Not too long ago, in 2010 precisely, the Harvard Business School appointed Nitin Nohria, a Professor of Leadership & Business Ethics, to head that century old institution of business, leadership & management studies. As was expected, that appointment generated immense global curiosity. For one, it marked a radical departure from the extant tradition of appointing core experts of financial management strategy & analysis. Then again, it drew global attention to the Character Question in leadership. One would recall that this was happening at the heat of the global economic meltdown; a meltdown that resulted from the casino-like mortgage system that was designed by products of top business schools in the world, Harvard inclusive. But the sad thing is, while the rest of the world were busy crafting responses to the Character Question, Nigeria was AWOL, on holiday! And so for Nigeria, the question remains & endures, & sadly so, too. Now transformation cannot proceed without a deconstruction of old assumptions, beliefs & myths. In other words, transformation in its truest form demands a new way, a new knowing & a new realisation. It begins with attitudinal change & character formation. That is, a nation like ours where citizens are held prisoners in their land & mind, & are made subservient to the precarious whims & caprice of the power elite, cannot be said to be transformational. Therefore, a critical aspect of the challenge before the Confab is how to design a broad template of moral accountability in the nations leadership architecture. That is, a framework that fixates leadership on a moral high ground. For that is the only way of ending the prevailing order where leaders profit from public misfortune, a misfortune they the leaders created in the first place. And if this is not done, then we are forever stuck with a situation where funds meant for roads & infrastructures are diverted to buying Jeeps & SUVs. So help us God!!!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 08:22:25 +0000
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