Welcome Address by the President of TLT International, Hon. Roland Gabriel at the maiden edition of TLT INTERNATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS 9th Feb 2019

Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen!

All protocols observed.

It is my great pleasure, as the Founder and President of Tomorrow's Leaders Today(TLT) International to host this event and to welcome you all to Owerri, Imo State to this maiden edition of TLT INTERNATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS. 

First of all, I would like to thank The Awards Planning Committee for putting this event together in a very short period of time. And my appreciation goes to Everyone here, who despite their tight schedule honoured our invitation. This is a day I know a lot of us have been looking forward to.

The Idea for this Awards event was initiated over 15 years ago but the decision to finally hold this event was made this January, 2019 as it was long over due and time for us to honour truly inspiring individuals who have exhibited excellence in their different fields of endeavor.

The theme for this maiden edition is Youth Participation in leadership in Nigeria and as this an election year (2019), I do not think there would be a more appropriate theme. 

As a young person who have excelled despite very challenging circumstances, I really believe in young people. That is why I am here with you today - and why our Organization is hosting this maiden edition of TLT INTERNATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS.

We must understand what it means to be a youth and also what Leadership is all about for the sake of clarity. 

Youth refers to people who have energy, vigour and enthusiasm to get things done, it is a state of mind not a function of Age. It can be a roller-coaster of emotions, with an unstable sense of self-esteem, Insecurity, loneliness and disguised vulnerability.It also carries endless possibilities, creativity, curiosity, energy, impatience and guts. It holds a special joy of life.

Every single one of us is unique and each person lives life differently. Everyone has resources, everyone has skills, personality and experience that deserve to be discovered and nurtured. Today, more than half of the world's population is under the age of 35. And the youth around the world and in Nigeria will not only determine our future, they define what the world looks like today.

A simple definition of leadership on the other hand, is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

Youth Participation in leadership in Nigeria has been basically neglected and a false mindset has been created that the youth lack capacity. 

This being the case, it is upon us all to rise and challenge this narrative and this can only be achieved by the youths taking the step to make a difference. 

We must rise up and be determined and prepared for the tasks ahead, the challenges of Nigeria as a country should afford us the opportunity to make the necessary impact and change in our leadership mentality. We should not keep quiet especially when we can make a difference as we all have the potential and it is upon us to display it thereby contributing in our own different ways and standing up to play our part to create a powerful cascade. 

This country will change the moment we all have solidarity in order to face our common goal, which is to fix Nigeria in General and our immediate society in particular. All hands must be on deck to create a new definition of the progress we desire and we should make effort to identify like minds who will share our vision of a better society. 

It is essential that our generation of youth must be persistent to find and identify their place of relevance in the socio-political, socio-economically political re-framing of our society or else our potentials remains untapped while there is little inspiration to draw from the present generation of leaders who contributed to the socially, politically and economically depressive state of the country, the Nigerian youths must be ready to do critical self-assessment and self development to attain state of awareness, discipline and enlightenment required to snatch the baton of leadership and steward.

Youths in the Nigerian constitution refer to persons between ages 18 and 35, so how come the youth leaders of majority of the political parties in Nigeria are above 45 years? This question and many more are part of the problem facing the youth that has incapacitated them to fully partake in issues of the nation building.

Now I stand to say boldly that youths, are fully capable though chances might not be given but they are fully aware, ready, educated to create chances for ourselves as youths will be the building blocks of every developed nation, the stronger the youth of a country, the more developed that country. The youth majorly need to stoop to conquer and make it to their expectation with self-reliance and determination. 

We must never relent in our effort to make appreciable impact and continue to encourage each other to participate in the leadership and development of our society.

Starting from this year (2019), we will be presenting awards to individuals and institutions that, in our opinion, have distinguished themselves more than their peers in their fields of endeavor and have been a source of inspiration and encouragement to young people. We are very proud of our choices of recipients who have been selected this year. I am sure none of the award winners knew they were going to be selected before they received their letters. I am confident to say that the TLT INTERNATIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS will become the most respected awards of any youth (focused) organization in no time. And we pledge to continue to maintain our integrity and very high standard.

I wish to thank you all for coming and hope that you have a pleasurable evening.