Written by Nnamdi Ifejika
…(AKA “THE BOOKS OLYMPICS) COMING UP IN NOVEMBER, USA
Find below the excerpts of an explosive interview he granted a team of Journalists at his base in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
1) What is the 2021 IAAAS Books and Leadership Summit all about?
The books and leadership Summit is an annual book summit to discover and promote African authors while highlighting African authors positive progress and contributions to the global literary warehouse. Books are sold and discussed including the authors’ challenges and success stories while writing to encourage students and aspiring authors. Africa Ambassadors Forum, is another key highlights of the summit, it focuses specially, in a dialogue form, on Africa’s political stability and economic progress. This year’s event is holding between November 5-7 in Atlanta, USA, with a carefully selected theme:
“RE-ENGINEERING AFRICA THROUGH LEARNING LEADERSHIP SKILLS FIRST BEFORE SEEKING LEADERSHIP POSITION”
2) Who are the people qualified to attend this prestigious summit and what are the processes and criteria involved?
Well, the processes and criteria of getting involved are very simple. For instance, registered members of IAAAS are the hosts, while authors, scholars and guests worldwide are invited to pay a certain amount as participation fees to attend. Membership and participation details are clearly and elaborately enumerated on IAAAS website:
www.iaaauthors.org.
I will encourage the readers to visit this site to get to know more about the Association.
3)The “Books Olympics” is one of the key highlights of the event. Please can you explain it’s meaning to us?
Yes, absolutely. The ‘Books Olympics’ is an integral part of the summit. It is an educational event promoting global literacy and literary empowerment for everyone. The Books Olympics is the unique and intense process where books compete among books at the summit and are voted for via live voting process like an election by adults above 18 years. The book which receives the highest number of votes is automatically selected to win the annual OUTSTANDING BOOK PRIZE. It is a very interesting process, as I said before, because instead of the authors competing for their books, it is the books competing to win for their authors. So, it is actually the other way round, which makes the competition very unique and competitive.
*4) What is the current situation of the “Africa International Leadership Institute to be cited in Nigeria and the Fundraising for the project?*
Africa International Leadership Institute (AILI) is one of core essence of IAAAS. That is why it is referred to as a special project of IAAAS with its motto as “Informed Readers Make Great Leaders” and the institute revolutionary leadership curriculum for high impact leaders is designed to re-orient Africans to learn leadership skills first, before seeking leadership position for individual development, organizational growth and nation-building across African countries.
Two State Governors in Nigeria are considering the proposal for it to be sited within their domain. In the same vein, other Governors including philanthropists and entrepreneurs are needed to offer land and support the initiative. We believe firmly that Africa’s progress will be achieved through excellent leadership skills programs and AILI will serve as a continental command campus to coordinate IAAAS Leadership Programs in Africa with special focus on regional leadership skills development programs for youths.
*5) What advice do you have for African leaders and the people of the continent*
African leaders must first see leadership as a selfless service and must lead as a servant leader. Leadership should not be confused as a venture to grab money but a personal sacrifice for an organization, the people and the nation. Anyone without these mindset should stay out of leadership because leadership is “leading for others to live.”
*6) What advice also can you give to upcoming Authors/ writers in Africa*
My advice is very simple. IAAAS organization is for the success of African authors and writers where writing is not just an art but also an intuition involving multiple perspectives. To join IAAAS is reaching the sky for African authors and writers, because we are promoting and bringing together African authors and scholars to meet at the top like the African pyramid that meet in a point at the top. So we encourage everyone to “Get involved to be heard”!
