How Young Nigerians Can Cultivate Leadership Value, Patriotism

TWO authors, Ukot Ette and Omagbitse Barrow, have urged government at all levels, parents and guardians and other stakeholders in the Nigerian nation to take practical steps to inculcate leadership values in Nigerians in the early stage of their lives as part of efforts to build a better Nigeria.  

  Ette and Barrow, who are Abuja based leadership and personal development trainers, made the call at the public presentation of their new book, 110 Leadership Tips Every Child Should Know, in the Federal Capital Territory recently.

 The 110 tips cover five areas of leadership including words of wisdom to develop self-awareness and confidence. It also provides guidelines on building focus, committing to life-long learning, winning with people, and managing successes and setbacks. 

  The book which is targeted at children from 6 to 12 years provides useful material for parents and teachers to educate their children and generate meaningful conversations about what it really takes to be an effective leader. It is anchored on the time-tested pillars of principle-based and values-based leadership.

   According to the authors, “the biggest challenge we have with our leaders today is perhaps the fact that there was not enough deliberate focus on building and developing leaders from as early an age as possible. Where children were exposed to leadership positions, many of them developed a wrong notion of what leadership truly is – focused on power, privilege and position rather than on service, simplicity and sacrifice. The book therefore seeks to prepare our young minds for the leadership challenges of the future.”

  Speaking at the event, the publisher of the book and Executive Director at Be Better Books, Mrs. Amina Bolujoko, encouraged parents and teachers to take advantage of the books that are available as both hard copies and e-books on their on-line platform at www.bebetterbooks.biz. She encouraged parents to pick a tip a day and discuss it with their children based on the guidelines that the book provides and potentially have up to four months worth of daily conversations using the 110 tips in the book. 

  Also speaking at the event, the representative of the Director at Creative Learning International School in Abuja, Mrs. Fatima Lawal, congratulated the authors for their creativity, especially as the book seems to respond very well to the needs of the new curriculum for primary schools on national values and provides a viable text for teachers to use in teaching leadership and national values in their classrooms.

The co-author, Ms. Ukot Ette (Chief Executive of Life Skills Experts Limited) thanked the guests for taking time to reflect on the issues of leadership in our society, and the need to prepare children for the challenges. She informed the guests that there are many more interesting and impactful titles from her and Barrow in the pipeline that would provide not just books for children, but curricular and learning resources in the areas of leadership, communication skills, creativity and financial literacy.