Explaining the purpose of the two-day engagement, Team Lead of FOCEI, Ben Maina, said the training was geared towards ensuring inclusion of the youth population which is in the majority.

He noted that similar training is ongoing nationwide, stressing that there would be a desired change following the wealth of experience of resource persons.

Maina said, ” Youths are the backbone of society, research and statistics have shown that they are larger percentage of the population when it comes to leadership, inclusion and civic engagement they are left behind.

Explaining the purpose of the two-day engagement, Team Lead of FOCEI, Ben Maina, said the training was geared towards ensuring inclusion of the youth population which is in the majority.

He noted that similar training is ongoing nationwide, stressing that there would be a desired change following the wealth of experience of resource persons.

Maina said, ” Youths are the backbone of society, research and statistics have shown that they are larger percentage of the population when it comes to leadership, inclusion and civic engagement they are left behind.

“The idea is to train 100 youths within Gombe metropolis to see that they are equipped and that they get basic leadership skills, so the need to train them on how to engage the government to create spaces for youths in leadership skills and participation.”

Disclosing how the 100 participants were selected Maina added “We had it advertised via social media and they applied. We have criteria we followed to draw participation. It had age limit of 18 – 30 years. They are expected to be literate; to use Android phones, and those with leadership potentials. What they have learnt here should be practicalised by stepping it down to their peers, they should be agents of change in their respective domains.”

Lecturer at the Department of Arts and Social Science, Faculty of Education Gombe State University, Dr Hadiza Hussaini, encouraged participants to show commitment to community development.

Hussaini who presented  on ‘Personality Development’ is an expert of Curriculum Studies said, “Participants were taught to set achievable goals bearing in mind their challenges. They should freely embark on community project because we all need that to develop. We should get involved not because we are aiming for the monetary aspect because that is our mindset. The youths must know it’s not about money, we must get involved that was the reason why they were told to bring ideas on how to positively impact their communities.”

Hussaini charged participants to see themselves as drivers of change, “We want to see that change in them, they should get involved in governance which concerns everyone. We expect them to cascade the training to their local community,” she added.

Executive Director, Eagles  Advocacy, Barrister Martha Daniel, in a chat with PERISCOPE NIGERIA said “My presentation focused on ‘Governance, Policy Analysis and Inclusive Governance.”

On the essence of the training, Daniel added, “The presentation aims at building the capacity of youths to understand governance, how to analyse policies, advocate for the right policies and foster inclusion when given the opportunity to lead. In the process of leadership, they must understand that there’s a need to respect human rights and set up conflicts resolution mechanism because conflict is part of human existence.”

Daniel urged participants to show commitment adding “I am calling on all the participants to utilise all the knowledge gained to create change within this space.”

Leadership Coach and Team Lead of Inspire Initiative Leadership Development, Amin Amos, tasked participants to put to use knowledge gained to justify the resources used in training them.

Amos who presented on ‘Concept of Leadership and Civil Youth Engagement’, said “We want to see youths become the leaders they want to be, taking serious paradigm shift from the concept of leadership at play now to one that is engaging and practical.”

He called on the participants to be dedicated, “A Philosopher once said knowledge that doesn’t affect behave is nonsense. So my call to the youths is that whatever knowledge they have should be formidable enough to affect their behaviour,” Amos added.

Some participants who spoke with PERISCOPE Nigeria lauded the foresight of the engagement. Hannatu Saidu, a 300 level law student at Gombe State University explained that she would use what she discovered to good use.

She said, “I think I just discovered something today about me as I wasn’t sure of the type of leader I was. Each time people talked bout leadership I just perceive I’m a leader but today from the test we took I got to discover the kind of leader I’m. I also learnt you don’t have to necessarily need to be in a position of authority to be a leader just  doing certain things makes you a leader.”

She urged her fellow participants to rise up and take charge, “there are so many things happening in our society but if we remain reluctant  a lot will go wrong to help the community get better,” Saidu added.

Also, Musa Zambuk, Convener for Peace and Unity who participated in the training said “Particularly, myself I’m the head of my organisation. The first speaker talked about leadership and I have seen where I have inadequacies and I have been able to devise means of helping myself in that, there will be improvement from my own side and directly or indirectly my organisation will benefit.”

While lauding Nigeria Youth Future Fund, Leap Africa and Foundation for Community Empowerment Initiative for the impactful engagement, Zambuk added, “Coming to have this training has been beneficial, I wish to say kudos to the organisers. It’s my prayer that FOCEI and her partners grow stronger. I wish to call for expansion of the number of participants due to the overwhelming benefits.”