NNAD 2024 ELECTION: SIX QUALITIES OF CHIDI/HARUNA’s LEADERSHIP PROWESS

Naturally, the sustenance, growth and optimum performance of every family, clan, community, and/or organization depends squarely on the strength and efficacy of its leadership heads. This is naturally true with the current NNAD’s leadership in terms of growth and unprecedented development recorded over a short spell of three buzzing years.

The sudden upsurge in terms of performance index of national leadership of NNAD is tied to the combined splended leadership prowess exhibited by Dr. Chidi Oluijie and Alh Haruna Mohammed in the past three years and a half of their stewardship as president and vice president of NNAD.

The duo has outlived the high expectations of NNAD members by performing wonders, demonstrated strong leadership skills and architecture in place that helped to eliminate many stumbling blocks casting a spell on NNAD’s path to development in all facets of life.

Conversely, three and a half eventful years have just gone by with Dr. Chidi Olujie and Alh. Haruna Mohammed at the helm of NNAD’s affairs, but the goodies delivered by this administration under the watchful eyes of Dr. Chidi are quite many and these excellent achievements have made many of us to conclude that it was three years full of many goodies to munch.

In spite of the fact that the current administration began full operation at the peak of the dreaded Covid-19 era (2020), the leadership of NNAD under the guidance of Dr. Chidi and Alh. Haruna is not perturbed by the threat possessed by the pandemic. As the leadership has demonstrated enough maturity in ensuring that it delivers the goodies amidst turbulent period of time the world has ever seen. In this treaty, we looked at the nicest manner the NNAD’s President and his supportive Vice president skillfully deployed an unusual leadership dexterity never witnessed in the history of NNAD to innovatively addressed the yearning aspirations of NNAD members across the width and breadth of Nigeria;

1. CAPACITY BUILDING AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Alarmed by the abysmal lack of empowerment opportunity for the Deaf especially the seemingly, ever-increasing decline in leadership experience among many stakeholders of NNAD and youths. The first thing Dr. Chidi’s administration did upon assuming the mantle of leadership was partnered with international donors like USAID etc to conduct the first capacity building training workshop for the newly elected NNAD National Executives in 2020 in Abuja. The weeklong workshop enable the new executives to acquire fundamental skills and knowledge about leadership rudiments and this has greatly helped them in understanding the roles and duties they are elected to perform. This is what helped the administration to be more committed and focus on providing genuine leadership for the overall progress of NNAD

2) PARTNERSHIP WITH GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY
Prior to the commencement of Dr. Chidi administrations, NNAD under the leadership of Alh. Suleiman Dagbo, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gallaudet University to facilitate the development of Deaf Education in Nigeria. However, the partnership entered into between NNAD leadership started to yield positive results under Dr. Chidi’s administration as a result of his international prestige and connection with the institution, this no doubt has helped greatly in imparting knowledge and development of Deaf Education in Nigeria. This is seen in the series of educationally focused training under the name “Deaf E3 project” conducted across the country by the Gallaudet University in Nigeria. This is great achievement for NNAD.

3) PEACE BUILDING AND RECONCILIATION
Before Chidi emerged as the NNAD’s president, some NNAD members across the country were divided across religious, regional and tribal lines, leading to lack of unity, disagreement and conflict among members. Dr. Chidi and Haruna’s magnificent leadership prowess helped greatly to settle disputes among conflicting figures in some state Associations across the country. The administration also helped to unite members of NNAD to perceive themselves as one, indivisible entity through a series of online and physical meetings.

4) RE-DRAFTING AND ADOPTION OF NEW NNAD CONSTITUTION
The coming of Dr. Chidi’s administration has helped greatly in preserving the integrity and stability of NNAD. One such great contribution to strengthening the stability of NNAD is the appointment of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) to review the NNAD’s constitution and made amendment where needed. The committee has done a great job with full backing of Dr. Chidi’s administration to complete its work and the good news is NNAD is now proud to have a constitution of its own that is adopted and accepted by all members.

5). INTRODUCTION OF NATIONAL DEAF YOUTH/WOMEN SUMMIT
Before the coming of Chidi’s administration, youth and women are not given adequate attention in the scheme of things in NNAD, they are merely used as tool for divided interest especially during elections and dumped afterwards. But Chidi, being a youth himself saw the urgent need to accommodate youth and women in his administration and give them a sense of belonging to have a say in his leadership and feel a sense of belonging. To achieve this, the administration came up with the innovative idea of conducting a yearly youth and women focused summits separately in order to provide a platform for discussing, harnessing, analyzing problems of youth/ women and providing practical solutions to such identified problems. This project has helped greatly in promoting youth and women inclusion NNAD under Dr. Chidi’s administration.

6) PROMOTING INCLUSION AND OPEN DOOR POLICIES
It takes great strength in leadership qualities of a leader to run an-all-embracing and all-inclusive administration devoid of all forms of discrimination whatsoever. Dr. Chidi and Alh. Haruna have mastered this kind of attitude towards leadership. In the past three and a half years they have been demonstrating great sense of openness by welcoming every patriotic Deaf Nigerians especially those who are genuinely committed to give their times, energy and resources as well as their good wills in promoting the objectives of NNAD. This is quite visible in a number of policies and programmes championed by the current administration. Of a particular note is how the two leaders opened door for every member of NNAD to have a say and contribute to the debate on the just concluded constitution amendment exercise. How freedom of information are allowed to flow in the association and how the leadership of NNAD openly declared its intention to carry all members along in the scheme of things are all clear testaments to open door policy instrument of Chidi/Haruna’s leadership prowess.