By Stephen Adeleye.
The Organised Youth and Leadership Development (TOLD) Network, on Saturday honoured Kogi Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, with ”Leadership Excellence Award”.
The TOLDNetwork is an initiative established in 2015, committed to excellence in leadership through honest and genuine service; raise a network of torchbearers committed to building the nation.
The award was presented to the commissioner at the ”Governance and Leadership Summit (GLS)” organised by TOLDNetwork, held at the main Auditorium, Federal University, Lokoja.
Presenting the award to the commissioner, the Founder of TOLDNetwork and convener of GLS, Mr Sijuade Ade-Yeye, said the recipient was honoured for her steadfast commitment and dedication to excellent leadership and youth development.
He commended the commissioner for her innovative leadership style, transparency, promoting youth engagement in technical and vocational skills, and general transformation in the state education sector.
He explained that TOLDNetwork was engaging in mind reorientation in order to harness the potentials and resources embedded in the youths for personal and societal transformation, saying ”everybody has something to offer”.
”Our problem is not more of lack of resources but more of lack of resourcefulness; what limit us is not what we don’t have, but what we have but don’t know how to use.
”We must move from being full of resources to being resourceful,” Ade-Yeye said.
Receiving the award on behalf of the commissioner, Dr (Mrs) Animoku Ahman, the Deputy Director, Planning Research and Statistics (PRS) of the ministry, said that the award was well deserved, and well earned.
She noted that the ministry had recorded tremendous achievements under the leadership of the commissioner since she assumed office in January 2018 till date.
She, therefore, commended the convener of the summit for given the award to the people that actually merited it, while urging to maintain the standard.
”The award is well deserved, and well earned. It is a form of encouragement to our commissioner to continue to offer her best for the ministry and the state,” she said.
Many guest speakers, who spoke at the summit, opined that there could never be good governance without good leadership, which according to them was dependent on the choice of the citizens in electing good leaders.
A guest speaker, Hon. Abidemi Adeyemi, a Founder of Africa Reading Project, stressed the importance of electing people of good character in leadership position if we must have good governance.
He, therefore, urged the youths to focus on things that matters most; develop good character; read books to acquire extreme knowledge, saying, ”good governance is beyond institution, but a question of good character”.
Another guest speaker, Dr (Mrs) Erelu Ronke Bello, the CEO of McFlori Int’l, Abuja, said good governance could be measured, felt, seen, touched and experienced.
According to her, good governance is not what a leader says or feels, but rather it is what the people profess when they have food on their table, pay children school fees, access quality medical services, good roads, water, among others.
She added that good leaders must have good track records integrity, creativity, courageous, willingness to read extensively, continuous learning, and be ready to unlearned bad character.
