"Be unique, inspiring leaders" – Chief Justice to MILEAD Fellows

The Chief Justice, Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, has charged 2023 Moremi Initiative Leadership Empowerment Development (MILEAD) Fellows, a group of young African women leaders, to be unique and inspirational in their quest to lead projects meant to solve critical challenges in their communities, countries and Africa at large.

She said the direct benefit of valuing uniqueness was the unlocking of authenticity and creativity because the fear of being different was shed off.

The Chief Justice was addressing the 26 young women who have converged on Accra to kick-start the 2023 MILEAD Fellows programme.

MILEAD Fellow

MILEAD is a leadership development programme designed to identify, develop and promote emerging young African women leaders to attain and succeed in leadership across the continent.

Beneficiaries are young women between the ages of 19-25 who are interested in developing transformational leadership skills that help them address issues facing women and girls across communities in Africa.

Selection is based on open application and successful applicants undergo training to be equipped with the world-class knowledge, skills, values, and support systems they need to succeed as 21st-century women leaders.

The training for this year’s Fellows start with a three-week intensive course at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon. 

Leadership a special quality

Speaking on the theme: “The Power to Lead – A Call to Courageous Leadership,’ the Chief Justice intimated that leadership was a special quality that evolved from the important element of skills, attitudes, aptitudes, unique identity and dreams, adding it was a complex construct that came from personal growth and personal progress.

Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo speaking at the event

She thus encouraged the Fellows to make the most of the opportunity and experiences being availed, stressing that those were necessary to access and thrive in leadership positions, as well as gain knowledge on cutting-edge issues critical to African women and their communities.

“As leaders, it is important to identify your unique trigger points for inspiration, creativity and generation of new ideas.

“Whatever it is, I recommend this quest to you because it flows from your uniqueness and it leads to the place where you find true rejuvenation of mind and emotions, equilibrium and the release of creativity,” she emphasised.

Values-based leadership

In a speech read on her behalf, the Board Chairperson of the Moremi Initiative, Rev. Dr Joyce R. Aryee, charged the 2023 Fellows to uphold values-based leadership in their daily conducts.

She was of the view that values greatly shaped our decisions and choices, both consciously and unconsciously and they even influenced how we execute those decisions and choices hence the need to allow values permeate our daily endeavours.

Development

The co-founder and Managing Director of MILEAD, Mawuli Dake, said the aim of the initiative, founded some 20 years ago, was to invest in the long-term leadership development of a new generation of African women leaders.

A section of the MILEAD Fellows at the event

“We took that effort because we recognised the gap in leadership when it came to women’s representation and participation.

We also recognised that for us to raise the kind of leadership that Africa needed would call for intentional and strategic investment and nurturing so we took that bold step to start the Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa,” he said.