AN Islamic think-tank, Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Centre, Lagos, has stressed the need to bridge the deficit of capacity across different spheres of leadership in the country.
This was the position of leadership experts at a one-day leadership and empowerment conference organised by the centre for religious leaders and imams in Lagos on Wednesday.
The conference, held at NASFAT Islamic Centre, Ikorodu, had in attendance religious leaders, imams and leaders from various fields.
Leadership experts who spoke at the event also emphasised the need for capacity building of leaders, especially for religious leaders, to be able to deliver on the calls of their positions.
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The keynote speaker and Secretary, Lagos State Scholarship Board, AbdurRahman Lekki, said: The Prophet of Islam (SAW) said we are all leaders. That shows that everyone is a leader. Leadership is either from the back, from the middle or from the front. This means that wherever you are, you are a leader. Leadership is first and foremost about leading yourself before you can lead others.
“Leading yourself means the ability to be in charge of your emotions. It is the ability to be in charge of the expressions of your emotions to other people and the ability to react appropriately to what life throws at you. This is what leadership is.
“Leadership from the middle is the ability to follow effectively. This is also a form of leadership. It is the ability to interpret what the leader wants and doing what is appropriate in your own cocoon. Basically, the leadership we all know are those that lead from the front which is the ability to influence people and guide them in the right direction.
“There are two types of leaders. These are the positional and situational leaders. The positional leaders are those we elect to leadership positions while situational leaders are those who use their initiatives to do what is right and guide others to what is right regardless of whether they are put in position or not.
Majority of our Imams are already in the positional leadership. However, it is unfortunate that there is a deficit of capacity and that is what we need to bridge. Our Imams and religious leaders are already in the position and like I said, learning leadership when you are already in position is almost about 75 per cent lost. Leadership is learnt right from the cradle well ahead of you assuming the position of leadership.
“In fact leadership emergence supposed to be a product of your leadership exhibition even before you are chosen.
The coordinator of Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Centre, Lagos, AbdurRahman Thabit Ayodeji, said the conference was an opportunity for leaders, particularly religious leaders, to view things from a broader perspective and activate their hidden potentials.
He said: The most difficult people to deal with are those who believe they are done with their lives. They are those that feel they dont need any knowledge or anything more to support their existence. The Imams and Alfas are among those that have been established already but there is more to life than what they think or make of it.
“This platform gives them the opportunity to see things from different perspectives because seeing things from one perspective only gives you one opportunity but when you see things from different angles, you will be able to maximise opportunities in those things. As religious leaders, there are many untapped opportunities at their disposal with what they can do that would be of benefit to them and their congregations and improve on their socio-economic conditions.
“They are already established leaders. It is assumed that because they are Imams, automatically they are leaders but leaders are not necessarily born. You can as well be trained to be a leader. Many of our leaders are either incidental or situational leaders but for those of them that are Imams, this programme will enhance their capability to deliver on their leadership roles and give them more insight into what leadership is all about. This is what informed the choice of the topic.
The position of mosques and Imms in our society has to be impactful in their lives and that of the congregations. They need not always wait to receive stipends or live their lives on the goodwill of the people. They are supposed to be at the forefront of impacting the lives of the congregation for them to be useful and resourceful to the society.
“It is a one-day training programme and as it is, after this, we are going to have a workshop. This is like an expose to other things they are supposed to have known. We partnered with so many government agencies to take them through the benefits of tapping into available opportunities.
The representative of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and coordinator of IDC, Lagos, Sola Oluwole, said, I am here to educate the audience about what we do at SMEDAN and also take them through what it takes to own a business. Many people go into business without knowing what they want to do and how to go about that business. So, we are teaching them what to look out for and what they should be cautious of.
Also present at the conference were representatives of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and Jaiz Bank Plc, who enlightened participants at the conference on capacity building.
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