.jpeg)
BY: Manoah Kikekon
 |
| Augustine Kiki the Convener/ President Eagles Leadership Assembly |
The convener of Eagles Leadership Assembly Augustine Kiki has said probably Nigeria is a clear indication of leadership failure, from the incessant power abuse we witness in recent times.
He disclosed this at the Unveiling of the Eagles Leadership Assembly at Vajan Event and Suite Aradagun, Badagry Lagos State on Saturday.
 |
| Board members of Eagles Leadership Assembly |
The opening speech of the convener reads, “Today, more than ever, many countries around the world, especially in Africa are confronted with very fundamental problems ranging from terrorist attacks, climate change, flooding, human rights abuse, and general economic problems. These, among others, have continued to make our world almost uninhabitable to people as a result of untold hardships, displacements, abject poverty, biting hunger, and deadly diseases, just to mention but a few.
“Perhaps, our country Nigeria is a clear indicator of leadership failure as evidenced by consistent and systemic abuse of leadership positions and loopholes in governance. It is pathetic and disheartening to note that a nation with huge human and natural resources and massive deposits of natural resources still wallows in abject poverty and unquantifiable hunger. Ours is a country where political officeholders live in affluence at the detriment of the people they are expected to serve. Today, we hear of State Governors collecting huge security votes that run into Billions of Naira yet, they fail to pay salaries of workers. We are in a country that has all security apparatus, yet lives and property are hardly secured,” Kiki said.
The Assembly appointed five Board members and certificates were also presented to the organizing committee.
Kiki told News Peddlers that, "beginning with the name Eagle from the bird eagle, which is known for its clarity of vision. Eagle is the leader in the mids of other birds which is why we came up with the name with the focus on leadership.
"The leadership we are craving for is not the leader where one man will be recognized as the leader, but to inspire leadership among others that is why the idea of the assembly came in. It is not an initiative that will deal with only one person, it’s going to be a chain of ideas that will be transmitted among people who will continue to spread it where ever they find themselves.
"This is borne out of curiosity to generate an array of exceptional and good leaders who will turn things around in our society, beginning from where ever they are to where ever they may be in the near future."
One of the objectives of this assembly is to mobilize young people, especially those who have prospects for leadership and to train and mentor them to become exceptional leaders.
It also aims at having people who are already doing their bit in terms of leadership who are called Model Leaders and function as resource persons who could be consulted from time to time and will speak to the upcoming young people who hope to become the leaders of this nation and organizations.
He further said, “for those, we call regular members, our aim and vision for them is that through seriess of our activities they will be trained and modeled to become leaders that transform our society,” kiki said.
Those we have today as guest speaker Mr. Mobolaji Ogunlende represented by Mr. Opeyemi Oke then the keynote speaker Dr. Ganiyu Bangbose from LASU they were able to inspire the audience with their various talks about leadership.
Kiki refers to when Dr. Ganiyu said “there is need to have a purpose in whatever you do, it is the purposes that will drive your zeal to achieve whatever your intentions.”
The panel session “was able to query the status quo” and suggested possible ways of getting it better going forward as far as leadership is concerned in Nigeria.
“We all know that the issue of leadership is very sacrosanct to development and we should not take it with levity. It is obvious that the leadership we talked about is all about political leadership and I dare to say that it will not be good for our society if everyone becomes a politician.
He emphasized that everyone can not be a politician, there must be those that will query and question the status quo, and those that will question the political leaders and put them on their toes to make them do what they are supposed to do.
The programs of the assembly will include a leadership Congress, leadership summit, debate competition for schools, and presidential speech delivery for young people.
“Those who are leaders today, President of nations today probably in the past 10 or 20 years they may not even have the idea that they want to become the president and maybe that’s why some of them are not well prepared. We hope that this will prepare the young ones towards becoming a leader,” Kiki claimed.
Mrs. Sewede Port-Balogun the supervisor for education Badagry Local Government in an address said, "politically we are being used by men to achieve their aims, and later forgets us, which has to stop. The level of inequality in our society today is too high in every parastatal.
“I think there is the need to launch a Women Support Women movement, because the men has always been using the women against themselves to achieve their aims.
Women are being marginalized because of the belief that they are weaker vessels, meanwhile we can even do better in political office.”
She suggested that there is a need to change the type of leaders we have, so we can have a better society.
Mr. Erubami Hungevu Paul, a lecturer, Political Science Department, at Lagos State University of Education Oto/Ijanikin, said the leaders in Nigeria today are after their stomachs, making the system violent.
“What we are suffering from in Nigeria today is leadership deficit, most of them are after stomach infrastructure.
“The electoral system has been monetized, Nigeria's political system sufferet violence and is only the violent that takes it by force,” He said.