Youth have been advised to be versatile, thoughtful and knowledge-seeking in order to equate themselves with the reality of the 21^st century. This was one of the numerous inspirational tips thrown to the teeming young people earlier today at the last episode of the Inspiring Leadership Reflection Interactive Series (ILERIS) in 2019. ILERIS is a monthly inspirational and mentorship engagement Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) organizes mainly for the youth. Earlier this month, CITAD hosted an academic, Arc. Prof. Abdullahi Abubakar of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria at a similar gathering at it’s headquarters in Kano.

Today’s ILERIS took place at CITAD Jama’are office where a renown personality from the community, Dr. Adamu Ahmad Abdullahi was hosted in a three hour interactive session with young people from around Jama’are local government. Dr. Ahmad, a traditional title holder of Sa’i in Jama’are emirate is presently a director at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), he spent quiet sometime to talking to the youth about his educational journey, community service, life struggles, hard and best times, challenges and keys to overcoming the challenges, accomplishments and tips to recording the accomplishments, what makes a successful person and how one can be successful in whatever they do in life.

The session began with opening prayer after which welcomes and opening remarks were made by the Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Engr. Y.Z. Ya’u. In the welcome remarks, Ya’u began with a background of the monthly event, he said CITAD started it in 2016 out of it’s passion for shaping young people’s live so that they become great achievers and by extension impact positively in their societies. He noted that for the period of years that CITAD initiated the monthly inspiration and mentorship event, it has hosted a number of renown personalities from different walks of life who have installed zeal and hands-on direction of either choosing a career, profession or pursuing successful business through tapping from the wealth of experience and stories of the academics, businessmen and women, leaders, clerics, activists, pundits, etc it has engaged. Y.Z. observed that youth are pillars of building societies as such they need to be properly guided so that communities and the nation at large will be proud of them.

Born in 1957, the guest speaker, Dr. Ahmad Adamu Abdullahi started his presentation with a brief on what and where he studied, his happy and sad moments and how he handled challenges and obstacles. He said the keys to achieving success in everything one does are perseverance, commitment adaptation adding that the youth of today must embrace and leverage information and communication technology as hardly anything is done without it. After his presentation, the participants engaged him in comments, questions and answers session where different questions were asked and comments made. Responding to a particular question put to him by a graduate of economics participant, Dr. Ahmad said there are opportunities and prospects everywhere, what the youth need is perseverance and determination, he cited numerous successful businesses and entrepreneurs that according to had gone through hard time times and endured and that is reason they are role models for many today, so, he added “be very good in either your profession or business and you will succeed”.

More than fifty (50) youth attended the event. The session ended with a closing prayer, vote of thanks and presentation of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) publication to the guest speaker.