‘Against all odds’ TheFLEA Conference unveils national discourse on visionary leadership

The vision was birthed, the plan was set out, pursued and against all odds the 30th of November, 2021 marked the beginning of a novel national project of steering up discourses that can drive the real change Nigeria deserves.

Freelanews’ maiden edition of TheFLEA Conference and Award held at the Radisson Blu Hotel Ikeja, Lagos on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, and was widely graced people from different walks of life, major brands and organisations.

The two fold event started with the National Periscope Discourse on the Nigeria situation, where issues on leadership, visioning, policy, innovation were directed for proper understanding. The distinguished panelists then went further to share their experiences on the subject matters.

Public discourse is one of the most important aspects of a democracy and one of the purpose of TheFLEA is to lead a robust public discourse to bring attention to and mobilise a new paradigm on key national issues. TheFLEA Conference, the platform created for this purpose brought together great minds and leaders of key industries, to handle two topical contexts of visionary leadership and then innovation-driven policy making.

The first session, which focused on visionary leadership was handled by a solid panel, which included ThisDay Newspapers’ Deputy Editor, Olawale Olaleye, the representative of Chief Olabintan Famutimi, Engr Ade Oyenekan, as seasoned Engineered and Chairman of Palms Agency Limited, an oil service company, and Princess Kelechi Oghene, former beauty queen, celebrated fashion designer, and CEO of GMYT Fashion Academy. The session was ably moderated by legendary film maker, Fidelis Ducker.

The rich discussions dissected the meaning and importance of leadership, vision and a politically aware citizens. The discourse defined the common problems of leadership in Nigeria’s private and public sector, which include lack of compassion, ineptitude, avarice, political patronage and godfatherism.

Olaleye’s submission was that beyond the focus on leadership, there is an urgent need to address bad followership. He referenced different research materials which opined that 65% of the problem can often be traced to the followers. He further explained that a leader is only as good as the quality of followers he has. Famed-Yoruba leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was said to be a great believer in collective genius. Olayele attributed the success and impact of the legendary leader to his ability to take advantage of the wisdom of his followers, who came up with innovative solutions that today remains the hallmark of his achievements.

The respected journalist gave five types of followership by Robert Kelly; Passive, Exemplary, Alienated, Conformist, and Pragmatist. He said the type in the majority in a nation often determines how much a leader can do, because leadership is only an extension of followership.

Olaleye defined vision is conceiving ideas, projecting it into the future through the power of imaganization, wisdom – looking into the future and what is possible. He inferred that in the developed world, an average citizen is responsive and visionary themselves, hence they come up with those novel ideas their leaders run with.

Finally, ThisDay’s deputy editor suggested that the change we seek should begin from within, so as to produce a future generation of good leaders.

Fidelis Duker responded to Olawale noting that Nigerian leaders cannot practise the Awolowo style because they are threatened. He gave an instance of a leader who sat in a meeting and talked for three hours and his followers talked for 3 minutes. He maintains that the motive and character of our leaders are often not ideal.

Engr. Oyenekan in his response gave four types of followers – opportunists, loyalists, traitors and critics, but submitted that the focus was still on the leaders, whom the responsibility fall on to inspire and train good followers through long-term visions. He gave examples of how visionary leadership can lead to transformation and positively affect the entire society. He mentioned the US Interstate Highway Act/Policy/Project- a deliberate long-term vision that cut across eight US presidents. It had enormous impact on both the leaders and the lead.

Some facts about the project:

• The Interstate Highway System is the largest public works program in history of the US
• Stretches 47,622 miles (76,640 km) and includes 10 transcontinental routes varying from 18 miles (28km) to 3,000 miles (4, 828km).
• Annual spending on the Interstate Highway System is estimated to be $20.2billion
• The original plan took 36years to complete (executed under 8 US presidents)

Some of the important highlights of the project are:

• Drove technological advancement of all the US states
• Became an icon and inspiration for engineering works
• Played a major role in the suburbanization of the United States
• Residential suburbanization followed the outward deployment of rail and streetcar technologies
• It drove housing policies and practices that favoured home ownership and suburban locations—such as redlining or withholding home loans in the inner city and older suburbs, tax deductions for mortgage interest, and mass production of housing on greenfield tracts.
• Retail and service employment followed the population shifts outward, often attracted by the lower cost of land and by a business environment that was less regulated.
• Created standard and professional life across the US states: The Interstate Highway System was a massive endeavour that occupied many years of transportation professionals’ careers, from the 1950s through the1970s and beyond. To get the job done, highway departments established rigid chains of command and sharp hierarchies—a military model of organization
• In addition, the program imposed uniform, federally established design standards nationwide, to minimise conflicts and to produce a homogeneous flow with an emphasis on speed, safety, and efficiency as primary values. Road design was by the book. Civil engineering programs began to have trouble attracting the best students, in part because the work was seen as routine, with less room for creativity and innovation than other fields could offer. The professionals learnt on the job

Engineer Oyenekan also gave examples of a stint of such long-term visionary projects/policies in Nigeria, like the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and NYSC.

Some details of the NEEDS programme include:

• National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) was a holistic reform agenda designed to lay a solid foundation for sustainable wealth creation, poverty reduction, employment generation and valued re-orientation.
• It was home grown reform programme, put together through extensive consultation with major stakeholders in both public and private sectors of the economy; stakeholders include officials of the state, local government, members of the state house of assembly, civil society organization, traditional rulers and representatives of the business community; donor agencies like DFID, UNIDO, UNICEF, UNDP, USAID and WORLD BANK.
• NEEDS laid out a programme of fiscal reform, transparency, countering corruption, investment in badly needed infrastructures, revival of agriculture, investment in health and opening opportunities for the private sectors

Some impacts of NEEDS:

• Led to Soludo’s banking reform that transformed Nigeria’s banking sector for the better and strengthened the country’s overall economic stability
• Led to the Nigeria’s debt forgiveness: In 2006, Nigeria became the first African country to settle its public debt under a scheme devised to help the world’s poorest and indebted states. The country under former President Olusegun Obasanjo paid off $18 billion to secure forgiveness of the balance of its nearly $30 billion debts to the London and Paris clubs of foreign creditors.
• Led to consistent GDP growth from 6% in 2004 to 8% in 2009
• Led to the launch of National Health Insurance Scheme in 2005
• Led to the The Pension Reform Act (PRA 2004): Revolutionised pensions system in Nigeria.

Also discussed from a contribution from the audience was the fact people empowerment through skill acquisition may not be enough. That those whose lives are bettered through skill acquisition programmes, the sort that Princess Kelechi Oghene has successfully done in the past few years, just move on with their own lives and never participates in the political process.

Princess Kelechi mentioned that leadership is not a title, but a position of service. Taking up the responsibility to lead is not for praise-seeking, but taking critical decisions that can have positive impact on the society. She submitted that to positively change Nigeria, individuals need to take up the responsibility of creating a nest of followers that you can empower and influence in your industry of strength. Her fashion academy and scholarship program for instance, have empowered almost 1000 young women, who have gone on to lead a better life and her now contributing to the society. Same project has birthed 10 other fashion academies across different states of the nation, started and managed by ex-students. She believes that if this 1,000 from her end can be duplicated by other privileged Nigerians in their thousands, that we will be able to remove the weapon of poverty and thereby create or generate a critical mass of followers with the power and stable mindset required for meaningful political awareness and activism.

Engineer Oyenekan gave insight on the diabolic nature of godfatherism, where power seekers have to do a lot of unprintable things to gain support of the powerful to get to power. But he maintained that though the cabals are powerful, but there have been instances where people rode on their backs to power and broke off the arrangement in pursuit of the people’s will. He insisted it is more about the genuine will to do good for the majority.

A contributor from the audience laid the problem at the feet of poor education. He said that so long as generation after generation refuse to give our people quality education, the decay will continue in the society, which will eventually emerge into leadership – because our leaders come from among us. He also said that Nigeria’s first set of leaders were young and had a global view, which informed their style of leadership.

They was also another contribution by a member of the audience, Comrade Rasaq Oladusola aka Buska who identified the deliberate effort of the political class and the elite to zombify the followers by articulating and propagating narratives that suits their selfish political ambitions. He gave an instance of President Muhammadu Buhari was packaged and sold to the gullible masses. Buska’s submission was that the elite know exactly the games they play to grab and keep power for their ultimate selfish interests, hence the followers are just but a victim.

The discourse submitted unanimously the urgent need to drive cultural change from the home front. That parents have the critical assignment to raise children with good values that are lacking in our society. At the end of the day, the character of the majority of Nigerians is full representation of all of us. The change must really begin from the family.

Secondly, the discourse encouraged privilege individuals to start up empowerment programmes that can garner a set of followers that they can liberate from the hold of poverty and further influence positively in political awareness, participation and social activism.

Thirdly, the discourse submitted that the digitalisation of our election process, as currently championed by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, must be driven by public support, as it provides an opportunity for us to indeed take charge of who we actually elect to political office.

Freelanews and TheFLEA Awards recognise and appreciate the wealth and importance of the discourse and commit to keeping this platform open and scaled to promote quality discussions on critical national issues, towards endearing more Nigerians into lending their voices to how our nation should be run. We look forward to the 2022 edition.