The secretary to the government of Kogi state, Mrs. Folashade Ayoade PhD and former Governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu were honoured with prestigious awards of remarkable and exceptional leadership award by the Focus African Leadership Forum magazine at the Icon Awards held in Abuja the capital city of Nigeria
Dr. Folashade while speaking to journalists after the honour appreciates the recognition of her great contribution and various impact she has made on humanity.
“I feel so elated, I give God the glory for the privilege of this recognition” Dr. Folashade said.
She urged young Nigerians to be more innovative through originality, self development and improvement in their craft.
“I want to encourage every young person to always be themself, aspire to be what they want to become, and with the help of God they will always be what so ever they want to be”
” I want to let Kogite know that we are doing greatly well and making Kogi proud outside” She added
Dr. Folashade urged the people of kogi state to continue to make the state proud and that she will not relent in projecting the glory of the state anywhere and at any time.
The Ex-governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu a recipient of the icon award also appreciates the honour bestowed on him after serving the state.
“Awards are rewards that come long after service, I am also encouraged of what young people are doing, it gives me hope that we will soon get our place in the committee of the nation. ” Ikpeazu said
He spoke about re-strategizing the country development plan to seizing the opportunities available in the changing world system.
“leadership is service, the emphasis for me today is that we must review and rethink our strategy, Our strategy is the problem, we know what to do, where to go, where we are, but we have not crafted strategy, that will respond to the current nuances of world polices, as the world is changing we should seize the opportunity of the strategy that will make us one step ahead and leverage on what we have in Africa to get there”
“African must invest in the science of exploration, exploitation, and processing.”
“We must look at how the youth are thinking, what they are doing in the ICT world and see how best we can direct them to begin to think of solutions in Africa not of famine, strive, crisis, we should do everything to disarm our youth, because same people who want to explore our mineral resources, armed our youth and introduce drugs, which is the same strategy they use in slavery, they render them useless and take everything that belong to Africa. My generation must take the back seat and push forward our youth to do it right”The Ex-Governor added.
Charles Okafor a veteran actor charges youth who are making an effort to make the country better, to have a mindset shift from erroneous narrative from Africa and focus on actualising their discovered vision.
The convener of Focus Africa Leadership Forum Bright Success advocated for the less dependence on government and charged Nigerians to be responsive.
“The government is doing their bit they can, but if we as citizens are not responsive, if we are not trying our own part to make things work, things will never work, enough of dependence on government, contribute your own quota as a citizen of Nigeria, as a citizen of Africa, and will we have the right development for the continent.” Success Said.
Among the entourage of the Secretary to the Kogi State Government Dr. Folashade Ayoade who accompanied her, are Commissioner For Agriculture and Food Security, Timothy Ojomah, Senior Special Assistant on Political Matters, Office of the SGS, Femi Esemikose, and a host of others.
