Quality Education, Equal Opportunities, Essential for Effective Leadership, Stakeholders Say

Uchechukwu Nnaike

As part of activities marking the 114th founders’ day of King’s College, Lagos, the King’s College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) organised a lecture with the theme ‘Dismantling the Barriers: Creating a Pathway for the Emergence of Effective Leaders in Nigeria’.

According to the Chairman of the 2023 Kingsweek Planning Committee, Mr. Olumide Akpata, the theme became necessary to seek ways of dismantling the barriers militating the emergence of effective leadership in the country. 

He noted that schools like King’s College have constantly trained and produced some of the great minds in the country and wondered why the country continued to sink due to bad leadership.

The keynote speaker, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, regretted that ethnicity, religion, injustice, inequity, and corruption are some of the barriers to the emergence of effective leaders and development in the country.

He argued that given equal opportunities, an effective leader can emerge from any part of the country, as everyone has the potential to break the barriers. 

Speaking during the panel session, APC gubernatorial candidate in Lagos, Funsho Doherty, said progressive groups in a political class must be united.

He also recommended the use of technology to level the playing field. He also called for collaboration between the electorates and the progressive political class to produce the desired outcome.

The APC governorship candidate in Rivers, Tonye Cole, stated that the greatest mistake made by many people of his generation was apathy to politics, so there were no mentees among them. 

According to him, the ruling class’ weaponisation of poverty and politics starts by denying people entry by making the party membership card hard to access. 

To get it right, he said the system needs to be dismantled, and the citizens need to discuss the constitution, democracy, political parties and the future. 

APGA gubernatorial candidate in Abia, Mr. Etigwe Uwa (SAN), stated that the political class is the greatest barrier in the country and stressed that there must be a mass evasion of the political space.

He suggested that all professional organizations should make it compulsory for their members to contest in elections.

He also stressed the need to address the educational imbalance in the country.

The Special Adviser to the President on Education, Babajide Obanikoro, said the barriers can be broken through discipline, social and moral values, accountability and taking charge. 

He added that the government can close the education gap by striving to catch up with private schools through adequate funding, effective management and accountability.