When words like: vigorous, powerful, bold, adventurous, spirited, impassioned, lively, enthusiastic, active, virile, brisk, charismatic etc., are mentioned, the mind immediately pictures an all action hero; one envisions a fired-up revolutionary whose penchant for change is a wild fire that engulfs and chars the  undesirables  around him. Unfortunately, the old and infirm no matter how much change they dream about cannot dredge up the energy to actuate such lofty visions. But young people are another matter. When they are sufficiently fired up, they can literally move mountains. That's the concept behind the Youth Leadership Awards: an idea (and forum) for holding up exemplary youths as beacons for their peers and society at large. Imagine the possibility when young Nigerians are in the vanguard of leadership; imagine what can happen if youths as a collective stand up for truth, equality and justice.

“RAGE FOR CHANGE” a book by LEAP Africa and which was launched at the 5th Annual Nigerian Leadership Awards had that as its prime thesis, its main driver being to turn Nigerian youth into 'Heroes'. For those whose hasty generalisation is that the Nigerian youth is incapable of providing purposeful life-changing leadership, the ten winners of the 2008 LEAP Africa Youth Leadership Award effectively put a lie to such jaundiced perceptions. The oldest of them, just thirty, Usong Emem, Shetan Segun, Owoeye Babatunde, Obayomi Adeleke, Ma'aji Nura, Agbonfioror Edison, Sam-Emuwa Ifesinachi, Ejekwumadu Nnamdi, Oseni Ibrahim and Messan Lanre, all woke up and effectively said 'we will no longer be captive to the status quo. Instead, we will change the status quo and recreate our reality'. They all are changing lives though their laudable projects across the country. Usong, through his Dewspring International, is providing training in... click here for full details of the story