Moghalu: Leadership under Threat Worldwide
Obinna Chima
A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has said that globally, leadership is presently confronted with “big challenges, big opportunities, and big possibilities.” According to him, from corporate leaders in advanced industrial countries who have to worry about the implications of disruptive innovation, the demands of corporate citizenship on business models, and the rising political risk to bottom lines from the surge in populism in western democracies, to entrepreneurs in Africa faced with unstable macroeconomic environments, absent infrastructure, policy inconsistency, and weak institutions, leadership is facing stress and challenges.
Moghalu, who is the Chairman & CEO, Sogato Strategies LLC, said this in a speech titled: ‘Africa’s Future: The Leadership Imperative,’ he presented at the Africa Leadership Conference, that was organised by Guardians of the Nation International (GOTNI) USA in Washington, DC, recently. For Africa, Moghalu said that leadership remains a critical challenge that must be confronted and overcome if democracy was to yield good governance, if entrepreneurial talent expressed “in the narrative of an Emerging Africa is to yield true economic transformation, and if Africa’s rich historical scientific heritage is to translate into an explosion of innovation that can make us competitive in a globalised world.”
According to him, Africa’s leadership problem was located mainly in its internal political spaces. But, he pointed out that precisely these spaces determine what kind of societies, economies, education and health systems in the continent.
He added: “The first order of business, as I have argued consistently, is that of our minds. We must reinvent the African mind. Our minds determine whether or how we understand what leadership means or doesn’t. Our minds determine what kind of mindset or worldview we bring to the task and responsibility of leadership. And our minds determine whether we have, or can acquire, the character and competence of leadership.
“My personal understanding of leadership, especially in the context of countries like those in Africa, is that great leadership must be transformational. And I always approach the subject with the end in mind: what, for example, would be said about my service after I have completed a specific leadership task or responsibility? Indeed, to envision more radically, what will be said at my funeral? (One should hope that that event will hold somewhere north of my 100th birthday!).
“From the political ferment in the United States in the era of Donald Trump to the stunning victory of Emmanuel Macron in response to the yearnings of French citizens for bold, new leadership. From the electoral shifts in the recent elections in the United Kingdom in the era of Brexit to the political crisis in Brazil over allegations of corruption against its elected leaders, leadership is the big issue. For good or ill, we live in its shadow.