bait of mobilizing them for some sort of imaginary empowerment. I see it so disgusting that when a female politician who has had opportunity to enjoy political position (Though now out of office, but seeking to go back to hold another political office), goes round being telling women lies that she is working to ensure their empowerment when in actual fact, she is syphoning money from these women who do not have, just to raise up her political status. These fake female politicians start by asking women to fill registration forms, buy uniforms that take them to nowhere but rather, making them poorer as they invest wrongly in unnecessary things.

One of them mistakenly made me a coordinator of one of her \"projects\". And when I began the implementation, I demanded to know everything about the project and stopped the huge taxes on the women. I said this to her, \" These women are poor. They believe in you. They hope in you to lead them to gain empowerment. Pls don't ask them to bring money. You and I know that they don't have and they have come in their large numbers expecting that you would show them the way....\"

I didn't follow her way, but instead, I began to train the women to know how to identify fake empowerment programs. 

An empowered woman leads others to recognize and realise their rights for a better life.

Leads them to be innovative and creative, as well as, assisting them to stand on their own as owners of businesses and establishments.

An empowered woman helps other women to succeed.

She empowers other women with knowledge and skills for better life conditions.

An empowered woman leads other women to build empowered households.

An empowered woman is not a cheat. She gives her all to ensure the total empowerment of other women in the area of education, information, politics and economic, not leaving out social empowerment.

When one empowered woman builds a good number of other empowered women, at the end, she would have built a wealthy society, where there is no poverty of ignorance, disease, discrimination and bad blood. But a nation rich in mindset that trains the mind to think.