KDSG’s Kashim Ibrahim Fellows Program: A training ground for future leaders

The youth have doubtless become the world’s focal point, and interestingly the Nigerian population is bulging with young people. But, the groundswell of public opinion about the present crop of Nigeria’s youth is the disturbing fact that they lack the necessary rudiments for leadership skills and are mostly disinterested in the public service. And the consensus is that if the trend continues, the next generation of leaders would be the ones that will not make the country any better than they’ve found it. And for any conscientious mind, this is a matter of serious concern.

It is against the backdrop these foreseeable challenges that Kaduna State government introduced a leadership training program for young Nigerians across the country. The program, “Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship Programme” (named after late Sir Kashim Ibrahim, the governor of the old Northern Region) is set to commence next month. The one-year programme aims to create a network of high potential young Nigerians who are expected to rise to top leadership positions in the public sector and other spheres of activity over the next decade.

According to the governor, the general mission of the program, is “to raise the next generation of leaders who will most likely be absorbed into the Nigerian public sector having had a first-hand experience of its workings and challenges”.

On the 27th of June, 2018 the governor himself unveiled the first set of 16 successful candidates who passed the rigorous selection process, and seven of these 16 are females. Also half of the successful ones are residents of Kaduna, while others are spread across other parts of the country. This tells much, as it depicts the underlying principles of governor El-rufai on giving a fair chance to each and every Nigerian youth to showcase their abilities to contribute to the development of the state and the country. Today’s youth are the engine room of the Kaduna State government. In order words, the Kaduna State Government House of today is just a leadership training college of sort, where young people are placed in each and every office as Technical Assistants and Special Assistants. They see how executive briefs are made, they sit side by side with the governor in his cabinet office and get au fait with the inner workings of the executive.

But it has to go beyond that. There is need to have an institutional framework that can serve as a platform where young people acquire leadership training and skills. It is within the context of the foregoing that the Kashim Ibrahim Fellows Programme is conceived to develop and nurture leadership ability across Nigeria, with a specific focus on the promising leaders of the future.

The internship is a one-year program structured in such a way that the interns would be drilled meticulously from one spectrum to another. The program has four basic components that the fellows must ride through. These are: Work Placement, Education Program, Community Service and Fellowship.

It means that they will be placed in the MDAs of the state under a senior government officer or cabinet member. They will be involved in the design and drafting of memos and implementing policies of government. Apart from that, they will also be on study trips, holding interactive sessions with accomplished personalities and attending quarterly seminars. But above all that, this program seeks to instill in the mind of young people, an interest in public service. It seeks to disabuse their minds of their old perception of the public service. This is the idea of governor El-rufai, to get youths across Nigeria to give them training in leadership, expose them to the inner workings of the public service; the bureaucratic nature of it, structures, roles and responsibilities hoping that it will wet their appetite to pick up public service as a career.

It is also the governor’s wish that other leaders in the country will provide similar platform that will exploit and harness the potentials of talented youths and equip them with leadership skills. This will also go a long way in preparing them for future leadership.

Lastly, it is our hope that in the next few years or decade the Kashim Ibrahim Program would be transformed into a veritable platform for grooming not only Nigerian leaders but African leaders.

Mukhtar Garba Maigamo is Special Assistant to the Governor of Kaduna State on Public Affairs