7 Wonder Women Awards 2025: Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein – Winner, The Business Of Public Service - video Dailymotion

Guardian Nigeria

Watch 7 Wonder Women Awards 2025: Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein – Winner, The Business Of Public Service - Guardian Nigeria on Dailymotion

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00:00thank you so much for being here and joining us here at the guardian tv studios

00:05um you have you are one of our recipients of the seven wonder women awards under the business of

00:13public service and we know how you're also the first female accountant general of the federation

00:22and that's a huge feat especially for women in nigeria would like to also first of all let's

00:30start with you how do you feel about the awards thank you for being the anchor of this program

00:43and also to the real dreamer of the program who thought of putting this

00:50i work together to encourage women that have been found to be resilient to be

00:57out there doing things that ordinarily women may not have the opportunity of doing so i feel elated

01:06and proud of the kind of dream that you people had and you are running the dream because it's going to

01:13be an exposure to many women that might be out there that are believing in the fact that oh as a

01:22woman you are limited by this you are not expected to do this you are not supposed to do this but with

01:30this kind of a arrangement and exposure it will definitely encourage many women to come out and

01:39pursue their dreams and that is exactly why i feel so elated to be part of this program thank you so

01:46much thank you thank you so share with us a bit about you know being in the public service i know that

01:53we have we have you know had your story in the guardian but this is you know in video and in

02:00camera and hearing you talk what are some of those um hurdles that you may have encountered as a woman

02:08in public service and what how would you be advising other women who are also in that trail you know

02:14trying to also be where you are to be be the kind of woman you are today well in the public service

02:21which i mean which means serving government in different sectors and at different levels

02:32public service actually have a good percentage of women but what i found out is that in as much as the

02:42number of women in the public service is huge yet those that the the number below the average level

02:52is quite overwhelming why have more men at the top level we have more women at the lower level

03:00so for some of us at school drag through the system and get to that top level where men are sitting

03:08it is quite uh something that is still strange but i believe they are already uh i mean the men they

03:19are already getting used to read that it may not uh continue to be business as usual for men so that women

03:28are equally uh rising up to their challenge and rising up to the challenge not just by because i'm a woman but

03:36because as a woman you studied what it takes to be there and you have gone through all the processes

03:44the learning the work even the hard work all it takes to be there you also as a woman you are working

03:54for it and you are going there and with that once you have all it takes to be there nobody can stop you

04:01that's exactly what i've seen there are others because they'll tell you that like there was one

04:07rule in the service public service rule if you're a married woman and you are pregnant you have to

04:14uh you have to if you are unmarried you'll be given lesser time half of like it used to be three months

04:24but you only be entitled to these six weeks instead of uh 12 weeks if you have a baby there's also many

04:33rules but over time when we have more women at the at the level of policy making some of these have

04:40changed to the extent that now we even have a maternity leave for uh the father so as to support the

04:49mother when the activities of nursing babies is ongoing so these are some of the things that the

04:56public service is evolving to see that it is uh encouraging women better married and unmarried

05:04to have their lives to live their dream and to achieve their aim absolutely but that's not to say that

05:13there are still no challenges that women still face right a series of challenges there is also

05:18see just like you have also mentioned is that at the top level as much as you mentioned that there

05:23are a lot of women in public service when it comes to those who are making the decisions who are up there

05:29they are just very few and one of those very few are people like you and what do you think that women

05:34should be doing differently to make sure that they get to that level where you are

05:38i'll keep on saying that every woman should ensure that they learn the system where they work and

05:49understand the criteria that they need to get there once you understand the criteria then you go through

05:57the process go through the criteria if it requires any bond certifications learning new skills

06:07trained on areas that you've never been before because you might be in public service and you are on one

06:16part of the job maybe as an accountant you need to get yourself professional certificates not just the one

06:25you know you can even go for all that you can go you can even earn from international uh bodies you can also

06:34join other areas like as an accountant i'm also a strategic uh a person i belong to uh international

06:42association of a strategic professionals to you have to think out of box at this stage of our economy you

06:51have to think of what can i do different to make the difference to make things work better so ladies out

06:58there should learn more be even try to go to places that evil men have not uh discovered let us also be

07:07the discoverer let us also be the one exposing what we what is are there that even some men doesn't know

07:14so that we we continue to we we can't replace anything so far we can think it we can work it that is my

07:23my idea of a woman that wants to get to the top be hard working be modest in your your thinking be

07:31rational understand what is ongoing understand the system understand what you do know exactly what

07:39you need to do to get up there and with all that uh you are unstoppable the sky is your starting point

07:48yes thank you so much thank you we appreciate you thank you for joining us here at the head office of

07:53the guardian thank you so much thank you to see more of you too thank you thank you so much thank you joe much

7 Wonder Women Awards 2025: Dr. Oluwatoyin Madein – Winner, The Business Of Public Service

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