STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP SUMMIT 2016
............THE AUDACITY OF LEADERSHIP........
........CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS PART ONE....
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Whether in politics, spirituality, ecomomics, and indeed, in everyday life and living, it takes the audacious, not only to make a mark, but also to enjoy overall success. In the Holy Scriptures and of course in our socio-economic and political history, we have seen that leaders who really broke through the garrisson of stagnation, frustration, and failure added audacity to their stamina and decision- making process. Even the phenomenon of faith needs audacity to give it full expression. This broad theme of the summit will be situated within our present-day Nigerian context, in forty five minutes, by someone, any leader would want to listen to.
We are blessed to have in Benin City on Saturday, October 8, 2016, a personification of audacious leadership. Respected in virtually every continent of the world, not just for what he knows, but for what he has seen, handled and communicated. Even as a young lecturer of Political Science at the University of Ibadan in the mid 1980s (when some of us just entered the University), he had started bringing down the roof through his incisive lectures and intellectual discourses and engagements. In the 1990s, he had the privilege of giving personal coaching to some African Presidents, even when such leaders were passing through tempestous moments in their countries. An intellectual colossus who received the highest academic promotion, award and recognition from several ivory towers outside Nigeria, several years before his own country decided to do the same for him.. We are talking about one of the longest serving Vice Chancellors in Nigeria today, Professor Eghosa Osaghae. Because leadership flows in his veins, because he is , on a daily basis, in the theatre/workshop of leadership, as chief executive of a thriving tertiary institution, because he is a reverend gentleman who regularly ministers to God's people, and because the Lord Almighty has blessed him with oratory grace, participants at the summit are advised to start taking notes the moment he opens his mouth, or else, he would have completed his presentation before you start, to write!
