SPEECH BY THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF AFRICAN CENTRE FOR LEADERSHIP, STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT (CENTRE LSD), DR. OTIVE IGBUZOR AT THE THIRD ANNUAL LEADERSHIP LECTURE/GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THIRD SET OF CENTRE LSD LEADERSHIP SCHOOL ON 28^TH APRIL, 2012  AT BOLTON WHITE  HOTEL, ABUJA.

Protocols

On behalf of the Board of directors, management and staff of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), I welcome you to the third  annual leadership lecture and graduation ceremony of the third set of students from Centre LSD leadership school. The idea behind the setting up of the Leadership school is based on our understanding that the fundamental challenges to the development of Africa include among other things the absence of a dynamic, strategic and visionary leadership. The events around Africa in the last two and half years of   operation of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development have confirmed our diagnostics that the three fundamental challenges to Africa’s development are poor leadership, absence of correct strategies and inappropriate development approaches.  Meanwhile, it has been proven that leaders can be trained to become top strategists who will be able to envision the future and help to map out strategies on how to get there.[i] Additionally, leaders can be trained to manage for success through people, policies, programmes and principles.

The Centre LSD Leadership School is set up to train leaders by attempting to unravel the complexity of leadership and offering a framework that will help people to become great leaders.[ii] The school focuses on both leader development (expanding the capacity of individuals for effective leadership roles and processes) and leadership development (expansion of organisations’ capacity to enact basic leadership tasks including setting direction, creating alignment and maintaining commitment).[iii] At the end, we produce leaders who will know how to mobilise others to get extra-ordinary things done in organisations and nations. They should now be able to transform values into actions; visions into realities; obstacles into innovations; separateness into solidarity and risks into rewards.[iv] The school is meant for people who are motivated to become leaders and want tools to become dynamic, strategic and visionary leaders that will transform organisations and nations. The Centre LSD leadership school was inherited from The Ejiro & Otive Igbuzor Foundation. The school holds every third Saturday of the month. In between lectures, students are given assignments on different areas of leadership. The inaugural class started in May, 2009 and fifteen students graduated on 17th April, 2010 at the Centre LSD first Annual Leadership Lecture. The second set of students commenced classes on 15th May, 2010 and sixteen students graduated on 14^th May, 2011 out of thirty eight students that enrolled.  Forty students were admitted for the third set and thirty of them will be graduating today. Sixty students have been admitted into the fourth set and they will be taking their matriculation oath today.  In addition to the leadership school, we have also instituted Leadership Institute and Executive Leadership Course for young leaders and chief executives respectively. In the past two and half years, we have trained 216 persons on leadership including the 30 students that are graduating today. All of the graduands have been formed into the transform leadership network. Our dream is to create a new crop of leaders that will change the leadership trajectory of Nigeria.

The graduands have been exposed to the following courses during the one year period:

1.      What is Leadership

2.      Who is a leader?

3.      Gender perspectives to Leadership

4.      Developing Leaders

5.      Leadership & ICT

6.      Leadership & Habit

7.      Leadership & Vision

8.      Leadership & International Relations

9.      Leadership and Strategy

10.  Leadership and Financial Management.

11.  Leadership and Organisation

12.  Leadership & the Media

13.  Leadership and Management

14.  Leadership and Development

15.  Leadership & Execution

16.  Leadership and Intergenerational Mentoring

17.  Leadership & Communication

18.  Public Speaking

19.  What it takes to be a CEO

20.  Leadership & Governance

Each of the graduating student has done at least five assignments including assessment of his/her  leadership potential and essays on the leader he/she admires, the leadership challenge in Nigeria, book review and project/long essay on an approved topic.

The Faculty of the School is made up of persons who have distinguished themselves as leaders and are willing to share their life and experiences backed with theory and practice of leadership. The leadership school is run free of charge. The students pay no fees and no fees or honouraria are paid to the members of the faculty. The faculty members are committed to giving back to society. The faculty members include:

Dr. Kole A. Shettima who hold a PhD in Political Science and currently Africa Director of MacArthur Foundation. He is an expert on human rights, reproductive health, higher education and philanthropy.

Mrs. Eugenia Abu is a well known broadcaster with a Masters degree in Communication Policy Studies. She is an author and poet. She was the winner of the Flora Nwapa price for best writing in 2008.

Mr. Jimi Agbaje is a Pharmacist, Manufacturer and Politician with high passion for integrity and Professionalism.

Dr. Otive Igbuzor is a human rights activist, social entrepreneur, pharmacist and holds a PhD in Public Administration. He is an expert on development issues. He is a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Strategic Management.

Hajia Amina az-Zubair OFR, straddles civil society, private sector and government and has accumulated considerable experience in leading people and managing resources. She is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs.

Mr. Johnson Ikube is the Group Managing Director of Future Now Plc. He is a result oriented Entrepreneur with experiences in Manufacturing, Banking and Consulting.

Dr(Mrs). Ejiro J. Otive Igbuzor holds a PhD in Microbiology. She is an Expert on gender issues, reproductive health and monitoring and evaluation.

Mr. Soji Apampa is a business consultant and Executive Director of an NGO, Integrity. He has expansive experience in the private sector and in promoting corporate social responsibility. He is an author of several books.

Mrs. Maryam Uwais is a lawyer and Women and Child rights activist. She is currently a a member of the African Committee of Experts on the rights and welfare of the child.

Dr. (Mrs) Jummai Umar-Ajijola holds a PhD in Public Administration and Policy Analysis. She has extensive experience in government, non-governmental organisations, international development agency and the private sector.

Dr. Hussaini Abdu holds a PhD in Political Science with specialization in Political economy. He is the Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria.

Mr. Christian Des Roches is in expert in International Relations. He works with the Canadian embassy in Nigeria.

Ms. Amina Salihu holds a masters degree in Political Science. She is a Feminist and Women’s rights activist. She is the immediate past co-ordinator of Coalition for Change.

This year’s annual leadership lecture is focused on Leadership and Governance. The importance of political leadership in the governance and development of nations cannot be overemphasized. The progress, development and fortunes of many nations are tied to the type and quality of political leadership that they have had and continue to have.  Several scholars have argued that the greatest problem confronting Africa is the political condition underscoring the importance of political leadership. According to Claude Ake:

Many factors have been offered to explain the apparent failure of the development enterprise in Africa: the colonial legacy, social pluralism and centrifugal tendencies, the corruption of leaders, poor labour discipline, the lack of entrepreneurial skills, poor planning and incompetent management, inappropriate policies, the stifling of market mechanisms, low levels of technical assistance, the limited inflow of foreign capital, falling commodity prices and unfavourable terms of trade, and low levels of saving and investment. These factors are not irrelevant to the problem. Alone or in combination they could be serious impediments to development. However, the assumption so readily made that there has been failure of development is misleading. The problem is not so much that development has failed as that it was never really on the agenda in the first place. By all indications, political conditions in Africa are the greatest impediment to development.[v]

We are confident that the students have learnt a lot of things to help to push for transformative leadership in their organizations and in Nigeria. We are poised to build a movement of people who will not only advocate for but provide transformative leadership in organizations and in the African continent. We are striving to produce a critical mass of transformative leaders at the earliest possible time. We call on citizens and organizations that are committed to progress and development to partner with us to realize our mission.

This address will not be complete without commendation of the Konrad Adeneaur Stiftung for believing in us. We received our first grant as a centre from KAS. They have consistently supported the holding of the annual leadership lecture for the past three years. We thank the management and staff of KAS for the support for the leadership school. In particular, we thank Dr. Klaus Paehler, Mr. Samson Adeniran and Ms. Pamela for their unflinching support.

Thanks for your attention.

ENDNOTES

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

The Kebbi State Governorship Election was held on Saturday, March 31, 2012. Fifteen candidates contested this governorship election. They are: Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, ACN; Attari Sani, AD; Hajia Hauwau Mohammed, ADC; Alh. Lawan Moad, ALP; Alh. Sulaiman Muhammad Argungu, ANPP; Malami Umaru Birnin Kebbi, APGA; Mallam Abubakar Abubakar, CPC; Alh. Sani Abubakar, CPP; Muhammed Danbare, Labour; Sahabi Atiku, NNPP; Alh. Tukur Musa Yaro, NSDP; Mohammed Nasiru Magaji, NTP; Saidu Usman Nasamu, PDP; Alhaji Abubakar Umaru, PPA; and Alh. Mohammed Nura, PPP.

Kebbi state has twenty one (21) local governments, 225 registration areas and 2,398 Polling Units (P.U.s). In addition, it has 1,636,308 registered voters. The election was sequel to a court judgment which sacked the former governor and presently the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Usman Dakingari and ordered a fresh election.

Few days to the scheduled election, the Congress for Progressive Change candidate on whose account the election was ordered after he dragged the PDP to the courts citing irregularities in the elections decamped to the PDP he earlier took to court and this singular action brought about some colourations to the entire process.

First, the CPC approached INEC seeking for the mandatory 90 days to substitute their candidate who has decamped to PDP and whose name is still on the ballot papers as the CPC’s candidate but the INEC refused this request insisting that the polls must go on as scheduled.

This led widespread angst especially among the CPC followers who threatened to boycott the process.

LOGISTICS

Distribution and arrival of men and materials to the different PUs were quite timely and prompt. In some polling units materials arrived as early as 7am with the latest case of arrival were around 8:30am in some Pus in Augie LGA. Accreditation consequently, started quite early and on time in the various wards and Pus and continued very peacefully and orderly even though the turnout was initially low and discouraging but began to pick up soon up. On the overall, the deployment of materials, accreditation and conduct of voters were impressive even though that cannot be said of the overall turnout.

GENERAL VOTING PROCEDURES

It was observed that the elections took place with no incidences of widespread violence and voters conducted themselves in a peaceful manner across most polling units observed. Communication with observers and INEC electoral officers across the state recorded uneventful commencement and execution of the accreditation exercise. Low voter turn out was observed across PUs during the early periods of accreditation with only a few recording numbers close to the total number of eligible voters on the register. The restriction of movement order was not adhered to as businesses were open and individuals went about the streets in cars and motorcycles. Logistic challenges were observed in PU’s especially in the state capital, Birnin Kebbi with officials and materials arriving late at some of the PU’s visited. Polling clerks and youth corps members engaged cited delay from the distribution centre as responsible for their late arrival. However, the low turnout seemingly compensated for the late start of accreditation because later on in the day, before 12pm, some PU’s visited had the officials idle and waiting for voters to come forward for accreditation.

At the commencement of voting although communication with observers and electoral officers in other LG’s reported the exercise going on smoothly, the observation team of the CS situation room in the state capital asked a few questions at PU’s visited which revealed a worrying trend of polling clerks not knowing how many voters were accredited before voting commenced, which gives room for manipulation of final votes cast, and in several cases a high number of final accredited voters contradicting the low numbers late in the accreditation process that morning. Some observers in other LG’s complained of not having access to a copy of the result sheet when voting was concluded and the results were not pasted at the PU after the exercise. The Situation room recorded at least one report of a community in Zuru LG that had no election. Voters waited up to 3pm but no election official turned up.

Although INEC deployed adequate materials across most PU’s and had organized staff supervising various LG’s, the low turnout observed and non adherence to restriction of movement may prove to be clogs in the successful conclusion of the election as free, fair and credible.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• The issue of voter education as regards their civic and constitutional responsibilities of voting and participating in the electoral process again comes to the fore. INEC and especially the political parties must step up their efforts in this wise to enable us have elections in the proper sense of the word
• Citizens should endeavour to adhere to the no movement order on election days to allow the process flow freely and uninterrupted.
• The citing of polling units in unconducive areas for a transparent electoral process like very close to political party secretariats and offices and inside homes of influential politicians and tradiditional rulers should be stopped by INEC in order not to endeavour other parties.
• There seems to be a drop in the number of security men attached to polling units as against what was noticed in preceding elections, this too should be looked into.
• Election and electoral officers welfare should also be looked into with a view to at least make them comfortable during the tiring electoral process as all the officers visited especially NYSCmembers complained of not having eating throughout the election period as this could expose them to inducements from politicians.

Uchenna Arisukwu

CENTRE LSD.

Although there are several civil society organisation working on issues of transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, there is no forum for sharing information and cross fertilization of ideas. Thus, the need for the strategy meeting to synenergise and harmonize the diaparate voices calling for transparency and acountability in the sector.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CSO WORKING TOGETHER 

• To generate knowledge through research and maintenance of a data bank/ resource centre.
• To share and disseminate information on programes for promoting transparency and accountability in the oil and gas.

APPROACH TO WORK

• Support through joint advocacy visits/ campaigns.
• capacity building.

PRINCIPLES:

• Each organisation will still be doing independent activities but will come together for support amplified advocacy on tranparency and accountability.
• The forum for working together will be hosted by a secretariat whose role will be to maintain the research and databank, host the virtual space and organise the biennial civil society forum on Transparency and accountability in Nigeria .

AFRICAN CENTRE FOR LEADERSHIP, STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT (CENTRE LSD)

                                                       PRESS RELEASE

The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) joins millions of compatriots across the world in the celebration of World Water Day on Thursday 22^nd March, 2012. The World Water Day has been observed since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared 22^nd March as World Water Day.

COMMUNITY LED TOTAL SANITATION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT ADVOCACY IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY (KUYIZHI COMMUNITY)

The above project seek to sensitize and get communities involved in sanitary and waste management in kuyizhi community in the Federal capital Territory(FCT), Abuja, Nigeria with a view  to reorientate the community towards better sanitations habits.  To this end the implementing partner, the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) will encourage a collective approach to understanding and analyzing sanitation conditions and its impact on individual members of the community.

After several months of advocacy training on sanitation and waste management, the Kuyizhi community people were able to have individual toilets.  That is each family having its own toilet. The transformation is tremendous.  On 31th January 2012, kuyizhi community was formally declared Open Defecation Free by International Standard by Centre LSD management and Supported by the Canadian International Development  Agency( CIDA).  The Snapshots were taken on the said ODF day.

 INTRODUCTION

The Police Service Commission (PSC) monitored the conduct of Police Officers during the Sokoto State Gubernatorial election held on 18^th February, 2012 in pursuance of its constitutional responsibility to hold the police accountable for its actions.

PREPARATION FOR THE ELECTION

The Police Service Commission had earlier issued guidelines on the conduct of police officers during elections in Nigeria. The guidelines include among other things the need for police officers on duty during elections to always be on alert, approachable, professional, impartial and wear name and number tags.

The Commission also liaised with the Police authorities on the need for proper policing of the elections. Similarly, we circulated four telephone numbers that complaints can be given to the Commission about the conduct of police officers during the elections. The commission met with the State Police Command and got contacts of police officers supervising the elections.

ELECTION DAY MONITORING

The Police Service Commission monitoring team was made up of four officers led by Dr. Otive Igbuzor, Commissioner and Chairman of Strategy Committee of the Commission. The team visited six local government areas:

1.   Sokoto South: Sheikh Abubakar Gummi memorial college 1 and 2, Barth road, P & T 1 and 2,  in Rijiyar Dorowa ward; Garkar Sarikin tasha 2, Rijiyar Dorowa ward, Kofar Atiku Kwamberu 1 in Sarkin Adar ward, G/B Dankwoli in Sakin Adar ward.

2.   Sokoto North: Sarkin Musulmi, Gidan Sarkin Muslimi ward, Shiyyar Abdullahi Mega in M/Rafi ward

3.   Kware LGA: Ruggar Giwa Primary School 1 and 2, Gidan Modibbo Akwara ward

4.   Wurno LGA: Makaranta 1 and 2; Kanwuri 1 and 2 in Achida ward

5.   Dange Shuni LGA: Dambuwa 1 and 2 in Tuntube Tishe ward

6.   Wamako LGA: Kware road A, Government day Secondary School all in Arkilla

OBSERVATIONS ON SECURITY AND POLICE CONDUCT

1.   We observed that there was security presence in most of the places visited by the team especially Police and Civil Defence. Out of all the places we visited, only one polling unit was without police which was rectified within fifteen minutes of our report.

2.   The elections went on peacefully in all the areas visited. Both election officials and security officers arrived in most of the polling units on time.

3.   About 10,000 Police Officers were deployed for the elections. There was huge improvement in deployment of police officers and punctuality of security officers to polling units.

4.   The police officers on election duty in the Sokoto gubernatorial elections conducted themselves very well. There was at least one police officer in most of the polling units visited.

5.   The police officers were generally courteous, approachable and co-operative with their name tags and numbers displayed on their uniforms.

6.   The police officers on election duty were not carrying arms except the Police Mobile Force units and other back up units who were roving throughout the state.

7.   We received four phone calls and two text messages during the election. One of the phone calls from Tudun Doki in Gwadabawa LGA was request for security which was provided within ten minutes.

CONCLUSION

The Police Service Commission commends the Police officers that participated in the Sokoto State gubernatorial election for their professional conduct.

We commend INEC and Police authorities for the improvement in logistics arrangement for the elections. In particular, we commend the Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police for prompt response to calls for more security.

Dr. Otive Igbuzor

Hon. Commissioner/Chair, Strategy Committee

Issued on 18^th February, 2012.