Raising eagles: Building leadership mindset in children through power of education

By Olufemi Ogunyejo

In the soft hush of childhood dreams lies the seed of leadership. A seed so tender it must be nurtured with wisdom, watered with knowledge, and exposed to the sunlight of global thinking.

Like gold refined through intense fire, children destined for greatness must be passed through the crucible of quality education tested, stretched, sharpened. For in education, especially the sound and solid kind, lies the pivot upon which leadership is raised.

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance,” says Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University.

It is a truth time refuses to dilute ignorance is a nation’s most expensive liability, and education, its most profitable investment.

When we build the minds of our children with intention, we are not just preparing them for exams, we are preparing them for boardrooms, decision tables, global stages, and even battlefields of ideas.

World leaders and enlightened parents alike have long understood this sacred truth: greatness doesn’t happen by accident; it is engineered.

From Barack Obama attending the elite Punahou School in Hawaii to Malala Yousafzai being nurtured by a father who ran a school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley quality education was the forge that built their iron resolve.

In the Gulf states, rulers send their children to Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford not for prestige alone, but for positioning. In Nigeria, families like the Elumelus, Dangotes, and Okonjo-Iwealas invest in world-class education because they understand its exponential return: an educated mind is a weapon forged for global impact.

Leadership isn’t just taught in lectures; it is caught in hallways, mentorship circles, international exposure, structured discipline, and value-driven pedagogy. It is in these spaces that children begin to take early risks becoming class prefects, leading debates, launching social causes, starting businesses before their 20s.

Every parent must know this: we are not raising children; we are raising leaders. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the decision to give that child a backpack of quality thinking. Encourage them to volunteer, to ask questions, to disagree respectfully, to lead group projects, to fail and rise again.

Just as crude gold must pass through intense heat, hammering, and purification before it shines in royal ornaments, so too must a child pass through rigorous training, moral shaping, and educational challenge before leadership emerges. And education not just literacy, but quality education is the fire that purifies potential.

It is often said in Yoruba, “Omo ti a ko, ni yio gbe ile ti a ko ta”; meaning: “The child we fail to build will sell the house we laboured to build”. Parents must learn to reprioritise. What is a designer shoe compared to a child’s future? What is an expensive car next to a legacy of wisdom?

Buy fewer luxuries, invest in books. Postpone that vacation, fund a better school. Redirect fleeting pleasures into lasting possibilities. Education is the one inheritance that multiplies in the hands of the recipient.

Leadership begins at home not in title, but in training. Teach your children to speak up respectfully, to serve others before themselves, to stand by what is right even if it costs them. Show them by example how to take responsibility. Let them see you learn, grow, adapt, and mentor.

Enroll them in schools that teach how to think, not just what to think. Surround them with mentors, give them books that stir courage, and expose them to cultures and ideas bigger than their own. Plant their feet in rich soil — and watch them rise like cedars in Lebanon.

A nation that prioritises the education of its young leaders is one that has insured its future. From Singapore to Rwanda, we see how educated youth leadership transforms economies. An enlightened child becomes an ethical adult a citizen who innovates, governs, and serves with integrity.

As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

So let us raise our children not as followers, but as torchbearers. Let us put in their hands the flaming baton of knowledge, character, and courage. Let us educate them so soundly that when the world calls for leaders, they step forward not with timidity, but with the confident grace of those trained in the fires of excellence.

Olufemi Ogunyejo is the training and development manager at Accessible Publishers Ltd and also the registrar, Best in Print Academy, Ibadan.