Obasanjo teaches school prefects leadership skills

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, taught over 400 secondary school head boys and head girls from three states in the South-West leadership skills.

Obasanjo also tutored the school prefects drawn from Ogun, Oyo and Lagos states some issues on climate change and drug abuse.

The former President, in his over 30 minutes lecture during the Leadership Training for Young Leaders-Level 2 organised by the Centre for Human Security of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta,  “also unveiled his 20 Golden Rules for Young Leaders.”

According to Obasanjo,  for any leader to be adjudged as successful, he must be ready to use his innate extra-ordinary character traits for the benefit of his group or society at large.

He argued that not every leader could be termed successful, adding that many individuals in such a position found it difficult to recognise and develop the innate ability in them.

“What I want to say about leadership is this; every human being has and you heard it from the last speaker, has certain innate ability. The danger of course is that some develop theirs and some don’t develop theirs. Some don’t even recognise what their innate ability is let alone to be able to develop it. And when you don’t know what you have, how can you make use of it? How can you develop it? Now, what makes the difference between somebody who is a successful leader and somebody who is not a successful leader. I want to underline that, because you can be called a leader and not be a successful leader.  The fact that you are called a leader does not make you a successful leader.

“What makes the difference between a successful leader and others, including unsuccessful leader, is that the leader is ordinary. He’s an ordinary person, like you and me. But because the leader makes efforts, he does a little bit more than what people will do ordinarily.  If you like, he does extraordinarily and I want you to take it that way. I have just said it. Extra and ordinarily. If it is dancing, everybody may be able to dance but the lead dancer does extra dancing. The lead actor does extra acting,” he said.

Source:Punch