Empowerment is a commonly used word that I believe should provoke a discourse to avoid misuse. For an undiscerning mind, I fear that enslavement could be mistaken for empowerment.
If you are successful, it is most likely that you want your children to take after you. It is also likely that you would prefer your children don’t make the mistakes you made on your path to success.
If we all agree that the road to success is laden with missteps and mistakes, expecting your child to do things the way you did it is like saying s/he should also make the mistakes you made.
Don’t forget that your child is not you. As you raise your children, you may, unknowingly, erase their sense of good judgment if you don’t allow them exercise their independence of mind, even when at variance with yours.
Empowerment is not limited to giving your child the best education. It includes allowing the education to count when your child is able to question your judgement when s/he needs you to rationalise your reasoning.
To empower your spouse economically is a no brainer but don’t forget to empower your spouse mentally and socially too. If your spouse would have to wait for you before taking any decision at all times, even when there is emergency, then there is a big risk.
Spiritual empowerment is when your spiritual mentor leads you to have a stronger tie with your God to give you direct access to the Almighty. You should know how well you are doing when your spiritual father (or mother) begins to pray along with you in addition to praying for you.
If you perpetually need someone to intermediate between you and your God, that is more of spiritual consultancy than empowerment. The former is closer to spiritual enslavement.
In work setting, you cannot be said to empower your direct reports if you have to micromanage them and monitor every step of their job schedule. If you have to handhold them to effect all your instructions, you are just the boss and you know what that means.
Empowerment is mostly abused in political circles. All manner of gestures are termed empowerment, including cash gifts to keep populating the “yes men” camp. The real empowerment should be when campaign promises translate to actionable policies for all citizens to benefit.
A ‘yes’ answer does not necessarily connote empowerment. A ‘no’ answer could be what that fellow needs to fish but not a ‘yes’ answer that continues to enable him have fish to feed on. Didn’t they say departure leads to discovery?
I’d rather have a ‘no’ that empowers me to make me strong than a ‘yes’ that keeps enabling me to keep me weak. Be vigilant, the line between empowerment and enslavement could be very thin, sometimes invisible.
©️Akin Oluwadare Jnr.
24 April 2023
