Our celebration of mother language day is an intentional step towards achieving our aim of strategically poising you our Leaders and Pearls for the position of Leadership.
There is an adage that says “it is only a foolish man that does the same thing same way and expects a different result”. Hence if we want to achieve well cultured successful Leaders in you, we will need to change the present style of nurturing Leaders.
Another saying of wisdom is “there is nothing new in the world”. This literally translates to; such Leaders have been made before and probably being made somewhere around you. So, today we looked at the great Leaders in Nigeria and Africa and they all stunningly have something in common, authenticity.
Is Leadership laying somewhere there? This is a question that prods the mind especially when our icon and style of Leadership are so foreign. And then another question comes to mind; how do we merge authenticity and foreign Leadership style together? some answers that comes to mind are:
- We are in a changing world
- The Prophet (SAW) said we should search for knowledge, even if it is as far as China (so foreign ideology cannot be totally wrong.)
Based on the aforementioned assumptions and knowledge, we could say LEADERSHIP is AUTHENTICITY as well as saying Leadership style is DYNAMIC. In as much as the world keeps evolving, a Leader will need to unravel the Leadership skills inborn or inherited, hone it with foreign knowledge and have a mastery of the outcome.
Like I postulated, this philosophy of dynamic human behaviour is to help you attain Leadership, I would like us to look at some Nigerian world acknowledged Leaders like;
All these Leaders have something in common which is authenticity, they are not afraid to speak in their languages as they see and share the wisdom in it with the world. They are not ashamed to wear their traditional attire as they see the beauty and pride in it. So why should you?
So, I continue with this quote by Martin LutherKing ”not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great for greatness is in service”. Service makes you attain true Leadership. True Leadership is in influence, and you cannot truly influence people unless you are authentic.
So, my dear children who I proudly and warmly call Leaders, I implore you to be authentic today, connect with your God given powers which is in your mother tongue. While we connect with the world with the English language, I implore you once more to connect deeply with your mother language.
Ask questions about your language, your culture, and the people you will lead in the nearest future, also ask questions about the strength of other tribes and culture, like I did. To me, Hausa means integrity, loyalty, accommodating, generosity, Edo means boldness, confidence, Yoruba means accountability, curiosity, knowledge, Igbo means creativity and resourcefulness, Igala means literal icon, organization, Ebira means resilience, tenacity, India means technology, British means structure and so on. These positive meanings empower me to look at the world and our Nation Nigeria with so much positivity while I consciously ignore the undoing of a negligible percentage of a tribe or a Nation.
“Nothing means anything unless the meaning you give to it” Anthony Robbins
So, when you are called a Nigerian and when you speak a Nigerian Language know that you are speaking the wisdom in your God given talents. And while you are unraveling, honing and mastering your multilingual skills know that your teachers and I believe in your capacity to be successful cultured LEADERS.
ABIOLA ABDULRASHEED OWODUNNI
ED, CRESCENT PEARLS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
