It was indeed a great honour for me to be nominated and invited as the guest speaker at the maiden edition of the Annual Bisi Akande Symposium held yesterday at Chief Bisi Akande’s banquet hall, Ila Orangun to mark the 84th birthday of a man of uncommon grace and greatness.
“Visionary Leadership: A panacea to inclusive and Sustainable Development in Nigeria” is a topic that is very timely and relevant to further deepen the endless conversation around the challenges of leadership deficit and crisis in our dear country.
No nation can develop beyond the vision and the demonstrated capacity of it’s leaders. What a man does not have, he can not give. It is therefore fundamental for us to begin to interrogate the process of leadership incubation and recruitment in Nigeria.
Great leaders are made and not born. They are specially incubated, trained and nurtured people with ability to conceptualise great vision for the society and the capacity to mobilize all available human and material resources for its full realisation.
Every serious society must therefore put in place mechanisms and institutions that will ensure the seamless emergence of visionary and patriotic leaders among it’s talented and patriotic youths.
A very big thank you to Baba and the oraganisers for this big honour. I’m extremely humbled. May yours days be longer in good health sir.
