Our minds determine whether or how we understand what leadership means or does not mean. Our minds determine what kind of worldview we bring to the task and responsibility of leadership. And our minds
determine whether we have, or can acquire, the character and competence if leadership.
Great leadership must be transformative. I always approach the subject of leadership with the end in mind: what will be said about my service after I have completed a specific leadership task?
Indeed, to envision more radically, what will be said at my funeral? (One should that that event will hold somewhere North if my 100th birthday!). I have applied this understanding to every leadership role in which I have had the privilege to serve. From national reconciliation
and nation-building work by the United Nations in New York, Cambodia, Croatia and Rwanda to institutional and management reform in @UN; from building global partnerships and raising billions of dollars for social investments in developing countries by the Global Fund in Geneva
to structuring and facilitating investments in emerging markets; from leadership roles in monetary policy making and banking sector reform in Nigeria in the wake of the global financial crisis to serving as a professor in one of America’s premier universities,my vision has always
been to leave the situation, institution, or assignment I was tasked to handle much transformed from where I met it..
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In the debates on national wage in Nigeria we miss the fundamental point: there is little or no productivity in the economy. If we had a truly productive economy there is no reason we can’t have the kind of minimum wage of 400 or 500K that Labour wants. But we can’t, because the
level of productivity in the economy cannot support it. Remember, minimum wage is not just about government salaries. There are not more than 2, at most 3 million civil servants in Nigeria. It is even more about what is paid in the private sector, to household staff, etc.
All of this is why, all things considered, including avoiding a minimum wage that multiplies already ravaging inflation (assuming such a wage can even be paid), I recommend a minimum wage of between N75,000 and N100,000.
In fact, speaking about productivity, how productive is
The Naira tanking back down to the 1,400s to $1 demonstrates what some of us have been saying. Seeking a falsely “strong” currency when the fundamentals are out of whack is shadow chasing. The focus should be on the STABILITY of the exchange rate, not a populist exchange rate
and premature declarations of “best performing currency”. Reports that there are now multiple exchange rates to BDCs, Customs, and NAFEX are also worrying. It’s not yet uhuru. Let us stabilize the Naira at whatever is its true market value and then pivot to the real issues:
taking Nigeria to 20-25K megawatts of 24 hour electricity in 2-3 years starting with Lagos, Kano, Onitsha and Nnewi (Aba seems promising with Geometric power) so we can create a truly productive economy. Dealing decisively with oil theft and ramping up oil production to bring in
Our relationships with others sometimes deepen or shrink in strange ways. When I was a Deputy Gov at the CBN, there was this bank MD that wanted my approval for certain things concerning his challenged bank. But he would not follow the guidelines we gave him, instead looking for
shortcuts and expecting me to play along. One day my patience snapped. I terminated our conversation and showed him the door of my office. Long story short, the matter was eventually resolved after the bank met certain regulatory conditions. Today that MD (since retired) is
a good friend. After I completed my tenure in November 2014 and left the apex bank, my deceased father in law was buried in early 2015. The MD sent a personal representative to the funeral with a gift. Note the phrase “after I had completed my tenure and left the apex bank”.
Nigeria’s economic distress is simply part of a 40-year downward trajectory that was broken only briefly by the Obasanjo civilian presidency and to some degree under Yar’Adua/Jonathan (up to mid-2014). Ever since, especially from 2015, we fell under completely incompetent
economic management and have not recovered. The immediate future looks difficult. One wishes one could see what will create fundamental change, but alas! Throwing money that is not created wealth at problems will not solve our problems. It only makes them worse. We need to lay a
real foundation for longer term economic transformation. That 80% of Nigeria’s exports in 2023 was oil tells you we have yet to get serious. “Palliatives” (just google the dictionary definition of the word) will never reverse poverty. Wealth is positively created. You cannot
I have seen in the mainstream media and floating around on social media including Whatsapp, a report purported to be that of the CBN Special Investigator appointed by President Tinubu. I have some comments on this development.
1. The “report” has no signature appended, so we
can’t assume it is the real and official report.
2. Assuming it is in fact the real report, it’s wrong for such a sensitive report to have “leaked” to the public before the President and his government have reviewed and spoken to it. This is because the “report” talks of
“chargeable offenses” and mentions specific individuals it recommends to be prosecuted in addition to Emefiele. This is a media trial and prejudices the rights of these individuals named or referred to. This is NOT how a report into the Central Bank of Nigeria should be handled.
I have been a public commentator, nationally in Nigeria and internationally in the global media, for 35 years. As a lawyer-journalist, a UN diplomat, a consultant, a central banker, a university professor, or a one-time presidential candidate. It’s interesting, then, to see some
who were mainly dormant in 2019 as we mounted the first real challenge to the political status quo in Nigeria, assume today the haughty position of “final” arbiters of who is virtuous in Nigeria & who is not, simply because they finally woke up in 2023. Let no one be confused.
Today, I am nonpartisan. By choice. I love my country no less, and reserve the right to criticize, commend or advice on the management of the Nigerian state. To label people negatively as “enemies of Nigeria” simply because they do not