While speaking at the Women in Sustainability Africa Summit and Launch in Accra, Ghana, Adebayo expressed a plea to African men to go beyond mere praise and platitudes toward women’s commandership in doing instance work. Adebayo, with an impassioned voice, says that men have to take their responsibility by taking down barriers that still block women from positions of power.
Now this statement came with some serious bite. For Adebayo, appreciation of the power women bring into society must go a step further: from talk into action. “We must go beyond the surface,” he continued. “We must stop talking about how strong women are and start putting them in the rooms where decisions are made.”
The room was full of women in settings of climate, governance, education, and innovation, with many nodding in agreement as he took a jab at practices and institutions that have culturally entrenched biases and make leadership more difficult to attain for women. Adebayo said that any society would have to seriously consider sustainability or development if half of its population was ignored.
He said men, especially in leadership, must consciously question how they uphold the order of power structure: be it by who they support, who they choose to mentor, or choose to include. “You’re not empowering women by giving them scraps of power,” he said. “You’re restoring balance to a system that’s been off for too long.”
Leaders from all over the continent came together for discussion on sustainable progress during the summit,and Adebayo’s message reminded everyone in the room that true sustainability is impossible without inclusion. His speech was more than a political gesture it was a call to action grounded in justice, logic, and a long-overdue respect for the work women already do.
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