(Audio) Leadership mentoring for youths can help secure better future for Nigeria — Official

Nigeria

By Ibukun Emiola

Ibadan, Oct. 10, 2018 (NAN) Equipping young people with the appropriate leadership skills through mentorship, can go a long way toward securing a better future for Nigeria, an official has said.

Mr Seye Oyeleye, who is the Director General, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Wednesday.

Oyeleye, who was speaking on the paucity of leaders in the country, said that with proper mentoring, young people would be exposed to leadership experience at a young age.

Cue in audio (Oyeleye)

“One of the challenges we have in Nigeria, particularly in our region, is that there is paucity of leaders.

“So it’s our duty here to make sure that these young ones quickly imbibe that culture and how do you do that? You mentor them.

“Put them in organisations where they have that sense of belonging; where they are able to contribute at a very young age.

“So by the time you put a 21 year old in a company and he is being mentored, within four to five years when he or she is 25, they already have a lot of experience behind them.

“They are ready to assume leadership positions; the situation we have at the moment where you look at the CV of a 30 year old and you find that he (or she) has not done anything in his life, how can that person be a leader?

“Those are the gaps that DAWN is plugging.”

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Oyeleye stressed that enabling the young people to contribute immensely to the growth and development of the country at a young age would create a strong foundation for Nigeria to be ranked among the comity of nations.

NAN reports that the DAWN Commission is the dedicated technocratic institution for the sustainable development of the Southwest Region.

It was set up by the governments of the Southwest states of Nigeria as the institutional and programme management body to midwife their Regional Integration Agenda. (NAN)

IBK/DOR/YEE

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Edited by Nyisom Dore/Emmanuel Yashim