Ayida-Otobo: Africans Have Started Appreciating Good Governance

Chief Executive Officer of School of Politics, Policy and Governance, Alero Ayida-Otobo, in this interview with Kuni Tyessi, identifies Africa’s main challenge as poor leadership, noting that the people have started waking up to reality and will no longer accept just anything thrown at them.

In which way do you think deliberations at the African Conference are going to enhance or influence or improve the political jurisprudence of Africa’s democracy?

When we put this African Conference together, it was with an understanding that most African countries face similar problems, similar experiences from colonialism to the post-colonial period, grappling with poverty, high mortality, especially maternal mortality.

They all had out-of-school children. When we looked at it, the root of the problem was poor leadership and poor governance. As a result of research, we were clear that if we do not raise a new political class or a new class of public leaders with our three Cs (character, competence and capacity), who knows what the issues are, we are finished.

Through evidence, the graduands will design the solutions for development. If you listen to our graduands, you would agree that they can solve most of the problems we are facing in the continent at that moment.

That is how SPPG started, and we knew that Nigeria was just the pilot. We have a vision for the continent of Africa and we decided to start with seven countries, including Senegal, Cameroon, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mali and Nigeria. We decided that if we have a continental vision, if we need quality leaders, proficient leaders with character, competence and capacity, let us begin to groom them through the Africa Conference in Abuja.

I discovered that most of your students belong to the average population- the youth. Why is this so?

We deliberately chose those between a certain age. First of all, you know that 70 per cent of our population now is under 40 years of age. So, it is clear that the future of this nation is in the hands of our youths.

So, even the criteria for selection, we score students that are between the ages of 24 and 35 higher than those that are older biologically; we give them more marks because we want to train and raise the next generation.

Now, the youngest parliamentarian in this conference is Gift from Zimbabwe. He is 29. Look at how well he spoke. He is a powerful speaker. So, we know that the future of this continent lies in the hands of the youths. So, we are biased towards youths.That is why we also focus on Community SPPG.

We want to train community organisers to understand how to hold leadership in their community/local government accountable, how to look for quality leaders when it is time for election. So we have a six-month programme for community organisers.

But the potent fear is that, even when you bring up these students and they find themselves in positions where they can serve, will the ‘old horses’ allow them?

I have a philosophy, a thought, that one day, they are all going to die. That is why we are facing the youths. Let us focus on that critical mass and raise a large number, so that when they die, you have a new crop.

That is why we also have Secondary School SPPG. We have designed a curriculum and we want to start going to Secondary SPPG, the next generation even below 25.

We are already going down. It is all strategy. We have been thinking for a long time, and as we have been doing the strategic thinking, we are designing the different programmes that will help us raise a new value-based political class.

In Africa, our democracy is not stable. Most of our democracies are being truncated through military coup d’état. Is this part of your content?

Were you here, yesterday, when Karl Walah, who gave a presentation, said there are three types of coups; electoral coup, constitutional coup and military coup?

But I am talking of military coup. Even the electoral coup is as bad as the military coup. So, it is not only military coup; we are also having constitutional and electoral coup across different nations. I don’t want to mention the nations. We have a real problem in Africa, which is why it is a governance issue. If we do not have the numbers, we are going to struggle. That is why our goal is to have those numbers and multiply; hence, going to different countries is very important. Our course is online because if we try to bring people to one physical location, you know we are in trouble; we can never have more than a certain number. But if it is online/virtual, like it is, we can have them from different countries, and we have them from different countries.

How do you intend to drive students’ admission growth?

We are driving it. First of all, our alumni are our greatest marketers. They recommend people. That is how we multiply. Then we have a very strong social media presence. Even in events like this, we are already marketing. The person I was talking to before you is from Burkina Faso. He wants to join SPPG and then I told him, “Don’t come to Nigeria; go to Senegal because they speak French.” So, he is going to go to Senegal.

All we look for is one person from a country. Adama from #Classof2022 is from Senegal. Because he attended the programme, we are starting the school in Senegal.

How would you advice sit-tight leaders, in terms of relinquishing power to this generation of leaders your are breeding?

It is going to happen. What we are seeing is a struggle to hold on to power, but it will change because the electorate are awake. That is the truth. In Nigeria’s 2023 election, I have never seen so much active citizenship. Do you think we can ever go back to the old? No, so the change will come and because we are running out of resources and debts are getting higher, the challenges of development are going to push good governance.

What do you think is the main challenge facing African democracies?

The main challenge of African democracy is poor leadership, and poor leadership is poor governance. Then we have citizens who do not know their rights, who did not know that they could demand for their rights. But now that they know, it is going to get more and more difficult to justify poor leadership and poor governance. That is the bottom-line. I have given examples where I have worked in government. You would do good works and see change. But a new minister would come and just reverse it. That cannot continue.

Where do you see SPPG in the next 20 years?

We will be across 54 countries in Africa in the next 20 years. Before 2025, in another two years, I see in at least four new countries. So, we have to put a multiplication strategy in place and expand our human and operational resources.But I am excited. I am very thankful and I love what I do. I love the work, the team and the idea It is just amazing, fantastic to be part of change and transformation.