Leadership experiences

 I see a leader as someone with foresight and who is ready to sacrifice his time, skills and resources in achieving a goal while collaborating with others. For a society to thrive there is need for a good leadership of which some platforms like the Chevening body is doing great in grooming leaders to better our societies.

I grew up in my family as a leader. I have 5 younger siblings of which I show them good example, recently during the lock-down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my younger brothers were not in school, since they were not engaged in any academic activity, I informed them of acquiring skills in website design and coding, they joined me for the lessons and they became knowledgeable about the digital space. They went further to take courses on the internet which also motivated me to do online courses. Taking responsibility to impact other people’s lives can be beneficial, because their achievements can motivate you to do more and improve yourself.

During my undergraduate years, I was the leader of the pharmacy fellowship in school, called the National Fellowship of Christian Pharmacy Students (NFCPS), this body welcomes students with different religious background and beliefs, as the president I had the duty to carry everyone along. I visited other religious leaders to make them align with the vision of the fellowship, I received their support and we worked together as a team, we had meetings and planned programs for the good of the students, this opportunity helped me to be better leader, whereby I accommodated them and we were useful to each other, however there were students who did not share the vision of joining people from different beliefs, this did not make me hate them but saw their reasons and encouraged those who saw the need to join the fellowship.

Leaders are not born but made is a true fact, before I was made the president of the pharmacy fellowship, I was the creativity director, my core duty was to organize students to perform dramas that will pass a positive message to others, this involved assigning characters to students who had the potentials to display them, we worked as a team, we shared ideas on how to make the drama better and I also joined in the acting, the dramas we acted were indeed good. This position also prepared me to later become the president, which involved a much broader team to work with, it was a successful experience, one remarkable project I did was to place a banner at the front of the Faculty building which clearly shows the Vision and Mission including the activities of the fellowship. This will help other students to key into the mission of the fellowship body, making leadership to be transparent.

Also during my NYSC (National Youth Service Corps), I was made the Zonal Coordinator of National Association of Catholic Corps members. It was tough experience, I lived in the family house and was called "papa", a name ascribed to coordinators, I had to take the role of a father, we had to plan the running of the association, the family house and welcoming the new corps members, this experiences I believe has prepared me on becoming a good father and husband someday. Haha.

I urge every youth to be open to service, learn to sacrifice your time and resources for the good of others; it has a way of launching you to a greater form of service and in turn enriches your life. Yes you can do it and you will discover amazing qualities hidden inside you. Cheers!