Youth aspiring to be leaders should be creative – former President Kufuor

• Former President John
Agyekum Kufuor

Former President John, Agyekum Kufuor, has entreated the youth aspiring to become leaders to be creative and look beyond the confines of the nation.

He said creativity was all that Ghana needed “as we have all the natural resources in the country and what is left is the human resources which we have but are not harnessing them.”

The former President was speaking at the 15th MTN Pulse Africa Transform Summit at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST) on Saturday.

It was on the theme: ‘15 years of Transformational Leadership, highlights on Africa Role model Awards and Role model convocation.”

The former President commended Dr Andy Osei Okrah, founder and President of the Young Professionals and Youth Coalition (YPYC) and governing board of the Organisation for organising the event.

He urged them to be more focused as they set themselves to groom and raise young professionals and youth leaders.

Dr Okrah explained that their mission was to raise and groom generational thinkers and transformational leaders, “because good leadership is the problem of Africa.”

He noted that they were not just training leaders “but leaders whose minds are transformed and if they continue to groom themselves, they would become the expected leaders for the nation and Africa.”

Dr Okrah disclosed that within the 15 years journey of the programme they have been able to reach over 30,000 young people with the engagement.

Additionally, he indicated that currently 100,000 were indirectly reached through social media and 500 transformational leaders have been trained “and we are working with some of them.”

According to him, they have over 150 role models and not ordinary role models, including Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, fromer President, John Kufuor, Former President and the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, former Defence Minister, and some ministers of state and Nananom.

Some dignitaries such as the Asantehene, former President Mahama, Mr Haruna Idrisu, Dr Randy Abbey, Dr Amin Alhassan Adams, and Minister of finance were awarded for their performances and life time achievements.

Amarado, a musician with a hit song, Ananse story, and others also received awards in various categories in performances and life time achievements as role models

FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, KUMASI