By Taiwo Akinlami

A virtual birthday lecture, the Taiwo Akinlami Public Lecture recently examined and brought to the front burner of the conscience and consciousness of primary and secondary parents their inevitable roles in providing leadership for children and young people.

The host, Taiwo Akinlami expressed the basic attributes of children and young people, which include the fact that a child is a person of worth, with a sense of judgment and has a power of choice.

The Taiwo AKINLAMI 52^nd Birthday Public Lecture was hosted virtually by The Power Parenting® Company LLC on Saturday, 24^TH March 2022 in commemoration of Taiwo AKINLAMI’s birthday. Taiwo Akinlami is the Chief Executive Officer of the Power Parenting® Company LLC.

The program, which theme is Mentoring Generations Z & A For Community Service, Nation Building and Global Relevance was well attended by participants from different cities across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Introduction                                                             

Taiwo Akinlami introduced all the panelists including Dr. (Mrs.) Femi Ogunsanya the Founder and Managing Director, Oxbridge Tutorial College, Lagos Nigeria, Dr Nelson Aluya a Physician, Medical Advocate, Medical Missionary, and President: NAPAC USA (Nigerian American Public Affairs Committee USA), Chris Borja an Author, Speaker, Coach and a Connector, Founder/CEO – Become a Better Networker. CEO – CONNECTED Networking Group, CEO – Borja Virtual and Olakunle Soriyan a Futurist/Iconoclast, CEO Africa House, And Tx Founder Kenneth Soriyan Research and Ideas LLC.

The panelists raised key issues which included:

• The need to mentor Generations Z and A to ensure that their energy is channeled towards positive activities and commitments.
• The need to understand Generations Z and A and their distinctive characteristics, such as the fact that they are pragmatic, they adopt the Do it Yourself (DIY) approach, they have global connections, they demand fast response, they are quite innovative and acquire knowledge quickly, they are Tech savvy, they love to be attentive, they are quite demanding, like to stand out and be acknowledged
• The culture of mentorship must be replaced with the prevalent culture of guardianship, particularly in Africa and among Africans in diaspora. While guardianship focuses on leading young people in the direction of the predominant desires of the guardian, while mentorship is to help our young people to discover their unique identity and explore to the fullest capabilities their God-given potentials.
• The challenge with our societies today is not erosion of value system as it is often believed. The real challenge with today’s young people is that our precious young people are not prepared by their primary and secondary parents to understand, handle and triumph over the complexities of options, accentuated by the advent of the new and social medium.

The panelists’ proffering solutions called for:

• Proper understanding to be employed while mentoring Generations Z & A. The need to understand their peculiarity and in doing this wisdom should be employed to build the capacities of these generations.
• It was agreed that mentorship is a two-way phase, it entails listening to the mentees, encouraging, and allowing them to speak when they want to.
• To be an efficient mentor to Generations Z and A there is a need to master the art of asking questions, because this creates room for better communication.
• The culture of mentorship where resources are provided, and mentees allowed to explore, and grow be adopted rather than guardianship be adopted while dealing with Generations Z and A.
• Primary and secondary parents should never give up on children because they are either victims or beneficiaries of our examples. They need believers who would positively influence them.
• Rather than the persecution of Generation Z and A there is a need to understand them.
• The education of Generations Z and A must embrace and prioritize Soft Skills, undergirded by Positive Value System over hard skills, noting that Harvard University research has found that 80% of success in life and career is attributable to the acquisition and mastering of soft skills.

The program ended with the official launch of mission KINDNESS, which is a program aimed at training young people to embrace the culture of KINDNESS (Keeping Individual Dignity), an anti-bullying club to exist in communities, schools and child-focused institutions.

The Power Parenting® Company LLC promotes Parenting Education as a social transformation and nation-building instrument to help African parents including parents of Africa descent everywhere raise children, aware and conscious of their identity and uniqueness, well rounded in the knowledge of their cultural heritage and globally compliant, capable of interpreting and defining their role and stake in everyday issues of contemporary life, at the highest level possible as global citizens.

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