Professor seeks spiritually-minded leaders for socio- economic change

A professor of Business Administration and Management, Crawford University, Igbesa Ogun State, Prof Patrick Yalokwu, has insisted that for Nigeria and African countries to take a leap towards the much needed socio economic transformation and technological development, it is imperative to harness the competencies of spiritually minded leaders.

Speaking at the 3rd inaugural lecture of the institution titled, “Spiritually minded authentic leadership: Catalyst for sustainable development,” he noted that such leaders are anchored by their own deep sense of self, they know who they are and where they stand on important issues, values and beliefs. They genuinely desire to serve others through their leadership.

According to the university teacher, “Such leaders are more interested in empowering the people they lead to make a difference and are guided by the qualities of the heart, passion and compassion, as they are driven by the quality of the mind. They also recognise the value of individual differences and have the ability and motivation to identify people’s talents and help build those talents into strengths.

He added that if such leaders were elected into public offices, there would be reduction in vices, increased morale and sense of belonging, productivity and creativity, greater job satisfaction, increased happiness, self-esteem and greater involvement with work.

He also noted that successful organisations and nations all over the globe just don’t happen. They are logical results of the efforts of quality management and leadership.

According to him, “When you have a management and leadership that adopts systems thinking as well as future thinking, there would be rapid growth and development in such a country.

Meanwhile, the vice chancellor, Prof Rotimi Ajayi has posited that the nation needs more and better quality universities to meet the teeming number of candidates seeking university education.

Prof Ajayi who disclosed this at a press conference on the programme of activities for the institution’s 9th convocation ceremony said for a nation of 180 million people, the opposition against establishment of new universities is largely uncalled for.

“In fact, what we need is more and better quality universities. With the imbalance in the university admission where public universities would have a surfeit of admission while private universities are forever contending with near-empty classrooms is attributable to the artificial conditions created by governments at the various level where people access higher education for next-to-nothing.

“It is this ironical situation that is perpetuating the imbalance in our educational landscape. In other climes, people do not access higher education in public or private institutions for “free.” The cost may be a little reduced but quite unlike this clearly unsustainable scenario we are having in Nigeria,” he said.

The vice chancellor advocated a review of the fees payable in government universities saying this would help attract students to private institutions and create greater access for more Nigerians.