T
he Two-Day National Workshop on Culture in the Transformation Agenda, with the theme “Culture and the Socio-economic Transformation of Local Governments in Nigeria: Setting an Agenda for Development”, organized by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), in collaboration with Leading Edge Academy, held at the Shehu Musa Yar’adua Centre, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, on the 8th and 9th of October, 2012, has lived up to its expectation of setting an agenda for development, even as experts in the fields of culture and development, policy formulation and analysis, as well as management and governance systems, proffered various suggestions, to be bring about sustainable development and transformation at the grassroots.
Reginald Bobmanuel Esq., of the Continental Business and Leadership School Limited, Abuja, one of the resource persons at the Technical Session of the workshop, opined that, for effective transformation and development to take place at the grass-root level, local government functionaries must cultivate executive intelligence, and that proper monitoring machinery must also be put in place for the operations of the local government system.
Stating this in a paper, titled, “Developing Executive Intelligence as a Leadership Tool for Local Government Administration,” Barr. Bobmanuel said the rationale behind the creation of the third tier of government, which was to meet the peculiar needs of the people at that level, had been defeated, due largely to incompetence and lack of executive intelligence in the leadership.
H
e said executive intelligence in leadership has not been exploited in this part of the world, and that, if local government officials must bring about the needed transformation and development at the grassroots, they ought to acquire cognitive skills and expertise to transform themselves into great leaders and managers, noting that the national workshop was a right step in that direction.
Speaking further, Barr. Bobmanuel said, the country is passing through challenging times, and that times like this require outstanding leaders at the helm of affairs, leaders with vision, courage and inspiration, and that to achieve good governance, executives at all levels, need to retreat and view issues about their positions and responsibilities from various view points, which will enable them gain better perspectives and intimately help them realize the need to inspire the people, through innovative policies, programmes and activities that would transform, not just the lives of the citizenry, but also impact positively on the overall development of their various communities and the nation, in general.
Jonathan N. Nicodemus
Corporate Affairs