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The Founder of Global Leadership Training has stated that trust has become the key leadership competency in the 21st Century. He said this was at a time when corruption and abuse of authority had plagued the Church, civic and corporate organisations. Reverend Gregg T. Johnson, who was speaking at the opening of the Eighth West African Leadership Conference in Accra on Tuesday, said trust and integrity were the foundation for success in any venture. Responsible Citizens The five-day training which has the theme, �The Trust of Leadership,� seeks to provide young people with the skills and opportunities they need to become active and responsible citizens in the global community. Rev. Johnson said trust promoted prosperity in every dimension of leadership and organisational management and explained that leadership was an authority given by God. �When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan (Proverb 29:2),� he said. Leaders According to him, corruption was a disease plaguing many leaders in the world today because leaders sought their personal interests, adding that there should be transparency, accountability and integrity in leadership. Rev. Johnson called on leaders and individuals not to trade the country�s culture of honesty, transparency and integrity for corruption but they should rather meet the needs of others, especially the aged and physically challenged people in the society. General Overseer Rev. Johnson presented an award to the General Overseer of Royalhouse Chapel International, Reverend Sam Korankye Ankrah, for supporting the leadership conference over the years. Rev. Ankrah expressed his appreciation to GLT and said at any point in life, God needed a man to lead others, but the problem of leadership in Africa was the lack of quality governance and morals. �When God comes to humanity, He seeks a man among other men to lead them,� he said. Corruption For his part, Mr Vitus Adaboo Azeem of Ghana Integrity Initiative who spoke on �How to build a corruption-free society,� said today, corruption continued to take a great toll on the society and threatened humanity. He also said the greatest impact of corruption was felt by the poor and added that by illegally diverting state funds, corrupt leaders deprived others of health, education and public transportation, as well as other services. Endemic He said it was worrying when corruption became endemic and left people feeling that the institutions that were supposed to help them had rather turned against them. Mr Azeem, therefore, stressed the need to design and adopt appropriate transparent measures to prevent corruption.