The problem with Nigeria has long been established as resting squarely on quality of leadership in Africa’s largest economy, a sleeping giant some like to call it. Chinua Achebe, award-winning novelist in his insightful book ‘The Trouble with Nigeria’ had written “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character.”
Achebe continued “There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership.”
Aware of the dearth of leadership by personal example, the Chevening Alumni Association of Nigeria during its first National Leadership Summit at the weekend has resolved to bring to bear on this leadership crisis its broad spectrum of fine minds and outstanding leaders in various sectors of the economy, especially now that the most populous nation in Africa is going through its lowest economic ebb in three decades. The Summit was themed “The Economic prosperity of Nigeria and the role of alumni in contributing to economic growth.”
Chevening Scholarships are the United Kingdom government’s global scholarship programme aimed at individuals with strong academic and leadership potentials, to network extensively and study for a fully-funded Master’s programme in the UK.
“In addition to the criteria for academic excellence and leadership potential, you alumni all know that one of the most important conditions is that when you complete your studies – and that you come back with a vision to deliver in your chosen field with your new skills, experience and networks. All alumni here have delivered on that commitment in different ways, some of you have achieved truly great things and I know many more of you are firmly on the road to do so” said Paul Arkwright, British High Commissioner at the Chevening Leadership Summit.
The Summit was poised to find lasting solutions to Nigeria’s economic challenges, rooted in Nigeria and driven by Nigerians. John Momoh, I990 Chevening Alumnus, founder and CEO Channels Television addressing the leadership gap, averred that “Nigeria is replete with leadership ineptitude, we have had good leaders, and the problem has always been that there are a few good men and women in the midst of too many bad men. The global economic landscape is rapidly changing and calls for new forms of leadership. The best form of leadership is the legacy of our personal example.”
Herbert Wigwe, 1990 Chevening Alumnus and GMD/CEO Access Bank PLC, highlighted one critical area failure in leadership that cascaded overtime into the current recession. “Nigeria did not just spend its windfall from commodities, such as oil, it leveraged on that believing better times were ahead. We did not build a robust local manufacturing base from these oil windfalls, but spent it on consumption activities. This is a failure of leadership in the economic sphere and it is haunting us today.”
Wigwe pointed also to a silver lining in the sky “I am optimistic we can pull through this and come out stronger, under one condition – better leadership. It is always better late than never and the big question would always revolve around rational and systematic approach to education and human capital development. Mark Zukerberg, Facebook CEO’s visit is strong indication that there is so much going in Nigeria and Chevening’s over 1000 strong Alumni Association in Nigeria is ready to take the bull by the horns and drive national economic recovery.
One of the causes of this leadership crisis is the lack of systems, designed to harness the reserve of refined minds, which Nigeria possesses in abundance. “We must start building systems that would tap into this pool of fine minds. We, as a nation can longer afford to leave leadership development to chance. Our economy is going through challenges, inflation is at an all-time high of 18.3 percent” said Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the Senate president in his opening remarks.
Saraki added “I know that the private sector has a crop of refined leaders that the public sector is not doing enough to engage for evenly distributed economic growth and prosperity. We need to start creating legislative frameworks to promote inclusive economy prosperity. The Eighth Senate Assembly is determined to create a legislative framework to improve the business environment and boost the partnership between the private sector and the government. This is yielding fruits because after roundtable discussions with the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) some reforms have been under way one of which is the public procurement bill that insists on giving priority to made in Nigeria goods.”
Other members of the Chevening Alumni Network include: Amina Oyagbola, 1999 Chevening Alumnus, HR Executive, MTN Nigeria; Eugenia Abu, 1990 Chevening Alumnus, Executive Director of Programmes Nigerian Television Authority (NTA); and Bolaji Abdullahi, 2001 Chevening Alumnus, former Minister of Sports and former THISDAY Editor, among over 900 other distinguished Chevening Alumni in Nigeria.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
