“Madam, Oga dey call you.”
“Tell him I’ll come after I balance this account.”
The maid paused at the door. That tone, calm, direct, deliberate, was new. She shifted nervously on the polished tiles, catching the scent of imported air freshener mixed with the earthy aroma of roasted plantain wafting in from the street.
Behind the desk, the woman didn’t look up. Her fingers were busy, flying across a calculator. Receipts were spread before her like puzzle pieces. The sunlight bounced off the glass-topped table and landed on the embossed logo of her latest business venture.
She wasn’t always like this.
There was a time she was simply Oga’s wife. A quiet presence in a busy house. A woman whose voice could barely carry past the living room. Her education was hidden in a file folder somewhere, deep in the wardrobe. She had everything: clothes, food, shelter, but no power. No choice. No voice of her own.
Oga paid the bills. Oga chose what she wore. Oga decided when she could speak and who she could be seen with. She was well-fed and unfree.
But one day, she asked to open a small shop beside the gate. “Just something to keep busy,” she said.
Oga agreed. He laughed a little when he said yes. It wasn’t a threat, after all. Just a kiosk.
Until it wasn’t.
That shop became two. Then it became a supermarket. Then another. Then a mall.
And somewhere along the line, things changed. He started lowering his voice when speaking to her. He started opening doors. He started asking for business advice. Then for loans.
Now, he calls her Madam.
So what happened?
Power happened. Money happened. Ownership happened.
Respect followed.
This is the part we must understand. In the real world, equality does not come wrapped in a bow. It comes with leverage. It comes with assets. It comes with receipts, bank balances, and the confidence to say no without fear of consequence.
We talk often about women’s empowerment. But what we need is economic transformation. Nothing shifts power dynamics faster than productivity. Patriarchy listens to influence. And in this world, influence comes from ownership.
The problem is not that women aren’t capable. It is that we’re too often conditioned to stay small.
We are praised for being patient, not powerful. Quiet, not questioning. Supportive, not successful.
We’re told we can be cooks, but not factory owners. Tailors, but not textile magnates. Secretaries, but not CEOs. We’re allowed to dream, but only within the bounds of what feels “safe” and “feminine.”
But who created those boundaries? And why do we keep living inside them?
Why are we still grateful for crumbs when we are fully capable of baking the bread?
Too many women are still waiting to be empowered, as though power is something men must gift us. But real change will not come from pleading. It will come from producing, from owning, from building things so significant that the world must take notice.
We cannot keep fighting a power structure without power of our own.
Every industry that matters, every decision-making room that sets the rules, every high-impact sector where wealth circulates, these are the spaces women must enter, disrupt and dominate. Not as tokens. Not as symbols. But as stakeholders.
And yes, we must start with ourselves.
The revolution begins in the mind before it reaches the market. We must stop thinking small. Stop waiting for someone to believe in us. Start showing up as if we already belong, because we do.
Let me be clear. This is not just about ambition. It is about survival. About dignity. About justice. About choice.
When a woman has her own money, her own business, her own voice, the world treats her differently. Even Oga starts to adjust.
So, dear woman, ask yourself:
What am I building?
What am I waiting for?
What rules have I unconsciously accepted that are not mine to live by?
Whose permission am I still hoping for?
The truth is, no one is going to hand us power. And that is fine. We don’t need it handed over. We are more than capable of taking it.
Start the business. Expand the side hustle. Go after the contract. Enrol in that course. Pitch the big idea. Build it. Own it. Scale it.
Because the real fight against patriarchy is not just in the courtroom or the classroom. It is in the marketplace, in the warehouse, in the boardroom, and in every place women have been told they don’t belong.
Belong anyway.
Because when Madam stood up, even Oga sat down differently.
