Akin Fadeyi Foundation Honours Shettima for Leadership, Anti-corruption Efforts

Funmi Ogundare

The Akin Fadeyi Foundation yesterday brought together experts in different fields to honour Dr. Kole Shettima, the Nigerian director of Mac-Author Foundation, for his leadership style, integrity, commitment to humanity and impact on society.

They described him as one with an inspiring personality who espouses characteristics and elements of stoic philosophers; and humility, mindfulness, rationality, self-discipline, fair-dealing, honesty, modesty as well as self-respect.

Speaking during a virtual meeting on ‘Impact Series with Dr. Kole Shettima’, former First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, described Shettima as one with an impeccable character having known him for almost 30 years.

She expressed excitement about the programme honouring him while he is still alive, and commended the Akin Fadeyi Foundation for the
programme.

She said: “When I think of Kole Shettima, I think of his vision, practice and values of honesty, integrity, fairness and equity which are in alignment. He is a transformative leader. We need to continue to encourage those who are becoming behind to become better version.”

A Communication Strategist and Lawyer, Aisha Osori, explained that Shettima gave funders in the philanthropy space the opportunity to meet regularly to share their thoughts, challenges and collaborated very closely with the foundation on elections, where they pulled their resources ahead of the 2015 and 2019 elections on discussions about impunity, coordination meetings with civil society, discussion and engagements with bilateral and multi-lateral levels.

She emphasised on the foundation’s fight against corruption in 2019, saying that the funders setup the $5 million anti-corruption funding collaboration to support the Office of the Vice President and the Buhari administration.

According to her, “This created a very unique, multi-level collaboration among the Nigerian Government, civil society and the donor community to address both the supply and demand sides of the anti-corruption spectrum to facilitate complimentary engagement on anti-corruption and hopefully some of the meaningful impacts or effects of that fund are still being felt today. Dr. Kole Shettima has remained a very close confidant and someone that I look up to in the space.”

Also, former Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah, recalled how Shettima had supported him while he was in government and how he has always tackled some of the most difficult issues.

“The foundation has never shied away from some of the most difficult issues, but has been building the capacity of organisations and ensuring that the quality of work can compete globally. I am happy that he is being celebrated today,” he said.

A Catholic Priest, Rev Fr. George Ehusani, described Shettima as one who is concerned about community transformation, saying: “ You have shown us an example of leadership and have been a gift to this country. We are all proud of him.”

A lecturer in the Sociology Department, Bayero University Kano, Prof. Sadiq Isah Radda, on his own,  stated that his institution would remain grateful to Shettima for his contributions and fight against corruption.

In his response, Shettima thanked Akin Fadeyi Foundation and others for finding him worthy of such honour.

He attributed his success to making the society and the staff at the foundation which he said have made all the difference.

According to him, “Organisations are run by human beings. I always want us to pay attention to the human beings in the office-the people that you work with-because at the end of the day, it is this human beings that would make all the difference. We have been very fortunate to have very wonderful colleagues.

“You know, here in Nigeria, as well as in Chicago, US, you have made our work easier and more beautiful for us to do what we are doing.”

“We at the foundation are very fortunate to have the resources in our hand to  pursue what we also believe in terms of a world which is better for everyone in our society, a world  which I think we all crave for and fight for.”