Udo Maryanne Okonjo     is a lawyer and Real Estate Developer. She is also the visioner of WOW D.I.V.A.S Network, an international network of purposeful, professional and business women. She holds an LL.B from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she was the best graduating female law student in her set.

It earned her a scholarship by the British government to further her studies at King’s College, London where she obtained her Masters of Law degree. She has  almost two decades experience working at top law firms in the United States and Nigeria; worked as a former partner at Templars Law Firm and with Udo Udoma and Bello-Osagie, a law firm in Nigeria.

For a woman who has survived Cancer of the breast, Udo radiates so much energy, strength and enthusiasm. Hence she decided several years ago to impact every life that crosses her path and no doubt she is doing more than  impacting lives.

Recently,Esther Onyegbula spoke with her at the second edition of the WOW DIVAS conference themed ‘unleashing the champion within’. And she talks about women and how they can reach their full potentials. Enjoy!

About WOW DIVAS.

This annual event is
put together by the WOW DIVAS which stands for women of worth, walking on waters, divinely inspired and victoriously anointed sisters. It is basically an international network of purposeful, professional and business   women doing good things for themselves and for their community. This is the second possibility hangout. The conference is to impact women so that they can impact their families,  communities and the larger world.

What really inspired this event?

The event is the birth child of a network of women from all over the world from Nigeria and America. It was born in Johannesburg in South Africa two years ago, on October 29 , 2010. And the whole idea is to encourage women to inspire one another because we found out that if women come together, we are much better.

Maryanne Okonjo

Everyone has a unique purpose and if we can encourage each other to find our purpose, together we will be much stronger and better. So we had the first possibility hangout last year which was a high-impact peak performance hangout. It was to get women to operate at their highest capacity and we had some international speakers.

Why is ‘unleashing the champion from within’  the theme for this event?

We believe that every woman is a champion and that we all carry the championship DNA inside of us but it is only to the extent that you are able to unleash it and bring it out that makes the difference.  Most women are operating below capacity because they haven’t connected with the champion within them. We are hoping that at this conference, we will be able to trigger them to recognize, and bring out the champion within them.

At the  end of this conference, what do you intend to achieve?

What we want to achieve is that if we can trigger just one woman who was living below capacity, operating below her potential before participating in this conference to start operating within her optimum potentials and move to the next level, then I think we would have achieved a lot.

What is your definition of a woman who is living within her optimum  capacity and potential?

A woman who is living
within her optimum potential knows her purpose, she knows why she is in planet earth, she knows that she is a gift to the world. Until a woman begins to manifest as a gift and impact her world no matter how small it is, she is operating below her potentials. It is not about the size, it is about the impact that you create. Mother Theresa was not a billionaire but in her time, she impacted her world. Mothers impact their world, so it is really about how you can live to your full capacity; if you don’t know what your purpose is, if you don’t realize that you are a champion and that you carry the championship DNA, you will never be able to live it.

As a woman who has discovered and developed her potentials, what do you think is the greatest challenge of the average Nigeria woman that is hindering her from achieving her purpose?

I think that people are contained by the environment, by the society and by very low self esteem which once again goes back to environmental and societal factors which is probably one of the biggest challenges hindering women from discovering her purpose. At the end of the day, women have to take responsibility of their lives because every successful person in this world understands that taking responsibility is the first step to being a champion.

How can these challenges be addressed?

By taking responsibility,
realizing that you carry power within you to change your life irrespective of your challenges and  then beginning  to address it.  And then nothing will become insurmountable for you because you have discovered that the power lies within you and not in the society. Society is just a factor but you have all the tools and it comes from the place of personal development, which is what WOW DIVAS is all about. When you are empowered personally, challenges don’t disappear. Instead, they just become smaller because you learn to put them in perspective and you now have tools to deal with them.

What is your message to Nigerian women?

I think that Nigerian women are some of the most fabulous women in the world. I really think that God sat down to create the Nigerian women specially. Nigerian women are amazing; the strength of the Nigerian woman is incredible. Generally, they are very strong and for some of the challenges that they face in the society, the Nigerian woman is still able to stand firm. Nigeria women are simply phenomenal.

You are the CEO of Fine and Country International, can you tell us about the firm?

I am the CEO of Fine and Country which is an international real estate company. We have got three hundred and fifty offices world wide. About four years ago, I along with some partners brought the Fine and Country franchise to West Africa. So I now operate in West Africa also.

In the next four or five years where would you love to see WOW DIVAS?

Right now we are in about five countries impacting lives, in the next five years we hope to be in about thirty to fifty countries encouraging women and impacting their lives to rise to to their full potential and capacity along with what other women are already doing.