Nigeria needs to invest in leadership training, introduce curriculum from primary schools ― Okorie

Published by

3 years ago

Stakeholders drawn from various sectors of the economy and academia, at the weekend, tasked the government at all levels on the need for mass investment into leadership development training with a view to achieve effective growth and national development.

The stakeholders including the Executive Director of GOTNI Leadership Training Centre; former member of the House of Representatives, Chris Asoluka, gave the charge while addressing members of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Course 44 led by Professor Sunday Ochoche, during a study visit to GOTNI headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking on the Course 44 Team engagement, the GOTNI Executive Director, Mr Linus Okorie, disclosed that the Centre has trained over 300,000 people across the country over the past 27 years.

He said: “The interesting thing is that when the members of Group 5 of the Participants of Course 44 of NIPSS came calling at the centre, their theme is on local governance. So we discussed on the role of leadership in entrenching great local governance in Nigeria.

“When we talk about local governance, we talk about the quality of governance that can impact effectively on people at the grassroots and people from all sectors of the economy.

“My position is very clear, that if we do not invest in the leadership capital of those who are going to take over governance at whatever level, there is no way we can make any progress.

“So, the leadership competencies of those who lead institutions are primary for growth to happen over time. Sustainable growth can happen, only when leaders are groomed and prepared and leadership impact governance in a way unimaginable,” he noted.

On his part, a former member of the House of Representatives, Dr Chris Asoluka, tasked National Assembly to enact legislation that will unify a unified four-year tenure system for Local Government Chairmen as well as enact legislation that would encourage the participation of non-state actors such as Civil Society Organisations (CSO) with a view to improve and engender effective local governance.

“I merely traced the history and to underscore that the current trend is what we call territorial approach to local development. That promotes local governance because it includes those local government councils, the CSOs the Media these people take responsibility towards solving problems in their localities and he who wears shoes knows where it pinches.

“You cannot define a problem more than someone from that area. And it is no longer an issue to do them a favour. There has to be ownership of solution and when you have ownership of solution, you have responsibility, you have accountability and monitoring, and then the quality of governance will improve. If governance and local governance are up to it, some of these problems could have been avoided because unemployment builds up from the local government, up to the state then to the federal.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

“Security breaches very breach occur in a local government, every Nigerian border is owned by a local government. So local governance would tend to make them own their area if there are problems they solve their problem.

“And like I qualified, local governance has to play a huge role as a catalyst; the CSOs have to play a role. And I can tell you given the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the emphasis in terms of support would be on this arrangement and no longer giving money upstairs and it wouldn’t trickle down to where the problem is.”

On the constitutional lacuna on the Local Government autonomy, he said: “If there is a constitutional amendment, where local government councils are sufficiently empowered to make laws for their areas, but you see that state assemblies make laws that govern local governments.

“And most times they remove the chairmen, whereas the constitution should have been such that councils can vote or impeach their chairmen, and this tenure insecurity brings about some abuse.

“You won’t want to play the hard guy because you could be removed the following day but if there is a constitutional attempt to strengthen the local government, I argue that sections 7(1), and Section 7(4) as well as Section 162 sub 5, they (National Assembly) should be amended.

“I’ll give you example, the Federation Account is shared by three bodies. No other body is known to the federation account – the federal, the state and the local governments. But the portion of the local government is given through State and paid into the so-called state joint account and indirectly controlled by the state government, so you cannot give someone with the right and take over with the left.”

On the resort of State Assemblies to reject the proposed financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly, he said: “From my experience, because I have worked with some State Assemblies, State Assemblies are manipulable. Why so? The Speaker wants to enjoy his tenure, if he plays the hard guy, how much would it take a Governor to remove the Speaker? Why is it so simple?

“When you have a semblance of governance as checks and balances at the federal level, because you have 360 members in the House of Representatives and 109 in the Senate, making 469, to get a chunk, whereas in some states there are 24 members’ and if a Governor brings out N30 million, he doesn’t need to buy everybody, he dangles it and makes you who were floor member and said, come you do this I will make you the Speaker.

“No matter how upright the Speaker is, he’s removed. So when there is any change that will affect their relationship with the Governor who do you think they will support? You want them to be removed? Haven’t you seen that State Assemblies even vote down a bill from the National Assembly that authorise them to have access to their money, because if the Governor gives you allocation, you cannot challenge that Governor. So who plays the piper, dictates the tune.

He maintained that the National Assembly should have prioritised giving a unified tenure system for the Local Government administration in the ongoing Constitutional amendment, adding that: “if it’s three years, three years, but I would have suggested four years so that every elected person is four years. But with the current Constitution, under Section 7(4), 7(5), 7(6), the State House of Assembly makes laws for the Local Government,” he objected.

While sharing his experience, a private sector participant by the Presidency, Mr Cosmos Odoh, who applauded the Organisers, observed that the NIPSS Course 44 Team has taken time to deliberate on various means through which Nigeria can improve on local governance.

According to him, we have looked at non-state actors who are contributing seriously to the development of society. So we implore the private sector on how they can inculcate them into the leadership within the society.