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Monday, 27th April, 2009

IN THE U.S., GOV ALIYU EXTOLS VIRTUES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP

The Chief Servant and Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu has said that servant leadership is a global desire for promoting effective, accountable and transparent governance in developing democracies.

Governor Aliyu stated this in a lecture on Servant Leadership in African Emerging Democracies: Lessons from Niger State, delivered at the Graduate School of Public and Interantional Affairs of the University of Pittsburg, United States of America.

He explained that the concept of servant leadership is to reduce poverty, eradicate official corruption, strengthen government at all levels and entrench sustainable development as well as global peace and security. Dr. Aliyu reiterated that the thresholds of servant leadership which are transparency, accountability and participatory decision making are the universal democratic values needed as antidotes to corruption and embezzlement which he said undermine effective service delivery and good governance in Africa.

The Chief Servant pointed out that it is necessary to recommend and adopt a leadership model that emphasizes a leader’s role as steward of the people stressing that a servant leader perceives his or her role as an employee, a servant and a steward, who is more concerned with the welfare and development of others.

Governor Aliyu also maintained that the dominant feature of servant leadership is selflessness, adding that a servant leader has no monopoly of wisdom and involves the people by creating an enabling environment for all to realize their full potentials and excel.

To further buttress his points, Dr. Aliyu drew lessons from the experience of Niger State, saying that his government has a vision to become one of the top three economies in Nigeria by year 2020 and that the government is determined to make the best use of her vast human and natural resources to realize its aspiration. He stressed that though attaining the aspiration may not be easy, government is prepared to make the sacrifice to ensure success.

The Chief Servant added that his government started the process of inculcating the principles of servant leadership by attitudinal change and value re-orientation in the people as well as ensuring that elected and appointed officers were made to see their positions as a trust, a previllage and an honour from God to serve their fellow citizens. He also said that the people are radicalized to understand that it is their right to always demand for quality service from the leadership.

 Other measures taken by the Chief Servant include restoration of probity and accountability in public expenditure through the Due Process Department and ensuring that local government councils in the State also comply with due process requirements in the execution of capital projects so as to ensure value for money. He said government set up a Debt Verification Committee and later a Commission of Inquiry to ascertain the totality and veracity of the State’s indebtedness to both local and international contractors.

Dr. Aliyu further said that the establishment of Public-Private Partnership links facilitated the injection of private sector investments in the implementation of sectoral development programmes, and that 5,000 housing units have been constructed through this initiative. He said for the first time in the country, his government gave a “State of Service Address” to the people by giving details of income and expenditure during its first year in office.

 Although, the Chief Servant extensively drew anaologies from his style of leadership in the State, he, however, said that there is a compelling moral obligation on the part of the developed democracies to take realistic steps towards supporting African countries to find their bearing while the present generation of Africans should work hard for the emergence of a strong leadership based on democratic principles and values, stressing that servant leadership is the path to progressive governance in African emerging democracies.

The Chief Servant left Nigeria in the early hours of Thursday last week for the United States of America. The trip was at the invitation of the University of Pittsburg which said it had followed the Chief Servant’s style of leadership and academic flavour which has characterized his series of public lectures across Nigeria. It is also part of Dr. Aliyu’s commitments to spread the ideals of servant leadership using Niger State as a case in point.

 He had also delivered public lectures at the Igbinedion University, Okada (Edo State), University of Ibadan, Ibadan (Oyo State), University of Ilorin, Ilorin (Kwara State), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Kaduna State) and the Federal University of Technology, Minna (Niger State). Others were at the Institute of Directors, Abuja (Federal Capital Territory), Institute of Security Studies, Abuja, Bayero Unviersity, Kano (Kano State), and at the Arewa Media Forum, Kaduna (Kaduna State).

The Chief Servant is expected back in Nigeria this week.
 

Bala Ibrahim Abdulkadir,

Director General