A Nigerian political economist and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has emphasised the need for Africa to develop educational structure that will help equip people who want to become leaders, especially in political governance with the right knowledge and skills.
He said that would be the surest way for the continent to get things right in the political settings and also tackle the myriads of socio-economic challenges it is battling with.
Moghalu shared these thoughts and perspectives at an event organised by the African School of Governance (ASG) in Lagos on Tuesday.
ASG is a pan-African graduate-level institution focused on public policy and governance and based in Kigali, Rwanda.
According to Moghalu, who serves as the inaugural president of the school, right education is key to societal advancement across sectors of the economy and most importantly in political governance to shape both leadership and followership.
He traced poor political governance being experienced in most African countries to lack of structured leadership education, hence the intervention of ASG to fill the gap.
According to him, ASG is committed to leadership training focused on corporate governance, gender equity, and public-private collaboration.
“We found out that the biggest challenge facing political governance in Africa is not just about leadership but also about followership and to address this narrative and create effective systems requires giving the right education to both potential leaders and the governed,” he stated.
Giving more insight into ASG’s mandate, Moghalu said “ASG seeks to nurture a new generation of purpose-driven African leaders “by offering programmes that emphasise policy innovation, ethical governance, and economic development.”
He said the training would prepare the African leaders now and, in the future according to the world’s best practices to be great thinkers to pursue people-oriented policies and programmes.
He disclosed that the school was co-founded by President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and former Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, while he is an appointee as a pioneer president of the school.
He pointed out that Africa would need to embrace and promote indigenous cultures as genuine development would best be rooted through indigenous identities rather than external influences.
“So, we need to learn governance in the context of our cultures. We are Africans, and so we must stop doing copy and paste of other cultures or civilizations, we must think inward and do things in our own ways,” he said.
While acknowledging importance of traditional institutions in governance, for example, Moghalu argued that exclusion of traditional systems from political governance has created tension in most African countries.
He said such lapses could be simply resolved by formally re-integrating them back into the system to perform advisory roles.
According to him, traditional institutions and leaders need to be part of governance in our societies as they are the custodians of our cultures and traditions and therefore, we should not continue to ignore them in our governance.
The don highlighted courses to be offered by ASG for now include Master of Public Administration (MPA) and the Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) with both courses to be launched in June.
“By this, he pointed out, “We are to have our first cohort graduates within two years and then assess the impacts of the programmes five years after and much later evaluate the alumni influence on governance not only in Africa but globally over a period of 10 years.”
Moghalu also stated that the school would offer courses that would analyse economic cost implications of corruption in governance and also teach how to navigate, and dismantle the system as a continent both in public and private circles.
He said corruptible practices must attract severe consequences regardless of personality involved, citing China as an example of countries with a success story in the fight against graft, adding that now is the right time for Africa to tackle its political leadership crisis.
On her part, Director and Senior Policy Adviser of AGS, Ms Ngozichukwu Njemanze, re-emphasised the mandate of the school to equip professionals in both the public and private sectors with interdisciplinary knowledge and skills tailored to African challenges.
She disclosed that application portal has already opened on the school’s website since 1st of February containing detailed information regarding admission requirements and procedures.
She added that the school would equally provide scholarships and financial aid for deserving students after first securing admission even as non-Africans with professional or research interactions in Africa are also eligible for training.
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