JOBS How value-based leadership will solve unemployment
The Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI) says rather than exerting energy on unproductive ventures, having a value-based leadership in place might as well solve the problem of unemployment, among other challenges the country faces.
Savouring the ambience of Epe, a Lagos outskirt, young men and women from different backgrounds and professional callings gathered to fashion out new strategies on how best to move Nigeria forward. For four days, these youths, 28 of whom who have been dubbed “emerging leaders”, brainstormed sessions after sessions, to come with what they called a Marshall Plan to make the difference.
Tagged 2014 Nigerian Leadership Seminar, the young Nigerians had gathered at the instance of Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI), a non-for profit leadership mentoring organisation. On yearly basis, the organization brings together on two occasions (May and October) promising Nigerian youth, especially those who have distinguished themselves in their respective callings, to brainstorm and analyse factors that can engender growth and development in Nigeria. Started in 2007, the May 2014 session which is the eleventh of its kind actually brought the number of participants in the leadership seminar to 300.
“This set is the eleventh of its kind. And the uniqueness of the class lies in the fact that their number actually brought the total number of participants in this annual leadership seminar to the milestone of 300. It will interest you to know that these young Nigerians were the ones who were able to scale the hurdle from a pool of 749 applicants who had shown interest to be part of the session. They were selected after a rigorous screening exercise, which required them to write an essay about factors affecting development and the solutions to the challenge. Their ages range between 25 and 35,” NLI Chairman, Yinka Oyinlola said.
According to Oyinlola, the essence of bringing young, credible and imagined Nigerian leaders together is to expose them to valuebased leadership skills which if put into practice is capable of solving a number of challenges facing the country. One of such is the challenge of unemployment which currently ravages the country. Anthony Ubani, NLI Director of Programmes, spoke extensively on this.
“For us at NLI, we have sat down and have been able to analyse some of the major challenges confronting leadership in Nigeria. Indeed, we have identified the fact that there is a serious defect in values and moral development. If we have leaders who are morally uplifted, do you think we would have had a situation whereby thousands of young Nigerians who thronged venues of Immigration examinations recently would have done so? One of the greatest challenges facing Nigeria today is the issue of unemployment and do you think it will ever go away by government creating jobs? Government of course can’t provide job for everyone,” Ubani said.
According to Ubani, it is the belief of NLI that what Nigeria needed is not about government being the sole creator of jobs rather having in place value-based leaders who will create avenues for job creations by private organizations and also encourage entrepreneurship among the teeming youth across the country.
“So for us, the key word is ‘valuebased leadership’. If we can get it right with leadership we stand the chance of solving the challenge of unemployment among other challenges confronting us as a nation. It is also important that the desired change won’t take place except we have succeeded in co-opting accomplished young Nigerians like the 28 people we have in this seminar to participate in the discussion that has to do with the nation’s future,” Ubani said.
The leadership seminar is sponsored by First Bank Nigeria Plc and its participation is opened to Nigerians residing within or outside the country. Participants are expected to put in place a project at the completion of their learning session and a key for such project is that it must rub on positively on the lives of average Nigerians.
Organisers said participants are at liberty to choose any project of choice.
“After undergoing the brainstorming sessions, we feel there is a need to gauge the impact of what the young Nigerians have been exposed to.
Thus, we put in place what is known as ‘class project’. This is to be determined by the class and it will be agreed among them how to implement it. But whatever they are going to choose must be something that will add value to Nigeria,” Anthony Ubani, NLI Director of Programmes, said.
Ubani however insisted that a decision on a class project will never be arrived at until the participants have been made to undergo three conversations. These conversations, otherwise known as 3Cs are perquisites expected to guide the participants in their thoughts which expectedly should culminate in arriving at a project of choice.
“It must be noted that at NLI we don’t organize trainings or workshops. What we do are seminars, symposia and that is why we have moderators for the sessions. And most importantly, that is why we introduce three conversations otherwise known as 3cs. The first C allows these people to have a conversation with authors through the ages. Already, we have a number of reading materials we have put together. These materials are books and thoughts put together by different writers through the ages. “So, when these young people read through these pieces, they become endeared with thoughts, acts and reasoning of these great authors from one generation to the other. In other words, they are having conversation through different ages.
“The second C is that they are having conversation among their peers.
These are a group of young men and women of between 25 and 35 years.
So, these people are dialoguing, conversing and brainstorming together, so this platform is also providing them opportunity to dialogue among their peers. And the third C is having conversation within themselves or their conscience. In other words, it is a sort of interpersonal conversation, which is geared towards appraising oneself and challenging oneself to actions,” Ubani said.
When asked to assess the participation of the eleventh class, Ubani said he is very impressed because the young men and women have actually demonstrated unquantifiable love for fatherland and this he said was picked from his personal understudying of their traits, conversations and dispositions.
On their part, the participants said prior to their participation at the seminar, they have imbibed in themselves the spirit of selflessness, commitment to fatherland and value-based attitudes but have come to tap in more from the expertise being discharged by NLI.
“Apart from the fact that I have my personal work, I have an NGO which has as core of its priorities, teaching values among young people.
“These we do by taking our counseling programmes to students in secondary schools, universities and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). We know there is value problem in Nigeria but we also know that not all Nigerians are bad.
“That exposure notwithstanding, the NLI has been a great platform whereby all that I had garnered before now have been better broadened.
“What this seminar has done to us is having us assembled from different areas of lives and giving us the opportunity of brainstorming together, learn from one another, using our diverse background as resource base, and more importantly fashioning certain strategies we can all adopt to bring about desired change in our beloved country, Nigeria.
“In this regard, I need to state that one issue that has been quite fascinating to me is how we can apply knowledge gained here to our respective communities especially in encouraging the idea of self-employment among the teeming populace,” Gabriel Omin, a participant at the leadership summit, said.
Similarly, Seun Omobo, a young Nigerian Pharmacist working with World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland who also participated in the Seminar said notwithstanding the fact that the ratio of those who have so far participated in the leadership seminar is quite small compared to the task ahead of them, the youth will no doubt put in their bits to change the society for the better.
On the issue of rising wave of unemployment, Omobo said Nigerian youths are not demanding fishes from their government, but are agitating to be taught on how to carry out out fishing itself.
Already, all the 28 participants have been inducted as new Associate Fellows of NLI and their number bring to 300, the total number of Associate Fellows that had passed through NLI in the last seven years.