Graduating students at the AIYTA Academy on Saturday, November 12 2022
By Dayo Emmanuel
Chairman of the Governing Council of West Africa Theological Seminary, Dr. Emmanuel Oluwayemi has identified the lack of competent leadership as the problem of Nigeria, enjoining youths in the country to brace up for leadership.
Oluwayemi made the observation while giving a speech at the maiden convocation ceremony of the Anchor International Youth and Teen Work Academy (AIYTA) held at the West Africa Theological Seminary on Saturday, November 12.
He stated that Nigeria’s problem is not poverty, security challenges, and technology but poor leadership.
“Most of the disorientation we have today are led by leaders of Christians and not Christian leaders, it is not Islamic fundamentalist, it is not lack of money, the greatest need in the world today is competent leadership.
“From the most advanced country to the most underdeveloped country the problem is the same; competent leadership is what is lacking today because nothing works by chance,” he said.
He extolled the values the AIYTA project is offering the youths saying, “If the youth are caught and their orientation is changed, we will have good leadership in the future.”
Oluwayemisi also appreciated the President of the organisation, Pastor (Dr.) Michael Bolarinwa Omotosho. “I thank God for what Pastor Omotosho is doing. It is obvious we can’t rely on the current crop of leadership we have, so I appreciate what he is doing in influencing future leaders.
“When leaders rise up and take the bull by the horn, things change. Many organisations suffer because of leadership, we are all leaders,” he said.
He urged the Nigerian government to invest in her youth population to be able to harness the potential of the youths.
“There is no country in the world that has the population of youths that Nigeria has. We have more youths in Nigeria than any other country and our government needs to harness them because an idle hand is the devil’s workshop,” he said.
participants at the graduation ceremony
AIYTA commended
National President of NYWA, Honourable Ben Odumayo at the event also appreciated AIYTA on what it is doing among the Nigerian youths in terms of training and mentoring.
Odumayo who was represented at the event by Mr. Michael Akanni commended AIYTA for mentoring Nigerian youths toward leadership.
“We commend AIYTA and its partners on their activities so far. I welcome the graduating students into youth work, we want to work with you and we want to take you to the next level,” he said.
Continuing, Akanni who stated the commitment of NYWA to work with AIYTA said, “We want you to take responsibility, let us encourage ourselves to take responsibility, let us make youths develop a vision for themselves.
“Let us influence the youths to behave well, let us take the youth work seriously. We want more of our young ones to join us at our meetings at the Ministry of Youth and Social Development at Ikeja. I encourage the youths to participate in this institute,” he said.
President of Anchor International Outreach Ministry, Dr. Bolarinwa Omotosho said his greatest desire is that Nigerian youths would follow God and become catalysts to transformation.
“My dream for the Nigerian youth is to see youths who follow God, love Him, and fear God. Above all youths that will become catalysts and agents of transportation in Nigeria.
On how he came about the vision of the institute, Omotosho said, “ The vision of the institute came about when I had a strong burden for young people. I discovered that many young people were wasting away and their potential are largely left untapped.
The burden was so strong on me. It was that burden that prompted the creation of the institution. We have two different institutes there, the first one is Anchor Leadership Academy exists to partner with all denominations and other institutions to raise the next generation of leaders in Nigeria,” he said.
The institute according to him is Anchor International Youth Work and Teen Academy.
“It is a professional training and research institute in the field of child and youth development studies. AIYTA started in May 2021 with 85 students and we have trained 425 youths, we just graduated 16th qualified candidates them. We will soon start the professional examination that will enable us to certify our students as follows: Associate, Members, and Fellows. We have competent and qualified lecturers,” he said.
Other facilitators at the event include Rt. Revd. (Lt. Col.) C.J. Njoku, Chief of Staff, Directorate of Chaplain Services Protestant Nigerian Army, Revd. Dr. Michael A. Abodunrin, former Chairman of, Nigerian Baptist Convention, and Chancellor Bowen University, Dr. (Mrs.) Priscilla Omotosho, member of BOT Anchor International Outreach Ministry Inc.
At the event, the institute distributed over 400 copies of the Holy Bible along with kit bags at the event as souvenirs to participants.
