According to Prof. Anya O. Anya, former Director General of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and present Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Prize for Leadership (NPL), stated that challenges which are currently experienced by Nigerians would subsequently lead to rebirth of the country. This statement was made at Prof. Sulaiman Bogoro’s investiture ceremony and second conferment of NPL fellowship where Anya further urged the federal government to announce every December 12 as National Leadership Day.
It was mentioned that the program was designed to build a generation of leaders with the right values, with emphasis on the pursuit and drive of the group towards excellence in leadership in the country as being a significantly right choice. The hardships of Nigerian citizens, according to the Nigerian Prize for Leadership, will produce a new generation of Nigerians that will build a new Nigeria. The NPL, led by some prominent Nigerians, is focused at charting a new course of deliberate actions that will identify and reinvent a new culture of leadership propelled by values, pursuit of excellence and integrity.
There is a need to groom a successful generation of leaders for Nigeria.
Anya, a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) and former President of the Academy, asserted that although celebrating excellence in leadership is essential, there is a great need to invest time and resources to build a credibly strong successor generation of leaders for the country that will be sustainable across different sectors of Nigeria. The leadership prize, according to him, had no political, religious and ethnicity bias and was awarded to honest and value-driven leadership in Nigeria.
The bestowment of these awards was based on visible accomplishments of capacity, performance and dependability of time. While commenting on the award, Anya declared that Bogoro – professor of Animal Science with specialism in Biochemistry and Ruminant Nutrition – has been steadfast in upholding the core values of exceptional leadership since his tenure as Principal Investigator of the African Center for Excellence/World Bank on Food Security to his time at the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) as the Executive Secretary.
NPL embraced a transparent process that is worthy of emulation.
These core values include creativity and innovation, competence, impact on society, mentorship and role modelling, vision, character, sacrifice, governance and diversity and inclusion which are representations of the leadership pattern of NPL. With the awardees possessing the aforementioned core values, NPL believes that the prize is in deserving hands. It was added that the award will be given by NPL to 17 young Nigerians who were ambassadors before eventually qualifying for enrollment in the fellowship programme.
Prof. Bogoro, as Executive Secretary for TETFund, asserted that the transparency in the process embraced by NPL has enabled the establishment of a high standard worthy of emulation by other merit award platforms in Nigeria, with an oath that he never compromised his standard in his academic career as he also adopted the same standard in TETFund. He proved his statement by including TETFund’s allocation of N4 billion in 2019 that would last eight years for research which has been scaled up to N8 billion.
NPL thinks patriotism will change the narrative of Nigeria.
In addition, patriotism amidst statesmen and women, youths, politicians, community, professional and religious leaders would help change the narrative of Nigeria and Africa at large. Speaking on patriotism, the desire for the right leaders at every level of government who will be patriotic and thoughtful of humanity as the country prepares towards the 2023 elections was stressed. NPL therefore reaffirms its position as an establishment for grooming and preparing a credible successor generation of leaders, rebuilding leadership trust and promoting excellence in governance in Nigeria.
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