Sixteen youths selected as the first set of Kashim Ibrahim Fellows will commence their year-long fellowship on Thursday, 2nd August 2018. Zainab Mohammed, the Programme Administrator, said that the fellows will be welcomed at an opening ceremony in Kaduna by Malam Nasir El-Rufai and the members of the governing board of the Kashim Ibrahim Ibrahim Fellowship, led by Hakeem Belo-Osagie.
The Kashim Ibrahim Fellows Programme is a leadership training platform for young people introduced by the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai. Fellows will go through a one-year immersion in public service by working at the heart of government. During this one year, the fellows will also be engaged in reflection, lectures and seminars on leadership. Governor El-Rufai introduced the fellowship programme in February 2018, as a concrete contribution to providing young people a pathway to leadership.
The young fellows will spend their first few days in the programme in seminars and discussions to introduce them to the larger issues of leadership and the particular details of how the Kaduna State Government works. They will afterwards be assigned to senior officials across the government.
The Governing Board announced the successful candidates on 27th June 2018 at an event at the Government House, Kaduna, which is named after Sir Kashim Ibrahim, who was Governor of the Northern Region. The fellows emerged from the over 1300 applications that were submitted online to the Kashim Ibrahim Fellows Programme portal by the deadline of 20th March 2018.
The Steering Committee selected 271 of the entries for the next stage during which their CVs, essays and letters of recommendation were assessed. The top 66 were then invited to submit video entries of their responses to three questions. The 31 most impressive entries were then forwarded to the Governing Board which met on 23rd May 2018 to settle on the final 16.
Seven of the 16 fellows are female. Kaduna State residents constitute half of the fellows, while the others are from other parts of Nigeria. The fellows that will be resuming are:
* Eyinnaya Danjuma Chukwueke
* Aminu Rabi Usman
* Fatima Kensington
* Muhammad Maccido Usman
* Dorcas Kadangs
* Jatau Jemimah Magaji
* Abdulhakeem Muhammad Miko
* Ali Anas Sani
* Abimbola K. Adetunji
* Aliyu Suleiman Iya
* Ibrahim Tasiu
* Michael Medubi
* Leonell Echa
* Musa Muhammad Kona
* Abubakar Saleh Joji
* Rebecca Maulome Padonu
Malam Nasir El-Rufai said that he is looking forward to working with the first set of fellows to establish the Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship as a veritable platform for building young leaders. “I am delighted by the enthusiastic response of young people to the idea of the Kashim Ibrahim Fellows Programme. I look forward to welcoming the first set of fellows and working with them to build leadership capacity.”
The Kashim Ibrahim Fellowship is governed by a board chaired by Hakeem Belo-Osagie. The other members are: Dele Olojede, Hadiza Bala-Usman, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, Bilya Bala, Barbara Barungi, Japheth Omojuwa, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, Jimi Lawal, Iboroma Akpana, Kadaria Ahmed and Segun Adeniyi.