Building young People to bring positive change and solve Nigeria's Leadership problems

Nina was a panelist at the Young Leaders Initiative Summit in Shiroro, Nigeria. Below is a summary of the event.

INTRODUCTION

Recent political developments in Nigeria have revealed the true power of the underlying spirit of her nationhood. It has also put to a simple test, the character of our political leaders; who are supposed to be advocates of sound democratic political culture. But as it is now, the narrow-minded interests of the nation’s political, tribal, and religious leaders have made nonsense of the character of sound political leadership as given in every healthy presidential democracy.

Nigeria has a population of over one hundred and forty million people which makes her the most populated country in Africa. If her manpower is properly bred, she should have a bright future because almost two third of her population are young people. There is an increasing need to get young people organized to proffer, solve social problems and lead positive change.

Young Participants during the summit

THE SUMMIT

Future Generex International with the support of North South Power Company Limited (NSP), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Shiroro and Ambassadors for Development Network (A.D.N.) held a one day Leadership Summit for secondary school students in Shiroro area at the community centre CTM Camp Niger state in January.

It was attended by 73 secondary school student leaders, and over 20 teachers, staffs of the North South Power Company Limited, Nigerian Youth Corp members Shiroro and Future Generex student members Federal University of Technology Minna.

List of the schools that participated

1.       North South Power Company  Staff School

2.       Day Secondary School, Shiroro Dam site

3.       Jubilee International Secondary School

4.       Junior Secondary School, Zumba

APPROACH

• Gathered secondary school students leaders, youth leaders and mentors at one point.

•  Built the capacity of Students to truly Understand what true leadership and governance means.

• Made students aware of what their roles are towards better leadership and Governance is in Nigeria.

• Provided exposure to the modern world to young student through their participation in the summit.

MAJOR SESSIONS

·         Leadership as a Concept

·         You as an Agent of Change

·         Questions and Answers Session, with Panelists tackling some questions from the students like:

1.       Is a leader born or made

2.       Challenges a leader must face

3.       Can a leader's past affect him

4.       Is there an age or educational qualification benchmark for leadership

5.       How do you discover your leadership potentials. Etc.

THEMES

Mr J.B. Lasisi  the Human Resource Manager at North South Power Company Limited, Shiroro Hydroelectric Station spoke on “Leadership as a Concept” and Mr Aguda Emanunel a trained educator and a patron of Future Generex International  spoke on “You as an agent of Change”

Global Youth Ambassador and former Project Coordinator Future Generex, Nina Mbah was part of the panelist that helped in answering the questions presented by the student. She shared that criticism, lack of cooperation and carrying everyone along as some of the major challenges leaders face. She also encouraged students to pursue education and constantly seek knowledge using every opportunity available stating this as a great tool to been a great leader amongst others. 

Cross section of young panelists, mentors and Organizing team

ACTION 

In regards to this she talked about her ongoing #UpforSchool campaign in support of the A world at school’s Education count down.

#UpforSchool, a global campaign calling for support from global citizens to take action by signing the petition in other to move world leaders into action to give full attention for better and quality education and participants at the summit enthusiastically displayed their solidarity to the cause by signing the petition forms.

RESULT

Participants promised to hold meetings in their schools to discuss on how they can begin implementing knowledge gained from the summit.

Mr Ololade Olakunle Olalekan Founder Future Generex International spoke on the already designed program meant to follow up and mentor participants in their various schools. 

Certificates of participation and recognition were handed to motivate and encourage participants to continue to make good use of platforms such as this to build  a better society.