NOT TOO YOUNG TO RUN BILL (NIGERIA)

How can we the YOUTHS prepare ourselves for the eventuality of LEADERSHIP

Leadership must be prepared for. The youths can build themselves. It is very possible. My suggestion can be long and it can be expanded further, but I would narrow it down to my experience

1. Irrespective of the decayed structures, we can still take advantage of it and learn whatever there is to learn. If there is nothing to learn, at least you can now learn the state of things that need to be changed. And you can learn the ways of men. These are the people you would work with, lead, whose votes you might need etc.
   Simply put, be involved in useful groups or clubs in your school or society e.g. literary club, science club etc.

2. Take part in any opportunity to volunteer. In volunteering, you develop people skills. Ability to work with different people, leadership skills too. Also volunteering can connect you to people you would never have ordinarily met.
   If you read biographies of someone like Obama or Clinton, some of them met senators or the president while volunteering. Although that is not the point. It is a benefit. Also volunteering shows willingness to serve because no material reward is expected in return.

3. Personal development: Read. Study. Consult. We have all heard that readers are leaders. It is simply because reading develops the mind.
   It also informs. In reading you are interacting with another mind.
   It is easy for a rich mind to be creative than a poorly developed mind.
   Also a characteristic of leadership is ability create a vision and motivate men to accomplish it. A vision is a product of the mind.
   Young people should read good books that would enrich their minds. And to also inform. I imagine a young person who hopes to be president of Nigeria but has not read even one account of the Civil war, read nothing about the post-colonial history of Nigeria, nothing about the various political structures the country had from amalgamation till date.
   Nothing about governance, nothing about the philosophy of democracy and federalism, etc
   I wonder what sort of president that would be?
   Such a person cannot handle a country as complex as ours.
   Consult: King Henry VIII asked one of the great thinkers of his time (I forgot his name) how he-i.e. Henry could be a great king. The man replied study poetry, consult philosophers.
   For me, by consultation I mean mentorship.
   Be willing to learn from men who have developed true godly character and we have them all aroud us (we are quite lucky, others aren't).
   Also the elders should consciously try to mentor people.
   Moses did it for Joshua. Paul did it for Titus, Timothy and others. Plato did it for Aristotle. The list is endless.
   I also see this lack of mentorship as the reason why we are having youths that sound spiritual (speaking big things) but no accompanying depth.
   I rest my thought here.
   Thank you for your patience