KADUNA UPDATE: Sending forth another batch of youths on the journey of leadership
Remarks by Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, at the Graduation Ceremony of the Fourth Cohort of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship; held at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, on Saturday, 23rd July 2022.
PROTOCOLS
1. I am delighted to join our young people in the fourth cohort of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship as they complete their one-year programme today. The graduating fellows are the biggest set since we started the KIF programme in August 2018 when the first cohort of 16 fellows resumed. The second and third cohorts of the fellowship each had only 16 fellows as well.
2. The Kaduna State Government raised the number to 24 fellows in 2021 for this fourth set, to provide opportunities for more young persons to benefit from this dynamic platform for leadership training.
3. The founding objective of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship is to develop youth leadership capacity. The Kaduna State Government is pleased that the Fellowship is meeting this primary goal. We have a devised a programme that seeks to assist young persons to enhance their public service orientation with practical experience of government, learning and intellectual reflection, and experience sharing with leaders from the public, nonprofit and private sectors.
4. I wish to congratulate the fourth cohort of fellows on the successful completion of this one-year programme. These young persons emerged as fellows through a competitive selection process that is open to all Nigerians. In the last 12 months, each of them has had the benefit of hands-on experience in four government departments or agencies. They have tapped from rich founts of learning and experience through many seminars and expanded interactions with leaders in politics, business, the arts, media, and other sectors of society. Their earned status as fellows has exposed them to privileges and access that money cannot easily buy.
5. Ladies and Gentlemen, each cohort has come with its unique mix of people, living and learning together and working in the government departments to which they are assigned. But there is a common thread of upholding the baton of merit and quality, right from the very first set of fellows.
6. Today’s 24 graduating fellows make it 70 young persons that have successfully completed the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship since inception in 2018. Coming from different places and backgrounds within the Nigerian tapestry, the fellows have responded with passion, capacity, and thoughtfulness to the opportunities this fellowship has provided for them. We hope that every alumnus will retain and continue to practise the values of the fellowship.
7. The Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship is a deliberate effort to promote a meritocratic culture and build leadership capacity. This requires selecting the fellows by merit, ensuring a diverse mix and exposing the fellows to a rich and varied programme. The programme immerses fellows in the daily work of governance in government agencies, lectures and seminars on leadership and working trips. The Speaker Series enable them to share from the experiences and insights of leaders in government, business and other endeavours. Every set of fellows has so far responded admirably to this unique opportunity. They have left positive impressions in the agencies they have served in. The distinguished leaders that have interacted with them have commended their interest, curiosity, knowledge and desire to learn.
8. Youths constitute an overwhelming majority of the population of Kaduna State. It is an important task of public policy to create deliberate platforms and opportunities for young people. We have since 2015 consistently demonstrated our confidence in the potentials of our young people. We have appointed many young persons into the Kaduna State Government and given them challenging responsibilities. The Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship is a structured initiative designed to help widen the pool of young persons whose leadership ability we can help develop and nurture.
9. I wish to thank all the members of our carefully selected and independent Governing Board for an excellent job in running the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship. The Steering Committee continues to do an excellent job of supporting the Governing Board, and I thank all the members for their efforts. We acknowledge the hard work of the KIF Secretariat in running the programme, and the stellar performance of Zainab Mohammed and her team. We are also indebted to the prominent citizens who have spared their time, pro bono, to share their life and professional experiences with our fellows during the Speaker Series. They have provided incredible insights into life which these young persons will long cherish.
10. Graduating fellows, I challenge you to take the KIF spirit into everyday life. We wish you well and hope that you will never stop reading, reflecting, learning, and innovating with courage to make the world a better place. You can be certain that we will stay in touch and monitor your development and leadership journey. The Kaduna State Government will be in the background always to support your sure path to greatness.
11. Let me end by responding to some of the issues and comments by the graduating fellows, many of whom were very touching and inspiring. First, I want to accept on behalf of the Kaduna State Government your shows of gratitude and the reference to me as the visionary. However, this is a Kaduna State Government programme, not a Nasir El-Rufai programme. It is embedded in our laws and it will continue under successive administrations.
12. From your experience and everything that you have said to me, it is clear that your realise that it is ideas, knowledge and focus that make people great. These great people are very ordinary. They are like you and I, and if they can do it, you can. The reason you went through all of this is to realise how ordinary these very great people are. The reason why we invite these prominent people to speak to you is for you to understand that prominent as they may appear, they are just human like all of you.
13. At the end of today’s programme, you are going to be given three books, each for a reason: Why Nations Fail is a treatise on how societies have failed; Lee Kuan Yew’s From Third World to First is a success story. Most books you read are about success stories, but the most important lessons you get from failure stories. These two books will give you two sides of a coin. The third book is my first book, The Accidental Public Servant, which is just to help you situate everything in the Nigerian context.
It is the story of my public service between 1998 and 2007, and what I went through after public service. Of course, I am writing another book which will not be accidental public servant! There is a fourth book that I strongly recommend, Zainab Usman’s book on economic diversification.
14. I hope that the year you have spent together has made you understand not only Kaduna State better, but even Nigeria better. Go out, make your luck, think read, and focus on getting things done because we are a nation of critics, we don’t have enough people that actually get things done. Continue reading…
Thank you for listening.
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