Date: 2020-12-09

Kwara state government has selected 36 secondary school students from rural local government areas of the state for leadership training, in a bid to position the state to have sound and greater leaders in the very nearest future.

The secondary students are selected from Kaiama, Patigi, Baruten, Edu, Ifelodun, Irepodun, Offa, Oyun, Isin, Moro, Ilorin South, and Ilorin West local governments.

The selected students, three each from the selected local government areas who have been camped will be trained for two weeks to also replicate the knowledge to others in their respective local governments.

The students selected from rural communities in the 12 local government areas of Kwara state will also qualify for free full scholarships into public universities after two-week training programme on community development.

The scholarship programme, sponsored by the state government and the three Senators representing the state in the National Assembly, in collaboration with the Haashim Initiative for Community Advancement (HICA), was also aimed at arresting rural-urban drift, among other objectives.

Speaking with journalists during the training programme at the International Vocational Technical and Entrepreneurship College (IVTEC), Ajase-Ipo, on Tuesday, the coordinator of the Countryside Emerging Leaders Fellowship (CELF), Lawal Olohungbebe, said the project also aimed at providing training for the young ones in three areas of self-development, community development, and entrepreneurship.

He said Community development, which is a broad course among others will involve training them the leadership skills and how they can be positively involved in partisan politics.

Olohungbebe also said that a major challenge in most rural areas of the state is that young male secondary school leavers go to urban cities to engage in commercial motorcycle business (okada), while girls get pregnant among other social ills.

The coordinator, who said that the state is a largely agrarian community, said that the project promised to move rural farmers from peasant to mechanized agriculture, towards improving agricultural activities in the state.

He also said that the intervention, aimed at impacting on the agrarian sector of the state economy, in particular, would enable the young ones to also transfer knowledge gained and the impact such on people in their respective rural communities.

He said that the initiative, which has about 200 volunteers, would teach the participants on community extension services, repair of boreholes, modern agric practices and businesses, among other areas of agricultural entrepreneurship and governance.

Olohungbebe also said that the initiative, planned to be an annual event, "has the potential to make children of nobody to be somebody with great impact in his or her community".

Thirty-six students, comprising of 18 males and 18 females are participating in the programme.

Some of the young participants, who spoke with journalists during the training programme, said that they have developed self-confidence and garnered requisite knowledge to impact on their community.

One of the participants, Imian Manne from Patigi was clearly bold to tell journalists that he's now a far better person than before he started the two weeks programme, which was less than a week.

He said, "I couldn't face the public to talk before now, and my thinkings were not straight, but as I'm talking with you, I can speak to a crowd, no matter how large. I have been trained with that confidence, and the way I think now is different and better. I hope to start an NGO in my area after this training through which I will impact this knowledge to others".