‘Nigeria, Africa need cultural reform for positive leadership’

Tuesday, 28 June 2011 00:00 Hope Moses-Ashike

For enhanced leadership in Nigeria and across Africa through positive change in people attitude and disposition, there must be cultural transformation that will drive the new way of life.
Experts say this has become necessary to build leadership institution policy framework, entrepreneurial spirit and human capital development.

They believe that these characteristics will engender democratic change and give citizens the right capacity to monitor leadership and ask for change before colossal errors are made in governance.
Pat Utomi, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), in the last election, who delivered a lecture on “Economic stagnation in Africa: An example of the paradox of poverty in Nigeria,” at the maiden edition of the annual retreat programme on management and leadership organised by the Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria (APBN), in collaboration with Lagos Business School (LBS) and Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in Lagos, said if culture is reformed it can save policymaking, how institution evolve, the commitment to building human capital, and entrepreneurship.
According to him, “the challenge of solidarity with Africa is that of helping develop the leadership capacity to affect culture in this way and to be able to speak up when bad leadership emerges before it does irreversible damage.”
Addressing participants at the event, Segun Ajanlekoko, president of APBN, said the retreat is an initiative of the APBN executive council which has the blessing of the board of the association to equip those entrusted with authority and management of the nation’s institutions.
“Today’s event is therefore significant in various respects as it signals a milestone as well as another phase in the Association’s developmental strides and value added to the special skills of professionals in various disciplines to improve our services and practices,” he said.
The objective of the retreat include to promote optimum conditions of operations for the association’s different professional bodies, to further promote co-operation among the bodies using the retreat platform and to promote excellence in the Association’s services to the society.
As an annual programme, it is expected that members in various discipline will take advantage of it to enrich, broaden and deepen their knowledge. This, he said, will enable them gain competence beyond areas of specialisation and at the same
time prepare them for leadership position and national service to contribute their quota to the country’s development.
According to him, the dynamic management like leadership is often fired up fired up by vision and the will to succeed. To succeed and progress, organisations need positive, constructive dynamic and creative management and leadership skills be it in business, industry, government and non-governmental organisations.
“As leaders, we must be imbued with vision, discipline, wisdom, courage, humility, tact and diplomacy, exude inspirational power, exercise executive ability/capacity and also make good decisions in the interest of sustainability of our professions,” he said.

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