Anya: Current Challenges Will Lead to Rebirth of New Nigeria
* NPL honours Bogoro, 17 others with leadership awards
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
A former Director General of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and current Chairman, Governing Board of the Nigerian Prize for Leadership (NPL), Prof. Anya O. Anya, has said current challenges experienced by Nigerians would eventually lead to the country’s rebirth.
Speaking in Abuja at the investiture ceremony of Prof. Sulaiman Bogoro and second conferment of NPL fellowship, Anya, a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science (FAS) and former President of the Academy, called on the federal government to declare every December 12, as National Leadership Day.
He explained that the programme was meant to groom a generation of leaders with the right set of values, stressing that the group’s pursuit and drive towards excellence in leadership in the country remain the right choice.
“Nigeria is currently going through a challenging period that will bring with it the rebirth of our nation. The Nigerian Prize for Leadership believes that these pains will produce a new generation of Nigerians that will deliver a new Nigeria,” he noted.
The NPL is led by some eminent Nigerians who say they are determined to chart a new course of deliberate actions aimed at identifying, and reinventing a new culture of leadership driven by values, integrity and the pursuit of excellence.
Anya maintained that while it was important to celebrate excellence in leadership, it was even more important to invest time and resources to raise a strong and credible successor generation of leaders for Nigeria, on a sustainable basis and across different sectors of the society.
He declared that the leadership prize was shorn of politics, ethnicity and religious bias, bestowed on honest and value-driven leadership in Nigeria, measured in terms of visible accomplishments of performance, capacity and dependability of time.
On the recipient of the award, he noted that from Bogoro’s time as Principal Investigator, African Centre for Excellence/World Bank on Food Security, to his most recent service at the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) as Executive Secretary, he has been consistent in upholding the core values of exceptional leadership.
“The barometers are vision, creativity and innovation, character, competence, sacrifice, impact on society, governance, role modelling and mentorship as well as diversity and inclusion.
“These core values, represent the leadership paradigm of NPL. Therefore, we have no doubt that our prize, the very first of its kind, is in safe and deserving hands,” he added.
He also highlighted that the NPL was giving the award to 17 deserving young Nigerians, who started as ambassadors, which qualified them to enrol for the fellowship programme.
In his remarks, TETfund’s Executive Secretary, Bogoro, said the transparent process observed by the NPL has established a very high standard worthy of being copied by other merit award platforms in Nigeria and beyond.
“I can swear to any holy book that in my academic career, I never compromised my standard for anybody. I imported the same standard in Tetfund,” he stated.
He stated that in 2019, Tetfund had N4 billion naira spread over eight years for research, amounting to N500 million per annum, adding that that has now been scaled up to N8 billion.
“With patriotic statesmen and women, youths as well as politicians, professional, community and religious leaders, we can collectively change the narrative and redirect our country and Africa.
“As we prepare for the 2023 elections, let us pray that God gives us the right leaders at all levels who will be patriotic enough to think of humanity and the common good,” he asserted.
The NPL was established to groom and prepare a credible successor generation of leaders, rebuild leadership trust, and promote excellence in governance in Nigeria.
A highlight of the occasion was the unveiling of 17 leadership protégés by the Executive Secretary of NPL, Dr Ike Neliaku.
