Chief Justice tasks young women to find solutions to Africa’s problems

By Fauzeeya JAMAL-DEEN, Accra

Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo has advised young African women to collaborate and network to bring solutions to problems facing the continent.

According to her, collaboration will help them tap into knowledge of others, who can help them activate their contributions.

Justice Torkornoo therefore urged the young leaders to be open minded about change in their society despite disagreements with other people’s perspective.

Despite encouraging young women leaders to network, she also urged them to remain unique in their ways.

“While I do not discount the disruptiveness of uniqueness as a necessary tool of transformation, it is my firm experience that our uniqueness must be expressed within the confines of established law so that its true benefits are not thrown out on account of illegality and impropriety.”

“My firm understanding is that leadership is not simply about finding yourself in or being given a role to play at the head of a group of people or a community. Though being a leader is at position one can find yourself in at any given time, leadership itself, as a concept and phenomenon, is not about being in any position,” she said.

She therefore urged young African leaders to willingly take up leadership roles to impact lives of people in society.

The Chief Justice was speaking at the official launch of the 2023 MILEAD Fellowship Institute, a flagship programme organized by the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa to train women in leadership.

The 2023 cohort of the MILEAD Fellowship Institute is made up of 26 young women from different countries across the African continent, who are working in various sectors to bring development in their countries.

The Chief Justice commended the Moremi Initiative for introducing paradigms of effective thought and effective ways of doing things to its Fellows.

“The Moremi Institute has placed its finger on a critical nerve for the advancement of our continent and the transformational and qualitative trigger for improving lives,” Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo said.

On his part, Executive Director of the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa, Mawuli Dake noted that it is crucial to train young women in leadership to take up the mantle to serve in their respective countries.

 He added that women need to be given the opportunity to become who they are in their societies.

“Around half of the population gets deeply affected by policies meant to improve the lives of girls and women. These policies could even shake up how families and communities work.

“It’s therefore important for young women to have room to grow as leaders and get into things they’re passionate about and things that shapes their growth.

“They need the right tools, information, and support to become social change-makers, gearing up for big-time leadership roles,” he noted.

Fellows of the 2023 MILEAD Fellowship Institute expressed their excitement to meet young women across Africa and discuss solutions to the leadership challenge confronting the continent.