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I pen this article with a humble sense of responsibility, hoping to contribute to this critical national discourse of proffering actionable insights to nation-building. This article is informed by insights gleaned from my engagements with more than 1,000 leaders globally in the past year and close to a gross of this number, fifteen years after I founded These Executive Minds (TEXEM) in the UK.

Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria stands at a crossroads that is both sobering and promising. The sobering part is familiar. Too many citizens experience public services that arrive late or are not up to par. Firms face a cocktail of inflation, logistics friction, and regulatory uncertainty. Civil society carries heavy loads where formal systems falter. The promising part is quieter but powerful. In the past year, I have sat with more than a thousand leaders in ministries, agencies, boardrooms, factories, start-ups, cooperatives, and classrooms from Kano to Lagos to Abuja and cities in other emerging and developed countries. The appetite I have encountered is not for new slogans. It is for practices that produce compounding improvements that citizens can feel. My contention is that the leaders who will move Nigeria forward in the next decade will practise three disciplines with rigour: reflection that rebuilds trust and sharpens judgement, reinvention that converts constraints into design choices, and winning that scales what works and protects it from erosion.

‘In Nigeria, we can replicate the principle, if not the exact model, by choosing the lever we will own, whether identity rails for SMEs, last-mile logistics in a large state, or a vocational pipeline that gives investors confidence.’

Reflection must come first because progress without trust rarely survives the news cycle and, more importantly, does not lead to sustainable, inclusive impact. In many of our institutions, there is an inherited deficit of confidence. People discount statements before they hear them. Officials are assumed to be evasive until proven otherwise. In this context, the most strategic act a leader can take is to make the logic of decisions visible and testable. I have watched permanent secretaries and chief executives shift the temperature in a room by explaining the trade-offs behind a policy or a pivot in two pages of plain English, then inviting challenges before the implementation plan is final. That small ritual does more than inform. It signals that citizens and staff are not audiences but partners in judgement. Rwanda’s experience with public performance contracts for officials is instructive because it illustrates how visible targets and steady follow-through can change the relationship between leaders and citizens. Nigeria does not need to copy the mechanism to embrace the principle. We can begin with published choice notes that state priorities, the reasons for those priorities, and the measures by which success will be judged.

Reflection also requires safety for truth. In utilities, hospitals, and agencies, I often meet talented professionals who knew trouble was coming but said nothing because it did not feel safe to do so. The cost of that silence is measured in failed projects, service outages, and avoidable controversy. A modest institutional habit can reverse this dynamic. Start formal meetings by asking for the pieces of bad news that no one has voiced. Reward the messenger rather than the fixer. In a northern water board, I watched how this practice reduced the number of last-minute crises and improved relationships with suppliers who were finally hearing about risks early enough to help. Psychological safety is not a fashionable idea. It is a governance advantage.

Strategy is the next frontier of reflection. Plans that attempt to please everyone end up straining everyone. Strategy is not an inventory of hopes but the courage to choose. What distinguishes Ethiopia’s early industrial zones, despite all the imperfections, is not simply the infrastructure but the choice to concentrate on a small number of sectors where jobs could be created quickly and learning could compound. Nigeria has too often pursued breadth without depth. A commissioner who commits to a two-page statement of where the state will compete in transport or health, how it will win there, and what will be left aside this year has already advanced execution. The power of this clarity lies in how it enables other actors to align. Suppliers, investors, and civil society can only complement a public agenda that they can see.

Foresight completes reflective leadership. Oil shocks, currency swings (though the latter two have been quite stable in the past six months), import disruptions, and climate stress are not surprises. They are conditions of the game. The organisations that navigate them well do not predict the future. They rehearse it. In Vietnam, which has climbed the manufacturing ladder over the past two decades, routine scenario exercises allowed managers and officials to pre-commit to responses when supply chains wobbled. In our context, the same discipline means agreeing on three or four numbers that, if breached, trigger specific actions within a week. It means deciding in advance which contracts can be slowed without losing capability, which social programmes must be protected under any scenario, and which suppliers or ports will be used if a route closes. When senior teams practise these drills quarterly, they do not eliminate volatility. They convert volatility from a reason to panic into a reason to act calmly and quickly.

Once reflection has cleared the fog, reinvention can proceed with precision. Reinvention in Nigeria must start with an unflinching acceptance of constraints. Capital is tight. Power is unreliable in too many places. The skills we most need are scarce and globally mobile. Rules sometimes move midstream. These constraints do not forbid innovation. They shape it. The leaders who make headway begin by asking what job the citizen or customer is hiring the service to do. In one health programme I observed, teams stopped designing features and started listening to mothers who simply wanted certainty about vaccination days. A low-cost text system that reminded families and local clinics of fixed days in each ward lifted attendance without expensive infrastructure. India’s Aadhaar system, whatever one thinks of it in the round, succeeded because it focused on a minimal identity layer that others could build upon. Kenya’s M-Pesa was born because the banking system ignored the unbanked. Both cases show the payoff from designing for the job, not for the institution.

Reinvention demands learning before scale. In too many Nigerian settings, pilots are a performance rather than a process. They lack a falsifiable question, a clear owner, and a path to either stop or scale. The fix is not complicated. Any initiative expected to touch a large population should be tested in two locations, with one sharp question set in advance and a date by which a scale or stop decision will be made. The results should be published in the language citizens understand. Failure then becomes an investment rather than a secret. I saw a state education agency kill three shiny ideas quickly and redirect funds into a teacher coaching model that improved learning outcomes because it treated the pilot as an experiment rather than an announcement.

Reinvention gains momentum when public institutions become conveners of ecosystems rather than providers of every function. Big problems arise when government, private firms, and civic actors share accountability for outcomes that citizens feel. Bangladesh offered a vivid lesson. Partnerships between the government, a major telecom, microfinance institutions, and social enterprises created rural digital kiosks run by women that offered identity, market information, and payments. The result was a commercial model that advanced connectivity and income at the same time. There was no philanthropic afterthought. Incentives were aligned at the design stage. Nigeria’s agriculture and health sectors can embrace the same logic. Shared cold chain investment for vaccines, joint platforms for farmer data, and managed marketplaces for produce are all areas where no single actor can win alone, yet every actor can win if the rules of cooperation are clear.

The final discipline is winning. By winning, I do not mean a one-off success that makes a good copy. I mean the craft of scaling what works, protecting it from erosion, and compounding advantage. The first move is to pick a narrow transformation where citizens will feel the difference within months, ‘a low-hanging fruit’. A permit workflow, a claims process, a land registry, or a targeted procurement system are good candidates. The rule is simple. The process must be completed end-to-end in a single digital flow. A named leader must own service levels. The model that drives decisions must be monitored so that it does not drift. Small wins matter because they change expectations. Once a citizen experiences a permit that takes days rather than months, tolerance for delay declines across the board. Indonesia’s progress on e-procurement and tax administration, while uneven, shows how patient systems can raise revenue and trust at the same time. We should be stubborn about this kind of boring progress because it pays compound interest.

Winning also requires decision-making that treats a downturn as a time to prune and plant rather than to freeze. The instinct in a crisis is to cut across the board. The better move is to cut visible waste, protect muscle, and pre-fund two moves that will pay off when others are distracted. When India’s Tata Group bought Jaguar Land Rover in the depths of the 2008 crisis, it was not a gamble on prestige. It was a calculated bet on future capability. In Nigeria, the equivalent in the public sphere could be a state securing a long-term power arrangement for critical social infrastructure when prices soften. In the private sphere, it may look like acquiring a distressed logistics asset that reduces the cost to serve essential goods. These are not headline moments. They are compounding moves.

The strongest forces in emerging economies are often social and institutional as much as technological. A company that ties its profit engine to a farmer’s gain by reducing post-harvest losses creates an affinity that is difficult to copy. A ministry that becomes the trusted orchestrator of identity or payments in a sector makes duplication wasteful for others and partnership sensible. Vietnam’s rise in manufacturing is instructive here. Once clusters matured and supplier development programmes took root, firms preferred to deepen rather than exit. In Nigeria, we can replicate the principle, if not the exact model, by choosing the lever we will own, whether identity rails for SMEs, last-mile logistics in a large state, or a vocational pipeline that gives investors confidence.

Every serious proposal invites counterarguments. The first is that our constraints are too severe. Indeed, power, security challenges, still-high inflation and an undervalued Naira shape the feasible frontier. Yet they rarely block the first disciplined step. Narrowing focus, publishing choices, and testing cheaply are possible even in tough conditions. The second counterargument is that pilots never scale here. That is not a law of nature. Pilots fail to scale when ownership is vague and money is episodic. Tie each pilot to a named leader with a budget gate and an adoption target. If the target is met by a stated date, the next release triggers automatically. If not, the idea is retired without controversy because the condition was agreed upon up front. The third objection is that openness hands an advantage to rivals or invites misuse. Opacity is more expensive. Clear interfaces, shared dashboards, and pre-agreed escalation channels protect the public interest while letting private actors bring energy and ingenuity. The fourth objection is that our context is unique and therefore resistant to lessons from elsewhere. Culture and politics matter. So does execution. The underlying disciplines of reflection, reinvention, and winning have travelled across Asia, Africa, and Latin America because they are grounded in human behaviour and institutional incentives rather than in fashion.

Actionable suggestions matter most when they become routine. A practical rhythm helps leaders avoid performative announcements. Each quarter, senior teams should meet for a candid review of trust, choices, and scenarios. The output should be three objectives with dates and owners that are shared with staff and, where appropriate, with citizens. Each month, the organisation should pilot two new practices and retire one legacy habit that no longer serves. A one-page learning note in plain English should capture what moved, what did not, and what will be changed as a result. Each week, leaders should review a single measure that protects their moat, whether adoption, cost to serve, or ecosystem leverage, and then remove one blocker that slows progress. This cadence is not a ritual for its own sake. It is the mechanism through which reflection feeds reinvention and reinvention feeds winning.

The independence anniversary invites a final reflection. Nations and subnationals do not become trustworthy because they declare it. Companies do not become competitive because they wish to. NGOs do not become impactful because they are earnest. Trust grows when leaders expose their logic to scrutiny and follow through. Competitiveness grows when organisations choose a place to compete and then refine how they win there through fast learning. Impact grows when coalitions form around measurable outcomes that citizens experience in hours saved, income gained, and safety improved. I have seen these habits in pockets across Nigeria. A cooperative that became a disciplined buyer and seller on behalf of its members and cut their losses. A state-owned entity that digitised a creaking process and recovered weeks for small businesses. A private firm that opened its platform to complementary services and grew by letting others create value. These are not miracles. They are crafts. Crafts improve with practice.

Examples from other emerging economies are not medals to hang on a wall. They are reminders that the work is doable. Rwanda’s visible performance contracts demonstrate how public accountability can reset expectations after trauma. Aadhaar in India shows that a minimal, interoperable public good can unlock many private innovations when designed with restraint. Kenya’s mobile money revolution proves that leapfrogging can occur when a clear job is served on a platform people already use. Vietnam’s steady climb through manufacturing illustrates how clusters, supplier development, and predictability attract commitment. Indonesia’s progress on tax administration and procurement shows how patient system building raises revenue and trust together. Bangladesh’s rural digital models illustrate the power of aligned incentives across public, private, and social actors. None of these examples is a blueprint. Each is a provocation to ask what the Nigerian equivalent would look like under our constraints and with our strengths.

As we enter the sixty-fifth year of independence, the choice before Nigerian leaders is not between idealism and realism. It is between a loud cycle of fresh promises and a quieter craft of institutional improvement that compounds. The second path is less dramatic, yet it is how countries change without fanfare. It begins with leaders who listen before they speak and who effectively communicate the reasons that informed their choices. It gains speed with teams who test efficiently, measure honestly, and stop what does not work. It consolidates with organisations that scale what works, protect their edge, and reinvest in capability in good times and bad. I wrote earlier that the mood is sober and promising. It will remain promising only if it becomes disciplined.

The most powerful sentence I have heard in the past year came from a nurse in a secondary hospital who said that the only thing that had changed her day was a new process that meant a critical drug arrived on Wednesday without fail. It made her sound less like a hero and more like a professional. That sentence is the heart of development. When essential functions become reliable, professionals emerge, and citizens begin to trust. The path to that sentence is neither glamorous nor impossible. It asks us to reflect with candour, to reinvent with humility, and to win with patience. If we make those verbs our habit in the year ahead, the country we will write about at seventy will look less like a set of crises to manage and more like a system that works. That would be an independence worth celebrating.

Sarah Mullally has been named the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England in its nearly 1,500-year history.

Her appointment, confirmed on Friday by King Charles III after a formal selection process, marks a watershed moment for the Anglican Communion, which counts around 85 million members worldwide. Mullally, 63, will serve as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding Justin Welby, who stepped down earlier this year following a damning abuse scandal.

‘The responsibility is huge, but I feel peace and trust in God to carry me,’ Mullally, a former nurse and later Bishop of London, said in her first public statement after the announcement. Prime minister Keir Starmer welcomed her appointment, describing the Church of England as ‘part of the fabric of our communities’ and expressing confidence that Mullally would play ‘a key role in our national life.’

Mullally’s elevation comes at a turbulent time for the Church. Her predecessor, Welby, resigned after an independent inquiry found that senior church figures had covered up decades-old abuse by John Smyth, a barrister who ran evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s. At least 130 boys and young men were said to have suffered at Smyth’s hands. He died in South Africa in 2018 while under investigation, never facing criminal charges.

The scandal has fuelled calls for deep reform within the Church of England, whose supreme governor is the British monarch. Once the spiritual backbone of national life, the Church now counts around 20 million baptised members but fewer than one million regular worshippers. Mullally’s appointment also signals the Church’s evolving stance on women in leadership. The Church of England began consecrating women bishops in 2014, following decades of debate, although other Anglican provinces, such as the United States, had taken this step decades earlier. Mullally herself became the first female Bishop of London in 2018, the third-highest post in the English hierarchy. Mullally is a former cancer nurse who worked as England’s Chief Nursing Officer in the early 2000s, while also being ordained as a priest in 2002. She became one of the first women to be consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England in 2015.

‘There are great commonalities between nursing and being a priest. It’s all about people, and sitting with people during the most difficult times in their lives,’ she once told a magazine.

She has advocated for creating an open and transparent culture in churches which allows for difference and disagreement, and has spoken on issues including the cost-of-living crisis, healthcare, and social justice.

Today, more than 40 of England’s 108 bishops are women, with women making up a similar proportion among priests. The office of the Archbishop of Canterbury is one of Britain’s most historic. The first incumbent, Augustine of Canterbury, was appointed in the late sixth century. The role became central to national life after King Henry VIII established the Church of England in the 1530s, thereby breaking with the Roman Catholic Church.

Mullally’s selection was the outcome of a lengthy process led by a committee under a former head of MI5, reflecting the position’s political as well as spiritual weight. Her leadership will stretch far beyond England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury regarded as the symbolic head of global Anglicanism.

The challenge before her is twofold: to restore trust in an institution shaken by scandal and to offer direction in a society where faith holds a diminished but still powerful role.

Regal Insurance, Universal Insurance, and Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc have emerged as the most performing insurance stocks in the nine months of 2025, reflecting renewed investor confidence in Nigeria’s insurance sector.

According to data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), insurance stocks closed September with the sector’s index growing by 67.7 percent year-to-date to N1,191.04, up from N710.08 recorded on January 31st. This growth outpaced several other sectors of the equities market, underscoring the renewed appetite for insurance equities.

Regal Insurance led the market, with its share price soaring 290.2 percent from N0.41 in January to N1.6 by the end of September.

Universal Insurance followed closely, rising by 216.6 percent, from N0.36 in January to N1.14 in September. Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc ranked third, appreciating by 200 percent, moving from N1.00 to N3.00 within the same period.

AIICO Insurance and NEM Insurance joined the rally, with both companies more than doubling their share value, gaining 116 percent and 110 percent, respectively.

The momentum was equally felt among mid-tier players. Veritas Kapital Assurance advanced by 85 percent, while Cornerstone Insurance, Linkage Assurance, and International Energy Insurance all recorded growth of more than 70 percent year-to-date.

AXA Mansard Insurance, one of the most capitalised players in the market, rounded off the rally with a gain of 56 percent, reinforcing the broad-based recovery across the industry.

A major factor shaping sentiment is the recently passed Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA), which introduces stringent capital requirements aimed at strengthening the sector’s resilience.

Under the new regime, insurers must raise their minimum paid-up capital to N15 billion for non-life businesses, N10 billion for life, and N35 billion for reinsurance. Operators that fail to comply within 12 months risk losing their licences.

Industry experts say that while the recapitalisation exercise could lead to market consolidation through mergers, acquisitions, or exits, it will ultimately create fewer but stronger players.

Similarly, the insurance sector’s contribution to the nation’s GDP also recorded double-digit growth in the second quarter, rising to 15.7 percent compared to 7.08 percent in the first quarter.

Daniel Ek stepped down as Spotify’s CEO because of the strong work by his top executives, not due to any outside issues. Ek said the move recognises how well co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström have handled daily operations since 2023. ‘It’s less a function of really anything except the fact that Alex and Gustav are truly delivering exceptionally well already,’ Ek said. ‘And I feel like this is a natural evolution of what we already do as a leadership team.’

Spotify announced on Tuesday. Ek, who founded the company, will shift to Executive Chairman on January 1, 2026. In that role, he will focus on setting the company’s long-term direction, deciding how to spend its money, and guiding the senior team. This setup matches how chairs often work in Europe.

Söderström and Norström will become co-CEOs. They already serve as co-presidents, with Söderström handling product and technology, and Norström overseeing business operations. Both will report to Ek and join Spotify’s board of directors, pending approval from shareholders.

The change builds on how Spotify has run things for the past two years. The co-presidents have led strategy and day-to-day tasks, the company said. Ek described his shift as moving from hands-on manager to advisor. ‘Since taking over as co-Presidents in 2023, the two executives have really stepped up in a material way, taking much of the day-to-day responsibilities,’ Ek noted. He added that he will team up with them on major strategic choices that shape Spotify’s future.

Ek started Spotify in 2006. He has led it through growth into a global streaming service with over 600 million users. Under his watch, the company went public in 2018 and expanded into podcasts and audiobooks. Now, at age 42, Ek wants to step back from the CEO spot to let others take the lead.

Söderström brings a background in tech and startups. He joined Spotify in 2009 after working as director of product and business development at Yahoo! Mobile from 2006 to 2009. Before that, he founded Kenet Works in 2003, a firm that built community software for mobile phones. He ran it as CEO until Yahoo bought it in 2006. Söderström also invests in early-stage companies and started 13th Lab, which Facebook’s Oculus acquired. Norström came to Spotify in 2011 from King.com Ltd, where he was Chief New Business Officer. He has held several roles at the company, including Chief Freemium Business Officer, Chief Premium Business Officer, Vice President of Growth, and Vice President of Subscriptions. From 2016 to December 2019, he sat on the board of directors at Circle, a financial services firm.

Woody Marshall, Spotify’s Lead Independent Director, backed the plan. ‘The Board has been working closely with Daniel on the evolution of Spotify’s leadership structure for several years,’ Marshall said. ‘We have tremendous confidence in Alex and Gustav as they step into these roles. They each have more than 15 years with the company and have been instrumental in driving our success and enabling Spotify to lead our industry. We are also thrilled that Daniel will be actively involved, giving Spotify both founder-led strategic stewardship and mentorship to the co-CEOs as the company continues to innovate and scale.’

The transition comes at a steady time for Spotify. The company reported strong results in its latest quarter, with monthly active users up 11 percent to 696 million and premium subscribers rising 12 percent to 276 million. Revenue grew 10 percent year-on-year to pound 4.2 billion euros. Spotify faces competition from Apple Music, YouTube Music with the latter already testing AI music host features to challenge Spotify’s AI DJ.

As co-CEOs, Söderström and Norström will split duties. Söderström will push product improvements, like better recommendations and audio features. Norström will handle business growth, including ads and partnerships.

Ek said the decision feels right. ‘I will work with Gustav and Alex on the big strategic decisions that we face in the long arc of the company,’ he explained. In the end, Ek’s step back honors his team’s progress. It positions Spotify to tackle future challenges, from AI tools to new markets.

Nigeria has just attained the grand age of sixty-five.

If the nation were to be a person, he would be coming to the age of ‘Retirement’ in many countries of the world. Some people at that age feel that their most productive years are already behind them. They may suffer an existential Depression. Some others, freed from the tedious burden of a routine career, may see themselves released into a new lease of life, where the best is yet to come.

A ‘Nation’ is, of course, not the same as a person.

‘While politicians mouth platitudes in public, the reality is that every group has an agenda, and those agendas all too often dictate actions and alliances.’

This brings up the first issue in a close examination of the Nigeria project.

Is Nigeria a ‘Nation’ – yet?

A dictionary definition of the noun ‘Nation’ would read as follows:

‘A body of people united by common descent, history, culture or language, inhabiting a particular territory.’

It would be immediately obvious to any discerning eye that Nigeria at inception was not a ‘nation’ by this definition. It was an agglomeration of many nations – more than two hundred ethnic nationalities cobbled together in a ‘geographical expression’. Even the name ‘Nigeria’ was the product of a whimsical inspiration from the consort of a certain Lord Lugard, a servant King George V of Great Britain.

Sixty-five years ago, Nigeria took on the responsibility of self-government. It has struggled since to become a nation, despite the flag and other appurtenances of nationhood.

While some people agitated for the Independence that eventually arrived on 1st October 1960, it would be historical falsehood to deny the fact that some people fought against it. An early quote from Sir Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is instructive here. On the floor of the Northern House of Assembly in 1952, he said

‘.Since the amalgamation in 1914, the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people are different in every way, including religion, custom, language and aspiration.the fact that we’re all Africans might have misguided the British.’

He was not being extreme, only frankly realistic. From the beginning, the self-views and aspirations of the different peoples were only in sync in a very superficial way. One group believed they ‘owned’ the nascent nation by virtue of an aborted ‘jihad’ that had swept through much of its territory and imposed hegemony in precolonial times. Another group believed that their people, known for energy and enterprise, were ‘superior’ to others, and it was their destiny to lead – not just Nigeria, but all of Africa. Yet another group wanted to build on their antecedents of a historical empire plagued with internecine warfare that wreaked carnage and left few monuments to construct a modern nation along the new ‘Western’ model, using the instrumentality of Western education. And then there was a huge block of others, the ‘Minorities’ – several nationalities strong, who felt their very future threatened by the overbearing presence of the ‘Big Three’ nationalities.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge in sixty-five years. Constitutions have come and gone. There has been a Civil War, and there have been long stretches of military rule. The country is in its fourth iteration of life as a ‘Federal Republic’ – an unhappy polyglot entity with a Unitary system of governance.

A lot has been said and written about how and why Nigeria has failed to achieve its great potential so far.

From the standpoint of Psychology, it seems odd that there has been no intentional effort to acknowledge and ‘work through’ the fundamental psychological incongruencies of the constituent parts of the nation, and harmonise, or at least modulate, them. These group mindsets have often determined the outcomes of major national issues. While politicians mouth platitudes in public, the reality is that every group has an agenda, and those agendas all too often dictate actions and alliances. There is a predatory ‘grabbing’ instinct in most inter-group interactions, and a paranoid mind-set in which everyone is suspicious of the intentions of the others. Lies, chicanery, betrayal, horse-trading – these have been the order of the day.

It may seem simplistic and reductionist, but the problems of Nigeria – including corruption, insurgency, kidnapping, economic woes, rampant poverty, the largest population of out-of-school children in the world – may be viewed, and possibly solved, through the prisms of the Moral and the Structural.

There is no agreed system of Values operational in the country. Right and wrong are not clearly demarcated. There is no consensus about doing right. Law-making as it is practised is substantially irrelevant to the daily realities of the people’s lives. Law enforcement is a joke. There is virtually no consequence to obvious wrongdoing, and impunity is rampant. This cannot continue, and there is a need for an intentional effort at national cleansing and reinvention of institutions.

The Unitary structure of the country, where national life consists of a desperate rush to outdo others and grab the ‘national cake’, is calculated to bring out the worst in the psychology of all the ‘federating’ peoples of Nigeria. It is necessary to restructure and devolve power and responsibility to the base, and to create functional aggregations and collaborations between existing states to reduce waste and maximise efficiency.

Nationalistic slogans that have always exhorted Nigerians to be ‘brothers and sisters’ should be practicalised with conviction. Nobody should feel preyed upon by any other in terms of territory or anything else they hold dear. Everyone must formally renounce any notion of being ‘superior’ to anyone else. There needs to be a common version of History taught to the next generation. There are no out-and-out ‘Saints’ or ‘Sinners’ in the Nigerian story. Indoctrinating the next generation with hubris or victimology or imbuing them with the entitlement mentality of ‘ownership by conquest’ will not create citizens of a great nation.

Nigeria remains a tantalising possibility and a compelling lodestone for Nigerians to work towards. A determined ‘Retirement’ from old habits of mind is a necessary first step on the journey.

The television network, Business Day, is famous for its episodes aimed at enlightening purposes for entrepreneurs, improving financial literacy, and providing business updates at a timely period. Its recent high-profile panelized session formed an episode themed ‘Passion to Profit: Balancing Work and Entrepreneurship,’ featuring five eminent thought leaders who were invited to discuss the realities involved in combining full-time jobs with running individual businesses.

The speakers included Mr. Damola Richard, Ms. Temitope Okesenyin, Ms. Nkechi Alade and Mr. Peter Michael Ajassi. However, the voice that particularly resonated throughout the conversation was that of Ms. Ebunoluwa Opelami – a blistering professional whose footprints in formulating business strategies, driving talent performance, and engineering business growth continue to shape Nigeria’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Opelami counseled business owners to start with thorough self-awareness when asked about effective techniques that could enable professionals to reconcile their nine-to-five employment with side hustles. She pointed out that the basis of long-lasting equilibrium is an honest assessment of one’s own strengths, shortcomings, and objectives.

‘Know yourself and know what works best for you. Ask for assistance when necessary; you cannot do all – the more cause you have to support creative networking,’ she said.

Her advice captures a reality many professionals ignore: entrepreneurship is seldom a solitary endeavor. Burnout is rather common when one tries to juggle everything on their own while working full-time. Entrepreneurs can strike the balance required to create companies with learning how to use professional networks, outsource when necessary, and remain true to individual ability. undermining either their job advancement or their health.

The conversation quickly turned to one of the most vexing issues for entrepreneurs: financial instability. Many aspiring founders eventually end up siphoning their income from their traditional jobs to keep their businesses alive when they don’t have a clear sustainability plan. Opelami challenged that default experience by stating that money is not always the biggest challenge that entrepreneurs face.

‘Instead of pulling everything from your savings into your business, make sure you go through the rigorous cycle of being resourceful,’ she said.

She designed resourcefulness as being greater than capital. Entrepreneurs ‘can maximize their networks, trade with their peers, and get innovative as a way of solving operational bottlenecks,’ so they avoid the dangerous habit of over-financing a business out of their pockets. ‘The cycle of resourceful networking,’ Opelami explained, ‘is a great way to take capital out of the equation, while also building trust and a future to work together.’

Her argument was a thoughtful addendum to Ms. Temitope Okesenyin’s earlier point that entrepreneurs should make themselves the ‘face of their brand.’ Temitope had stated that high-value personal attributes attract clients more than aesthetics related to the brand style. Opelami extended this logic to funding, reminding us that funding generally racks up value in ways that promote behavior.

According to Opelami, ‘The truth is funding follows value. If you lack the value needed, funding might become extremely difficult. Focus on building the value.’

This statement highlighted the main point of her contribution: entrepreneurs need to focus on creating real value propositions before they look for money. Instead of obsessing over getting investors or loans, focus on making something that fixes a problem and keeps delivering results.

She pointed out the usual blunders small business owners trip over, especially getting hung up on branding that doesn’t really matter. A lot of founders spend loads of time and cash on making logos, picking out looks, and making their social media look cool, but they forget about the nitty-gritty value that actually keeps their business abuzz.

Opelami warned that with all the flashy social media stuff, too many entrepreneurs miss out on making their brands solid, which means they’re up against a lot of incompetence. For her, the real test for any entrepreneur is not how they look on paper but how they perform after the deal is done. Brand markers like PR campaigns and digital polish can be handy, but they should never take the spotlight away from the real deal, which is substance.

Apart from value and resourcefulness, Opelami shared additional important lessons for people trying to balance a career and a business. These include:

? Constructing distinct boundaries: Entrepreneurs must defend their time and energy from having their work encroach on their personal space and wellbeing.

? Establishing a self-care regimen: Balancing employed work and entrepreneurial activity calls for purposeful breaks and mental wellbeing.

? Mastering the skill of saying ‘No’: It’s important to understand that not all opportunities are worth pursuing; a level of selectivity enhances concentration.

? Delegating and Outsourcing: External assistance must be embraced to ensure the business is not stalled by individual constraints.

? Deliberate practice: Discipline and unremitting improvement, not sporadic effort, are the yardsticks for measuring growth.

Opelami was emphatic that these practices ought to be integrated within the core of entrepreneurial service. They are not optional extras but bedrock for bolstering entrepreneur’s resilience and enhancing business performance over the long term.

In a professional environment where funding often seems elusive, Opelami’s perspective re -explains the conversation; instead of pursuing capital as a golden ticket, she asks for a deep commitment to value construction, resourceful networking and personal clarity.

Entrepreneurs who focus perfectly on raising capital without a solid value risk ending with branded but hollow enterprises. Conversely, people who prioritize value, nurture the network, and embrace resources, often find that funding – whether from investors, partners or customers – naturally flows more.

Ebunoluwa Opelami’s message is straightforward but profound: value comes before funding. The lesson is obvious for entrepreneurs. Make sure your brand offers real, consistent, and significant value before chasing investors or draining savings. Create networks, assign tasks sensibly, and stay away from the distractions of flimsy branding. In today’s cutthroat business environment, resilience and growth are ultimately guaranteed by the strength of your value rather than the size of your capital.

Olayemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has emphasised that future leaders must adopt transparency, evidence, and data-driven decision-making as core principles of effective governance.

Speaking at the maiden edition of the CBN Governor’s Lecture Series hosted by the Lagos Business School (LBS) on Friday, Cardoso noted that leadership in monetary policy is inseparable from nation-building.

‘Thought leadership requires dialogue,’ he added, highlighting the importance of open discourse in policy development.

In her welcome address, Professor Olayinka David-West, Dean of Lagos Business School, described the event as a significant step in bridging the gap between academia, public policy, and the private sector.

‘This stage has long served as a platform to inform, educate, and engage,’ David-West said. ‘Today, we are proud to host Olayemi Cardoso, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as we inaugurate the CBN Governor’s Lecture Series, a bold step toward fostering accountability, transparency, and deeper public understanding of monetary policy.’

Nigeria has been taking steps to overhaul its education system through skills development as part of efforts to tackle high youth unemployment.

The new curriculum for Nigeria’s education system is a welcome step towards making education more relevant to work. But Germany’s experience shows that building a sustainable apprenticeship system requires deep investment, industry collaboration, and constant renewal.

If Nigeria can embed these principles, vocational training could move from being a stopgap to becoming a cornerstone of economic growth, producing not just job seekers, but skilled workers and innovators ready to shape the country’s future.

The press release by the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria highlighted the new vocational subjects that were added to the basic education curriculum. Trade subjects for non-technical schools were streamlined from over thirty to six practical areas: Solar PV installation and maintenance, fashion design and garment making, livestock farming, beauty and cosmetology, computer hardware and GSM repairs, and horticulture and crop production. In addition, the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) will now administer 28 revamped trade subjects for technical colleges. WAEC and NECO subjects were aligned to reflect the revised structure, focusing on core areas and relevant trades. Speaking on the reform, Tunji Alausa, minister of education, said the new curriculum will allow children to learn in a more focused and functional way without the burden of too many subjects, while teachers will benefit from a simpler structure, and government resources can be better directed toward building a stronger, skill-driven education system.

Yet, while the direction is promising, successful implementation requires more than policy declarations. Germany’s apprenticeship model, regarded as the ‘gold standard’ of vocational training, provides both inspiration and cautionary lessons.

What Germany’s model shows

For decades, Germany’s ‘Ausbildung’ system formed the backbone of its industrial success. It operates as a dual training model as apprentices spend part of their time in vocational schools learning theory and the rest gaining hands-on experience in a workplace.

It had its roots in the medieval guild system but was formally codified and standardised with the passage of the Vocational Training Act in 1969.

Crucially, apprentices earn wages while training, reducing financial barriers to participation.

The system historically supplied industries such as engineering, manufacturing, and hospitality with skilled workers, helping Germany maintain one of the lowest youth unemployment rates in Europe. At its peak, for every 100 university students, there were 75 apprentices, reflecting the system’s prestige and popularity.

But challenges emerged. A 2024 survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that nearly half of companies offering apprenticeships could not fill their slots. In some sectors, like construction and hospitality, positions remain vacant despite labour shortages.

European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training noted that despite 350,000 apprentices in the craft sector in 2024, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) reported over 20,000 unfilled positions. This shortage is concerning, as many of the 130 recognised skilled crafts apprenticeships are crucial for driving technological change.

The challenges point to demographic pressures, cultural shift towards university education, and slow curriculum adaptation to digital industries, which are all eroding the model’s effectiveness.

For Nigeria, these struggles are instructive. The lesson is clear: a strong apprenticeship framework must adapt quickly to technological shifts and demographic realities, or risk losing relevance. Adapting the framework to Nigeria

Nigeria already has a National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) to standardise technical training, but its reach is limited. A German-style dual system could build on this by formally linking schools, industries, and government in a three-way partnership. Employers would need incentives to take on apprentices, while schools would be tasked with delivering industry-relevant curricula.

Nigeria’s high-growth sectors, renewable energy, ICT, construction, agriculture and health, could become the testing ground. For example, just as Germany built strong apprenticeship tracks in engineering and automotive industries, Nigeria could prioritise structured training for solar technicians, software developers, and agro-processors. These are roles likely to expand with domestic demand and global trends.

The teacher’s challenge Teachers sit at the centre of both Germany’s and Nigeria’s systems. Germany has 3,600 vocational schools, but educators there now complain of outdated curricula and uneven classroom standards. In some schools, cohorts are increasingly mixed, ranging from school-leavers to university graduates and migrants with limited German proficiency. Teachers argue that this has made it difficult to maintain consistent quality.

Nigeria faces a sharper version of this problem: a projected shortfall of 30 million teachers by 2030. As Abdullahi Bature, CEO of Schoola, stressed, ‘We need big investment around supporting teachers. They need digital literacy, and more importantly, artificial intelligence (AI) literacy.’ If Germany, with its long-established infrastructure, is struggling to keep teacher quality high, Nigeria cannot afford to neglect teacher training at this critical stage. Pay, mobility and incentives

Another lesson from Germany lies in pay and mobility. Apprentices in Germany earn between pound 500 and pound 900 a month, depending on the sector and size of the firm. While not high, this wage makes training more accessible. Nigerian apprenticeships often pay little or nothing, discouraging participation. Without financial incentives, the system risks being seen as exploitative rather than empowering.

Germany also demonstrates the value of mobility within training. Some companies now experiment with ‘micromobility’, offering apprentices short-term projects across departments. This builds adaptability and keeps young people curious. Nigeria could adopt similar approaches, encouraging apprentices to rotate between roles, for instance, in ICT, between coding, product design and data analysis to broaden skills and resilience.

Policy and funding consistency

Funding remains a major stumbling block for Nigeria. Technical training requires costly equipment, workshops, and industry partnerships. Germany’s model is expensive, but consistent state investment, employer buy-in, and strong union involvement helped sustain it for decades.

For Nigeria, the priority must be agility: reforms must be regularly reviewed and updated to keep pace with labour market needs. How Germany is closing the gap and what Nigeria can learn from

While international comparisons are valuable, Nigeria must ultimately define its own pathway. Bature insists, ‘I don’t believe we need our content to be global standard. It should be our own Nigerian standard.’ This means tailoring vocational training to Nigeria’s demographic realities, cultural expectations, and economic strengths.

Germany’s apprenticeship model remains a powerful example, but it is not a blueprint to be copied wholesale. Nigeria can learn from its strengths, structured partnerships, earning while learning, and prestige attached to technical skills, while avoiding its current pitfalls of demographic decline, outdated curricula, and waning appeal among the youth.

For example, Germany’s shortage of apprentices was due to image issues, lack of early exposure, weak recruitment by small firms, and stereotypes.

Now the country is working to close gaps in skilled craft apprenticeships by engaging young people earlier and modernising the sector’s image, which Nigeria can learn from.

Some of its initiatives are ‘Small hands, big future’ (Kleine Hände, grosse Zukunft) and ‘Make something!’ (Mach was!) introduce children and pupils to crafts through practical projects.

Digital and in-person formats like ‘MasterPOWER’ and ‘Crafts mobile’ (Handwerksmobil) combine learning software with hands-on workshops. The ‘Crafts go to school’ (Handwerk macht Schule) programme also links craft themes with school curricula.

To inspire young people, campaigns such as ‘Power People in Skilled Craft’ (Power People im Handwerk) and ‘Skilled Craft Makers’ (Handwerks Macher:innen) use influencers to promote diversity and challenge stereotypes, while the ‘Skilled Crafts Miss and Mister’ (Handwerks Miss and Mister) event selects ambassadors for the sector. Creativity is showcased through the ‘Design Talents in Crafts North Rhine-Westphalia’ (DesignTalente Handwerk Nordrhein-Westfalen) competition.

Nigerians can learn from these measures, which aim to spark early interest, highlight diversity and creativity, and present crafts as modern and future-oriented careers.

As the two days of high-level, extensive discussions on the future of development, investment, and financing in Northern Nigeria come to an end, one question lingers: what next?

Every great idea begins with conversation. Honest dialogue helps people gain clarity, build consensus, and chart a shared vision. But dialogue without action is nothing more than another round of sweet speeches-comforting to the ears, but dangerous if it soothes us into complacency while our region burns. The initiative of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) would, understandably, attract both scepticism and criticism, given its history of political clashes with the northern political elite. Yet NEF must not be seen as an adversary but as a partner in our collective quest for progress. Ego and vested interests must be abandoned. The North cannot afford a zero-sum game where egos win and the people lose.

For what it’s worth, the Northern Investment and Industrialisation Summit has lit a spark-from the Ladi Kwali conference hall in Abuja to Maiduguri and down to the confluence in Kogi. A sense of direction, passion, and optimism now fills the air. But without the administrative and political weight of the Northern Governors’ Forum, the captains of our collective destiny, this spark may die out. Blueprints do not build bridges; bold leadership does.

The first obstacle to northern development remains insecurity. Banditry, terrorism, and communal clashes continue to bleed the region of its people, its resources, and its future. No investor will put capital in a war zone. You cannot plant prosperity in the soil of fear. To overcome this, governors must treat insecurity not as an isolated state problem but as a collective regional emergency. A Northern Security Compact should be created, modelled after the U.S. Emergency Management Assistance Compact. States could pool resources to set up a Joint Security Task Force with shared intelligence, coordinated patrols, and a regional command structure to respond quickly to crises affecting the region. Each state does not need to buy drones, armoured vehicles, or train counter-insurgency units alone. Pooling resources reduces costs, eliminates duplication, and strengthens capacity. Just as the Amotekun Corps has worked in the South-West, a Northern Security Network funded collectively and backed by regional legislation can deliver results. When insecurity respects no borders, security must be built without borders.

But security alone will not build prosperity. Development requires capital. This is where a Northern Development Bank (NDB) becomes indispensable. The NDB could be jointly owned by the 19 states, with initial capitalisation drawn from a portion of monthly federal allocations. The bank would focus on financing large-scale infrastructure such as irrigation systems, mechanisation, agro-processing plants, industrial parks, and transport infrastructure that individual states struggle to fund alone. To ensure sustainability, the NDB must be professionally run, with private sector participation and strong governance structures. For instance, states can provide seed equity, while international development banks such as Afreximbank, AfDB, or the Islamic Development Bank can be invited to co-invest.

Crucially, the bank should finance based on comparative advantage: Sokoto could build leather clusters, Kano could expand textiles, Borno could invest in solar energy, Plateau could invest in solid minerals, and Benue could invest in agro-processing. By aligning loans with each state’s strengths, the bank would create regional value chains, reduce unemployment, and boost exports. Prosperity grows fastest where states compete in excellence, not in poverty.

The removal of subsidies has poured unprecedented resources into state coffers. The excuse of scarcity has expired. What remains is the courage to act.

Northern development is not just a regional aspiration; it is a national emergency. The summit has given us direction, but it is the governors who must now deliver. They can either rise as visionaries who turned dialogue into development or go down as leaders who looked on while their region burned.

Finally, the North is watching. The nation is watching. And history will not be kind to those who make speeches for solutions.

Oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta region are poised to tap the benefits of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to ensure rapid and sustainable development of the region.

Stakeholders from the region spoke in Ekpan, Uvwie council area of Delta State, on Thursday at an event, the Bridges Project roadshow/townhall series, focused on building awareness and capacity for the effective implementation of Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs).

Organised by the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), the roadshow, which brought together a wide range of participants, including settlor representatives, regulators, civil society organisations, and community leaders, was to deepen stakeholders’ understanding of the HCDT registration process and ensure the equitable distribution of oil industry resources to host communities.

The Bridges Project aims to promote transparency, accountability, and inclusivity in the implementation of the PIA, which provides allocation of three per cent of oil companies’ operational expenditure for the development of host communities.

Speaking at the launch, Chuks Ofulue, PIND’s advocacy manager, stressed that awareness is key to unlocking the Act’s full benefits.

‘The PIA opens doors for communities to take charge of their development. But awareness is key. With the right knowledge, communities can ensure transparency, demand accountability, and actively shape projects that benefit them,’ Ofulue said.

Signed into law in 2021, the PIA introduced far-reaching reforms to Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, including the establishment of HCDTs to drive community-led development. Yet, many host communities remain unfamiliar with how the trusts work or how they can actively engage.

Reiterating PIND’s vision, Ofulue added, ‘The PIA is not just a law-it is an opportunity.’

‘By demystifying the Act and the HCDT framework, we are putting knowledge directly in the hands of the people who matter most. This empowers communities to engage constructively, prevent conflict, and ensure that projects truly reflect their priorities,’ he added.

The awareness drive combines roadshows, town hall meetings, and media outreach to reach thousands of stakeholders.

Local leaders described the initiative as both timely and transformative.

Sylvester Okoh, chairman of the Delta state multi-stakeholder platform (MSP), called on more HCDTs to join the platform for a collaborative approach to the new development framework for the oil-bearing communities.

‘We’ve been bringing the leadership of the various Delta HCDTs together, sharing experiences, and addressing issues of concern,’ Okoh said. ‘The HCDTs are at a point where the General Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) stopped, but because the HCDTs are now backed by law, there are clear directives that will ensure better outcomes for our communities.’

Pender Agwarive, BOT Chairman of Uherevie HCDT and member of the Bridges Project’s Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP), said, ‘For years, our communities have heard about the PIA but didn’t really understand how it affects us.’

‘What PIND is doing here gives us clarity. Now we know the questions to ask and how we can actively participate so our communities truly benefit from this law.’

The campaign also spotlighted the Bridges Project’s MSP model, which fosters dialogue, collaboration, and sustainability in host community projects.

Rachael Misan-Ruppee, PIND’s PIA consultant, said with the awareness so far created across the five project states – Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, and Ondo – ‘we are confident that communities are now better equipped to implement and manage development projects. We want to see active and responsible HCDT managers.’

Sheriff Mulade, national coordinator of the Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice, emphasised the importance of transparent governance in managing resources derived from the HCDTs.

‘The key to the success of HCDTs is accountability. This is the only way we can ensure that projects truly benefit our communities,’ he said.

Stella Ejeh from the Olomoro community in Isoko south LGA, said the townhall offers renewed hope for tangible development.

‘In my community, we have seen many uncompleted and abandoned projects, but with platforms like this, we believe that we can finally see real changes,’ she said.

Board of Trustees leaders of HCDTs such as Mrs Bayai Ekomieyefa (Chairperson, Ogulagha Tora-Abade HCDT), Ademola Doris (acting chairperson, Warri Kingdom Coastal HCDT) and Satu Peters (Chairman, Ogulagha-Ibe Agbonu HCDT) also expressed appreciation for the programme.

Ademola Doris, acting chairman of the Warri Kingdom Coastal HCDT, highlighted the value of the experience: ‘This has been a time well spent. We have gained valuable insights into the PIA, from the registration process to the project execution stages. We are now better positioned to address any gaps and improve where necessary.’

Misan-Ruppee concluded the workshop with a reaffirmation of the project’s goals.

‘The Bridges Project has laid a solid foundation, but we are just getting started. Our goal is to see the full operationalisation of HCDTs, with stakeholders working together in concerted efforts to ensure that the Niger Delta fully benefits from the Petroleum Industry Act,’ she said.