The United Nations (UN) has expressed strong hopes in seeing the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan achieve progress on the regional agenda of the Great Lakes area in boosting socio-economic development while working also towards safeguarding peace and security.
By Alkali Amana
In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the 24th President of Liberia, ushering in an era in Africa that offered hope to women and the possibilities open to them towards politics and leadership in Africa. As President of Liberia, Sirleaf became the first woman to be elected as the head of state of an African country, serving in that capacity between 2006 – 2018 for two full terms, and helping to steer her country in the right direction. She is perhaps the most popular Liberian woman in modern history and her contributions over the course of her years in service did not just remain within the confines of her nation’s territory, spreading over across the globe with the honour of receiving the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize as evidence of her efforts towards the social and economic empowerment of women world over.
On the 25th day of October 2018, a unanimous decision by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly in Ethiopia led to the installation of Sahle Work Zewde, a lifelong career diplomat, as the first female President of the country, and the second Head of State since its inception after Empress Zewditu. The decision to elect Zewde as President of Ethiopia saw her replace former President, Mulatu Teshome, to actively take on the reins of leadership in a beloved country in which she has served in different capacities. Presently, only two female heads of State exist in Africa, and Zewde’s testament to the leadership and advancing the cause of good governance since her appointment speaks volumes of her lifelong ability in the path of rendering service in every position she has occupied.
By Alkali Amana
Miriam Defensor Santiago, the renowned Former Judge of the International Criminal Court, once said that ‘research shows that when women are empowered as political leaders, countries often experience higher standards of living with positive developments in education, infrastructure, and healthcare’, and her words may well be the future for Tanzania which recently had a change of government within its political structure to seat H.E Samia Suluhu Hassan as the current President of the country, following the demise of late President John Magufuli.
Samia Suluhu Hassan is the woman set to become Tanzania’s next president. She will become the first female president of the East African Nation, Africa’s only current female political head of government – the Ethiopian presidency is a largely ceremonial role – and joins the shortlist of women on the continent who have made it to the top.
By Miracle Nwankwo
The month of March is designated women’s month, it is the month set aside to honour the existence of women and their effortless contributions to the human race.
Though the worlds of politics and business are profoundly different, Merkel’s leadership traits offer plenty of pointers for entrepreneurs who are fond of learning lessons from the larger stage of global government. She has never been afraid to be a lone voice. In fact, Merkel is accustomed to minority platforms. She is a divorced Protestant in a Catholic party. She is from East Germany, entering politics as “an Ossi in the newly unified Germany of the 1990s where easterners were still aliens,” notes Time. Her educational background is not in politics or international relations but in quantum chemistry. And of course, she’s a woman, another identifier in which she’s had to stand more or less on her own. She is a master of leading from behind – Merkel has “proudly practiced what Willy Brandt once called Die Politik der kleinen Schritte (the politics of baby steps), or as we call…
