Eagle Toastmasters Club, Nigeria’s premier Toastmasters International, has helped many Nigerians in developing themselves through self-pace training in communication and leadership skills.
Founded by Vincent Okobi in 2005, the Nigeria arm of the Toastmasters International has paved way for the creation of about 46 other clubs spread across Nigeria and through the medium its guest and members have been taught the art of professional speaking and effective leadership.
This was disclosed to BusinessDay in the swearing in ceremony of the new executives of Eagle Toastmasters Club in Eko Hotel on Saturday, 11th August, 2018.
“Nigerians are among the about 4 million people world wide that Toastmasters has helped to conquer their fears of standing before an audience to speak which is called glossophobia. This is through the 46 clubs out of the total 16,900 that are spread across Africa’s most populous nation, Oladele Olunike, the division director, told BusinessDay.
“In the past 12 years of its existence in Nigeria. It has brought about self-improvement in the area of communication and leadership,” Unekwu Nwaezeapu, the immediate past president of the Eagle Toastmasters Club said.
Meanwhile, according to Forbes, only about 10 percent of the world population actually loves public speaking or standing in a group situation without feeling nausea, panic attacks and extreme anxiety.
The good news however is, even though that fear may be biologically ingrained in human, it is one that can be overcome flawlessly.
“In 21st century global business world of today that we live and work in, it has been found that regardless of one’s profession, vocation or occupation, two skills have been the most sorted after skills in the world and they are the communication and leadership skills, which toast master has been offering in the last 94 years,” Oladele explained.
Meanwhile a survey by a U.S school of technology has however disclosed communication and leadership skills to be the most critical skills that account for a whopping 85 percent of a person’s personal, professional and public life success.
Oladele concluded by saying no matter how smart one is, until a person is able to develop the communication and leadership skills, one’s level of success would not be taken to the next level.
The Toastmasters International, the mother Club where Eagle Toastmasters was coined from was founded by Ralph Smedley in Arizona, USA in 1924.
Meanwhile, some past executives of the Eagle Toastmasters Club were in attendance to support the new executives and they had this to say;
“Toastmaster is where you differentiate between talking and speaking, everyone can talk but not everyone can speak. When one comes to toastmaster and pass through the processes then they will start speaking,” Alex Abgotia, a Toastmaster told BusinessDay.
“Toastmaster has really improved my life, what I have gotten from toaster is better than what I have gotten from other courses that I have paid for. The platform is a personal development process and once you start off in toastmaster it will help to eliminate the pause fillers in your speech and the ‘uuh’, ‘eehn,’ well’ and that is what Toastmasters does,” Abisho wemimo, past vice president member said.
The opinion of Paul Uduk, the past fifth president of the Eagle Toastmasters was not different as he said Toastmasters Club made him more confident in speaking, as he can now speak with confidence in any setting. “I communicate very well with people in various top positions now, this is as a result of Toastmasters’ self-pace training.”
The new executives of the Eagle Toastmasters Club include; Olumide Akintoku as the president, Ezikeno Maseli, the VP Education, Yussuf Apena, the VP Membership, Nkem Isiozor, VP Public Relations, Buchi Okoro, Secretary, Ambibola Osuchukwu, treasurer and Victor Udoh the club Sergent-At-Arms.
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
