NPL Flags- off Norminations, Entries for Winner of 2021 N25m Leadership Prize, Application for Leadership Training

 By Josephine Ejeh

As Nigeria continues to grapple with the challenges of  bad leadership, the Nigerian Prize for Leadership(NPL) has flagged-off call for nominations and entries for its 2021 Prize Winner and Opening of Application for participants in the 2nd Edition of  the NPL Ambassadors Leadership Programme(ALP 002).

 An initiative being promoted by some eminent elder statesmen and women, the Prize is to recognize outstanding acts of leadership, based on clearly defined Nigerian paradigm, at various levels of society, and human interest. 

1st from right , former Presidential Aspirant for the Social Democratic Party (SDP), former Minister of  Information  and the Chairman, NPL Prize Presentation Committee, Prof. Jerry Gana, the Chairman, NPL Governoring Board, Prof. Anya Anya and other dignitaries present at the ocassion on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Prize is open to all Nigerians and will be presented to the most qualified, selected based on approved criteria and guidelines through a transparent, credible and objective selection process. 

Speaking at the event which held on Wednesday at the NPL Secretariat in Abuja, former Presidential Aspirant for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and former Minister of  Information, Prof. Jerry Gana said that the Nigerian Prize for Leadership was established by the governing board to recognize outstanding qualities of good leaders. 

"We want to recognize and promote values. We want to be able to put foward  to the nation and the world, the key qualities of good leadership and to celebrate those qualities and for those who have really  performed  very well in leadership position to be so recognized," he said.

While presenting an overview of the NPL Prize Presentation, Gana who is  the Chairman, NPL Prize Presentation Committee explained that  the  NPL governing  board established a committee of experts who studied the various aspect of leadership, the various values, qualities and came out with a set of criteria to really identify good leadership. 

He said the criteria designed for the nomination of a winner  is a product of painstaking efforts of  highly qualified professional  from different parts of the country who gathered in Abuja in several meetings and came out with the distinctive values and criteria "we should be looking for when we are looking for good leaders."

 Chairman, NPL Prize Presentation Committee , Prof. Jerry Gana presenting an overview of the NPL Prize Presentation during the event.

According to him,  report of the committee   was submitted to the governing board and after  thorough consideration and approval,  a set of criteria was adopted for the nomination.

The former Presidential Aspirant said the initiative was designed in such a way that  scientifically identify what good leadership is and  allow the people to bring out those who really should be celebrated for performing excellently in  leadership positions. 

"What we want to emphasize is that when we recognize a leader on this platform and confer him with this prize, wherever that person goes in the entire world the leadership quality should show," he added.

He disclosed that December 12th of every year was set aside as the Prize Award Ceremony Day.

He further explained that the nomination of a prospective winner of  the prize will come from the Nigerian public and not the governing board because "we believe the people know those who are good- those who are doing well and we are giving them the criteria."

Meanwhile declaring open call for norminations and entries for NPL 2021 Prize Winner and opening of Application for participants in the 2nd Edition of NPL Ambassadors Leadership Programme(ALP 002), the Chairman, NPL Governoring Board, Prof. Anya Anya recognised the the tireless and heroic sacrifices of many Nigerians towards building a great and dynamic nation with a free and noble society.

He said the initiative is a fundamental and sustainable intervention aimed at raising and rewarding high quality leaders, through the Nigerian Prize for Leadership initiative.

"The Prize is NPL's way of not only inspiring Nigerians to lead a life larger than self for the community, nation, and humanity but to also lend financial support to the work they do and collaborate for greater impact,"he said.

Cross section of other guests at the event.

He said the initiative of some eminent elders, statement and women is to recognize outstanding acts of leadership based on a clearly defined Nigerian paradigm at various levels of society and human interest.

Anya added that the initiative s"to identify what leadership means to Nigerians, benchmark what should represent the image of a successful or failed leader in Nigeria, determine what responsibility leadership confers on both the leader and the followers, establish a new culture of leadership in Nigeria, groom a credible successor generation of leaders and ascertain how this paradigm can take centre stage in rethinking leadership and reenergizing governance  in Nigeria."

The Chairman of  NPL Governoring Board said the Prize will be presented annually and after the nominations based on the set criteria, the assessment and recommendation panel will review and assess the entries and recommend possible winners to the governing board.

He said the 2021 Prize Winner will be presented with a Medal of Honor, Plaque of Excellence, Sach of distinction and a monetary sum of N25 million.

He emphasized that the Prize is open to all Nigerians, irrespective of gender, religion, ag, ethnicity, field of endeavour, place of residence and will be presented to the most qualified, selected based on approved criteria and guidelines.

"The Prize is presented on 12th December each year with inauguration of the Leadership Ambassador, Graduation of fellows and unveiling of Proteges.

"On the other hand, the Ambassador Leadership Progmme application is for Young Nigerians between the ages of 21 and 35 from all States of the federation.The selection processes for these programs will be consistently transparent, credible and objective," he stated.

In a separate interview after the event, Gana noted that a leader must have a vision, a very clear direction of where he or she is going or where  he or she is taking the people.

"Secondly a leader must have capacity to translate vision into action and there is a knot between them and this is where most people fail and during that translation he has to do it with passion and commitment," he said.

He said: "Most  time most of our leaders don't follow process, they don't know even know where we are going and  don't even care where we are going."

"Leaders  must have the vision and the drive to move what they set to achieve, they must have character that they must be trust worthy, dependenable, reliable, you are not a cheat, you are not deceiving the people. He can be trusted and must have integrity. " 

 The Chairman, NPL Prize Presentation Committee emphasized that leadership is not just about office but  about character, courage, capacity and drive to get good things going, hence,  "within the nation we are trying to promote this particular leadership values. "

In his presentation of the NPL Leadership Barometers and Prize Selection Criteria,  the Executive Secretary, and member, NPL Governing Board, Dr Ike Neliaku said a criteria was carefully drawn out to guide and shape leadership in Nigeria. 

He stated that board set up a technical team of experts led by late Prof. Ayo Ibidapo- Obe  who chaired the committee with Engr Mansur Ahmed, the President of Manufacturer Association of Nigeria as his vice, Senator Helen Usuene ,  former Minister of Environment, Dr. Sarah Alade, former Acting Governor of CBN, John Momoh, Chairman of Channels Television, Alhaji Mohammed Yahaya, Former Managing Director of Union Bank and Prof. Nosto Onuoha, immediate past president of Nigeria Academy of Science. 

He explained that the team put together by the board worked for several months with research and papers that were presented because they needed to be very sure that the concepts were right and the proper foundation laid  and at the end of it all,  came up with   nine barometers for measuring effective and successful leadership in Nigeria as the assessment will be based on this by the time the board sets up it's assessment and recommendation panel.

Based on the general framework, the barometers were categorized into two namely cusative factors-What are the things responsible for actions that  will eventually come and outcome arising from what was caused in the causative factors which is the results. 

The Executive Secretary, and member, NPL Governing Board, Dr Ike Neliaku, during his presentation of the NPL Leadership Barometers and Prize Selection Criteria at the event.

He listed components of the causative factors to include: Vision, which carries 13 percent, Creativity  and Innovation which is 11 percent, Character, Competence, Sacrifice, adding,  each of the points have a breakdown to measure each of the points. 

"Under the derivative criteria or outcome we Impact on Society, with five indicators for this namely: Benefit to the Society, Trust and Credibility, Vision, Influence on the Society, Value Addition.

"The next point is Governance with indicators including Transparency and Accountability, Ethical Matters, Knowledgeable, Good Management of Resources and Value Addition," the executive secretary said.

He said the issue of diversity and inclusion was also considered during the design of the criteria.

This, he further emphasized is very paramount  within the Nigerian context, adding, inclusion in this context is the ability of the leader to manage Nigeria diversity and take advantage of it's beauty and value to promote national integration. 

Dr Neliaku  further stated that this includes the extent  the leader is seen as  unbiased in promoting fairness and equity across various society divides. 

"The winner  of  the Nigerian Prize for Leadership should therefore be seen to promote and demonstrate diversity and inclusiveness in his or her activities, " he said.

He listed six elements for measuring this criteria which includes cultural diversity, matters of ethnicity, issues of faith, gender disability and youths.

Furthermore, he said the last of the derivatives which is role model and mentoring entails  grooming a successor generation. 

"This is very important and the second arm of  activities of the NPL which is grooming a very credible successor generation. This is one of the  critical things NPL is doing to ensure that we lay a very solid foundation for grooming and raising leaders that will take over from some of us when we have done our bits. Under this, we have worthy of emulation, positive attitude to work, evidence of a team leader, act of mentoring and positive influence on others. these were the barometers put in place to help to henceforth measure  successful leadership as well as use it to determine leadership that  has not performed," he expatriated.

Dr Neliaku said  that  usually when we talk about leadership, our mindset instantly goes to political leadership but leadership starts from the home and it is from the home that we build leaders that will lead communities, societies and nationhood, adding, it is  time for us to go back and begin to rethink leadership at various levels."