During the last foundation conference, the Centre for Social Awareness, Advocacy and Ethics (CSAAE), a leading youth capacity building platform for Emerging African Leaders in Entrepreneurship, Politics, Judiciary and Religious, announced Mr. Chibuike, Charles Ugochukwu as the new president of the Network of Effective African Leaders NEAL, the graduate wing of Emerging Leaders Program (ELP), for a two-year term succeeding Ms. Chinonso Nwagha, the pioneer president.
Mr. Chuibuike and his executive council were inaugurated during the dinner night, amid excitement and goodwill’s from all attendees, by the founder of the Centre, Rev. Fr. Dr. Godswill Abagwa. Having served as the financial secretary in the outgoing administration and in various leadership capacities, the people believe the election favoured merit.
Ms. Michelle Chinonso Nwagha, the outgoing president during her handing over speech thanked the NEAL and the centre for walking with her administration every step of the way ‘‘we are deeply appreciative of your kind gestures and grossly indebted to your generous goodwill. Our administration enjoyed your cooperation and we have come out strong today because of the unalloyed support we enjoyed from you. I am therefore obliged to say thank you for letting us stand on your shoulders. We are deeply grateful.” She said.
Highlighting her achievements during her tenure Ms. Michelle said “We introduced several initiatives to grow NEAL and develop the personal capacities of her members. Among these initiatives were: Track your buddy: a program that paired members to one another, increased personal bonding and improved communication among members; Heart to Heart: a breakthrough programme where members poured out their hearts to other members and received welfare support.
We also introduced Ignite Session, Inspirational Monday, and Opportunity Tuesday, and bi weekly virtual meetings, developed the NEAL digital library and institutionalized fireside chats in the NEAL virtual forum.”
‘‘You can count on me and the other members of the previous administration for our continuous show of support and solidarity.” She said to the incoming executives
Mr. Chibuike, during his inaugural address immensely appreciated his predecessor, Ms. Chinonso saying she laid a very solid foundation and promised to build upon it sighting it among the reasons of underdevelopment in Nigeria
“In this new era, we have identified critical areas of immediate and long-term
Significance upon which the administration shall work to move our organization forward.
These critical areas include:
∙ Giving NEAL Global visibility
∙ Enhance personal development of members
∙ Execute the Effective Leadership Index Project
Over the years NEAL has succeeded in creating a very strong covalent bond of unity among members. The organization has performed excellently well in creating an internal harmony among members. However, much work needs to be done to engage our global audience. We understand that leadership must adequately build a robust followership base to effectively spread the good message of change to the public. To this end, this administration shall work earnestly to give NEAL the desired global visibility. We shall achieve this by engaging the public on prominent social media platforms including twitter and Facebook, publishing content on our website which is currently under development, and publishing articles on reputable local and international newspapers and magazines. This administration will make a point of paramount necessity to provide continuous trainings and personal development packages to equip our members with the necessary work force kits to find their feet and excel in the competitive labour market as well as attain the peak of their professional careers.
Speaking on the ELI project, he went thus,
“as a way of promoting good governance and enhancing effective leadership at all levels of governance, this new administration has taken up the task of executing the Effective Leadership Index Project, an initiative that seeks to measure the performance of public office holders in Africa by assessing them on certain indices hinged on our organizational core values of Punctuality, Accountability, Creativity, Integrity, Solidarity and Diversity. The ELI project will further reward well performing public office holders as this will serve as an incentive for hard work and a motivation for the poor performing leaders to sit up.
He concluded his speech in the following words, “It is said that to whom much is given, much is expected. We have accepted this challenging but rewarding task of leadership and we are committed to using our office to make resounding impact that will outlive our generation.”
The newly inaugurated executive council has,Miss Uja, Joy Chigozie as Vice President, Mr. Peter, Jeremiah as Secretary and Mr Samson Okolinta as the Financial Secretary.
Kassim Muhammed Sani
