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Executive Summary

Leadership remains one of the most important determinants of the success, stability and growth of individuals, organisations, institutions and nations. Although public discourse in Nigeria often focuses on corruption, embezzlement, insecurity, unemployment and weak institutions as the major obstacles to development, these problems may also be understood within a broader structural challenge: low productivity. At the Academy for Governance, productivity is not viewed narrowly as the quantity of goods produced, the volume of raw materials extracted or the amount of revenue generated. Rather, productivity is understood as the capacity of the entire national system to transform available human, material, institutional and financial resources into meaningful and sustainable outcomes.

There is hardly any conversation about Nigeria’s development in which the question of leadership does not arise. In homes, universities, professional circles, markets, workplaces and public forums, Nigerians repeatedly express a desire for good leadership. We ask for strong leaders. We demand competent leaders. We desire visionary leaders who can confront difficult problems and move the country towards prosperity.

The transformation of Nigerian universities should go beyond moving students from theoretical knowledge to practical skills. The more fundamental challenge is to create a pathway from industry knowledge to practical implementation, productive enterprise and large-scale adoption.