Chief Justice, Mrs. Gertrude Torkonu, has urged the 2023 MILEAD Fellows comprising 25 African young ladies on the continent to learn the acts of personal leadership as leadership acumen is a vital resource to learning and imbibing the secret of success and achievements.
The ladies were drawn from African countries and would undergo a one-year fellowship programme under the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa which sought to identify 25 most exceptional emerging women leaders on the continent to master the craft of leadership development.
Mrs. Torkornoo said leadership was a special quality that evolved from skills, attitude, aptitude with unique identity and dreams.
“Skills such as the ability to envision and set goals, mobilize resources to achieve the vision, the ability to communicate the vision to others and work with other people to achieve the vision are what round off leadership,” she said.
The Chief Justice said this at the official launching and opening ceremony of the 2023 MILEAD Fellows Leadership Institute themed: “The Power to Lead – A Call to Courageous Leadership”.
Speaking about the leadership, legacy and sacrifices of Moremi Ajasoro, a legendary Yoruba queen in the 12 century whose memory the Institute is honouring, Mrs. Torkornoo called on the ladies develop characteristics such as independence of thoughts, integrity, focus, willingness to take risk with people and with resources.
She said: “The urgent need for transformation and change in our continent with women like yourself playing an active role requires each uniqueness of talent, skills, competences and temperament.
“I advise you to avoid cynical barrage of discouraging messages that seek to shoot down ideas and proposals to do new things and in a new way. Avoid disparaging remarks towards your identity as a woman,” the Chief Justice said.
She asked the Fellows to value their uniqueness to help develop their confidence and from which they would derive some inner strength to execute what is different and distinctive.
The Fellows would be in Ghana for three weeks where they would go through mentoring and activities that would help them interrogate leadership in a broader Pan-African contest from a feminist perspective before moving back to their countries.
Mr. Mawuli Dake, Co-founder and Executive Director, Moremi Initiatives for Women’s Leadership in Africa, said the ultimate goal was to invest in the long term leadership development of a new generation of African women leaders.
“We recognise the gap in leadership when it comes to women’s representation and participation. We also realized that for us to know the kind of leadership that Africa needs, it calls for strategic investments and nurturing and so we took that bold step to start the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa,” he said.
He said members of the 2023 class come from diverse backgrounds like agriculture, health, education, politics and would continue to work together, support each other and build a Pan-African community of leaders who are ready to shape the future of the continent
