Leadership, Nigeria’s most pressing challenge

The presiding Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC), Pastor Tunde Bakare, has stated that Nigeria’s most pressing challenge is the crisis of leadership.

Describing ignorance as deadly, he stated that leaders are learners and learners are leaders, adding, “God forbid we continue to have, at the helm of affairs in Nigeria, those whose educational qualification is no more than Standard 6, if even that.”

He spoke in Lagos during the onboarding ceremony of the pioneer class of the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft Programme offered by the Citadel School of Governance in Partnership with the University of Lagos Business School (ULBS).

No fewer than 70 students made the first set for the nine-month programme subsidised by Pastor Bakare.

Also in attendance at the event, among other dignitaries, was former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, who declared that corruption in Nigeria had become ‘democratised.”

Pastor Bakare stated that he came up with the idea of the school to facilitate the emergence of Nigerian and African leaders empowered to rise to the demand of governance.

“This is what gave rise to the Citadel School of Governance to become a renowned global institution facilitating the emergence of great leaders,” he said.

The clergyman said the motivation for setting up the school was not born out of pecuniary gain or political ambition.

“All I want is a nation that works, a Nigeria that works for every Nigerian and I am confident such a nation will emerge in my life time,” he added.

Bakare stated that at the Citadel School of Government, “we have a bold and clear vision to become a globally renowned institution facilitating the emergence of cutting-edge nations, beginning with Nigeria.”

He said, “These are nations with agile and responsive governments whose impact is closely felt by the people; nations that adopt, adapt and author technological innovations; nations where knowledge and wisdom guide decisions, and where service is at the heart of leadership; nations whose leaders and people think globally while acting locally.

“By taking this initial step, we are on course to bridge the leadership gap in public sector governance in Nigeria, Africa and, by extension, across the globe. We will do this by providing current public sector leaders with exposure to cutting-edge tools for continuous development, and by facilitating the mobility of quality leadership from the private to the public sector.”

He recalled that his burning desire for a Nigeria that works, where constitutional order prevails led to the creation of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG) which “played a defining role in restoring constitutional order during a time of great uncertainty, demonstrating the power of informed citizens and organised civil society to change the course of a nation.”

In her remarks, Ezekwesili stated that some people are comfortable with the failure of Nigeria, saying Bakare is not one, declaring Nigeria has no business in failure.

According to her, all institutions in Nigeria, both in the public and private sectors are struggling because of the deep-seated corruption in the country.

He said, “Failure is not our destiny. And so if you decided that you’re going to join with him, whether as a facilitator or as an institution, you should in fact be paying him for agreeing to connect. Because the truth is that all existing institutions in our country, whether private sector, civil society, public sector, are struggling, haven’t you seen it? I was a young co-founder of Transparency International and in those days we began to say to the world that corruption is corrosive. It corrupts our society.

“It starts changing things. And when you don’t do anything about it, it becomes a monster. We in fact equated corruption with cancer.”

Executive Director of the University of Lagos Business School, Prof. Michael Adebamowo, said the course would adopt a problem-solving approach to train the students.