Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, has advocated a change of political culture in Africa for meaningful development.

Ezekwesili made the recommendation at the matriculation of School of Politics, Policy and Governance, in Abuja, on Friday.

According to her, there is a dominant political culture across Africa that subordinates the common good for narrow interest.

Finding solution to the quality of politics and economic performance of Nigeria, she noted, is the reason behind  the establishment of the school, which was designed to correct the abnormality on the supply side of the politics and democracy marketplace.

“We have low-cost leadership in our politics today and you cannot produce anything from low-cost leadership,” the former minister said.

The young people and technology will propel Africa forward, she asserted, adding, however, that politics and governance process represent a major stumbling block.

To correct these, she canvassed a new pipeline that would contest against the existing domineering political class.

She said, “You can cry as loud, lawmakers in the next National Assembly, if filled with the same existing pipeline of political players, will still buy new sets of Sport Utility Vehicles. The next set of executives, even at the state and local council levels, will carry on with the same, nothing will change.

“You are a response to this hopelessness, the ones that will change it; we need a critical mass of people thinking with a mindset of service to the country and to the people at all levels. It is not about you, it cannot be about you, but you represent an answer to the most significant answer to our problem as a continent.

“We are in a place of competent anger that pushes you to design solutions; you have to be purposeful and intentional.”

Chief Executive Officer of SPPG, Mrs Alero Ayida-Otobo, described the 10-month programme as extensive, evidence-based, unconventional, different and unique.

She added, “Nigeria needs new order and you can all bear witness to that; we all know over the last four, eight, 12 years what we have been going through.

“Our founder, Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, ran for President; the lessons that we have learnt from that experience are unquantifiable.”

While recalling that SPPG was birthed in 2019, she said most African countries had the same developmental problems like Nigeria, stressing, “This is why #FixPolitics and SPPG are propelling us across the continent. We started in Nigeria, but we are going to cover the 54 countries on the continent.

“SPPG is one of the three pillars of the #FixPolitics initiative. What we are doing is very pivotal to the future of Nigeria. The mission is to elevate the Office Of The Citizen; we want to enlighten the citizens of this country.”

To the students, the CEO said, “If you misbehave when you graduate and you do not live up to our values, to what we hold dear, what we hold important, we will withdraw our certificate and disown you. You will be dis-batched and removed from the alumni class.

“Our goal is to equip 21st century politicians that will be values-driven, with fine character, unquestionable competence and undeniable capacity.”

She disclosed that 55 of the SPPG graduates were aspirants for different positions in the 2023 general elections in Nigeria.

“We are so proud of this. We expected maybe 15, 20 or 30 of them; but to our greatest surprise and pride, we had from the pioneer class and Class of 2022 over 55 aspirants and nine of them made it to the primaries. We are non-partisan; we have people in the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, among others,” she disclosed.

School of Politics, Policy and Governance will hold its 2023 matriculation for new students into its Class of 2024.  To attend, log on to: thesppg.org/C2024Matric

The virtual ceremony, which holds on Friday, November 3, 2023 by 6pm (WAT), will enable the institution commence the 2024 academic session.

SPPG has, for years, helped in unifying and reawakening political consciousness among Africans to fix the continent’s leadership crisis.

The school provides opportunity for Africans, who have been waiting to help build a new model and pipeline of public leadership to reverse acute governance failure and leadership gaps in the continent. 

It had extended the late admission into its prestigious Class of 2024 till October 20, 2023 to allow more students to enroll for the session.

The school  a unique Public Leadership Preparation initiative, says the late admission window aligned with its mission and commitment to attract exceptional talents and students.

SPPG, which made provision for scholarship, said all applicants are required to have a minimum educational qualification of B.Sc/BA or HND; be able to demonstrate commitment to public leadership and that ability to successfully execute projects will be an advantage.

Established in 2020, SPPG is building a pipeline of new and disruptive-thinking political class, with a mission to transform the quality of political and public leadership in Nigeria and the rest of Africa. 

It educates present and future leaders that are committed to public good and ready to serve the well-being of all Nigerians. 

The school delivers an unconventional multi-disciplinary curriculum aimed at producing a massive base of ethical, competent and capable public leadership with the requisite knowledge and skills to solve complex development problems in the continent. 

It has, so far, graduated three cohorts of students, including the #Pioneer Class of 2021 (160), #Class of 2022 (133) and #Class of 2023 (184). 

According to the school, consistent with the SPPG.org mission, many of its graduates run for elective offices across various parties, while others pursue leadership careers in the public and private sectors, as well as civil society.

Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has stressed the need for Africans to unite and change leadership style on the continent.

Ezekwesili, at the third graduation of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance in Abuja, recently, said it was generally accepted that leadership is the basic challenge of the continent.

The ex-Vice President for the World Bank’s Africa Region stressed, “If we succeed in correcting the leadership anomaly that we have on our continent, one thing is certain; Africa will claim the 21st century. 

“Africa’s problem is poor public leadership; we have said it so often as a continent. SPPG is our response to that problem. We are saying that it is not our destiny to be governed by the worst among us. If you reject a situation, then you must act to correct it.”

Ezekwesili, who is the founder of the SPPG, said the school was borne out of the need to groom leaders with integrity to saturate the political and business sectors, to cause positive change. 

She urged the graduands to always be of good character and uphold the values of character, competence and capacity preached by the school, warning that the certificate issued to them would be retrieved if they were found wanting in character or competence in any public office.

In his keynote address, a Zimbabwean lawmaker, Gift Siziba, noted education as the best tool for attitudinal change. 

According to him, education should be free for all Africans, as the continent is in need of ideas, which education can birth. 

The parliamentarian urged African citizens not to lose hope in the continent, expressing confidence for a better future.

He said, “If we cannot run, we will walk; if we cannot walk, we will crawl; if we cannot, we will keep moving on.

“A day will come when we will get into power, make the required changes and make life better for our people. All of us here, I have no doubt in my mind that, one day, we will join hands to tell the success story of Africa.”

Vice Chancellor of the school, Mrs Alero Ayida-Otobo, said 184 students graduated in the 2023 set.

She referred to the graduands as custodians of Africa’s future, urging them to uphold integrity, excellence, resilience, be tireless, be angry for good and never to negotiate values.

The VC commended the team of faculties and partners for their support and commended the graduates for making themselves available for learning. 

For Kenyan activist, Boniface Mwangi, Africa’s biggest problem is leadership and that has to be fixed, noting that too much concentration on religion contributed to the continent’s underdevelopment, which must be addressed.

Mwangi stressed the need for young people to take over power from the older class, which has not helped the continent but are mere neocolonial stooges, as African stolen wealth is stashed in advanced countries.

“Africa’s biggest problem is its leadership and we have to fix that. Driving from Abuja Airport to the hotel, I saw the biggest buildings, and very magnificent ones were neither schools nor good homes, but churches. There lies our problem. We focus a lot on religion and we need to fix that. 

“Our leaders have copied the whiteman’s ways. When the whiteman colonised our continent, he took our lands, our minerals and everything. When we kicked them out, we took the bad habits. Our continent was communal, but now, we have become very Western in our ideals. So, we have 10 billionaires and a billion poor in Africa and that needs to be fixed.”

He asserted that Africa needs young people to take over power, adding, “That can’t happen when we spend more time praying than politicking; making politics our way of life, because that is the reason you don’t have a job, security and medicine in hospitals.

“The biggest mistake the young people have made in this continent is to serve the old people. The old people of yesteryears, who fought for Independence did not collaborate with the white men; why are we collaborating with criminals and thugs?

“So, we need to think about having, across Africa, a pan-African movement to fix our leadership because if we don’t fix our leadership, we will be doomed. The people we have in power are neocolonial stooges, they work for the whiteman. The money that is stolen in our continent goes abroad.”

Lingering economic crisis, insecurity, famine and the rise in number of coup d’etats in Africa are fallout of  poor quality of political leadership across the continent,  stakeholders have warned.

Speaking at the just concluded 2023 School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG)Graduation in Abuja, the stakeholders who are Africa’s thought leaders,  called for unity and reawakening of political consciousness among Africans to  fix Africa’s leadership crisis.

The speakers at the event include SPPG Convener and Nigeria’s former Minster for Education,  Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, Kenyan-based activist, Boniface Mwangi; Tunisian activist, speaker and diplomat,  Aya Chebbi; Accomplished Lawyer from Kenya, Martha Karua; Zimbabwean politician and one of the top leaders of the Citizens Coalition for Change political party, Gift ‘Ostallos’ Siziba and Senior Programme Officer and Acting Deputy Director, Mac-Arthur Foundation, Africa office, Amina Salihu.

Others are a Parliamentarian from Zimbabwe, Joanah Mamombe, a Chartered Accountant from Sierra Leone, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr,  Political Scientist from Senegal, Marieme Cisse; Transformation strategist from Nigeria, Alero Ayida-Otobo, among others.

The event themed:  “Renaissance Africa: The Era of Citizens shaping new Leadership Model for Good Governance” , saw the graduation of over 100 SPPG students. 

Participants described the event as a great opportunity Africans have been waiting for to help in building a new model and pipeline of public leadership to reverse acute governance failure and leadership gaps in the continent. 

Ezekwesili, charged Africans to participate fully in politics and lend their voices to matters that affect their future.

She disclosed the  Africa still contended with bad leaders despite millions of talented people in the continent, adding that the trend must be reversed.

 “We want an Africa that is governed by persons of character, competence and capacity that will transform nations. We are tired of bad leadership and the frequency with which that comes in. The conversation within and outside on the reason Africa is behind all other nations throws up a really big challenge,” she stated. 

“We cannot simply accept the idea of poor leadership in the public management of our continent. So, SPPG has worked to bring interconnectedness that also mirrors where Africa is going. It, thus, matters that citizens make effort to change things that are unacceptable. A continent with enough pool of talents has done incredible things, both within and outside.”

According to her, speakers at the event showed that Africa is not lacking is individuals that can lead the continent to propensity and stability.

“Africa has chosen the path of democracy, and if we look at historical numbers, more countries that have enjoyed prosperity have come through the democratic path. So, democracy is very important because it comes with political freedom. With political freedom, comes rule of law which is the cornerstone of economic freedom. Economic freedom leads to proliferation of ideas, innovation and creativity. With democracy, the two most important economic agenda for countries is solved faster and better.” 

Continuing, Ezekwesili, said: “Competitiveness and productivity are all based on empirical data. So, if we know all those things, we cannot then sit back and hope that somehow change will come. If Africans want to transform their politics and just sit back, hoping that those, who have entrenched poor governance as political culture, will someday fall in the kind of Apostle Paul and have a Damascus experience, we will wait forever. That is not something that this generation should do.”

Mwangi, urged African leaders to purge themselves of colonial mentality and look inwards. He said, “Africa’s biggest problem is its leadership and we have to fix that. Driving from Abuja Airport to the hotel, I saw very magnificent buildings; they were neither schools nor residences, but churches. There lies our problem. We focus a lot on religion and we need to fix that”. 

“Our leaders have copied the white man’s ways. When the white man colonised our continent, he took our lands, minerals, everything. When we kicked them out, we took the bad habits. Our continent, our land used to be communal, but we have become very western in our ideals. So, we have 10 billionaires and a billion poor in Africa. That needs to be fixed.”

Young people, he asserted, needed to take over power. But that is when Africans stop spending more time praying than politicking, thus making politics their way of life because politics is the reason unemployment, insecurity and poor healthcare abound. 

“The biggest mistake the young people have made in this continent is to serve the old people of yesteryears. So, we need to think how to have, across Africa, a pan-African movement to fix our leadership because if we don’t fix our leadership, we will be doomed. The people we have in power are neocolonial stooges; they work for the white man. The money stolen in our continent goes abroad,” he said.

In her submission, Karua assured that the hopes of Africans must be restored. She said, “We need to restore hope in our people. Our culture in Africa is respect, oneness and love. We are now lost people. We are neither Africans not outsiders. 

“If you love Africa, you will not wage war against your people. Even your people will rebel against you. I think this is a good place to start. We need to reflect on the things we will do. One finger cannot kill a fly. We are here to create a political miracle to solve the problems of Africa. We need a revolution. I do not mean a coup. There is a civilian revolution.”