In this inherently male chauvinist world, women can’t have it all.
Or maybe they can.
Ibukun Awosika certainly does.
After being miscast as a Chemistry major at the Obafemi Awolowo University, the all-rounder beat her own path into finance by taking as many accounting electives as she had room for. Self-taught, Awosika was impressive enough to receive a job offer from top accounting firm Akintola Williams Deloitte at the end of her youth service year, an offer she turned down because, in her own words, she was restless.
That restlessness and the drive it birthed led Awosika to start a furniture company at age 25, a mere three-and-a-half months after she was introduced to the furniture business.
Forthright and outspoken about her faith, Ibukun Awosika has since grown to become one of Nigeria’s foremost and most reputable business leaders, heading the Sokoa Chair Center Limited joint venture and sitting on the boards of several organisations including Cadbury Nigeria PLC while she continues to play other equally important roles: wife, mother (of three) and pillar of the church.
This year, the celebrated entrepreneur broke new ground by becoming the first female chairperson of the First Bank of Nigeria in the institution’s 121-year history, succeeding formidable stalwart, Prince Ajibola Afonja.
More than just a noteworthy personal achievement, Awosika’s appointment is proof that long-standing bastions of male privilege in Africa are catching up with modernity and opening their doors to women (in overdue recognition of the fact that they’ve always been as competent as men). It is also a warning that where those doors will not be opened willing, they will be breached by the inevitable force of progressive change.
And even more than those welcome things it represents, Awosika’s ascent is a victory for the African woman and her industrious spirit, underscoring the truth that, if she wants it badly enough, she can have it all.
No more need be said.
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*Fakorede is a content strategist and copywriter
