Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President, says Nigeria’s effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of strategic leadership in a crisis.
He said this during a public presentation of (Rtd.) Major-General Pat Akem-book, Vingir’s Winning Leadership.
According to him, Nigeria was able to effectively combat the COVID-19 pandemic by deploying a responsive and effective public health framework after a presidential order in 2020.
The global pandemic’s ramifications
He said it came at a time when more developed and wealthy countries were grappling with the global pandemic’s aftermath.
With the daunting challenges of the twenty-first century, such leadership, which can effectively mobilize national and organizational resources to achieve results, is more important than ever, according to Professor Osinbajo.
“Knowledgeable and agile leadership at the strategic level, as General Pat Akem argues in Winning Leadership, is able to mobilize resources – human, financial, and material – of nations and organizations in an effective and result-oriented manner.”
“Such leadership can achieve goals and visions while also protecting and promoting interests. To put it another way, effective strategic leadership gives purposeful direction and inspires.”
Unfortunately unprepared
“One of the biggest surprises for many was how some of the world’s wealthiest and most developed economies were tragically unprepared to handle a public health crisis on the scale and uncertainty of Covid-19,” the Vice President said. Countries with lower economic profiles, on the other hand, quickly put in place a responsive and effective public health framework.”
Nigeria’s COVID-19 response, he continued, has been lauded both locally and internationally as a result of such strategic leadership.
As an example, the VP cited the formation of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, an inter-ministerial interagency team led by the Secretary of the Federation Government (SGF). Professor Osinbajo recalled how the PTF coordinated the national response, set the rules, and briefed the nation on a daily basis for months.
“The task force issued and enforced COVID-19 protocols for travel and general movement quickly,” he said. We imposed travel restrictions on Nigeria before the rest of the OECD. The African Center of Excellence for Genomic of Infectious Diseases in Ede provided Africa with the first genomic sequence for Corona virus SARS 2 after the first case was discovered.
“When the first doses of vaccines came, the task force developed the protocols and the public health system already used to mass vaccination campaigns, deployed across the country in every nook and cranny of Nigeria so that the first eligible vaccine candidates received their vaccinations seamlessly.”
Buttressing his point on strategic leadership, Professor Osinbajo said such kind of leadership requires imagination, clarity of vision and effective implementation due to current global challenges, changes and opportunities.
The VP further noted that, “as a nation, the threats to our corporate existence today are unprecedented and hitherto unimagined. It is against this background that the author’s prescriptions have to be taken seriously. As he pointed out, exceptional leaders do not just emerge, they are the products of deliberate efforts in policy making, training and grooming.”
While acknowledging that “there are no silver bullets that leaders can deploy to solve 21st Century economic, social and security challenges,” Professor Osinbajo stated that “only knowledgeable, well developed, trained and motivated leaders will win.”
The VP explained: “The strategies and techniques of yesterday will not work today, in the corporate workplace, in our public institutions and even in our homes. Thanks in no small part to the leaps made in technological advancement.
“The advent of social media has completely changed the nature of human interactions, and with that has added layers of ambiguity and complexity in state-corporate relations. In terms of human capital, what drives today’s workforce is very different even from just two decades ago.
Professor Osinbajo described the book as an essential contribution to the existing body of knowledge on the subject of strategic leadership.
He also noted that its public presentation was timely and “coming at the most auspicious moment in our nation’s history.”
Paradigm in Leadership
The VP said the book offered multiple pathways through which leaders can tackle unique challenges of current times which he said demanded new paradigm in leadership.
Highlighting the author’s vast experience in both combat and a successful administrative experience locally in the Nigerian Military and in service to the UN and ECOWAS, the VP stated that “Major General Pat Akem-Vingir has outdone himself with this important new book, and he has articulated military strategies and fresh thinking on the concept of strategic leadership.”
“There are many books and ideas on leadership but one of the reasons why I think this book Winning Leadership is unique is that it draws from the best scholars in the world on the subject—leaders of advanced militaries and C-suite leaders of international organisations and institutions,” the VP stated.
Dignitaries at the book presentation, where the author expressed appreciation for the support and encouragement he drew from serving Nigeria in the military, included the former Chief of Army Staff, retired General Azubuike Ihejirika, who represented former Head of State, General Abdusalami Abubakar, as Chairman of the event.
Others were the wife of Benue State Governor, Mrs. Eunice Ortom; former Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam; the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor; and the Chairman of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyeama.
