Abia State Government has graduated the second batch of the Abia Leadership Academy Trainees, an initiative aimed at building a large community of leaders in the State and Nigeria generally.
A statement released by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Alex Otti, Ukoha Ukoha, on Thursday, stated that the governor said the administration embarked on the programme to redirect the people to become better citizens, just as he charged the participants to keep learning.
The statement read, “My charge to you will be to keep learning, share, and influence the behaviour of others based on leadership. Leadership is the ability to influence and drive outcomes. So, what we actually set out to do here, which we will continue to do, is to redirect our people.
“Redirect our young ones, redirect their vision, redirect their thinking. Gone are the days when our young ones are left to turn out to become thugs, who will be thinking of drugs and other nefarious activities, including cultism and things along those lines.
“We are also making a clear distinction in the area of institution building because just behind leadership is the architecture of social strength”, Otti stated.
The governor stressed the need to get leadership from the foundation, saying that the programme is very dear to him and is closely tied to his social reorientation programme.
“Additionally, this is about raising a new generation of leaders, those who have transformed their minds to think broadly and deeply whenever and wherever they are confronted with any challenge at all.
“Our target is to build a large community of leaders who are acquainted with each other as young people and can seamlessly create new front lines of partnership,” Otti added.
He said that each person who successfully concludes the programme would be required to mentor at least one person every month, over the next 12 months. He informed the participants that a digital platform has been created to accommodate all of them for further conversations.
In his speech, the Chairman of Abia Leadership Academy and Secretary to the State Government, Professor Kenneth Kalu, said that the vision of the programme is to build leaders who can create impact.
While thanking everyone who has contributed to the success of the leadership training, he noted that by investing in these young ones, the Governor is creating leaders with impact.
