All roads led to the National Theatre, the venue of the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria (CYON) Lagos Archdiocesan Leadership Seminar and Fashion Showcase tagged “Youth Enterprise Network (YEN)”. It was a perfect avenue to learn, relearn and unlearn. With over six hundred youths from different parishes across the state, it presented the opportunity to network and increase their net worth.
The event, which was anchored by the notable MC Gentle and reality TV star JayPaul, comprised master classes and panel discussions on relevant topics tied to being employable, enterprising and creative. It featured an array of distinguished speakers and resource persons who did justice to the topics.
A master class titled “Employable Leaders in the 21st Century” was facilitated by Babajide Fadipe, Employability Officer in the Employability Unit of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). One of the main highlights of his presentation was the three Ls of leadership, which stated that leaders must be learners, listeners and learned. Furthermore, he explained that leadership is important in the workplace because it improves morale, engages people, builds trusting relationships, inspires confidence and enables innovation.
According to him, the true test of knowledge is in the questions asked and not the questions answered. In other words, the ability to be a deep thinker is crucial to the leadership of one’s self then others. He talked at length about the required skills for employment and why it was important to have both technical and soft skills. He also talked about the essence of communicating your value as an applicant.
A panel session moderated by Elizabeth Ojiabor aka MC Ecool focused on God-minded leadership in the 21st century. The key takeaways were having a strong support system, building one’s capacity, engaging mentors, and valuing on-the-job coaching. Members of the panel included: Mr Chijioke Ezugwu, former president, CYON Lagos Archdiocese; Mrs Temitayo Sogbola, Head, Risk Management and Compliance at Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN); Reverend Sister Anthonia Mary Fuwa, Coordinator of the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), Ikeja Deanery; and Honourable Ayotunde Adenuga, Leader of the House, Ikeja Local government.
Oladoyin Kolawole, Senior Youth Engagement and Learning Associate at Jobberman led a session on job interview skills. She was proud of her organisation’s role in training one million youths on soft skills, and in her talk, she laid emphasis on self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-analysis as soft skills to possess. She had a mock interview demonstration with a participant which served as a precursor to the mock interview sessions that took place later with reps from both Jobberman Nigeria and FMN. In total 190 youths participated in the mock interview sessions.
Up next was a panel discussion on creative content as a means of building next-generation leaders, moderated by Ilobah JayC, Director of Socials (DOS), CYON Lagos Archdiocese. On the panel were two top creative industry professionals, Elozonam and Jay Paul. They spoke extensively on how they started their career in content creation, the challenges they faced, and provided advice to an audience based on their experiences. Elozonam noted that consistency and dedication to growth pay off. He added that failure was part of life and that it was part of the process. According to him, the reward is during the process and not the end. Jay Paul emphasised that it is good to be passionate about what one does, and urged the audience to never give up and keep creating engaging content.
The event also featured fashion and music. The audience were serenaded by songs from artists such as Callme6, JayP, Michael Scott, and Dynamix, as well as music acts from CYON that were shortlisted from the pre-event selection stage. And with regard to fashion, the audience was blown away by exquisite designs and wearable attires from Dynamic Fashion, Krisz model, the Graffiti Chamze, Loose Ties, Elle Benie, and Damian couture among others.
In between the various activities of the day, participants were able to have interactions with the various brands at their respective booths while networking among themselves. The event also unveiled the Archdiocesan Youth Day (AYD) logo, and its designer Chinedu Njoku gave a detailed explanation of the significance of each of the logo’s components. AYD, an annual gathering of Catholic youths across Lagos is coming up on 13 August 2023, and hosted by Island Deanery.
In closing, CYON president Chukwuemeka Anyiam-Osigwe thanked all present for their active participation, and gave special thanks to Most Rev. Dr. Alfred Adewale Martins, the Archbishop of Lagos for making the event a reality. This was followed by the closing prayer by the Lagos Archdiocesan Youth Chaplain, Reverend Father Gabriel, Odunaiya. Follow CYON Lagos Archdiocese on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for updates on their upcoming events.
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