Over 150 students from various schools in the South East of Nigeria have benefited from a five-day leadership training organised by Nigeria International Model United Nations (NIMUN) in Enugu last week.
The schools are Graceland College Enugu, Dority International Schools, Aba, Adventist Technical High School Ana, Adventist Secondary Technical College, Basic Foundation School Aba and St. Bridget College Aba.
According to Samuel Chiemelue, executive director, Nigeria International Model United Nations, the organisation extended invitations to a lot of schools in the South East but the selected ones were based on schools that responded early.
“It is a new thing in the South East. These ones that came have been attending such programmes in New York, so it was easy for them to catch the vision”, he said.
The executive director said the five-day conference was to build the students’ leadership skills, groom their public speaking skills and negotiations as they are vital soft skills that are needed in the 21st century to allow every young person thrive.
“Beyond acquiring certificates or going to school, these are vital soft skills our young people need and it is important we introduce them to the skills and we will not rest until we have taken this message down to every soul of a young man in the South East of Nigeria”, he said.
He further noted that the students represented all the United Nations member countries and were given research work to understudy each country they represent, their style of leadership, governance, economy among others, particularly the African countries. This subjects them to serious research work that will make them reason intellectually.
Beyond the conference, the students have been asked to itemise the problems facing the nations particularly African, and proffer solutions to the challenges and they are going to carry it out in their various communities practically after the conference.
“We do not bring fake solutions, they are bringing practical solutions that are implementable in the country, as they go back we are following them because the communities must have a grass root touch of this training”.
Chiemelue, however, called on the people of the South East to embrace the vision and key into it to enable the younger ones grow and develop their leadership skills,
He said that the idea of Nigeria international Model United Nations came in 2013 after he was privileged to attend the model United conference in New York, where he interacted with students and discovered intellectual cross fertilization of ideas, so he decided to go into it.
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He said BABCOCK University gave them the platform to start the conference for the past five years and he also found out that such a conference is not in the South East hence he decided to extend it to the zone.
He said that there was a need to get the people informed about what is happening in other places in order to change the narrative that will enable them to have the right access to development.
In a good will message, Olufemi Adeyemi, health specialist and officer in charge, UNICEF Field Office Enugu, commended the organisers of the leadership training and asked them to look at UNICEF programmes and activities and emulate them.
He said that UNICEF would always support any programme that has to do with the development of children and keeping their rights anywhere in the world.
Speaking at the event, Monday Ani, special assistant to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on Culture and Tourism, said that training of youths in leadership positions is very important. He advised that the youths should not emulate or aspire to be like some of the leaders that ran Nigeria down but blend leadership with what is obtainable in developed countries.
“God blessed us but leadership is our problem, so if we adopt the ideology of the white men in the side of leadership and blend it with part of our culture the youths are going to make good leadership in the future,” Ani said.
