The executive director of GOTNI Leadership Centre, Mr. Linus Okorie, has urged Nigerian youths to reject stomach infrastructure and take decisions that will enthrone good and quality leadership in the country.
korie also enjoined the young people to reject incompetent leaders who will serve the country no positive purposes.
He stated these in Abuja at the opening ceremony of a leadership master-class fellowship programme where 40 young Nigerians facilitated by a beneficiary of the Center, Charles Nwakanma to mark his 50th birthday.
“I will tell the youth, first thing first, leadership is responsibility and responding to responsibility in itself, right now, every young person should be ready to be part of shaping this country so that only quality men and women from all sectors of the economy can emerge leaders in this country. That’s the only way for the country.
“When young people learn the values of leadership, they will know how to reject the stomach infrastructure and then think about delaying gratification for the progress of our great country.
“To every young person, all you need to know is that this country has experienced a lot of negative realities, poverty and all manner of things. It’s time for young people to take the decision to say that enough is enough. That anybody who does not have the competences, leadership competencies to lead in whatever capacity, Nigerian young people should be able to say stop, you can’t move further. Let’s enthrone men and women with vision, quality and capacity to serve, compassion, men and women with vision and quality mindset who can drive our system to make our country work. This is the only time that we can make this happen for the young. And the first thing we can do is to transform their mind,” he said.
Okorie added that the programme was to expose young Nigerians to basic leadership tenets.
“The leadership master-class fellowship is designed as a programme where very accomplished individuals who would like to give back to society. We select 40 young people from all sectors of the economy and provide them with the opportunity to have leadership training at the GOTNI Leadership Centre. And this particular event is courtesy of a gentleman, Mr. Charles Nwakanma who has turned 50. As part of his give back project to the society is to give 40 Nigerians the opportunity to experience leadership development at the GOTNI leadership centre. And this is exactly why we are here.
“Young people have been selected from all over the country to benefit from Charles Nwakanma’s investment in leadership development. So, for me, I think it’s one of the important investments this country can experience because Nigeria is highly deficit in leadership capital at the moment. And in times like this, the greatest gift Nigeria can give young people is empowering their mindset to think critically for the next generation of leaders and help them to create value that will be responsible for their personal growth and national development.
“At the level where we are right now, we need young people who are first of all accomplished in their specific role and purpose as individuals. I mean they are already earning a living wage, successful as individuals even before they begin to think about political participation. This is the essence of what we are trying to do”.
Also speaking, Nwakanma said that the programme was his own special way of giving back to the society.
“I feel 50 year already. That’s a great number. It’s been a long journey. I am so happy that I am turning 50. That’s why we decided to put this programme together at this time to give back to the society, although we have been doing that in the last 10 years. But to mark the 50th birthday was one of the dreams I have always had so that we can begin to also to consistently empower out youths and to empower them enough to begin to take up the challenges of our nation.
“Leadership has always been the bigger problem of this country. That’s the reason I so appreciate GOTNI leadership centre and what they have been doing. I am a beneficiary. They have been training all my staff,” he stated.
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