President of Liberia, George Weah, Bishop Kukah for CVL annual lecture

The President of Liberia, Mr. George Oppong Weah and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese are the Keynote Speakers at the !6th Annual Lecture and International Leadership Symposium of CVL(Centre for Values in Leadership) taking place on Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at MUSON Centre, Lagos.

According to a press statement from the Centre signed by its Senior Vice President, Mr. Rasheed Adegbenro, “The two speakers have been invited to address the theme of the lecture: Is Democracy Making Life Better in Africa as part of CVL’s ongoing effort to harvest more thoughts on solutions to challenges facing Africa with regard to the practice of democracy as governance tool for growth and development in countries in the continent.

“The lecture is riding on the crest of huge success of the 15th edition in 2018 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, immediate past Director General of UNIDO addressed the lecture series on Leadership and Performance in Africa: The Challenge of the Continent’s Economic Competitiveness.

The following eminent persons reflecting strong background in law, media, civil society and academia have been invited as Panel Discussants at the 2019 edition of the Lecture:

Mrs. Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, Founder/CEO. Rise Network; Mr. Femi Falana,SAN Legal Practitioner, Falana & Falana’s Chambers; Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe, Fomer Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos; Mr. Emeka Izeze, Former Managing Director, Guardian Newspaper; Dr. Muiz Banire, Principal and Founding Partner, M.A. Banire &Associates; Prof. Ebere Onwudiwe, Chairman, O-Analytics and the Chief Host is Prof. Pat Utomi, Founder CVL.

Adegbenro further explained that the thrust of conversation at the 16th Annual Lecture will focus on the quality of the practice of democracy in Africa and its implications for growth and development in the continent with opportunity to harvest recommendations to reverse the parlous state of living in Africa where public institutions are weak; rule of law is near non-existent; and majority of the people live in abject poverty.

According to him, “United Nations 2012 Report estimates that 40% of Africans live without improved drinking water. Sub-Saharan Africa also harbours 50% of primary school children out of school with Nigeria accounting for more than 10million children out of school. In addition, 33 out of 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are in Africa. In ECOWAS 12 member-countries out of 15 are LDCs.

Prominent among  past speakers at the annual lecture are: His Excellency, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; His Excellency, Mr Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda; Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank; Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Former Minister of Communications, Ghana; Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Former Under-Secretary General and Special Adviser to UN Secretary General; Lady Olga Maitland, MP (Sutton & Cheam) UK; Prof. Paul Collier, Director, Centre for Study of African Economies, Oxford University, UK; Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Former Governor of Lagos State; Mr Richard Dowden, Director, The Royal African Society and Former African Editor of the Economist; and Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State.

The annual lecture series is CVL’s commitment to engendering conversations that will aid initiation of policies that are business friendly and capable of lifting the continent, particularly Nigeria out of poverty as well as growing leadership that can make these happen.

The Centre for Values in Leadership is a social enterprise established by Prof. Pat Utomi to take an inside-out approach to values reorientation and leadership development through its many mentoring and training programmes with a clear goal of accelerating the formation of high performance leaders to help overcome the many problems confronting the business enterprise, public organizations and social enterprise initiatives of Non-governmental development organizations

. In essence, through the work of CVL, the next generation of Nigeria’s public and corporate leaders are empowered with the right values and skills needed to establish and sustain global and locally relevant institutions and companies.