ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

The Youths’ Movement for Employment and Violence-free Africa (dubbed YoMEVA) has recently concluded a two-day capacity building training on ethical leadership for youth leaders in the urban community. The training took place from Saturday 11th to Sunday 12th August, 2018 at SRN main hall, Banjul. This intensive capacity development was premised on the theme: “ETHICAL LEADERSHIP, THE MISSING PIECE IN AFRICA’S LEADERSHIP PUZZLE.”

Speaking to The Standard Newspaper, Alhagie Mboob, the president of the Association and facilitator of the training said the training was a step down from the tenth cohort of Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) held in Accra, Ghana last April in which he participated among eleven Gambian delegates. He explained that the fundamental objective of this capacity building training was meant to instill ethics in Africa’s emerging leaders and equip them with the right and appropriate formula for the present and future leadership roles. Mboob also noted that the training was to reflect and celebrate one of Africa’s finest and iconic leaders, Nelson Mandela for his enviable transformational leadership role, who once said “we can change the world and make it a better place: it is in your hands to make a difference.” He expressed optimism that regularly exposing young African leaders to such worthwhile training will surely effect a paradigm shift in the continent’s leadership pedestal and expedite growth and development.

Looking closely at continent of Africa, President Mboob remorsefully remarked that Africa is beset with innumerable and various conflicts including social, economic and political which, in his opinion, could have been averted with effective ethical leadership. “To fix Africa’s continual problems, our leadership needs sanitation. We often put the physically and academically competent persons in our leadership, but ethics is always the tiny hole that sinks them, and our continent as a whole,” he argued with certainty. He believed that Africa’s problems are generic and its leadership mishaps has been the figurehead; therefore formulating initiatives and platforms like this one will expunge unethical mannerism and strengthen ethical behaviour in our future leadership that will inevitably translate into rapid and sustainable development. Mboob however challenged the beneficiaries of this training to utilize and propagate the knowledge gained.