A medical practitioner, Chigaemezu Edward, has emphasised the importance of mentorship, saying it plays a great role in nurturing to success anyone growing in any field.
Edward, who is interested in human capital development, defines mentorship as a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored, but they must have a certain area of expertise, he said.
“Mentorship is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn. Interaction with an expert may also be necessary to gain proficiency with cultural tools.
“Mentorship experience and relationship structure affect the amount of psychosocial support, career guidance, role modelling and communication that occurs in the mentoring relationships in which the protégés and mentors engaged. A mentor, therefore, is one who guides and develops others in his or her line of expertise,” Edward said.
Edward said mentorship is a valuable tool for turning one’s visions to reality. He said almost every great person in history has had a mentor at one point in their lives or another in their rise to success, stressing that everyone ought to have at least one mentor in their journey through life.
Offering advice to especially the youths, the optometrist said everyone needs someone he or she can run to at any time to explain things to them, someone they can be accountable to.
“The best part about this whole thing is that you do not have to limit yourself to people from your field of study. There is also no limit to the amount of people you can have as mentors,” he said.
Edward, reflecting on his personal experience, said his choice of mentors was impressive, seeing that he chose two amazing individuals to follow in their footsteps – Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama.
“Everyone knows the roles Nelson Mandela played in the history of the Blacks. Fighting for freedom is not a day’s job. It takes a whole lot of determination and perseverance to achieve such a goal. He was South Africa’s first Black president and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election.
“Mandela’s government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism and fostering racial reconciliation. Ideologically, an African nationalist and socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC). I’m sure we’ll all agree that that was a job well done,” Edward said.
On why he chose former US President Barack Obama as a mentor, he recalled how Obama emerged as the first African-American president of the US, saying it takes a lot of bravery, courage, determination and perseverance to do that.
“These two case studies had amazing leadership skills and were totally goal-oriented,” Edward said.
He said picking them as his mentors were no coincidence, but merely showed he had the same tendencies and was obviously working to achieve the goals he has set in his line of discipline.
“This is no small feat and it is only with the appropriate amount of determination, courage and perseverance that this can be achieved,” he said.
