Don't wait for anyone to hand you power to make things happen in your community. .

While studying in the university years back, a female candidate who was a Professor of Literature and renowned international Author announced her desire to become the Governor of my state.

Now in my state then, such political leadership aspiration was unheard of (unlike presently that women are allowed to become deputy Governors in their states).

This woman was so courageous and extremely fearless to pursue her career alongside men from several political parties.

Despite the fact that the political party she belonged to gave her the mandate, it was still a herculean task for her.

I have always had the traits and passion to lead and make things happen wherever i find myself so, when this female Governorship aspirant of my state came to my university to campaign, i was among the students that rallied round her with our volunteer support to help campaign for her in our campus.

During one of my visits to her office to update her on our campus campaigns, i was shocked by the condition i met her.

First, her male aides denied me access to see her despite the fact she was the one that invited me. I refused to go and insisted to speak with her when i noticed the uneasy movements in her office.

After waiting for hours, they saw i wasn't ready to leave and allowed me into her office. On opening her door, i met her crying, a full matured woman with all her academic and international repute, crying in her office.

I was dumbfounded without even knowing what to say, or do. I just stood there confused just staring at her. At the end, i couldn't discuss anything with her. She told me to go back to the campus that she will send for me.

That was the last i heard or saw her before the elections of the Governorship race. Ofcourse, she never made it to become the Governor of my state that year. She was sabotaged by the same male party counterparts that nominated her. For those who don't know how such political parties operate. As an aspirant, you must pay huge sums of money to the party delegates to be nominated as their party candidate so, it's not like it's free. You also bear every cost of your election campaigns etc.

This particular female aspirant, did all these but at the end, she was sidetracked, frustrated and cheated by her male counterparts who felt she was not qualified because, she was a divorcee. Yes!! That was their reason!

Now one ask-

*Why did they allow her to pay and spend all the money before disqualifying her?

* Where was it written that being divorced crumbles a candidate's capacity to be a good leader?

Meanwhile, we have male politicians who were divorced but still given the mandate to contest for same political positions till date and no one cares if they are married or not.

It depends on what works where you find yourself, power shift is something that doesn't come easy, not a tea party if you really want to make things happen in your life time.

As a woman, when you make up your mind to make impacts in the lives of people which is what shifting power is all about, you must make up your mind to reject REJECTION and not allow yourself to be frustrated or manipulated by anyone not just the male folks.

Bear in mind that not only your male counterparts will truncate your efforts but women too.

This is the saddest part of women shifting power. Yes, other women who are supposed to rally around each other, joining forces to win and make things happen turning round to gang up against fellow women leaders.

So shifting power doesn't come easy and if we, the women are to benefit from shifting of power, we MUST put aside petty jealousy and support fellow women who have the courage, determination, perseverance, tolerance and intellectual capabilities to make impacts in our various communities and countries.

Power shift comes in different forms and wherever we encounter our fellow women struggling to serve, to make lives better, we must render our support in any way we can. By doing so, we will be giving more women backups to excel and, when more women excel in their various endeavors, powershift will not be too stressful and gigantic task for the younger women coming after us.

#shiftingpower is open to all of us because, we all have our talents and skills to exhibit. Use your talents/skills wherever you find yourself and you will be suprised how much you contribute to making things happen for you and people around you.📌💜👍

#SHIFTTHEPOWER