04042021 - Tension as gunmen kill Miyetti Allah leaders in Nassarawa

PAGE A4 SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2021
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SPECIAL SECTION ON AMAZONS OF DISTINCTION IN NIGERIA – Part 1
he long held belief that women deserve
no formal education except the
necessary training that makes them
•Engr. Dr. Funmilayo
Waheed-Adekojo
In an era filled with lost opportunities and
stifled dreams, she belongs to the future of
Nigeria, the generation next that tells of
the great promise and huge potential of this
giant on the African continent. Young,
articulate, brilliant, and resourceful, this face
of Nigerian pride and future is already making
her mark the male-dominated field of
engineering.
A relentless go-getter with a knack for
excellence, Engr. Dr. Mrs. Funmilayo Waheed-
Adekojo is the founder and chief executive
officer of Funmi Ayinke Nigeria Limited; an
engineering firm with specialities in project
management, engineering and procurement,
construction services, fleet management,
consultancy, oil and gas support services as
well as human resource outsourcing.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in
Mechanical Engineering from Ladoke
Akintola University of Technology
(LAUTECH), Ogbomosho and a Master of
Business Administration (Executive), from
Babcock University, Ogun State.
Though she wanted to be a medical doctor
with the hope of surpassing the records of her
father who was a doctor, but fate had another
plan for her. “I was in my fourth year as a
medical student when I lost my father. It really
efficient and loyal housewives created a
primitive perception of females in our
society as second class citizens.
•Hajia Bola Muse
•Dr. Obioma Jayne onwumere
A Thoroughbred Professional And
Philanthropist t Par Excellence
ENGR. DR. MRS. FUNMILAYO WAHEED-ADEKOJO
CEO, FUNMI AYINKE NIGERIA LIMITED
affected me because we were very close and I
actually wanted to become a doctor for him
so that he can see me surpass his records, but
with his death, I lost interest in the medical
profession. So I made a switch to mechanical
engineering and the consequence was losing
two academic years but to the glory of God, I
graduated with a Second Class Hons (Upper
Division)”, she recounted.
With a strong will and dogged determination
to succeed, Funmilayo brought her
intelligence and professional skills to bear
during her brief spell in the public sector,
notably at the Federal University of
Agriculture, Abeokuta where she was
appointed as the head of mechanical
engineering at the Works and Services Unit of
the institution and also as a member of the
university’s Tender Evaluation Committee.
Notwithstanding the accolades she earned
during this period, she knew she could offer
more services to humanity by fully exploring
her potentials towards the actualization of her
dream in leading an engineering firm that
would attain global recognition. This dream
birthed Funmi Ayinke Nigeria Limited which
today prides itself among the best engineering
firms in Nigeria.
“We are not just an engineering firm, we have
However, with this practice long discarded,
Nigerian women have been able to lend
valuable expertise and ingenuity to the
some of the best engineers
in the country among our
employees and we value
our integrity. No matter
how sweet a contract is, if
it will make us
•Mrs. Tolulope Opayinka
compromise on
professional standards,
we won’t take it. We are
also disciplined in our
daily approach to work
and as the CEO, I allow
my staffers to explore their
potentials by carrying
them along and allowing
them to bring ideas to the
table, such that if I am not
available, any of our
employees can represent
me at a meeting. The reason behind this is not
far-fetched from that fact that I want the
company to outlive me. Today, we hear of Shell
and Chevron, but the truth is that someone
started those companies. That is my ultimate
goal for Funmi Ayinke Nigeria Limited”, she
said.
She is a fellow of a number of reputable
professional bodies which includes the
Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian
Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Institute
of Management Specialists and the Institute
of Management Consultants, Nigeria. She is
also a certified mechanical engineer with the
growth of businesses as well as political
development. This paradigm shift has
produced astute female entrepreneurs,
administrators, politicians, judges, engineers
and doctors among other rare professions
thought to be exclusive terrain of men.
Without mincing words, the Nigerian
woman possess the intellectual ability,
physical fitness and competence to thrive and
achieve uncommon feats even in a maledominated
society like ours.
Indeed, within the fabric of the nation are
women whose resourcefulness and abilities
are capable of salvaging the country from its
present woes given the fact that over time,
these women have shown their worth and
distinguished themselves as brilliant and
result-driven amazons. Meet some of them
in this report.
Council for the
Regulation of
Engineering in Nigeria
(COREN); Global
Member, Project
Management Institute
(PMI), USA as well as a
certified procurement
expert by the Bureau of
Public Procurement.
To drive home her love
for the suffering masses of
this great country, she
established FunmiAyinke
Humanity Foundation;
an organisation she has
vigorously used to touch
many lives through job
creation, empowerment
programmes for widows,
single parents,
abandoned children and
children under the care of
single parents. Till date,
the foundation has
empowered over 10,000
women and sponsored more than 500
undergraduates among other gestures.
In the year 2020, she was honoured with the
award of Honorary Doctor of Science, Honoris
Causa (D. Sc. Hons) in Public and
Organizational Leadership by the European-
American University, Republic of Panama.
She also holds an Honorary Doctor of
Philosophy (Honoris Causa) Degree in Public
Administration from the Universite
Protestante De L2 Afrique De L2 Ouest, Port
Novo, Republic of Benin.
Aside philanthropy and engineering, she is
also an award winning singer and song-writer.
Gender Has Nothing
To Do With Greatness
Hajia Bola Muse
Founder/CEO, Bomarah Group
he is an exceptional team leader with
Sexcellent problem-solving skills and a
firm believer in the concept of goal setting
and actualization of set goals. Hajia
Bolanle Muse, the founder and chief
executive officer of Bomarah Group of
Companies is one of the Nigerian women
who have broken the glass ceiling in maledominated
professions.
A professional freight forwarder with over
20 years of experience, Hajia Muse is also
the National Financial Secretary of the
Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs
Agents (ANLCA), making her the first
female to hold an office at the national level
of the association.
She attended Baron
School of Management,
Kano where she obtained
an HND in Secretarial
Administration.
Thereafter, she
proceeded to Bayero
University, Kano
where she bagged a
Post Graduate
Diploma in Public
Administration and the
University of Calabar
where she obtained an
MSc in Business
Management.
Courageous and
dedicated in her pursuit of
excellence, she is not the
type that would
chicken-out in the
face of challenges,
rather, she sees
every challenge as
an opportunity to
learn and achieve
new feats. This
attribute has greatly contributed to the
growth of the company which started small
as Bomarah Investment with interest in
cargo handling, air and sea freight services
as well as clearing and forwarding in 1995,
but has today expanded with the
establishment of other subsidiaries which
includes, Bomarah Travels and Tours,
Bomarah Farms, Bomarah Truck Park and
Bomarah Foundation; a not-for-profit
organization through which she has been
helping the less privileged in the society.
On what informed her interest in the
freight forwarding profession, she said, “I
worked at a freight forwarding firm after
my OND where I developed an interest in
the profession given the zeal that the job
demands. As a woman, I love to task myself
and growing up I wanted something
different from the stereotypes, because I see
myself as a lion, so I am not afraid of
challenges. To the glory of Almighty Allah,
this year makes it our 26th year in the
maritime business. It shows that we are
professionals in the industry and we are
doing it right.”
On how she has been able to influence
more women to play in the industry, Hajia
Muse who is the President of Women in
Maritime Africa commended other women
in the profession who have made it easy for
more women to play in the industry. “I
thank Almighty Allah for the leadership role
I am occupying in the industry and I
appreciate every women in the industry for
their support in creating a path for other
women to come into the business. The
business in no doubt tasking, but I often tell
them that the fact that we are women
doesn’t mean that we cannot achieve same
or more feats then the men. If I can be
successful in the business, then every other
woman who is dedicated and hardworking
can also be successful”, she said.
She further argued that the campaign
against gender inequality in Nigeria is
yielding great results and it is only a matter
of time for more women to be at the
corridors of power. “I can say that the
narratives are changing even in those
cultures where it was believed that sending a
girl-child to school is a waste of resources,
because women are now speaking up for
themselves and we have quite a number of
bodies both private and public who are
raising the awareness for girl-child
education. With women like Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala who recently became the
first female and first African to head the
World Trade Organization, as well as
several other women at the national
assembly, CEOs of government ministries
and agencies as well as an increase in the
number of successful female CEOs and
entrepreneurs, it is very clear that gender
has nothing to do with greatness, it is a
matter of intelligence which God has given
to both male and female”, she stressed.
A member of the Chartered Institute of
Transport and Logistics, she commended the
managing director of the Nigerian Ports
Authority, Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman for the
thorough job she’s doing at the NPA.
According to her, “the introduction of the
Electronic Truck call-up system (eto) by her
team is working for all, because prior to its
introduction, you can spend several hours or
days trying to access the port which was
quite frustrating and amounted to loss of
revenue, but with the e-call up system, it has
brought about some sanity in this regard.”
A devout Muslim and selfless
philanthropist, through the Bomarah
Foundation she has been able to empower
quite a number women through skills
acquisition, while also picking up the
academic bills for a number of children
from less privileged homes.
Having received a license to operate a
truck park, the maritime amazon disclosed
that the company is hoping to celebrate her
30th anniversary with its own terminal as
part of its goals. “We are taking it one step
at a time and our next goal is to have a
terminal, which we hope to achieve by the
time we celebrate our 30 years
anniversary”, she said.