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Tag: leadership

  • Aregbesola: Visionary leadership in troubled times

    Aregbesola: Visionary leadership in troubled times

    The book, ‘Asiwaju: Leadership in Troubled Times’ could easily frighten the meek-minded away from leadership responsibilities. That publication, co-authored by columnists, Sam Omatseye, Segun Ayobolu and Tunji Bello (now the Secretary to the Government of Lagos State) in honour of former Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who then clocked 60, succinctly captures what storms (expected and unexpected) could hallmark a particular period of leadership.

    And when such economic, political and social hurricanes emerge, they end up defining that era; serving to bring out the best in leadership qualities or presenting the leader as one never prepared for the rigours of office.

    Five years into the two-term tenure of the governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the “troubled times” that leadership faces are real as evidenced by the events of the half a decade.

    Forget the last one year of acute global economic upheaval which has turned into shreds, Nigeria’s monolithic economy relying solely on sale of crude oil in the international market. That was a disaster foretold! It now threatens to cripple the country save the ingenious application of survival strategies of a new order at the centre.

    Almost two decades into its birth as a state of Nigeria, Osun’s state of being could not have been an attractive project for those in search of “low-hanging fruits” at the time Aregbesola set out to be its governor.

    No doubt, a state generating less than N300 million monthly as internally generated revenue from and for its almost four million citizenry could not have been a comfort zone for those looking for tea parties. It was already a state begging to be fixed. Five years down the line on November 27th, the surgical operations through the instrument of a six-point development agenda called “My Pact with Osun”, have changed the skylines in what must be a good study in “tearing down and building up”.

    I have seen historical cases of how fortunes of hitherto despondent people were turned around. The story of Bogota, the Columbia capital slum which became a shinning example of development through vision is one. Today, history remembers Mayor Antanas Mockus for promoting culture of citizenship which brought about an articulate analysis and comprehension of the multiform and multifarious complexities of that slummy city. That led to a change of attitude. Second is that of Mayor Enrique Penalosa which built on the foundation of a completely reorientated citizenry to cause development and inflow of investments and infrastructure.

    Jim Krane, in City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism tells us the sweet story of how a dusty desert land became the tourists destination of the whole world within a spate of three decades. Today, Sheikh Rashid Ibn Saheed Marktoum is revered as the father of modern Dubai.

    Osun, in five years has similar tales to tell. Put together, the works that have gone into a holistic transformation and development agenda rank Osun among people who had resigned to fate only to be jolted by a phenomenal change in their state of being.

    The works that have gone into education, roads, security, social welfare, health, agriculture, rural development are responsible for what visitors to Osun adjudge as true essence of leadership.

    By the end of the first term in 2014, the Aregbesola administration could boast of over 900 kilometres of completed roads of various grades. The impact of that on economic activities are rippling.

    Within the same period, Osun witnessed the construction of more than 50 new mega schools in the Elementary and Middle Schools categories in what have gone down as the most attractive learning centres to be built in the state in its more than two decades of existence.

    The exciting unveiling of the Wole Soyinka Government High School, Ejigbo on Wednesday November 23, 2015 has further confirmed that the experts and stakeholders who sat for the 2011 Education Summit did not just engage in empty talk shop. They can see the outcome of their brainstorming sessions emerging in world classrooms, Tablet of Knowledge (Opon Imo), improved teaching personnel, increased funding for school administration, highly impacting school feeding for elementary school pupils, phenomenal increase in school enrollments among other landmark initiatives.

    The result of the above is the 61 per cent improvement in the performance of Osun pupils in examinations. Comparing the performance of between 2008 and 2010, which had 13.26 per cent performance level with the period 2011 and 2013’s 21.32 per cent obviously shuts the mouths of those who had attempted to pick holes in the educational policies of the Aregbesola administration.

    A recent report of the Oxford Department of International Affairs Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index rated Osun as next to Lagos in Nigeria. This was an indication that in spite of the hullabaloo over financial crisis, the state has been making tremendous progress through silent transformations.

    Two weeks ago, the World Bank ranked Osun the best state in the implementation of the Rural Access Mobility Project, a project opening up access to rural farmers and dwellers to improve the wellbeing of the people.

    But before then, the National Bureau of Statistics had earlier rated Osun as state with the least unemployment rate in Nigeria. Of course, that is not without its own concomitant effects on security lives and investments. Osun appears to have remained impregnable for hoodlums who have made life hell in some neighbouring states.

    And what do the figures point to? Development analysts won’t have problems identifying the various intervention moves of the Aregbesola administration that are responsible for these positive rankings of a state that had occupied the unenviable place as second to the last on federal allocation ladder.

    The state does not just flaunt an array of branded projects. Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (OREAP); Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme ( OYES);  Osun Environmental Sanitation Project (O-CLEAN); Osun School Infrastructure Project (O-SCHOOL); Osun Ambulance Services (O-AMBULANCE); and a host of others. These brands have not just been brands, but vehicles in the development journey of the Aregbesola administration.

    In the end, his era would be remembered for how many hitherto slummy ghetto settlements like Old Garage were transformed into Nelson Mandela Freedom Park which is today a world-class centre of commerce and relaxation in the heart of the state capital.

    His tenure would be identified with the number of dilapidated schools that turned out rascals that were transformed into excellent mega-schools with world class learning facilities positioned to churning out confident, well-groomed and productive citizens who can compete with any of their peers across the globe.

    Above all, he would be judged on how much his visionary leadership in this troubled times have affected humanity as a whole.

    The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whose “jewel of inestimable value” was given a final burial rites on Wednesday, never had it rosy in the face of his determined development journey. It is on record that free education, the instrument with which that visionary leader set this region on a faster lane of educational, political, economic and social advancement was, in the beginning, unpopular with the people.

    In the face of a daunting economic dilemma facing Nigeria, occasioning delays in salaries and pensions payments, meeting contractors’ obligations, funding budgetary provisions for capital projects and overheads, the message is clear that times like these demand critical and genuine assessment of situations in order to be in tune with the realities of the moment.

    Three years ahead and still a work in progress, there is no doubt that more “troubled times” lay ahead if development must be achieved. The “trouble times” only lies in the readiness of the citizenry to see the genuineness of a vision that is focused on true development and buy into it. That will be when “troubled times” meet their match in visionary leadership.

     

    • Okanlawon is the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Osogbo, Osun State.

     

  • Yes, APC is ready for leadership

    If we go by the fact that Nigerians overwhelmingly gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) the mandate to preside over their affairs because of disenchantment with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it would be unfair to the same Nigerians to insinuate that in just five months, they are reverting to the same PDP “because nature abhors vacuum”. I refer to Olusegun Adeniyi’s back page column in Thisday of Thursday, November 5, 2015, wherein the author earlier opined that because the APC failed to forge its own distinct identity, “the PDP is gradually but steadily imposing itself in the people”.

    Nigerians are not that daft. Minus a few restless members of the political elite, the intelligentsia and their agents in the media, Nigerians, generally, are known for their uncommon comportment even under very harsh circumstances. The claim that the PDP is “imposing” itself on Nigerians connotes that Nigerians are so timid, gullible and undiscerning that they would revert to the same PDP they rejected in just five months. But, of course, there is no such thing happening. What Adeniyi and a few other commentators who are painting the “missing the PDP” picture are mistaking for resurgence and re-acceptance of the PDP is the avowal of the leadership of the APC to save the polity of the brazen impunity that characterised it for16 years.

    Interestingly, Adeniyi employs the goings-on in the National Assembly in illustrating his takeover theory. Adeniyi is worried that in the House of Representatives, “virtually all committees that are important for reforms of certain areas of our national life have been handed to the opposition PDP members by the Speaker, Hon Yakubu Dogara…”. The same thing, he says, “is happening in the upper chambers … and the spokesman (chair of information committee) happens to be a member of the opposition”. From a purely partisan point of view, these are genuine observations about which leaders of the party, APC, may worry. But even so, these appointments and committee compositions do not in any way demonstrate a lacklustre attitude of the leadership of the ruling party. To be sure, the leadership of the two chambers, being of the ruling party, might not altogether have acted wisely from a strict partisan point of view but a further interrogation would show that the APC, even if inadvertently, has come up with a new way of doing things.

    Were it not so, by now we would have witnessed a greater upheaval within the National Assembly and indeed the entire polity following the events of July 9, 2015 when the leadership of the two chambers were constituted.

    What might have compounded the problem of some analysts is that they are unable to distinguish between the current National Assembly and that of the PDP that dominated between 1999 and April 2015. The National Assembly of those days was domineering and tended to pursue an agenda different from that of the party and the president. We saw this play out in 2011 when the House of Representatives threw up a leadership composition different from what both the presidency and the leadership of the party had mind. Conversely, the APC wants a National Assembly whose agenda would be in tandem with that of the president. Time will tell if this expectation is achievable, but there can be no doubt that the leadership of the party means well in setting such a target for itself.

    That the National Assembly has remained functional ever since, despite several prodding – within and without – of the APC leadership to wield the big stick, is a huge credit to the leadership of the party. There can be no doubt that Nigerians have taken good note of the new approach by a ruling party to the affairs of the legislature. Regardless of the internal discomfiture that the goings-on in the National Assembly might be causing the ruling party, it has succeeded in letting the world see that the era of undue interference in the affairs of the legislative arm of government by either the party hierarchy or the executive arm is over. In my view, it is to the eternal credit of both the leadership of the APC and the presidency that it realised that there was no need stampeding the party into early internal crisis. Like any other human endeavour, there could be no doubt that there would be teething challenges; but for a party that wrested power from “Africa’s biggest political party”, which had ruled for 16 years, there is need for utmost caution, the pervasive goodwill from the electorate notwithstanding. Still, contrary to Adeniyi’s claim, there is no evidence to show that the president of the Senate is “daily being fought by the leadership of his own party”. It is at once an overgeneralisation and an exaggeration, regardless of the belief in several quarters that there is a link between the Senate President’s prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the displeasure of the leadership of the party over his(Saraki’s) initial conduct.

    As a matter of fact, one can state without any fear of contradiction that if indeed Saraki is being fought by the leadership of the APC, there is no way he would be in office by now. Differently put, Adeniyi is wrong in asserting that the “APC seems intent on subverting its own hold on power by the way and manner it has encouraged the crisis in the National Assembly”. It is an overstatement that seems to draw inspiration only from things like some party men being intent on removing Saraki from power because of his perceived presidential ambition (in 2009); that President Buhari is visiting a certain grudge against Bukola Saraki’s late father, Olusola Saraki, over events in the second republic. There are many fables in politics, but I also believe that it (politics) is more like Mathematics in which, to solve any problem, you have to go from the known to the unknown.

    From the look of things, it is not the wish of Nigerians (within and outside the APC) that a fight ensues between the leadership of the ruling party and that of the National Assembly. Methinks, therefore, that it is only fair to give credit to the party (APC) leadership for being discerning and mature enough to understand the feelings of the people and the nuisance of the very peculiar nature of the party’s mandate, vis-à-vis the all-time high vulnerability of the nation in sundry dimensions.

    Happily, nearly every commentator has acknowledged the heterogeneity of the APC, on the bases that it is made up of people and, indeed, interests of the diverse tendencies; to the extent that even the best optimists never gave it a chance of working on one page and eventually wresting power from a party which had been entrenched for 16 years. Personally, I have seen nothing to suggest that the party has lost its bearing. And I believe I am not alone. Let us take a few national issues.

    One, the issues that arose from the election of the leadership of the two arms of the National Assembly were such that would have thrown any average party off balance. But as we have seen earlier in this article, that did not happen – thanks to the maturity and sense of patriotism of those manning the party. Two, there was the financial crisis in the states that led to several months of salary arrears to civil servants and which the new APC administration was confronted with upon inauguration. Contrary to insinuations, the APC-led federal government came up with the bailout arrangement that is being implemented across the affected states.

    Take the Boko Haram issue which is being tackled with more vigour and enthusiasm than ever before. It is the same media commentators that have acknowledged that, for the first time, sophisticated equipment have been acquired for the fight against the insurgents and the results are there for all to see. Now, take the issue of cabinet composition. For reasons that are outside the scope of this article, the president delayed (at least compared with previous regimes) in making nominations for the composition of a federal executive council. When eventually he did, there was speculation that the opposition party would take advantage of in-fighting in the APC to stop the confirmation of some nominees by the Senate. In the end, what happened? Did Nigerians see a party (APC), in the words of Adeniyi, in which “there is an embarrassing lack of focus …”? Adeniyi further labels the APC a party that “has not, even in its very structure and approach to its own affairs, indicated an intention to change the behaviour that underlies Nigeria’s sorry political culture”. This is another loose allegation. What is this “behaviour”?

    Earlier in this article, we saw that it would have been unthinkable, five years ago, that the leadership of Nigeria’s National Assembly would do things on its own, without taking orders from the ruling party’s secretariat, or in fact, discard legitimate suggestions from either the party or the presidency. But Nigerians saw it happen. A few days ago, there were newspaper reports of a state governor who boasted that he did not spend a dime in getting his choice ministerial nominee confirmed by the Senate. In Nigeria?

    Of course, part of the newness of the current era is that Nigerians are seeing a presidency that is not one and the same thing as the national secretariat of the ruling party. Nigerians may also never again witness the affairs of a ruling party being subject of undue speculation in the media. President Buhari may have a lot of goodwill, but I am pretty sure that that of the party on whose back he rode to office abounds more. Adeniyi’s submission that President Buhari risks having his personal integrity squandered by the party is not backed by anything Nigerians know about those currently leading the APC. And how did we know? Take a look at those who constitute the national leadership of the party at the moment. They are those that President Buhari would turn back at and get emboldened with uncommon inspiration derived from the individual and collective integrity of these gentlemen.

    It is possible that in alluding to “squandering of integrity”, proponents of this argument are drawing from events in Kogi and Bayelsa States, where the governorship candidates of the APC have matters of corruption allegations pending in the court. But it must be understood that Nigeria is a democracy, with a constitution which provides that every accused is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. In other words, there is no way the APC could have excluded the two gentlemen without incurring the angst of Nigerians. Indeed, the opposition could have used it against the party. If anything, the Kogi and Bayelsa cases, rather than constitute a weapon against the APC, delineates it as a party that is out to uphold the rule of law. As a matter of fact, it is on record that the party cancelled the initial primary election in Bayelsa after it felt that it did not conform to laid down rules.

  • Buhari’s cabinet, leadership and service delivery

    Actually  this essay  should  have been titled – An  Open letter to President Muhammadu  Buhari’s  new cabinet,  if this were  not a column on global  issues far  and beyond our shores alone . Which  means that in welcoming our new ministers I must  of necessity cast  my net wide for  comparative issues  to live up to the billing of the column. I  therefore start by congratulating the new  ministers and welcome them on board even as I ask  them  to take a look at two    leaders in  Myanmar [  Burma ]  and Britain.  The  two   leaders have just  won   power  as it were just as  our new  ministers  have emerged  as the   powerful   and   mighty  in their   respective ministries    this week.  They  are  Burmese  leader   Aung  San Suu Kyii whose   party, the  National  League  for  Democracy   won  the elections in   Burma  and  Jeremy  Corbyn, new leader  of the Labor Party and Opposition leader in the UK . It  is my intention to offer  the life styles of these two leaders for emulation   by   our new  ministers as they take on their new ministerial  assignments amidst great expectations from  Nigerians after the victory  of the APC  in  the last  2015  presidential  elections.

    Let  me start by stating clearly  that I regard their ministerial  appointments as a call  to duty and  a challenge to them  to seize  a rare  opportunity to make history  for themselves and their  families in terms of selfless service  to their  fatherland. They  have  come on board at a time when the anti corruption war is the war of the time  and  moment   and they cannot  afford to  fail as they  just  have to face its music.  This  war  is different from the Boko  Haram War  in the North East of the nation  but it is a war  that the nation  is  in the  mood for and  in which   the president   is  its personification and  Commander in Chief,  just as he is constitutionally also  that of  the Nigerian  Armed  Forces. This  fact  has  to be spelt out and known to our  new ministers  so  that they  may  know that they are in the public  domain all the  time and they  cannot afford to behave like the proverbial ostrich  with  its head buried in the sand over corruption because  on that  issue alone Nigerians are  like the Soviet  Communist  Party  of old where the slogan is – Big  Brother  is Watching You. With over 120m   Nigerians   as  ‘Big  Brothers’,  given  our population, there  can  be no  hiding place  for any  Minister  who attempts to  siphon  our  common patrimony  into his or her   private  coffers. A good  example of the mood of the moment and the intensity of the anti  corruption war was the revelation  this week  that a Permanent Secretary retired recently had over 292m  naira in his bank  account as revealed by the ICPC. This was someone who served  for only five months and he thought his time had  come.  Probably  because the president had said he believed in working with Permanent  Secretaries more than noisy politicians he thought  it was time to do brisk  business with Nigeria’s  money not knowing that  the times have changed   and that  Big  Brother is watching not only from Aso  Rock  but in all the cities, towns and shanties all over  Nigeria.

    I  seriously  urge  the new  ministers to  organize  their various ministries for quick, clean,  service delivery on the functions of their various       ministries. As  ministers they  are part  of the executive in our separation  of powers.  Again  they have good examples in the past and even now to look  up to and  achieve their goals   and the objectives  of their  various  ministries. Today  the other two arms of government  have a dismal  reputation. The judiciary is corruption ridden and its reputation  is not much to write  home about. The legislature has shot itself in the leg with the way and manner its leadership emerged and created credibility problems  for itself when members of the ruling party stabbed their party in the back in the legislature.  The  impression abroad in the land is that legislators are immune to the wishes of their electors and  have become a law unto themselves on the red and green thrones and seats they have erected in the legislature which  is supposed  to  be a chamber to promote  government of the people by the people and for  the people.  Which, alas  and    most  unfortunately for  now, is not   just  the case.  So  our new ministers  are the last  hope  of the  Nigerian  masses and they  must  be  ready and willing to deliver on the mandate of the president who  appointed them  as   he   is not only their team leader, but   their  team  manager and  they  must dance to his tune and body language which  is anti corruption, and  patriotic, and  is bent  on reducing  poverty  and making life better for the average Nigerian of today. That  really  is the challenge of leadership  and service delivery inherent in the  appointment  of  all the minsters announced as members of the Buhari  cabinet this  week regardless  of their portfolios  and  once again I congratulate them and wish them God’s  speed in delivering on their various callings and mandates.

    Let  me now bring in the global leaders active on the world scene this week and  their example  for our new ministers. San Suu Kyi  the  Burmese  leader whose party the  National  League  for  Democracy-NLD -won the required two thirds of the votes cast this week  in Burma  was  released from house  arrest  just five years ago. Now her party’s  victory will  bring military  rule to an end in Burma even though the military still has  say  in government as it has one quarter  of the seats  in parliament reserved  for it. But  Suu Kyi  will  not be qualified to be president because  the military  has inserted a clause in Burma’s  constitution to make sure of that. That  clause is that anybody  married  to a foreigner cannot  be president of Burma and she was married to a Briton for whom she had two  children.  That  has not  however dampened the enthusiasm  and love of the Burmese people for their lady leader as they trooped in their  thousands to go  out and vote massively to give her party the mandate to rule Burma for the foreseeable future.  As I remember Suu Kyi and commend her simplicity and common  touch with  the masses to  our new ministers I  cannot  but  also  remember another Nigerian leader and   political  warrior  who fought mightily   for the victory  of the APC  in the last presidential elections but who seem  to have receded to the background like Suu Kyi would once her party selects Burma’s  new  president,  as expected soon .

    That leader is Jagaban Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the former  governor of Lagos State who  played  a huge part  in the presidential election victory  of the APC  and   the emergence    of the Buhari  Administration and  who  I believe  is still   a force to reckon with anytime in Nigerian politics including now and in spite of the formation of the Buhari  cabinet this week.  For  now only the unwary  will mistake his silence for brooding   as only  foolish  people   would  mistake the sleuth  of the tiger for cowardice. This is because old soldiers  like old politicians never really die even though they seem  to fade into the shadows. I  expect  the Jagaban to bounce back  and  more   visible, and very soon too.

    Finally  Jeremy  Corbyn, the new  UK Labor  Party  leader is not even a graduate as he never finished his university  courses but  he has been in Parliament since 1983   and  is a veteran   trade  unionist. He  dresses informally without ties and when told that a bill was  to  be introduced in parliament to disallow MPs  without ties  from  addressing  Parliament,  he reportedly  made a famous  retort. He said Parliament is not a club of gentlemen, it is not an institute of Bankers and it is just a place for representatives of the people and such rules as wearing  ties should  not be allowed and that  was agreed by his  fellow  MPs. In  the era  when  MPs  on both  sides of the Parliament   in  the UK disgraced  themselves  with  bogus expenses claims, the new Opposition  leader was the only one with the least claims in Parliament as a tribute to his honesty and parsimony which  I commend to our new ministers as they assume responsibility  under an  equally honest  and  austere leader like  our  new president and anti  corruption  champion and crusader,  President  Muhammadu Buhari. Once  again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Evidence of leadership

    Evidence of leadership

    A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do, and like it”.                                                                        

     Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972) Former U.S. president

     

    Preamble

    In a few days time, The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar CFR, mni, will storm the city of Ibadan in a rare academic regalia. As the Chancellor of that Premier University, His Eminence will grace the Institution’s 67th convocation an occasion at which he will formally be installed as the Chancellor with a grandeur having been so appointed by the Federal Government early this year. The occasion will further confirm the qualities of good leadership in him.

    Good leadership is recognised not by official position or use of force. Genuine leaders are mostly known by their utterances, their actions and their conducts. Such are leaders who never say YES when they mean to say NO. They never make promise and renege on it. Such are people who   never betray those who trust them.

    Those were the qualities in Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that prompted the Almighty Allah to say as follows about him: “There is surely an excellent example for you (Muslims) to emulate in Prophet Muhammad for those of you who believe in Allah and the hereafter and also remember Allah at all times” Q. 33: 21

     

    Good Leadership

    Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be right after all. The example of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, the Sultan of Sokoto is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted throne of the Sultanate about nine years ago, this great man has convincingly demonstrated all the qualities of genuine leadership. Every statement he has made socially, religiously and politically and every action he has taken officially or personally has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people have learned one thing or the other.

    Like any other thing modern, this Sultan is modern by all standards. He knew on assumption of the royal office that the most effective link between the Sultanate and Nigerians (especially the Muslim Ummah) is the internet and he put that royal institution online as soon as he ascended the throne. Thus, as an exemplary leader, he demonstrates his leadership prowess by possessing mastering fingers on the computer.

     

    Historical perspective

    In the days before the official emergence of Nigeria as a country through the amalgamation of certain tribes and regions by the British colonialists, Sokoto Empire was beyond today’s Nigerian map. It consisted of a vast area of today’s Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Benin Republic and some parts of Togo and Ghana.

    However, with the partition of Africa into various colonial entities in 1884, the Sultanate of Sokoto became drastically reduced with a large chunk of its territory falling under various colonial authorities.

    In the days of Uthman Dan Fodio and his brother, Abdullah Bn Fodio, the main glory of the Empire was education which became its heritage through the descendants’ line. It is on record that Clapperton, a British colonial agent once had an encounter with the first Sultan, Muhammad Bello, the son of Uthman Dan Fodio in 1824, in an interesting intellectual circumstance. After the encounter which came in form of a tacit debate, Clapperton had to admit thus: “He (Muhammad Bello) continued to ask me several other theological questions, until I was obliged to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious subtleties to resolve these knotty points”.

    And, when Clapperton returned to Sokoto two years later, (1826) and presented Bello with a copy of Arabic Euclid, he was shocked to learn that his host already possessed one. Both Muhammad Bello and his father, Uthman Dan Fodio, made such complex linguistic, theological and legal studies that the one had 97 books to his credit while the other had 93.

     

    Genesis of literacy in Nigeria

    When the Europeans first came to our own part of Africa in the 16th century, the only literate part of what is called Nigeria today was the north. And that was because Islam had reached that part of the country with its Arabic literacy since the 11th century. The British colonialists confirmed this when they arrived in the 19th century.

    The only reason why the colonialists did not retain Arabic literacy in the north was that they did not understand it. If they had not ignored Arabic literacy, the north would not have been perceived as backward educationally today. At least by 1919, when the South was just beginning to embrace literacy with less than a score of schools, the North already had over 25000 schools where various subjects were taught and learnt in Arabic language.

     

    Philosophical assertion

    Philosophers who assert that every new century has a way of producing a great leader may be right after all. The example of His Eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar is a manifest attestation to that assertion. Ever since he assumed the exalted royal office about nine years ago, this great man has convincingly exemplified all the qualities of genuine leadership. Every statement he has made socially, religiously or politically and every action he has taken officially or privately has proved to be a school from which all well-meaning people have learnt one lesson or another.

    Five years after his ascending the throne in November 2006, the symbiotic relationship between history and man was reconfirmed in Zaria, on Wednesday, (November 23, 2011), where a galaxy of well-meaning men and women from all walks of life assembled to say “we are here to bear witness”. That was the day His Eminence was installed as the CHANCELLOR OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA. The occasion was just one of many laurels accruing to him since he became the Sultan. And that same year, he was also named the 16th most influential Muslim leader in the world as his global itinerary in pursuit of peace and tranquility has come to confirm his unique royal mission.

     

    The role of education

    In Islam, education is the first law. It is only through it that man can understand life in all its ramifications. That was why Allah’s very first revelation to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) ordained education thus: “Read in the name of Allah who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood; Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught man by the pen; He taught man what he (man) did not know…”Q. 96:1-4. To further emphasise the compelling need for education in Islam, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was reported to have said in one Hadith that “knowledge is a lost treasure. Muslims should look for it and pick it wherever they could find it”.

    Without education there can be no information. And without information there can be no progress. That is why the Sultan started his reformation of the Sultanate from the premise of information based on education. It is only with education that most problems in this world can be solved without much ado. Sultan Muhammad Sa‘ad Abubakar also believes that education without social harmony is like a virtue without value and that there can be no harmony in a society where people are overwhelmed by ignorance and penury as is the case in Nigeria today. Thus, he has consistently focused on these two areas in his global campaigns.

     

    Historic quotes

    At his installation as the Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University in 2011, Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar said that the current socio-economic indices in Nigeria were a clear indication that the country had begun to drift. He blame the failure of the country’s unprecedented resources, development to match the national wealth on corruption.

    In his words: “Corruption has emasculated our progress even as poverty and unemployment have pushed citizens to the brinks, fueling and confounding social conflicts and inter-communal crisis has extracted heavy toll in both human lives and property”. He went further to say that: “Persistent insecurity has generated panic and anxiety; our social and physical infrastructures are far from meeting the needs of the nation; the country appears to be adrift and at the core of all these is moral decay engendered by ignorance and greed.”

    He also noted that the reform of the tertiary education sector could not be effective without putting in place, the progressive developments required in the basic and senior secondary education sectors insisting that “our state governments, especially those of the North, must begin to realise the enormity of the challenges facing the education sector and take urgent and necessary steps to address those challenges.” He lauded the founding fathers of the ABU, especially, the late Sarduana of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and urged the authorities of the school to continue to abide by the cardinal principles on which the institution was founded.

    That is the Sultan for you, a man who is at the topmost echelon of the tree of comfort but feels so much concerned about the plight of the peasants who are consigned to the weeding of the shrubs without any hope in life through official policies. He has never relented in his advocacy for good governance and denunciation of corruption as well religious intolerance and avoidance of provocation

     

    Interfaith inclination

    When he was invited in January 2010 as a special guest of honour to a religious seminar organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), with the theme: ‘Knowing Your Muslim Neighbour’, Sultan Abubakar delivered an historic speech that reverberated meaningfully across the entire world. And in May, same year, he also invited the leadership of CAN to a special conference of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) held in Kaduna. The theme of that conference was: ‘Islam in the Eyes of the Christians’. He is the first Nigerian special class monarch to engage in such an interfaith affair at the national level and his speech on that occasion was also electrifying. Please read an excerpt from that speech as presented below:

    “….the task of overcoming Nigeria’s problems calls for sacrifice, dialogue and understanding; and all national stakeholders must overcome the myopia of greed and self-centeredness to move this great nation forward and safeguard its strategic interests….we must begin to look into the future with hope and confidence and to ensure, first and foremost, that we shore up the foundations of our political system. The National Assembly, and indeed all tiers of government, should not relent in their current efforts at electoral reform and in ensuring that Nigerians have a genuine electoral process that guarantees free and fair elections. Unless and until we do that, our nation will continue to be haunted by the unholy alliance between fraudulent elections and illegitimate electoral outcomes, the consequences of which we all know too well. We must break away from this vicious circle and confer on Nigerians the power and indeed the ability to decide, freely and willingly, who leads them at all levels of governance”.

    “….There is also the urgent need for us to re-evaluate our conception of leadership as a nation…. needless to add, that there is no way we can make genuine progress as a nation when a significant number of our populace wallows in abject poverty unable to secure the requisite means for their sustenance and to cater for the health and educational needs of their families. Democracy must build a humane society capable of looking after the legitimate needs of its citizenry. For it to be truly successful, it must be able to bring real progress to all sectors of our diverse society.

    “Finally we must all work hard to limit the influence of wealth in our society and to support those values that promote social responsibility, excellence and hard work”.

     

    Conclusion

    That is Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, a leader who knows the problems of his followers and associates with them with a view to solving those problems. He has since delivered similar, captivating lectures of historic records at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in Britain as well as at Harvard University in the United States on the invitation of those institutions. As he will be installed as the Chancellor of the University of Ibadan on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, ‘The Message’ column joins thousands of Nigerians at home and abroad to say to His Eminence: CONGRATULATIONS!

  • Leadership, mischief and security

    I   write  with  mixed  feelings on the issues I want  to highlight today because they are quite serious  matters with some tinge of  rather   dark  humour. The  problem here is in seeing the humor early enough otherwise it may be difficult to know whether  to laugh or cry. It  is my  contention today that leaders in government and politics, lawyers in the temple  of justice, and  professionals in business and diplomats working in the comity of nations, have a great sense of humor in spite  of the tedious schedule of their various  unique callings in life. That  really is what I want to ponder over and ruminate about today.

    Let  me start with Israel where PM Benjamin Netanyahu  has just engaged a spokesman  Ran  Baratz who  in March wrote that US President  Barak  Obama was anti  semitic, that the US Secretary  of State, John  Kerry, the quintessential  diplomat has a mental age  of a boy  of twelve and that the current Israeli  president is such a nonentity that he could never be taken as hostage. That  is the first salvo. The  second  is  the walk out of the CCT  tribunal  by the lawyers of the Senate  president who accused  the tribunal of judicial  rascality for  continuing with  the case and  the admonition by the CCT prosecutor  to senators  who  attended the proceedings that the court is not the senate and you play  politics in the senate and not  in the law court. Which  throws  wide any discussion such as we are  about to have,  not only on the context of judicial rascality but the content of senatorial aggression and intrusion. The  third is the proposition by the opposition PDP to  remove fuel  subsidy which  APC Rep  Gbajamila said was speculative and false because the Vice President Yemi  Osinbajo  had just paid a huge sum to oil   marketers and  the President has never said he was removing fuel  subsidy. Which showed  clearly  that the  PDP was getting more catholic  than the Pope in running government down with fuel subsidy  rumour while pretending to be helping it out  by giving it a political hemlock that will make it hated  and unpopular.

    Fourthly  the air  disaster in the  Sinai desert in which a Russian plane  carrying 224  people was blown up with no survivor  had Egyptian  president Sissy travelling to meet British  PM David  Cameron at 10  Downing Street after  the British PM stopped  flights   to  UK from the Egyptian Airport,  Sharm  el – Sheik    where the ill fated Russian metro  jet  took off before exploding in the Sinai. The  UK  and  US  have pointed their suspicion on terrorism but  Russia has said that was speculative yet  Russia is the major victim of the disaster whose analysis would  now  be coated somewhat with the poor diplomatic relations between the US, UK, Russia  and Egypt  in the last one year or so,  and  I will  soon show why.

    Let  us now go back  to  Israel  where Netanyahu has  disassociated himself from the views expressed  by his hand picked spokesman whose  appointment he promised to review on his return from a trip to the US to  see US  President Barak  Obama. To  me that is just a ruse as the Israeli PM has  achieved his objective of embarrassing the US leadership over the appointment. Could Netanyahu not have known the excesses of his spokesman before appointing  him to such a sensitive position ?  Surely Israeli intelligence and screening for such jobs are more efficient  than that.  To  me Netanyahu‘s   spokesman  simply  said  his master’s  mind and the malice for the appointment, revelation and job review have  their  root  in the US –Iran  nuclear  deal which  the US president  spoke so  much  for and which  Netanyahu   railed  so  much  against,  as threatening  the  security  of  Israel. The  body  may be that of Esau  but  the voice is definitely  that  of Jacob. You  may  now cry or laugh.

    In  the case  of the walk out of the CCT tribunal by the Senate President’s  lawyers it  is amazing  that lawyers  can call a court proceeding’ judicial  rascality’ even in open court. The  tribunal chairman has roundly  condemned it as  rude and  there  is no better word. A Senior  Advocate of Nigeria reportedly said it was like defecating  in the lawyers common pool so I think something should be done to prevent collective legal and judicial diarrhea arising from such unhygienic verbal  gymnastics in our  chequered temples  of  justice all over the nation. Especially in this era when a new government has just been elected and is committed to fighting corruption, reducing poverty  and shoring up our collective security. In the courts, lawyers and judges are supposed  to cross swords on  arguments and weighty  points of law and crack  open the Gordian knots of the inner workings and riddles in the law  in such a way  to make justice affordable, swift and for  the improvement of the values  and traditions  of justice, transparency  and integrity  inherent in any democracy including  ours in Nigeria.  However it   was  comforting that the Senate president has opted to call new lawyers in case those who left him without saying why at the mercy of the CCT refuse   to come back. It  was also nice that senators were present although the prosecutor’s admonition  and warning that the court is not a place for politics was  very much in place and instructive for  our distinguished senators present   because   justice is blind and is no respecter of offices and positions as no one is above the law in our constitution .

    The  House of Assembly debate and proposal  to remove fuel subsidy by the PDP was a  clean ploy, not even a plan,  to make the ruling party fall on a positioned banana peel. Here was a party in power  for 16 years  during which it could not remove the fuel  subsidy asking a new government to commit   political  hara kiri. That was clearly  mischievous and was designed to embarrass  the new government. Luckily the new president has identified poverty alleviation and security as prime objectives.  Both removal of fuel subsidy and devaluation would affect these two government goals adversely as  fuel prices will rise and drive prices up  generally  and increase hunger and collective anger, leading to social unrest  culminating in massive insecurity. The  PDP  is definitely not a friend of this new government and that should be obvious from  the fuel subsidy  removal   proposal this week  in the House  of Representatives in Abuja.

    Fourthly the  murder in the skies of the Sinai desert has brought out the smoking gun of adversarial diplomacy between the four nations I mentioned earlier. This  can  be seen in the context of a security expert’s  views  on CNN this week  on the exploded Russian metrojet. He  said if the disaster was confirmed as terrorist it would be the first  time that terrorism  has succeeded  in the Aviation industry   after  9/11  and  that to me raises a lot of questions. First, why  such murderous success  so soon after Russia pitched its camp in Syria to fight ISIS?  Why now  on  Egyptian  soil when the Egyptian army is buying arms from the Russians after the US suspended the sale of sophisticated F16 planes to the Egyptian army  because it manouvred elections to put its Commander in power as an elected president.  Again it is an open secret that tourism is the mainstay , economically,  of Egypt after agriculture which makes Egypt the Gift  of the Nile,  why  should the UK PM quickly suspect and ban flights from the Egyptian Airport so decisively ?These  are questions begging for answers and  there is no denying that a lot of mischief , malevolent ones too,  are in the air snuffing the light out of clear , genial  diplomacy and creating bad blood and bloodier terrorism and   insecurity   not  only on the ground but also death in the clear  skies of the desert  not only in Sinai  but in  the   entire  Middle  East  or  Arabia as we know it today . One  should really pray  that personal  animosities in  global   high places do not derail the role of diplomacy  in bringing peace and harmony to  our world of today . Again , long live the  Federal  Republic of Nigeria .

  • Traditional practitioners seek credible leadership

    Traditional practitioners seek credible leadership

    The Chairman, Electoral Committee, National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP), Dr Idowu Ogunkoya, has called upon members to get set and vote in credible executives in the forthcoming election of the association. He gave the admonition at an exclusive interview at Idiaraba in Lagos.

    Dr Ogunkoya said the available posts  to be contested for are:  Presidency, Deputy President, and Vice President for each geographical zones, Secretary, Treasurer, Financial secretary, P.R.O, Auditor and others according to the constitution of the association.

    He said the tenure of the former administration has elapsed which necessitated the Board of Trustees, chaired by Archbishop Adeyemi  Atilade, to dissolve it, and urgean an electoral committee  to conduct an election before the end of a  year of dissolution of the  previous executive.

    Describing the qualities being expected of  a potential candidate, Dr Ogunkoya said: “We are looking for a candidate that will uplift the standard of NANTMP. Right now, the association does not have a national office, even the website- http://nantmp.org.ng/  is not functioning. We also do not have a traditional medicine college in Nigeria; all these are available in a sister country, Ghana. The association was founded by the Obasanjo administration in 2007 and till date no outstanding feat has been achieved. That is why we are sacrificing our time and money to get a credible candidate to lead NANTMP this time. We seek someone who is able and capable to perform as arrow head.”

    Expressing his views on the previous administrations, Dr Ogunkoya said he found out from the past administrations that most of the officers did not really hold the office. “I found out that the President was doing the work of the treasurer, secretary and others. In such  a set up, there can never be any progress. Now, we want a proactive executive whereby all of them would perform their legitimate functions so that things will go on well.  It was also found that there was dispute between the national executives on supremacy. This actually went down to the states because in each state we have a minimum of three chairmen. Due to this, the board dissolved everybody. The Board was confused on who to communicate with.

    “For instance, in the Southwest, I held a meeting with the leaders. It came to a point, I told them to go and solve their disputes so that when they come back they can speak with one voice. They came back after one hour to tell me that they could not resolve their disputes and started quarrelling all over again, in my presence. I do not understand what they are fighting for. I was left with no choice than to dissolve that particular executive and that is how it happened in almost all the geographical zones. That is how the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) dissolved everything. Once the national executive is inaugurated, it will go to states to reform the chapter associations and conduct elections for them.”

    Dr Ogunkoya further set agenda for the in-coming executive, “The thrust of the new EXCO in the era of change is that we really want NANTMP to get involved in the credible treatment of our citizens, through members that know their onions in this period of Change. We want an executive that would get there, work, get the money budgeted for and improve the standard of traditional medicine in Nigeria. They should be able to get into governance sway interested parties to regulate traditional medicine.

  • Street terrorism, deterrence and leadership

    From the bloody   killings  and  terrorism on the streets of Israeli cities and the  suicide  bombings in Maiduguri on Thursday  and  Friday this week it is clear that terrorists have adopted a new strategy of street  killings to drive home their points and  bloody  grudge against  organized  society. 100  people  were killed in Ankara, the Turkish  capital this week. In  Israel  terrorists  used knives to kill 7  Israelis  and wounded several in Israeli towns and cities. In Maiduguri the capital  of Borno State suicide  bombers said  to be girls aged between  11  and 15 killed 32 people at  evening prayers in Mosques on Thursday  and 34 in morning prayers the following day.

    Fellow  Nigerians,  it can not be business as  usual when girls become rampant and  prolific suicide  bombers at taking their own lives and those of innocent bystanders and passers by. It is my contention here that the Senate when it resumes its screening of members of the president’s  cabinet on Tuesday should pass a resolution  calling on the President to declare a state of emergency in Maiduguri not  only to save further  blood shed of innocent lives but  to save Nigeria’s sovereign  reputation as a nation that cares  for its citizens and not one that fiddles like Emperor Nero while Rome burnt. Especially  with our  globally infamous  incapacity  and nonchalance   over the loss of the 200 Chibok girls which  has left  the civilized  world  wondering at our sense  of parenthood, family, humanity and respect for the sanctity of human life and dignity.

    I  really  am  serious that Nigeria as a nation needs  to  show  the civilized  world  that we do care about  the  lives  of our  citizens and the carnage and killing  of innocent worshippers in mosques  must simply stop. Nigerians  generally and Islamic leaders in particular  must put pressure on government to stop the killing  and  not look the other way because it is not yet in their vicinity or  doorstep. That is plain callousness  and indifference bothering on collective wickedness.  I  recall that when Boko  Haram started in Maiduguri they were bombing night clubs and bars and people looked the other way. Then they started on Churches and still people looked the other way  Now   they  are using  small girls to  bomb mosques  and we are still  looking the other  way. But  now they are in Abuja, Kaduna and all over the North. Are we going to do something only if they bomb Lagos,  Ibadan  and Enugu? Certainly  something is rotten with  our state of mind and  state of the nation in the way we have been reacting to the killings of about 200 innocent  Nigerians in the last two  weeks  in Maiduguri.

    It  is nice to know that the Army  has reacted  by saying that it is because it is beating  Boko  Haram  on all fronts that is why it has resorted to suicide  bombing in  mosques. But  the army shoud restrategise  to combat or contain that too by protecting places of worship or places with large  crowds and that really should be done to save further loss of lives. Let  me illustrate with how  Israel has reacted  to the street  knife  killings which it did not expect and which  really  made the Jewish  state  to panic. Israeli Benjamin  Netanyahu who  has shown  so much arrogance against  the Palestinian leadership on peace talks suddenly  announced he was ready  to talk  with the Palestinian  President   Mahmoud  Abbass   on how to end the street knife killings which  is a new  form of terror in Israel  although it has  killed  only 7  Israelis.

    Similarly  Russian  President Vladmir Putin  is holding  talks with  Islamic  Central  Asian  nations called the Commonwealth of Independent States to form a military alliance with Russia  to combat an anticipated incursion of Islamic terrorism on these   nations bordering Afghanistan  where  the Taliban is playing the role of ISIS  and  Boko  Haram. This  is apart  from his much  criticized military  foray into  Syria to bomb  ISIS locations.  Again I say the Russians have been proactive  in the way they have acted in Syria and  Central  Asia and their  action and policy in this regard  have sent a strong warning of deterrence against real and potential  terrorists in the areas they have intervened.

    It  is certainly   educative  and instructive  to compare the Russian new  initiatives with the American policy in Afghanistan which gave notice of withdrawal  of  US  forces on a deadline but which  has now been extended for the obvious reason that the so called deadline emboldened the Taliban to plan a comeback  once the Americans are gone. Certainly there is not much argument in saying that the Russians understand the language terrorists are afraid of and would flee from,  far  better than  the endless dialogues and engagements of the Obama Administration which  have only made the terrorists  more confident instead of being roundly deterred and frightened  from   engaging    in further  despicable   acts of  murder and mayhem.

    With  regard  to Turkey  and the financing of the care of the refugees  that have flooded  that nation enroute Europe especially Germany the Turks  have asked for  a colossal  amount   –  3m  Euros – to fund the project.  Amazingly  Germany  under its Chancellor  Angela  Merkel  has asked the EU  to  place  Turkey’s  proposal  on the table  for consideration which again shows  humane and good leadership   by the Germans in confronting terrorism and telling   ISIS   clearly  that  in spite of the street bombings in Turkey  last week  Turkey  is not alone in  fighting  Islamic  terrorism  and ISIS.  Yet  this was the same German  Chancellor who  some time ago stalled  on Turkey’s  over 50  years EU  membership  application   with the argument  that  Turkey  cannot be a member  because it is Islamic  and you  cannot have an Islamic state  in the heart  of  Europe.  Really  one can  say  – how  time changes –  and wonder  how terrorism  has  brought  out  humanity  to do  so clearly  what diplomacy  has not been able to achieve in almost  half  a century  of  Turkey’s  application  for EU  membership.

    On  another  note  it was  cheering hearing that the US  has  sent some 300 troops  to  fight Boko  Haram  from  Cameroon. It  shows that the US African  policy at  least is becoming more pragmatic instead  of staying in  Washington  and expecting the collapse of the Nigerian state this 2015 which  cannot  happen. In  Nigeria  however given the  rise  of street violence  and suicide  bombing in Maiduguri intelligence gathering and house searching becomes an important strategy  to foil suicide  bombing attack  potentials. The objective should be to  preempt the attack or nick it in the bud before execution. That  cannot be done by the army alone and the civil  society  should be engaged to assure the security  of  all  of us. It  is imperative we get this right and deter terrorists  in  our midst as  quickly as possible.  A stitch in time saves nine.  Again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Integrated corporate governance as millennium model of leadership

    Integrated corporate governance as millennium model of leadership

    Profiling Corporate Governance

    Corporate Governance is a Leadership/Management course that is less about two decades old. Its modules are informed initially from three sources: Law, Economics and Organizational Theory. It is a neo-modernist instrument used principally by decision-makers.

    Decision-Making in the 21st century is made complex among other things by the ICT revolution in its mode, modem and media of information generation and transaction and delivery. These have the effect of multiplying the drivers of the market economy, and increase its operational variables. Also, decision-making process becomes more cumbersome due to obligations of ethics, profession, faith, government, or other relationships, thereby bringing the human mind under intense pressure and thus increasing the valence of error. How can these be contained, or in fact turned around?

    Lately, research by renowned neuro-scientist, Adele Diamond (UBC, Vancouver) provided decision-makers with 21st century tactics for coping with all the above. This proves that apprehension, comprehension and dissemination of information for interaction, transaction or reprocess have entered a new mode in the new millennium, but how much of these are being mainstreamed for the accompanying mass market? Or articulated by the relevant institution, the academia, to help mankind not only in theory but in real time?

    Beyond the much-touted “core” concepts of Corporate Governance (as dealt with in the 2009 CU-FISL International Conference) and which have now thrown up our latest enquiry into the subject, the latter comprises two areas: the “grey areas” (Ethics) and now the “millennial/exponential dimension” that introduced innovation. For the future promises of research these are found in NEUROSCIENCES, MINDFULNESS, MONTESSORI, et al.

     

    Contemporary Study

    It is noteworthy however that concerned institutions of the world have lately turned their attention to seriously consider Corporate Governance, often by tentative other names. The HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW (HBR) in its February, 2012 edition, vide a template of posers had sought a make-over for capitalism, titled The Capitalism Challenge. The intro of that subject is further sub-titled (as QUERY, RESPONSE and URGENCY) below:

    HBR/McKinsey (M-Prize for Innovation: THE CAPITALISM CHALLENGE

    QUERY: “Capitalism might be the greatest engine of prosperity and progress ever devised, but in recent years, individuals and communities have grown increasingly disgruntled with the implicit contract that governs the rights and responsibilities of business. The global economy and the Internet have heightened our sense of interconnectedness and sharpened our awareness that when a business focuses only on enriching investors, it implies that managers view the interests of customers, employees, communities and the fate of the planet as little more than cost trade-offs in a quarter-by-quarter game.

    RESPONSE: “It’s time to radically revise the deeply-etched beliefs about what business is for, whose interests it serves, and how it creates value. We need a new form of capitalism for the 21st century, one dedicated to the promotion of greater well-being rather than the single-minded pursuit of growth and profits; one that doesn’t sacrifice the future for the near term; one with an appropriate regard for every stakeholder; and one that holds leaders accountable for all of the consequences of their actions.In other words, we need a capitalism that is profoundly principled, fundamentally patient, and socially accountable.

    URGENCY: “This isn’t a new challenge, but it’s more urgent than ever, not just as an effort to escape reform and regulation from the outside, but to restore the public trust, to repair the moral fabric of the system, and to unleash the innovation required to tackle the world’s most pressing and important challenges.”

    (-The HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, February, 2012)

    Deconstructing the above simply breaks up into: INTEGRATION; CORPORATE GOVERNANCE; MILLENNIUM; APPROACH and LEADERSHIP.

    Expatiating, “Integration” means reassembly into one functional or organic whole; “Corporate Governance” is simply the acceptable morality of the marketplace to which every participant in a society is subscribed; “Millennium” is that out-large phenomenon of Time that arrived on every citizen of the globe since year 2000 heralding many factors of Change to which we have all been struggling to accede or subdue for control or at least manage for our own good; “Approach” is simply methodology or system of arranging our strategies and response to all these challenges with responsibility; while “Leadership” is acting that responsibility to the joy of all, that is man and God.

    In every human society, above is what a responsible daily activity tries to achieve variously through the sectors of Education, Business, Governance, Hospitality, Faith, Sports, et al. How can they be brought altogether in one comprehensible whole…. avoiding the confusions enumerated by HBS above?

    That “lacuna” is the template of our enquiry, a foil. The solution will fill it.

    “MANAGERIALISM” HERALDING CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

    On the verge of the great depression (cross-over from late 19th century) Berle and Means gave account of economic development in the US in the early 20th century, which tended to breed a powerful class of professional managers in whose hands were concentrated unprecedented economic power that were insulated from pressure of both stockholders and the larger public. In their postulation the warnings of Berle and Means even inferred that certain tenets of the democratic foundation were under threat of eventual eclipse by this new phenomenon, and this invariably triggered a trail of intellectual inquiry.

    MOTIVE

    By “distrust” or loss of trust, Harvard in the excerpt above is querying, what is truly in the heart of (a) man? Motive is crucial to business and ethics. Therefore compliance to business conduct no matter what is specified cannot be enforced on a rule and regardless of the myriad of legislations available. A Z. Mizruchi (University of Michigan, 1976) rightly discovered in his critique of the originating suspicions of Berle and Means about the notion of “Power and Control” (Managerialism) that there are various strands of consciousness emanating from the same phenomenon that makes it virtually impossible for any school of thought, his own among the others, the sociologists school, to categorically pitch their tent with the hypothesis of Berle and Means. Without a much better idea however they had to tamely agree in the end that this new system (Managerialism, precursor to Corporate Governance) was kind of a further extension of democracy.

     

    Research, Analysis and Results

    The second half of the 20th century however was rife with novel Management ideas especially of the humanist school, a trend that gave vent to such amusing behavioral descriptions as “peoples’ capitalism”, “soulful corporation”, etc. One common factor among them was the issue of Motive which was controversialised. What would be my motivation for taking a job for instance before I find myself(re)acting in a particular way? Many studies were conducted which queried severally the basis of motivation. At the end motivational impulse was variously thought to no longer be an outright economic factor. Values could mutate, and satisfaction become derivative. Upon this result however there are two different things to test for: (i) the research question which is Motivation and (ii) the Methodology of measure. The latter is perhaps more pertinent to the SCIENCE of Corporate Governance while Motivation deals with the curriculum that makes it up. Both will add up for Delivery.

    Methodologically speaking what these series of tests and result meant was that the linear-onlymentality of deductions till that point was failing and could lead the train of discourse astray. Reliability was gone. In fact beginning from this premise the imagination of the thinkers dilated wild, some adducing that entrepreneurial motivation were no longer strictly profit-driven. This was beginning to hit at many ultra-classical economic views, but the question then was could they sustain this tempo?  Sociologists, in one of their splinter schools chose to arm themselves rather with extant theories of class and social stratification, relying on Max Webber or Karl Marx. For instance  Blau and Duncan’s view  on  Class: “defined in terms of economic resources and interest… is no longer adequate for differentiating…(those) sic in control of the large capitalistic enterprises from those subject to their control, because the controlling managers of the largest firms today (mid-20th century) are themselves employees of corporations”.

    In other words a mentality emanates from this “employee” status and there is a pattern in which its implications can multiply in the operational structure in such a way that they manifest unaligned variables. After all the on-board structure which some professional managers have to present even in the face of the 2009 economic disaster is all that the world  actually expects, not the conundrums of uninvestigated moral (or more correctly, amoral) biases that led to their decision making.

     

    Verdict

    Thus came the qualitative round-off to the multitude of tests and data applied to measure and then to draw inferences from those study and comparisons done on the relations of power within corporations and their implications on democratic development, in the second half of the 20th century; conclusion today being that the airspace have become far expanded and the options made available are multiplied so greatly as to completely overwhelm the streamline of ordinal mentalities in its mode and measures. The demise here of ‘one- subject approach’ to research problems was already hinting at the beginning of many factors that would later crystallize as corporate governance.

    The inference here is that Corporate Governance as a discipline does not only bring together relationship among human reactants in the workplace, it also atomizes the failure of the institutions that were designed to regulate or control them. Corporate Governance also measures progress not only against expectations (or deliverables) but often against certain hidden keys that may bubble up time and again to surprise the enterprise. In this wise it means that even in the academia the velvet garbs that were once draped around the one-subject approach to problem-shooting are newly found inadequate to deal with the infinite variety of choices inherent in our time and need.

    Sociologists had thought to claim their space as the discipline that was found closest to behaviourism, perhaps, but being unable to prove it (by figures and numbers) had them hitting at the blank wall inadvertently. Corporate Governance as a discipline does now make offer of a new framework for the operationalization of measured reality, as may be found for instance in the mission statement or vision statement of an organization. How each one arrives at this statement though is yet a different issue.

    However the discipline of Corporate Governance is not a benevolent hydra-headed monster, only that it has its own ethical compliance framework against which the success of an organization can be measured, just as the honourable enterprise of academics does too. They are both systems, except that in the CG system output is more than the sum of the input integers, and the system may perform without necessarily subjecting self to the internal equilibrium of that entity (recall the introduction of SPVs); there are always “grey” areas to consider. And right now the latest risqué factor has been this “exponential” dimension of the new millennium. So, whether it is Ownership or Control or whatever any other issues that may be broached all are just but mere patterns of behavior among the interacting units, all sunk in an environment which is bound to throw up certain variables in the end that they themselves cannot completely appropriate.

     

    • 08037250343

    greenhavenfoundation@gmail.com

     

  • ‘Leadership is no tea party’

    ‘Leadership is no tea party’

    Emmanuel Ojo is the president of the Nigerian Students’ Association in Swansea University, United Kingdom. The Ondo-born Political Science student speaks with KEMI BUSARI (NYSC Kaduna) on how the government can improve education standard in Nigeria.

     

    Did you grow up in the United Kingdom (UK)?

    No! I was born and raised in Nigeria. I am an indigene of Sabomi Town in Ese-Odo Local Government Area of Ondo State. I had my primary and secondary education in the community. I attended Community Comprehensive High School in Sabomi, after which I left for the UK.

    How is the membership of the Nigerian Students’ Associationin in Swansea University like?

    The association was established in 2000 to unite all Nigerian students studying in Swansea University. It was created to maintain our identity and promote camaraderie. We currently have about 420 active Nigerians in the association. We also have non-Nigerians from other black nations, who joined us because of the progress the association has achieved in the last 15 years. This pushes the membership of the association to 1,500.

    What benefit does the association have for members?

    There are many benefits for members to join the association. First, we organise tutorials for students who have challenges in their studies. We hold meetings frequently to discuss issues affecting us as Africans in the Diaspora. We also help our members to get opportunities in the UK after their studies.

    What are your challenges as a student-leader?

    Leading the association, for me, has been very interesting. It gives me joy to lead my colleagues and show them the way. Although it is a tough experience, because you get to meet different kinds of people from different backgrounds. Some are adamant to correction; some are not even ready to be led but God has been helping me to steer the affairs of the association successfully. Leadership is acquired to serve and not to be served.  You would be surprised to see me serving drinks at students’ social gatherings.

    How can you compare the Nigerian education with that of UK?

    I think education in Nigeria has improved from what it used to be. We only have to improve on the standard and remove corruption in the system. Also, we have to improve the remuneration for lecturers. Lecturers are valued in the UK compared to what we have in Nigeria. This must change.

    Is it true that it is children of the rich that can study abroad?

    This notion is far from the truth. Interestingly, I am a living example. I don’t have a father and my mother is a subsistence farmer. In reality, it takes focus and sincerity of purpose to maximise opportunities around us.

    Would you return to Nigeria after your studies?

    Definitely. I wish to serve my people. I don’t know to what extent I will contribute to the development of Nigeria but I wish to serve in the legislature to change laws retarding Nigeria’s progress.

    How do you think Nigeria can improve its education?

    It starts with the parents. Their ability to keep their children focused on their studies is pivotal to changing Nigeria’s education for the better. The government should also provide facilities that will make education attractive to the youth.

  • Court to begin hearing on CBCIU leadership tussle

    A Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State will next Monday hear the case of the control of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) between Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka and former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

    The notice of hearing showed that the hearing will begin by 9am on October 12.

    The attorney general and commissioner for justice and two others- the governor and Prof. Soyinka- are listed as defendants in the suit issued by the court order on September 14.

    The hearing notice asked all the parties to bring the evidence by witnesses or by documents with which they desire to rely on in support of their case and in contradictions of the ones by their opponents.

    It reads: “The proof will be required at the hearing and not on a subsequent day. And parties failing to bring their evidence forward at the proper time may find themselves absolutely precluded from adducing it at all. Or at best will only be allowed to do so on payment of substantial costs to the other side and on such other terms as the court thinks fit to impose.

    “Parties desirous to enforce the attendance of witnesses should apply at once to the court to issue one or more summonses for the attendance of the witnesses required. It is indispensable that the applications should be made so as to allow time for reasonable notice to the witnesses required.

    “If either party desires to use in evidence any book or document in the possession or power of the other party, he must give the other party reasonable notice in writing to produce it at the hearing, failing which he will not be allowed to give any secondary evidence of its contents.”