The Clement Abonyi Foundation, in collaboration with South-West Association of the Deaf (SWAD) has trained Southwest Deaf leaders on ways to address conflicts in the Association and in financial management.
Executive Director of the foundation, Clement Abonyi, while addressing leaders virtually at the 3-day event said the program was organized to give back to the community he gained so much from.
Abonyi urged deaf heads to be good leaders, take responsibility and be of good behavior toward members. He also charged them to desist from conflict of interests and work together to achieve common goals.
Abonyi says, “Your leadership will present your organization a big difference. Generational deaf children will learn from you”.
A speaker at the event, Mr. Adelani Mohammed says conflict is as old as our world, we can’t escape it. What we can do is to accept it as part of life. Conflict will surely come, but what’s important is how we address it.
“Leaders should prepare themselves for conflict before they accept to lead, they should accept it as part of life.”
“Many deaf leaders have poor human relationship skills. Let’s learn to relate with respect to individuals. We need to learn how to separate individual differences from association matters. Therefore, though we may have individual problems, we should not let it affect the association.
“The Government is trying to wake up to their responsibilities but if we are not united among ourselves we can’t achieve our aims.
Mohammed urged deaf leaders to imbibe the culture of having good relationship with others.
Mrs Agatha Ugwu-Olaniyi, also a facilitator at the event, while speaking on financial management, charged deaf leaders to avoid conflict caused by money.
She said one of the root causes of conflict in leadership is money. It is therefore important to have good knowledge of financial management in leadership.
The leaders were also trained on Project planning and mapping, Human Rights, Interpersonal Relationship, among others. Barrister Prosphen Dumi, Dr. Lekan Mohammed, Dr Gabriel Soje, Mr. Sulaimon Akinremi, and Mr. Adelani mohammed, were among the training facilitators.