The Lead Generation Initiative (LGI), a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organization, on Sunday 29th November 2020 went on an excursion to the late Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Tomb Complex in Bauchi, Bauchi state, where the remains of the first Prime Minister of Nigeria was laid to rest.
The LGI, which just rounded off its two-day intensive capacity building training in leadership and governance tagged “Get Involved Leadership Training (GILT)”, for youths from Bauchi and Gombe states, acknowledged the unique leadership strength of the late Sir Tawafa Balewa, who indigenously hailed from Bauchi, the host state for the third and fourth editions of GILT.
During the excursion, the LGI team visited and donated books to the historic library within the Tafawa Balewa Tomb Complex which contains some of the personal collections of the late eloquent first Prime Minister of Nigeria.
Presenting a book titled “YOUTHOCRACY: LEADERSHIFT FOR DEVELOPMENT” authored by the National Secretary of the LGI, Ekpa, Stanley Ekpa to the management of the library, the Executive Director of the LGI, Mrs. Ayobola Peller described the late Tafawa Balewa as a great personality whose leadership traits and qualities are worth emulating.
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In his remarks, the author of the book, Ekpa, Stanley Ekpa, explained that the book is meant to bring to the fore the salient values of leadership, citizenship, and nation-building that would help the new generation of leaders to galvanize their generation for the development of their communities and our country.
He said,
“Just like the values that define our Late hero Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, this new generation can only build a functional, productive and safe Nigeria if they imbibe new cultures of governance and citizenship – good leadership is not a function of age but great credentials of capacity, competence, vision and character. This is what the book portends.”
The idea to construct Tafawa Balewa Tomb was initiated in 1975 by the Military Administration under General Yakubu Gowon, but its construction did not start until 1977 during the Military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and it was commissioned in 1979.
The symbolic tomb was designed to reflect the simplicity life of the late Prime Minister, his childhood and educational background, his open-mindedness, the grief of his assassination, the challenge he and his colleagues were confronted with in their effort to liberate Nigeria from colonialism as well as the attainment of independence with the election of Sir Tafawa Balewa as the first Prime Minister.