Dr. (Amb) Victoria Ekhomu is a woman of many parts who through sheer hard work, dedication and tenacity has proved her mettle in the male-dominated security business. She is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Transworld Security; President, School of Management and Security and the President of Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON). In this interview with GERALDINE AKUTU, she shares her story and speaks on other issues.  

Security business is male-dominated. How has it been for you?
It has not been an easy journey. As a pioneer woman in the security industry, I have to continuously prove myself, get all the right security certifications, study security trends and be very knowledgeable about the security solutions and security technologies available to proffer to my clients.

Security business is truly a male-dominated business. I recall in the 1980s in the U.S.; when I called security manufacturers and security distributors, they found it unfamiliar that I was calling them, since I was a woman. As such they noted my name very fast such that whenever I called, they immediately called me by my name. When I attended security events with my husband, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, both in the U.S and in Nigeria, I was the only female in the top category in Nigeria; while in the U.S, I was one of the very few women in the security industry in attendance.

As a woman in the industry, especially in Nigeria, most people just considered me a beautiful wife without skills working for my husband. Meanwhile, my husband, knowing the skills I possessed, made me his managing director. He gave me the responsibility of marketing, customer service and operations. To market our products, I had to stay on top of new security trends and new security technologies to solve the various security challenges and vulnerabilities. So, our customers knew my competence as I visited and spoke with them to introduce new products and solutions and also to hold meetings about continuous improvement and add on. With a dint of handwork and my achievements in my various volunteer roles in ASIS International, the highest security association worldwide, with over 38,000 members, I have become recognised and respected in the security industry worldwide and in Nigeria. In all, it has been quite interesting and inspiring for me. Security is a serious and tough business.

You were the first Nigerian woman to be appointed to the Awards Committee of ASIS International. How did that make you feel?
I am the first person and still the only person from this region in ASIS to have served till date in the Awards Committee of ASIS. I do feel honoured about it, as we were in charge of meeting to review and give various categories of awards to deserving members. I was the only Black on the Awards Committee, when I served several years ago.

In Nigeria, security threats are rising on a daily basis. What roles should women play in peace building?
In Nigeria, security threats have been growing at an alarming rate since President Muhammadu Buhari governed Nigeria. With our new President, Bola Tinubu, and the huge rise in inflation, which resulted from the oil subsidy removal and the foreign exchange crisis, Nigeria is in dire straits and there are frustrations and uncertainty. I learnt there were some demonstrations in some parts of the North against the rising cost of goods and services.
In peace-building, women should play the role of mediators. They can be teachers in schools and our communities. Women who cater for their children can also help nurture them to be of good behaviour. Women can be ambassadors.

There seems to be so many challenges with women in leadership positions. What do you think is responsible for this?
It should be noted that for several years, women had not been in leadership positions. Men have dominated the leadership positions and they have had their challenges. It is only recently that women began to occupy leadership positions, so there is a learning curve, which is there; so they are still very few and they are learning.
Women don’t have the support system, like the boys club, which men have to support them. Many don’t have female mentors, since women are few in leadership positions. Women in leadership positions will also have to be in the boardrooms with only men, who might meet in the evenings to band together, while the woman will mostly be standing on her own. In some cases, some of the women in leadership positions might not have the right preparation, integrity, moral standing and discipline and might have come through unscrupulous means to attain the position, at times to represent an interest or sponsored without the right credentials for the job. So, if the women are those who either got their education or the position through unscrupulous means, they will exhibit the same incompetence or lack of integrity on the job.
My advice is that women should endeavour to get the right education, foundations, preparations, discipline, experience and training so that they can excel in any leadership position they are given.

Discipline is lacking in today’s upbringing. What is your take on the situation?
I agree that our value system is screwed up in today’s upbringing and discipline is seriously lacking. You can imagine where students go through school without adequate teachers to teach some of the subjects. So, when it is time to take the WASCE, they will lack the substance and as such also the confidence. As a result, they will buy the question papers and their school teachers and invigilators will cooperate and allow the students to copy at the examination hall. They will also fraudulently get UTME results and be ready to do anything for their professors to help them go through the university. As a result, we get graduates who have First Class but can’t defend their certificates. With such an experience, what type of performance would you expect when they are hired in any leadership position? Since they fraudulently acquired their degrees, they will be fraudulent in their dealings.

How can this be tackled?
I went to a missionary school in my days, and as girls, in addition to what we learnt from our parents and communities, our principals and teachers went to great lengths to mold us into what we became and helped a great deal with our education, morals, discipline and imparted great values in us and even the boys too.
But the government that hasn’t been able to competently govern decided to take over missionary schools from the missions. Meanwhile, through successive years, they have destroyed our education system, they have destroyed the schools; some under the guise that they want to give free education, which amounts to no education at all for our teeming youths, who have no teachers for their subjects, who have no classrooms in their schools, many with leaking roofs or they study under trees. So, as a result, we are producing illiterates from our educational system under the guise of ‘free education.’
House has been destroyed and now parents have to pay for their children to share rooms at tender ages and be exposed to unscrupulous men and their apartments turned to brothels, with their formative years destroyed. Some will say that missionaries will charge the students. Please tell me how you can get education without paying for the books, teachers, hostel and food. It is either you pay or the government pays. But most governments are looting the funds and there is no provision for the schools. As a result, we are going to get a generation of illiterates, except the rich who send their children to private schools where they pay to ensure their children get adequate education.
I recommend that we hand schools back to the mission so that we can restore proper education in most of our schools. The missionary schools are much cheaper than the private schools. So, this will cater to those who want quality education for their children, like the high quality education, which I received from St. Maria Goretti Grammar School, which has molded me into the person I am today.
My solid foundation has equipped me with the ability to compete with anyone in the world. As an ASIS Board of Trustees member for my six years duration, I was the only Black person on the Board. I couldn’t have been confident and be equipped to perform and compete with my colleagues if I didn’t have the requisite preparation, knowledge, experience and skills to perform my duties.
So, our educational system needs an urgent overhaul, instead of the ad hoc measures that have totally destroyed the system. Government doesn’t have what it takes to handle education, except the few Unity Schools where the students still pay. I hope we take urgent steps to rescue our students and schools from this crisis and mess. How can children go through school without teachers? In most of the towns and villages, it is the same story. So, we are preparing armed robbers, prostitutes and criminals. We wonder why insecurity and criminality is on the rise. This is what we have caused and we must take urgent steps to address this now.