Development Diaries journalist Jokpa Mudia Erusiafe has completed a leadership course at the Leadership School of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (CentreLSD), in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS).
Jokpa, who is Programme Specialist with ImpactHouse International, publishers of Development Diaries, was among the 49 students that graduated from the institute on 22 August, 2020.
The enthusiastic and prolific writer did not only graduate as a change agent, she earned the award for the student with 100 percent attendance.
It is understood that the CentreLSD Leadership School, which aims to produce leaders who will know how to mobilise others to get extra-ordinary things done in organisations and nations, has so far trained and graduated 917 change agents.
The school, according to CentreLSD, expands the capacity of individuals for effective leadership roles and processes, and expands organisations’ capacity to enact basic leadership tasks, including setting direction, creating alignment and maintaining commitment.
‘At the end, we hope to produce leaders who will know how to mobilise others to get extra-ordinary things done in organisations and nations. They should now be able to transform values into actions; visions into realities; obstacles into innovations; separateness into solidarity and risks into rewards’, CentreLSD noted in its Leadership School Brochure.
Programme Coordinator of the non-governmental organisation, Victor Oseyande Udoh, said that the theme of the 12th graduation ceremony of the institute, ‘Leadership, Law and Justice’, was informed by the need to strengthen social contract, ensuring that excesses of men are regulated by the law to achieve justice.
Reacting to Erusiafe’s completion of the leadership course, Managing Partner, ImpactHouse International, Femi Aderibigbe, while congratulating her, urged other key stakeholders to emulate CentreLSD by developing quality leaders for Africa.
‘Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena globally. More than ever before, key stakeholders in Africa must emulate CentreLSD by paying deliberate effort to custom-built process of developing leaders for the continent’, he said.
‘Aligning the true Afrocentric values and customs with leadership development is key to solving our crises of leadership and governance. As an organisation, ImpactHouse International is proud of our staff members’ intellectual heft and commitment to fixing Africa’s developmental bottlenecks. I congratulate Jokpa on her successful completion of this noble course’.
Dignitaries at the graduation ceremony included the Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Planning and Economic Affairs, Senator Olu Adetunmbi; the Chief of Staff to the Deputy Senate President, Dr Otive Igbuzor; and Hon. Justice Peter Affen, a Judge at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, who spoke on the aforementioned theme as the guest speaker.
Other dignitaries were the Country Representative of KAS, Dr Vladimir Kreck, and the Executive Director of CentreLSD, Monday Osasah.
The highlight of the event included the presentation of certificates to graduating students and the presentation of awards to the outstanding ones.
CentreLSD, which is also a non-profit organisation, was established to build strategic leadership for sustainable development in Africa.
According to the organisation, its mission is to work with forces of positive change to empower citizens to transform society.
Source: CentreLSD
Photo source: Jopka Mudia
