The Landmark University’s Directorate of University-Wide Courses in collaboration with SDG 4 and SDG 5 groups held a day leadership development outreach for secondary school students in Omu-Aran and its environs on Thursday, June 30 2022. The town-gown relationship fostering programme had in attendance ten schools that participated in the free-to-dream leadership development competition in debate and speech delivery. 

Declaring the outreach open, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Charity Aremu made it known that while the world is full of mirage, students should decide to build a substantive life for themselves. She noted that there is no age limit to making a difference in leadership, saying that diligence and taking responsibility will make a huge difference in their personal development as they grow. “Whatever you do today will speak for you in the future, so please maximize this time, make sure you pay rapt attention to all that would be said today. I want you to remember ten years to come the day you enter Landmark University that you gained something from this programme,” she further advised. 

In her welcome remarks, the Registrar, Miss Fola Oyinloye stated that one of the things a university does is to relate with the community where it is situated. She stated further that “there must be an impact the university system has on the immediate environment and by extension the larger society where it belongs. If a society is not drawing any value from the university then such institution is not needed at all”. 

Presenting on “Developing Value-Driven Leaders in Nigeria”, Miss Oyinloye stated that developing value-driven leaders in any society starts with identifying and developing value-driven individuals, noting that leaders are made from their societies. She said such individuals must have proven their worth. Miss Oyinloye identified corruption, poverty, mismanagement of resources, poor governance and insecurity among others as some of the moral-based challenges of the nation and admonished the young participants to develop values such as the reading and learning culture, quest for excellence, hard work, honesty, contentment and the fear of God which are some of the virtues for exemplary leadership. She, thereafter, urged the students to eschew laziness, peer pressure, indiscipline and lack of the fear of God but rather develop godly virtues and good character to get to the top. 

Also presenting on “Introducing Financial Intelligence”, the Dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences (CBS), Dr Ben Caleb Egbide introduced the students to Financial Intelligence stating clearly the differences between wants and needs. According to him, possessing financial intelligence is of paramount importance for responsible living. He said that the attainment of dreams, goals and aspirations is linked to financial ability, therefore wastage and financial recklessness should be completely avoided to live an expected life in accordance to the promise of God for mankind. 

Earlier, the Director of University-Wide Courses, Dr Abimbola Oluyori appreciated the university management for their commitment to excellence and impact which is one of the tripodal mandate of a university. While calling on all participants to give quality attention to the presentations, he guaranteed them a life-long and life-changing impact from the quality of presentations by the erudite facilitators. 

The apex of the outreach was the debate and speech competitions among the schools present. God’s Grace International School, Omu-Aran emerged 1st Position in the two categories.  Omu-Aran High School took second while Government Secondary School Omu-Aran bagged the third place in the debate category. Also Apostolic Faith Secondary School Egosi-ile and ECWA Girls College Wokowomu bagged the second and third position respectively in the speech category.    

Representing the Vice-Chancellor at the presentation of award and closing, Professor O. O. Osemwegie urged the students to start building their academic profile, interpersonal relationship, public speaking acumen and spiritual lives for a great future saying that such values won’t only promote but add value to their lives as they grow. 

The participants included students of GSS Omu-Aran, ECWA Girls College Wokowomu, Landmark Secondary School, Apostolic Faith Secondary School Egosi-ile, Ofe-Aran Commercial College, FGGC Omu-Aran, Government Christian College, Omu-Aran, and God’s Grace International College.