Nov 28, 2007 - Sundoulos African Leaders Training Programme Prize Giving Ceremony
It gives me great pleasure to be in your midst today at this prize and award giving ceremony organised by Sundoulos African Leaders Training Programme. I am informed that this event is being organised to acknowledge the performance the students in Lagos State who participated in an essay competition titled “Righteous Leadership and National Development.”
I wish to commend Ambassador Moses Ihonde, the National Coordinator of SALT for initiating the establishment of this NGO and the various efforts that have been made through seminars to achieve its objective of training servant leaders on the African continent. This objective is no doubt a laudable one considering the general consensus on the fact that lack of good leadership has been the bane of development on the African Continent.
I congratulate the winners of the essay competition who are being honoured today. It is worthy of note that as leaders of tomorrow, the youths of today are being given the opportunity to express their opinion on such critical issue of leadership with a view to, I suppose, preparing them for the task ahead.
Righteous leadership on one hand and national development on the other are two sides of the same coin, one being the direct consequence of the other. A look at nations of the world will reveal that countries that are in the bracket of developed nations have one thing in common, that is good, selfless and committed leadership. A very important lesson that will also be learnt from the experience of leading nations is that good leadership and not necessarily abundant natural resource endowment will ultimately determine the greatness of a nation.
This is why it is very important for every one of us to be at the vanguard for the promotion of good leadership because good leadership breeds good governance which results in good life for everybody.
We all have a role to play by exhibiting good and righteous leadership in every position we find ourselves no matter how seemingly insignificant such position may be. We must also embrace and promote the culture of demanding good and transparent leadership from our leaders, holding them accountable for their actions while making promises made during electoral campaigns the yardstick for measuring performance.
Finally, we should always remember that as followers, we also owe the duty to discharge our responsibilities which are vital to the achievement of government policies and programmes.
Once again, I commend Sundoulos African Leaders Training Programme and also congratulate the award winners of today.
Thank you and God bless you all.
Her Excellency
Mrs. Abimbola Fashola
First Lady of Lagos State