Quest for quality leadership must target students - Lead It Africa

Dr Herman Addae, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lead It Africa, an international consulting firm, has said efforts to provide quality leadership for the country must pull focus on students.

He said the company had considered with concern, a “general dearth” of leadership in society, and maintained the view that stakeholders must look to the tertiary level, where leaders were molded.

The CEO, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a leadership seminar for tertiary student leaders in the Volta Region, said student leaders, in general, have been the nucleus of bulwark channels into politics and other leadership areas, and that the right skills must be poached and nurtured at the formative stages.

Dr Addae said the company, therefore, as part of its corporate social responsibilities, was collaborating with Progressive Students Network, a human capital development organisation steeped in God’s word, to deliver annual seminars for students towards raising leaders of competence and effectiveness.

“We hear people within organisations, within our homes and even in the general body politic - the leadership of the country, even businesses and even politicians - we hear ourselves crying for an improvement of leadership.

“And we believe that the best point at which we can really create transformational leadership and critical thinking is, where leadership skills and desires are being built.

“What we observe in our society when it comes to our organisations and even the national leadership, the trend of students leadership evolving into organisational leaders and politicians seems to be high and we believe that when we start nurturing competent leadership skills and the desire to serve your constituency- if we nurture that spirit in them early we will be contributing to improving the quality of leadership that we have,” he said.

Dr Addae said the impact of Lead It Africa’s efforts has been “good so far,” and appealed for stakeholder support towards improving the quality of leadership.

“The more students we are able to reach the higher the possibility that we will be able to usher them into more responsible leaders for our country,” he said, adding that the Company would “continuously” strive to improve the quality of leadership and would regularise its engagements.

The student leaders were engaged in an interactive and practical session that employed the use of infographics and video materials.

Participants were taught to be resourceful as leaders, critical thinkers and also to strive persistently towards goodness while maintaining a growth mindset.

Evangelist Godwin Baako Boafo, Founder of the Progressive Students Network said leadership in Africa “failed” in the areas of service, selflessness and transparency among qualities needed to build impact.

He appealed to students to rise to the occasion and build up quality leadership, considering the sacrifices, humility and selflessness of Christ, the greatest leader ever recorded.

Mr Francis Ampiaw, Dean of Students of the Ho Technical University, where the seminar was held, said leadership was “critical for the youth of our time,” and commended organisers for stepping up to the challenge.

He said more such initiatives must be encouraged to provide the needed modelling of future leadership.

Participants of the forum noted to the GNA that the session was practical, loaded with guidelines, and had stimulated a re-orientation.

Lead It Africa has been collaborating with the Progressive Students Network since 2018 on enhancing leadership skills among students in the country.

The Progressive Students Network has also for the past 15 years, been enhancing leadership development in the educational sector both in and outside the country, towards academic excellence and moral uprightness.