The wife of the Rivers APC governorship candidate, Dr. Mrs. Sylvia Tonye Cole, has tasked young women not to despair, but rather to place premium on education and personal development if they really desire to make headway in politics, leadership and careers.
Dr. Cole gave the charge while delivering her keynote address at the official inauguration of the Rivers State Chapter of Progressives Young Women’s Forum at the Rivers APC secretariat, yesterday in Port Harcourt.
She acknowledged the important role of young people, especially young women in future growths and development of society.
Dr Mrs. Cole however, emphased the need for aspiring women to be hard working, as that is the only panacea to the attainment of leadership positions and to achieve the 35 percent affirmative action.
“I’ll like to charge you, the reason the advice is given is that when you spend time breaking down, you can’t grow. You already have a charge, 35% of women can’t be in the positions of responsibility, positions of power, political positions.”
“For us to take those positions, first we have to educate ourselves. Nobody is going to put you in any position because you are a woman and you know nothing as a woman than any man for the same position.”
“You work 4 times harder to get the position, you work 4 times harder to keep the position, then you work 4 times harder to keep your own sanity.”
“Youths are the most important people in our states, in our nation, in our communities. The Youths represents what we are at the moment and what we are going to be in the future” she said.
Mrs. Sylvia Aneke Cole appreciated the State representative, Ms Precious Alechi Iyeuwa and the entire membership of the Progressives Young Women’s Forum for coming together to chat a way forward.
She further admonished young ladies to shun gossips, attitude of pulling down each other and other forms of behavior that are enemical to the attainment of 35 percent affirmative action for women in politics and leadership.
“The second I will like to talk about is what I call “crab mentality”. When a lady is rising, we have people who is going to say the word, “she did this to get there”, Really? She worked hard, she is qualified, she got the job, she didn’t do anything that was below bad.”
“So I don’t want to hear any of those things, because when you start saying it, and the person didn’t really do it, you kill the person’s reputation. That’s the person that represents our 35 percent.”
Mrs. Sylvia Cole also harped on the need for young people especially those aspiring to be leaders to participate actively in electioneering and political process and to submit to good mentorship in other to achieve success.