The first female Army officer to receive the Sword of Honour at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), 2nd Lieutenant Oluwaseun Oyetunde has urged young girls to have mindset that they can achieve whatever their male counterparts can.
Speaking as a mentor during a seminar organised by a group known as Toes To Heels Initiative to mark the International Day of the Girl Child in Kaduna state over the weekend, Oyetunde, who is a member of the 66 Regular Course (Army) and winner of the Gold Medal (Army) encouraged young girls to find their own way of surmounting obstacles that they may encounter in life.
She added: “There will be obstacles and challenges on the road to success but determination and positive mind set will get you to your destination.
“When I entered the academy in 2014, I enjoyed my stay for the first week because I went with this mindset that it was going to be an adventure. I was enjoying the endurance and so on but after about a month I developed an injury in my leg and because of that I could not perform very well and it really kept me down and I felt bad about it.
“So in my third year, I began to really enjoy the training. One can never embark on any journey without setback, without a challenge, but the determination in your mind not to allow that challenge obstruct the vision that you have is what makes you bold.
“You are going to have people discourage you, you are going to have situation. The one thing that I want to leave here is the fact that there is nothing you can do if God is not involved in it. You need to begin to reference God in your life, you need to begin to take your prayers seriously and you need to begin to pray to God.”
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the group, Amina Lawal Oriawo said the programme is aimed at ensuring girls know they can be powerful agents of change.
She said, the theme: ‘Girl Force: Unscripted & Unstoppable’ was chosen to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.
In her remark, Safiyya Umar Ambursa tasked students of Queen Amina College, the venue of the programme to look inward and do whatever they have passion for, saying gone is the era of white collar job.
Ambursa, who is a graduate of Chemistry from Ahmadu Bello University said even though she is not from a rich family, she is successful and comfortable because of her tailoring business.
She promised that her academy will give free training to any of the students who are interested in tailoring.
