‘At NLI, we raise future value-based leaders’

The question of good and effective leadership has been a central discuss at various fora. Stakeholders have often attributed the nation’s underdevelopment, social malaise, corruption and indiscipline to bad leadership. In this interview, the CEO of Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) Yinka Oyilola who believed that good leadership is good brand agent for the nation said it takes one selfless and purposeful leader for a country to move forward. Daniel Obi reports.

What are the objectives of Nigeria Leadership Initiative and how has it achieved such objectives

In 2006 there were a lot of reforms going on in Nigeria, not only in terms of privatisation efforts but also on improvements in our economy and what EFCC was doing to change the landscape. Then Christopher Kolade was the ambassador to the United Kingdom. He interacted with quite a number of these reformers in the government.

On the other hand there were also a group of credible and accomplished Nigerians who were in the Diaspora, who were encouraged by the reforms that were going on and were willing to contribute to the transformation in Nigeria. This group of people started interacting with each other, looking for a platform to contribute to the development of Nigeria. These thoughts led to the creation of NLI, which is an organisation that is non partisan but global in nature and registered in Nigeria, United-Kingdom, and the United-States. It was created to provide a platform for credible and accomplished Nigerians, to enhance development of value- based leadership in other to contribute to the transformation of Nigeria. In addition to that NLI provides technical assistance as well as leadership development across a number of sectors within the Nigerian society.

We have conducted seminars for presidents and their cabinets in the past and we are currently doing so for some state governors and we have also done that in corporate sector. NLI addresses a critical issue of developmental challenge in any developing country which is leadership. We take our message to people who can immediately make a difference. We also leverage on a large community of our network alumni to be able to drive positive change in Nigeria. More importantly our senior fellows and associate get involved in individual class projects to change something in Nigeria and we are always proud to say that together we become a constellation of stars to beam change on Nigeria. NLI services the public, private sectors and civil societies.

How do you carry out these functions?

We do what we do in four ways. First, we mobilize the energy, talent and passion for Nigeria of credible and accomplished leaders. After the mobilisation we take them through one of our specialised centres to say, you have to turn your success to significance. Our slogan says ‘moving them from success to significance’.  This leads us to encouraging them from talk to action, that is our focus, what can we do about Nigeria individually and then the fourth is we raise future values- based leaders. When they move from success to significance, they are therefore inducted as NLI senior fellows, and they move from talk to action by taking individual project, and because of our approach to making leaders of tomorrow, the product of nurture, we groom future leaders, and these are people between the ages of 25-35, and they are called associate fellows and we select them through a rigorous method, in other for them to be able to deepen valued based leadership skills.

What is the idea behind the Leadership awards by NLI?     

There are many unsung heroes in Nigeria; people who make sacrifice and contribute to the development in Nigeria. Our approach with the NLI award is to recognise and celebrate them. We have three categories of the awards – Lifetime achievement awards, Integrity award, and Value-based leadership awards

Could you assess Nigerian leadership over time and why do you think quality leadership eludes us in both public and private sectors

The leadership question is not absolute. We cannot look at leadership without taking into consideration the context and time that a leader leads. We have to put leadership challenges in Nigeria, within our history and circumstance, meaning we are still dealing with legacy problems. We have 32 years of military rule, to the psyche of leadership; it makes them take decision by fiat. This is not only to the leaders but to followers.  In addition, we have to take into consideration that we Nigerians who have been led, how have the legacy affected our ability to demand accountability, to demand good governance from those who lead us instead we become passive. Again, what about the system structures and processes that should make leadership effective.

To what extent have they been sufficiently developed so  that whoever is leading sees  himself/herself as a servant particularly in public service, as a servant of the people, then to the corporate sector, to what extent is a corporate sector leader leading with integrity with the right values. The reforms in the banking sector are a good example that exposed the rot within the system.  But in spite of all the challenges, we should also recognise that no country gets it right all the time. There are still challenges but these challenges do not mean that we should fold our arms and say that our problems are enormous. Now, the big question is  what do we do in our little spheres, in other to make leadership effective, or how can we assist those who are leaders, and that’s one of the roles NLI plays in the society, occasionally giving advice, policy dialogue so that we can make leadership more effective.

Education is important in producing a good leader, how is NLI contributing in this regard?

That is one sector we are proud of our contribution. NLI is about values, character. One of the projects we have in education sector is CLEVER Club Project (character, leadership, education, values, ethics and responsibility) our associates developed a curriculum that we first piloted at Ahmadu Bello College in Yola in partnership with old students association, it’s complementary to the education curriculum and we wanted the schools to take ownership of it. It was also taken to Kings College and it has been a tremendous success and is still ongoing with the Kings College old boys association, and are participating in teaching the students Civics, values and character. Another project we have implemented in the education sector is ’adopt a school’. It has only been limited to schools in Lagos, where our associates use Nigerian history to teach values.

There is tendency that candidates who were trained on leadership qualities are consumed by the society, how do we avoid this?

What NLI gives is valued-based leadership, and it is knowledge that you only loose if your head is been cut-off. Our seminars are such that we let people go through with ages, and in contemporary writings, to bring out the issue of values.  There are several that are my favourites in our seminars. First, when people are behind you encouraging you to do the wrong thing, does conscience tell you to do it not. We read various books. Our seminars are three Cs.  You have a conversation with the author, conversation with your own conscience and conversation with your peers.  At the end of the day you are asking yourself whether you are doing the right thing regardless of what is going on around you.

To create the necessary impact on a short run, how do we encourage other institutions to produce more value-based candidates?

The challenges of Nigeria are enormous that a single entity or one person cannot solve it all. At NLI what we ask what are you doing in your community, your village and what are you doing in your secondary schools to make a difference. We expect people who passed through NLI to be individuals that others will emulate.  We encourage them to move from talk to action and when they go, there is a multiplier effect of what they are doing. We also expect others to complement what we are doing.

How do you raise the funds to drive your objectives?

We have our senior fellows and associates who support us, either financially, technical expertise, goodwill or volunteering. We also get corporate sponsorship and partnership for what we do.

What have been the successes and challenges so far?

For an organisation as young as NLI, we are extremely pleased with what we have been able to accomplish.  One of the successes we are extremely proud of is towards the 2011 elections, we undertook a project to encourage civic participation in the electoral process and the project was a huge success.  What we have been doing has caught the attention of the British parliament by recognising NLI as one of the civic organisations in Nigeria that is contributing to the development of Nigeria.  The World Bank got a wind of what NLI was doing and the bank encouraged NLI to go to Rwanda, to establish a similar organisation. 

These are some of the encouragements that we have received. On the challenges and because NLI is about preparing for the future that we want to live in, that process is sometimes tough. You think that we have taken one step forward only to realise generally that two steps are taken backwards.  Part of the challenges is we want to see changes materialise in a short time, given our sacrifices. We are trying to do is to change mindsets, values unfortunately they have not moved at the pace we want them to move.

You said earlier of training some government functionaries, would you like to continue with such value and character based training

There is no amount of knowledge that can be sufficient.  We take our seminars to people who value what NLI stands for.