Don advocates equal opportunities for female leadership in Africa

Prof. Nuhu Atta of Freedom University, Atlanta Georgia, U.S, says women should be given equal opportunities to boost female leadership in Africa.

Atta, who is a professor of Political Science and International Relations, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The donr commended the emergence of Ms Samia Suluhu Hassan, as the first female President of Tanzania, after the death of President John Magufuli.

He said that it was a welcome development in Africa.

According to him, Hassan has become the third female President in Africa, as the continent joins the world in this global trend of the emergence of women as Commander-in-Chief in various countries.

Atta said: “This goes a long way in changing the perception of how the world looks at Africa, in terms of giving equal opportunity to women to be what and who they want to be in life.

“The emergence of women across all spectrum of Africa’s political and institutional leadership is a testament to the world.

“Despite our enormous challenges as a people and as a continent, we are displaying clear and fundamental victory against cultural limitations and primitive mental construct that have impeded on Africa’s development for generations.”

He said that if Africa has to increase the precision of its development to catch up with the rest of the world, the continent’s leaders must deliberately adopt and implement policies that would create equal opportunities for all its citizens.

He reiterated that such feat could be attained irrespective of gender, age, social status and cultural affiliations.

Atta said that the more African leaders create and expand political, and economic opportunities for its vast population, the more the continent’s population become global assets that provide streams of value in 21^st century knowledge-based global economy.

“As Africans overcome most primitive cultural limitations; we must insist on encouraging women occupy leadership positions.

“We must also insist that irrespective of gender, what leadership requires for excellence and generational accomplishment is competence, capacity, patriotism and selfless developmental mentality,’’ Atta said.