YALI RLC: My Experience (Day 2)

Monday, the 25th day of September 2017, started with the physical exercise which was carried out by virtually every participant in his or her room (if you did yours outdoors, please signify), between 6 and 7am. What followed was the breakfast. Why many participants (including me) came late to the restaurant for breakfast may not be as a result of the physical exercise that was personally 'carried out'; the lateness may be traced to the long day coupled with the inaugural dinner we had yesterday. Nonetheless, almost everyone got him/herself some good breakfast between 7 and 8am.

After breakfast, of course, was Leadership and Accountability session with the title 'Leading Self' which was brilliantly handled by Dr. Joseph Darmoe from Ghana. He started by stating how the stage of leadership can be well set: attracting capable people; motivating them to put forth their best efforts in everything they find worth doing; and, together with these capable people, solving problems that arise. He continued by saying, 'leaders influence others by their deeds and ideas'.

He further stated that there are 3 types of leaders: teachers; heroes; and rulers; and that leadership is a function of the individual (who leads), situation and followers. We dwelt very richly on the qualities of the individual before we proceeded on snacks-break at about half past 10 and returned to the lecture room at about 11.

We continued with the environmental factors that have one effect or the other on leadership, and saw some highly intriguing videos that ushered us into learning the 10 qualities that make a leader. Although, before lunch time, we couldn't exhaust the 10 qualities, but we were able to learn well the first 5: vision; ability; enthusiasm; stability; and concern for others. I'll add that I learnt that, 'if you haven't paid the price yet, don't expect the prize.' Questions of different kinds that were posed got fantastic and interesting answers. Contributions, too, were made. (Dr. Joseph Darmoe is actually a very talented leader whose class wasn't at any moment boring.) We all, including the facilitators, proceeded to the restaurant for lunch at about 1pm. (Got myself pounded yam with egunsi soup.)

We got back to the lecture room at about half past 2 for a not-the-formal-type-of-debate which was moderated by Dr. Uwem Akangson. Everyone actually actively participated in this debate but nominated whom spoke on their behalf. The debate was actually to get us prepared for the formal debate that came up on Wednesday.

Immediately after the debate was the ASCON ICT session where we were made to know that every YALI participant now has the access to make use of the institution's Wi-Fi. We were told to get in touch with the institution's ICT team to get our respective usernames and passwords.

Day 2’s activities, of course, ended with a nice dinner.

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