Award-winning Relationship Coach, Kingsley Okonkwo, Bags Myles University’s Honorary Doctorate Award

Peter Uzoho

Multiple award-winning author, relationship coach and Founder/ Lead Pastor of the Lagos-based David Christian Centre (DCC), Pastor Kingsley Okonkwo
has received an award of Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in Transformational Leadership, from Myles Leadership University, India.

The award conferred on Okonkwo in Lagos over the weekend at the Myles Leadership University’s 2022 Convocation, was in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the areas of youth development, spiritual leadership, mentorship, leadership, and philanthropy.

Presenting the award to Okonkwo, the school stated that his leadership qualities and profundity of thoughts had placed him on a pedestal above all his equals.

It explained that the honorary Doctorate Award acknowledges that the recipient deserved to be recognized for his unsurpassed abilities due to life’s learning and experiences.

Speaking to journalists after receiving the award, the cleric said the award conferred on him by the school had encouraged him to do more to better the society.

“When we work, we don’t know whether anybody is noticing, we don’t know whether it’s making an impact. But awards like this remind us again that people are watching, people are being touched and it’s an encouragement to do more than we’ve ever done,” Okonkwo enthused.

However, commenting on the leadership situation in Nigeria, he decried the deficiency in the country’s leadership, saying the time had come for the country to get better leaders that would transform the country.

He also charged the next president of Nigeria, next state governors and other political leaders to make education and development of young people major part of their administration’s agenda.

Adding that Nigeria and Africa had been backward in the area of education, the minister said the situation should be a wake-up call for everyone to pay attention to education as the bedrock of human and national transformation.

Okonkwo stated, “Definitely, Nigeria has been a bit deficient in the leadership arena. But I believe we are at the turn of the season when leadership could get better, thank God for schools like Myles Leadership University and other institutions that are helping to build leadership. I believe we are at the turn of the season when leadership will become better and better in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole.

“We have been a bit backward educationally as a continent. So, I think it’s just a wake-up call that we should pay attention to education because that is how you build people’s mind and it’s those minds that will now build the country.

“So, we definitely have not paid much attention to education and I think it’s high time we paid attention to that. Whoever is the next government coming in has to put priority on developing minds of young people.”

Opining that Nigeria’s problem had gone beyond just leadership failure in government, the cleric noted that leaders come from families and therefore, there was need to work through the families and help people become better human beings that would ultimately translate to good leaders.

“If the people get it right from the family level, we will not even begin to have bad leaders because if people are good, they will bring good leaders. So, people should just be more caring, more considerate of their neighbours and let’s start to work towards a better Nigeria from the populace. We are more in number than the leaders. So, if we get it right, we will get leadership right as well”, he added.