By Ignatius Okpara
Copyright africanexaminer
FEATURES: YALGI Equipping Nigerian Youths As Potential Leaders Of Tomorrow
Posted by Ignatius Okpara
Articles/Opinion, Featured, Latest Headlines
Friday, September 19th, 2025
(AFRICAN EXAMINER) — One of the key factors that has been militating against development and economic growth as well as remaining a clog in the wheel of progress amongst African nations, including Nigeria for several decades, has been the issue of near non availability of transformational leaders in the continent.
The enthronement of political leaders without track records, integrity, empathy, and vision, especially in our dear nation Nigeria, the acclaimed giant Africa, over the years, has no doubt created room for bad governance and continued to rob the citizens of effective leadership that ought to provide the people democracy dividends, and touch the lives of the citizenry in all ramifications.
For a leader to live up to the expectations of his people and lead effectively, he must be honest, ethical, and principled and always share in the pains and joy of his citizens.
But regrettably, most African leaders lack the qualities of a good leader hence, the governed, especially the young fols have lost faith and confidence in them, a development that makes the future leaders to always seek greener pastures abroad when any slightest opportunity comes their way, be it via legitimate or illegitimate means.
Also, the lack of trust amongst contemporary leaders of developing African nations who do not keep to their political campaign promises, has equally done more harm than good to the citizens who have continued to wallow in abject poverty despite the abundant human and natural resources such countries are endowed with.
Irked by the ugly situation which has continued to rear it’s ugly head from dispensation to dispensation unabated, young people in various climes, including Nigeria no longer believe in the assertion that ‘Youths are the leaders of tomorrow’
Rather, what is always on their lips is “our leaders have failed us woefully in all ramifications”.
However, it’s against the backdrop of empowering and educating teeming young Nigerians on the need to change the narrative and take their destiny in their own hands that a youth non governmental organization, under the platform of Young African leaders for global impact, YALGI, established by a young promising and serving member of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), in Ebonyi state, South East Nigeria, Ambassador Ikenna Ezenwa, recently convened a one day young African leaders conference (YALCON) 2025 in Enugu.
The conference attended by over three thousand youths drawn from various segments of Nigeria also attracted the keynote speaker and Board Chairperson of YALGI, Dr. Sharon Waswa a UK based university lecturer who hails from Kenya.
Participants at the Conference with the theme: Africa’s Next Generation of Change maker: Leading the shift from Aid to Sustainable Impact’ were educated on issues bothering on leadership by the resource persons who equally engaged them in a brainstorming session.
Addressing the youths, Enugu state governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, Advised them To Embrace virtue of hard work, Technology, Courage, Empathy so as to succeed in life, adding that they must also
Represented by his Commissioner for Labour and Employment, Dr. Felix Nnamani, the Governor, emphasised that his administration is committed towards equipping youths of the state with all the needed platform to succeed in life which is contained in the policies that government is implementing.
That is why, if you go to the Smart Green Schools, the government has already set up laboratories to equip Enugu children with skills in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mechatronics, among others,” he concluded.
He assured that the current state government under his watch would continue to empower, educate and inspire the youths of Enugu State.
The governor commended the convener of the conference, Ambassador Ezenwa for the initiative, saying it would afford the participants the opportunity of learning about leadership.
Speaking with newsmen, Amb. Ikenna Ezenwa, disclosed that “YALGI is based in Enugu Nigeria, but its network spans across Nigeria and Africa with its Global Board advisor, Dr. Sharon Waswa from Kenya.
“I am the Founder and President of the organization, YALGI was formed in 2020 but started operating officially and professionally in 2024. It’s an NGO” he stated.
According to him, the conference is all about educating and empowering young people, to be abreast with the sustainable development Goals. “We have seen that Nigeria and other African nations are lacking leaders with integrity, character, and innovations”.
“We can see clearly in what is happening in Enugu state today, where governor Peter Mbah came in and is disrupting innovations, and there is creativity all over the places”
“So, what we have come to do in this conference is to raise young people that will start thinking about impact, innovation, and creativity young people that will become leaders of today, and not leaders of tomorrow”
“To raise young people that will not wait for people to come and help them, but young people that will rise up and do the best they could and when the help comes they will appreciate it.”
“So, like I said earlier, the platform is to empower young people to become contributors to socio economic development. And that is the reason why people came all the way from Abuja, Lagos, Imo, Anambra, and other states in Nigeria.
“Our keynote speaker, Dr. Sharon Waswa, a Kenyan, who is based in the United Kingdom (UK), also flew in to identify with us and open a chapter of partnership with Enugu youths, because one thing the Nigerian Youths have been lacking is partnership”. Ezenwa stated
She wants to see how she can bring down what she is doing in her country Kenya to Nigeria just to support our youths. So, I want use this medium to advise the participants to know that it doesn’t end here, because this is not first conference they have attended over the months, years, and decades”
“They have been attending conferences like this before, but the question each and every one of them must ask him or herself is after this conference what will be my take home?
“So, my massage to every young person here today and those elsewhere, is that it is not all about the ideas you warming up in your heart, because the best ideas are not the ones that are lying in our hearts, but the ones that are executed”
“Forget about procrastination, I will do it tomorrow, start doing it now, because Execution is the Hallmark of whatever you want to achieve in life. And I see all of us succeeding in the nearest future” stressing that the conference is in line with the NYSC developmental policy.
The Enugu state Commissioner for youths and sports, Barrister Lloyd Ekweremadu, who addressed the participants though his Special Assistant on students Affairs, Mr.
Devine Ekweremadu, applauded the convener of the conference for gathering the youths in Enugu, promising to partner with the organization in the next edition.
He charged the youths to always be themselves focused and embrace self development for their own good.
In her keynote remark, Dr. Sharon Waswa, expressed dissatisfaction over the inability of some older African leaders to mentor the young ones and give them space in the political and economic sectors.
She however, pointed out that despite the challenge , a lot of African Youths are leveraging technology to get into economic power.
The UK based university don, emphasized the need to allocate space for the youths and the next generation in the policy making processes.
“True power is not sitting in office for fifty years, true power is someone being given an opportunity and using that opportunity to make change in the shortest time.
“If you don’t see yourself making any change, give other people the space to make a change, I would ask African leaders to let young people take up more spaces, they may fail and they may succeed but at least we give them the chance’ she insisted.
The resource person, had equally posited in their separate presentations that Nigeria needs leaders who can inspire vision in every sector, be it private and public sectors.
They maintained that Transformational leadership is pertinent and harped on the need for Nigeria to redefine what leadership is all about.
Short URL: https://www.africanexaminer.com/?p=104390
