Leadership and the challenge of faith, youth and tolerance
Leaders solve problems. Indeed, great leaders tend to emerge when grave crises face a people. Had Hitler not become a threat to man’s dignity everywhere, Winston Churchill may never have entered popular consciousness, as a leader.
This makes engagement on matters of severe social challenge central to the development of leaders. The Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), which is committed to becoming a global centre of excellence in developing leaders, researching the phenomenon of leadership and in advocacy for a culture of values-driven leadership, cannot but focus on how to solve big social problems. The CVL conference series has, therefore, been designed to get emerging leaders to focus on major problems debilitative of social progress.
We have chosen to begin with what may be today’s biggest threats to the Nigerian promise of a prosperous society of men and women living in dignity and hoisting the flag of the race and the African continent as valuable part of human civilisation. Violence, based on faith, which usually features young people as both the perpetrators and the victims, as it puts their future in peril, and youth restiveness for social justice reasons, are a major cause of development challenges.
CVL and the Nigerian promise
A fair amount of attention has come to my closing line at a lecture, last October, at Imperial College, London. I had said there, in a midst of discussions of Nigerian’s many problems, that unless we act particularly unwisely, Nigeria’s future was so bright we would need sunglasses if we were not to go blind.
What challenges there are which can get in the way of such a future need to be considered. The CVL conference series is part of that effort.
The CVL has a host of other programmes aimed at tackling Nigeria’s leadership challenge. They include the monthly Role Model Forum (RMF) that has been a big hit with young upwardly mobile professionals, the Leader without Title tribute series which has honoured many distinguished men and women who have offered leadership, in integrity, with a colloquium on a 70th or 80th birthday. The last we held last month honoured Emeka Anyaoku, and next month we will honour Gamaliel Onosode with a colloquium on educating for integrity in the financial system.
Our most unique offering which begins in May is developing the fast track to the top. These are leadership programmes for “the anointed” or great potentials that will combine workshops, role play, being embedded in cases, conceptual teaching, mentoring and peer review, as well as champions assessment centre programmes to draw out the human potential. We call the package the CVL Pedagogy of the Determined in acknowledgement of elements, in essence, being derived from a more entrepreneurial and somewhat embourgeoised sense of the philosophy of Paulo Friere’s pedagogy of the oppressed. In massaging this element, we hope to produce focused visionary men and women of compassion who desire to change the human condition for good. The pedagogy of the determined is about turning the learner from a passive sponge to an activist sharer, with a vision of himself, and his world, in which there is a mutually-benefitting interdependence and a duty to move creation towards its perfection. It compels a view of man that is progressive, ethical, just and entrepreneurial.
The solutions conference series
It seems clear to me that we cannot outsource our redemption from past errors and saving the future of our children. We must develop a problem-solving mindset beyond criticism of what is wrong. It is our duty to generate solution ideas. The philosophy of how is significantly contained in the compendium we presented last week. Then we must take the thoughts expressed to shape culture for the good of all. We must fight poverty and illiteracy in parts of our country, like the North-East and South-South, and the absence of government in the South-East while encouraging the South-West.
Our primary benefit from last week’s conference is taking the suggestions and packaging them into modules of civics sessions for youth group that will go through the CVL leadership academy which we hope to franchise out to rural and urban communities Nigeria writ large.
We have flagged off this important conference series and have also presented a magnificent compendium that is a good reference source, study material and great waiting room compendium. We desire that this book get into many places where it can transform thinking and conduct. We hope that corporate leaders and distinguished guests present at the flag-off will facilitate reaching those it will influence for good by ordering substantial numbers. In addition, we welcome support for the work of CVL.
You will notice that until these fast-track leadership development series, all CVL programmes have been open and free of charge. The mystery of how we fund these high-value initiatives lies in income from our outsourcing services and sponsors. We welcome you to be part of our honour roll. CSR does not come more valuable.
PAT UTOMI
Utomi, Professor of Political Economy and Entrepreneurship, is founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership.