Ezekwesili Harps on Need to Tackle  Leadership Deficit in Africa

Goddy Egene

The School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) yesterday said it would reduce the leadership deficit  in the areas of policy analysis, development and good governance on the continent.

Convener/Chair of FixPolitics and Founder SPPG, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, who made the commitment in a statement yesterday,  said the deficit would be reduced  with  a well-tailored curriculum for African students with a global perspective.

Speaking to leadership deficit on the continent and Nigeria,  Ezekwesili said: “The existing multilateral order is broken and must be urgently fixed so that our world can make critical decisions and take the right actions on issues that affect us all. Africa must be at the centre of the conversations on global governance, economic growth, poverty and inequality, climate change, disruptive technologies and related issues of human and social development.

“The world will do better with Africa actively at the table of the redesign of today’s global architecture for a future that provides equal opportunity for everyone anywhere to excel.”

According to her, to be ready for this, Africa needs disruptive leaders who are constantly invested in finding better solutions to problems of their communities, countries and the world.

 “The SPPG is where we are raising the ethical, competent and capable disruptive leaders for an Africa that seats at the global table of decision. And we are doing so, one leader at a time in significant numbers,”  Ezekwesili said.

The SPPG is an unconventional school of the research-anchored #FixPolitics initiative that is designed to transform the quality of political and public leadership in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. 

This innovative leadership school is invested in developing a massive pipeline of value-based and disruptive thinking political-class equipped with the requisite knowledge, skills, and mindset to solve complex leadership problems to reposition Africa in the 21st Century.

The SPPG has a continental focus and commenced in Nigeria in 2020 with expansion plans into Senegal in 2023, as the step before six other countries.

Chief Executive Officer, SPPG, Ms. Alero Ayida-Otobo said: “Our pioneer class of 160 outstanding professionals from the public sector, business, and civil society graduated in October 2021. This year, 133 will graduate in a hybrid ceremony on October 8, 2022.”

The 10-month long world-class multidisciplinary and unconventional curriculum spans topics on politics, ethical leadership, strategic management, gender, equity and social inclusion, economics and economic policy, human capital development, technology and development, trade, sectoral issues for accelerating development, environment and climate change, security, transparency, accountability, good governance, and institution’s building.

“We are fortunate to have an honorary expert faculty body consisting of renowned academics, experts and practitioners from around the world who teach our 140 courses. Our students have therefore learned from a world class faculty to become disruptive thinkers who are ethical, competent, and capable in their present and future roles as political and policy leaders.

“We are delighted that 55 of our students were aspirants for elective offices in the recent primaries of various political parties and of which five emerged as candidates for the forthcoming 2023 general elections. Our school continues to support our alumni by engaging experts to help design strategies that can strengthen their candidacy and improve their chances of winning elections,” Ayida-Otobo stated.

The vision of the school is to envision a Nigeria with competent and responsible public leadership firmly based on ethical principles and dedicated to serving the common good for the benefit of all.

Whilst its mission is to educate present and future leaders dedicated to the good of the nation and ready to serve as stewards of the wellbeing of all Nigerians.

The CEO of SPPG stated further that designing our global future with Africa in mind speaks to the idea that the world has come to a time in its evolution where the powers that be, must take Africa actively into account in making decisions about critical global issues. Some of the most crucial ones, Alero said: “Include the sustainability of the environment, social justice, and insecurity. Taking Africa into account is not from the perspective of Africa as a docile observer and recipient of whatever crumbs fall from the table of the global north,” she said, “but as active participants in designing what the desired future would look like.”

To celebrate SPPG second anniversary, the school would launch its Alumni Association on October 6, perform a Solidarity Walk on October 7, and host its first graduation ceremony on October 8, while the next matriculation for the school comes up on October 28th, 2022 in Abuja with the theme “Designing our Global Future with Africa in Mind.”

SPPG’s strategic objectives includes the need to groom a new set of leaders with policy development and good governance mind set, whilst educating a new cadre of political leaders dedicated to the values of good governance in and out of Nigeria, based on the values the school upholds.

“We want to contribute to instilling in politicians and public administrators, a deep sense of moral commitment to the common good as a foundation for Nigeria and Africa’s future prosperity. SPPG aims to strengthen the bonds between government, public administration, and citizens by fostering dialogue, accountability and transparency,”  the CEO said.

SPPG is determined to foster the disruptive thinking needed to create the understanding amongst new leadership that the public good must always be an inherent consideration in governance. Its programs and mini SPPG curricula are available to continue to change leadership dynamics.