Joseph Ibekwe Commits 45,000 Hours of Voluntary Service
Dr. Joseph Ibekwe Commits 45,000 Hours of Voluntary Service to the Nation
Recommendation for National Productivity Merit Award
Dr. Joseph Ibekwe, Founder/CEO, of the Foundation for Leadership & Education Development (FLED), is reported to have committed 45 360 hours of Voluntary Service to the nation and humanity in the past 27 years.
On October 31, 1997, Joseph Ibekwe resigned from his position as the Deputy Science Editor at The Daily Times of Nigeria to take up full-time Voluntary Service at the NGO Foundation for Leadership and Education Development (FLED) from November 1, 1997. This was because of his passion and patriotic zeal to help youths find purpose, receive life skills, and become better citizens able to contribute to national development.
For 27 years, Dr. Ibekwe has served as a volunteer development worker at FLED, an NGO he founded in 1995 while working as a Journalist at the Daily Times. Through the NGO, he has laboured to build the lives of youths through diverse programs and the leadership competence of many professionals. As a volunteer worker, Joseph has not been on any salaries or allowances for sustenance. He has not received any foreign funding for the work he committed to doing but has generated support through the social capital he has built over the years. As a volunteer, he has laboured through sweat and sheer perseverance to achieve so much over the years on national assignments.
Working an average of 7 hours per day, 20 days a month, every year for the past 27 years (Nov. 1997- Nov. 2024), Joseph has committed 45, 360 hours of Voluntary Service to the nation and humanity. This is discounting the hours he had previously given on a part-time basis, while maintaining full employment as a journalist at the Daily Times, until October 31, 1997.
On November 12, 2024, Joseph Ibekwe turned 60 years old, and he also marked his 30 years as a Development Worker, volunteering without salary and Government support. The impact of Joseph Ibekwe’s voluntary service to the nation is visible and verifiable.
Just this week, we read that the President of the United States of America, Mr. Joe Biden, bestowed the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. NNAEMEKA Umerah, a Nigerian-born American bestowed Professor of Medicine, recognizing his 4,500 hours of Voluntary Service to the nation and humanity. In the President’s letter conveying the award, Mr. Biden said, “I congratulate you on taking it upon yourself to contribute to the public good….by sharing your time and passion, you are helping discover and deliver solutions to the challenges that we need now more than ever”.
Joseph has taken it upon himself to promote Youth leadership development in Nigeria in the past 27 years in full-time voluntary service. He had done a lot, committing more than 45, 000 hours of community service to the nation. Over the years, he has trained and mentored more than 10,000 youths in leadership including secondary school prefects who have attended his Leadership Skills Enhancement Course for School Prefects in Nigeria.
We consider it most appropriate to recommend him for a National Honour or the Conferment of National Productivity Merit Award. We want the National Productivity Centre (NPC) to consider Dr. Joseph Ibekwe for the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award, after due diligence to ascertain his works and the impacts.
Dr. Joseph Ibekwe is the President of Fled International Leadership Institute, a graduate leadership school he established in 1999 to nurture transformational public leaders in Nigeria and beyond. He is also the founder, Africa Centre for Public Leadership – ACPL, a continental membership organization of transformational public leaders in Africa. He is also a Member of the Youth Workers Association, the umbrella body of professional youth development workers in Nigeria.
We believe that when genuine labours of patriots like these are recognized, it will spur and encourage the emergence of more patriots. We strongly recommend Dr. Jospeh Ibekwe for an award based on his long-standing patriotic service to the nation through the youth constituency.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Long Live FLED
Media Patriots
November 14, 2024
Abuja
