Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has kicked off a major youth-focused leadership drive, training nearly 1,000 head boys, head girls, and senior prefects from secondary schools across Ogun State on ethics, responsibility, and nation-building. The programme, held in Abeokuta, marked the maiden edition of the Olusegun Obasanjo Leadership Training Programme for Secondary School Prefects, organised by the Olusegun Obasanjo Leadership Institute (OOLI).
Speaking to the young leaders, Obasanjo stressed that a strong nation cannot be built on economic or political growth alone — it must stand on solid ethical values and a deep sense of social responsibility. He described social responsibility as a moral obligation for both individuals and institutions, a culture that must be upheld if Nigeria truly wants sustainable progress.
Obasanjo highlighted the prefect system as an early leadership incubator, reminding the students that prefects carry delegated authority and must act with discipline, maturity, and integrity. Whether as sanitation, food, or devotion prefects, he said their responsibilities are “a little of a teacher’s authority,” and must be exercised with exemplary conduct. He further encouraged them to adopt structured personal development using Edwin Locke’s Goal-Setting Theory as a roadmap for clarity, discipline, and growth.
Ogun State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, praised the initiative, describing it as perfectly aligned with the state’s education reform agenda under Governor Dapo Abiodun. He told the students that true leadership is rooted in service and character, urging them to carry their new knowledge back to their schools and become role models of excellence.
Also speaking at the event, Professor Peter Okebukola, member of the OOLI Governing Board, explained that the vision behind the institute is to raise responsible leaders from the family level up to national and global spaces. With over 25,000 secondary schools across Nigeria, he noted that the programme will eventually extend to head boys and head girls nationwide. According to him, the goal is to unlock the leadership potential already embedded in young Nigerians and strengthen it through deliberate, structured training.
Okebukola emphasized that today’s prefects are tomorrow’s vice-chancellors, governors, senators — even global figures — and that capacity building is essential to prepare them for the roles destiny may place in their path.
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