Bukola Ladoja, the President and Founder of the Reading Awareness Society for Development in Africa (RASDA), believes that the solutions to Nigeria’s problems are available in books. Speaking to journalists after the “Readers are Leaders” programme, which was organised for select public secondary school pupils in Ibadan, Ladoja stated that leaders who do not engage in extensive reading are bound to fail.
The aim of the programme was to nurture youths who will become change agents and solution providers. RASDA, which was established in 2007, has been to almost all the geo-political zones in Nigeria, and it already has stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory, Owerri, the Imo State capital, and Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
During the interview, Ladoja noted that RASDA recently launched a new project called “One Child, One Book, One Week” in Abuja. She also disclosed that private schools are gradually embracing the programme, which is a brainchild of RASDA. According to her, parents do not see the correlation between reading and leadership or even success in life, but it is the knowledge from books that will prepare their minds for future leadership.
Ayodele Aliyu, the Director of Training at the National Broadcast Academy in Lagos, spoke on the topic “The Relationship Between Public Speaking and Leadership.” He emphasized that a leader must, through public speaking, be able to move people to action, show feelings for followers, and lead by example..
