I am not unaware of the unquestionable fact that leadership remains a defining factor in turning the dark clouds over Nigeria’s prospects
BY SIMON REEF MUSA
I am not unaware of the unquestionable fact that leadership remains a defining factor in turning the dark clouds over Nigeria’s prospects for growth and unity. Considering challenges of development that has become synonymous with the Nigerian State since independence, our nation has remained in the backwaters of growth due to failure of leadership that has consistently turned catastrophic in aggregating the fears and hopes of citizens towards building a nation where the masses are given shared sense of belonging for the benefits of the overall majority.
When the British colonialists left in October 1960, they left behind a dysfunctional country where the three major ethnic groups that once casted long shadows over the defunct three regions of the First Republic were then engaged in a supremacy struggle. The January 1966 coup and the counter-coup of July of the same year only served to widen the boundary of mutual suspicion that was accentuated by greed and promotion of infinite avarice.
Whatever were the reasons for the overthrow of the First Republic, and they still remain unjustified, there abound more grievous grounds that have turned the politicians of yore into today’s saints that ought to be beatified. With the benefit of hindsight, the military played greater roles in the development of infrastructures and enthroning a system that works for all citizens. As it is with every human endeavour, the military rule was not devoid of its foibles as much even as it worked hard to uplift the country from the mire of underdevelopment.
Over 25 years after the dawn of this unbroken democracy that was inaugurated in May 1999, the problems plaguing Nigeria have continued to rise in leaps and bounds, creating an environment of uncertainties for the future. A country that was once predicted to occupy an important position in the comity of nations in less than a decade after attaining political independence still suffers from retrogression that is made worse by the absence of amity among federating groups than external conspiracy. Nearly three decades of experimenting democracy devoid of military intervention, those things citizens were once impossible are now with us. Not only are those things, among them insecurity and economic hardship, things that were once alien to us, are no longer strange to us. Nigeria that was known as a melting pot for all has been turned into a raging battleground for criminal groups engaged in challenging the nation’s sovereignty. Without appropriate responses, these criminals have continued to render our country a flourishing killing field and abducting law-abiding citizens, including school children, for ransom.
More worrisome is the incapacity of our intelligentsia to interrogate how low our nation has plunged into the bottomless pit of a pleasure-seeking rendezvous that is in complete denial of its mandate in not only promoting growth but also standing up for the interest of the majority poor. Over 63 years after political freedom, those who are expected to lead the way in salvaging what is left of our hope are now in active collaboration with politicians and other critical professionals. As the country attempts at crawling out of its self-inflicted pit hole of lawlessness, the rot is deepened by the failure of the nation’s intellectuals to be the guiding light of growth of a nation that is always potentially great, but now the Global Headquarters of Poverty.
Politics has remained a platform where the powerful grab hold of power to enthrone their interests. If politicians are committed to change, they are also committed to realising their own dreams of maintaining their grip on power by shutting out opponents that are never weary plotting their comeback. On the basis of the following, a government can only go far when it engages intellectual minds as the sure means of broadening frontiers of inquest in promoting development and good governance. No nation develops without engaging intellectual inquisition that is predicated in the pursuit of development goals. While politicians may be concerned on how to win the next election, intellectuals who have taken leave of their serene academic world are often anxious on how to realise theoretical postulations in the classroom for the benefit of all. The regime of the former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, was famed for its propensity of engaging the brightest of minds whose contributions to national development have remained unassailable. The Political Bureau, MAMSER, and other interventionist efforts, have remained reference points for new standards that witnessed the transformation of the country into a workstation for nation-building.
Bogoro’s performance as a don at the ATBU and TETFund portray him as a committed member of the literati who was devoted to national advancement through harnessing the educational potentials of Nigerians. After involvement in various research works in the academic world, Bogoro, after dealing with challenges of infrastructural deficits that once plagued tertiary institutions in the country, shifted the focus of the Fund to Research and Development in promoting Knowledge Economy that is anchored on capitalizing scientific discoveries and applied research. Unlike in the past where teachers in tertiary schools were only engaged in research for earning promotion to the next position, TETFund created a platform where industrialists, businessmen and critical stakeholders deploy outcomes of applied research for production. Under Bogoro’s leadership, the Federal Government increased funding for research grants, with teachers deploying their research prowess to earn funds for research purposes.
Apart from being one of the leading lights of the intelligentsia who have proved their worth outside the academic world, the former ATBU teacher is a study in inexplicable modesty. His unrivalled footprints in the management of TETFund remain an inspiring example of uninterrupted commitment. Born on 6th June, 1958 in Gwarangah, Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, the young Suleiman attended the premier Boy’s Secondary School Gindiri in the then Benue Plateau State from 1972-1976. After his secondary school education, he was admitted to the University of Maiduguri where he bagged his first degree, B.Sc. Agriculture, in 1981. After his acquisition of his first degree; that did not end his quest for more academic laurels. He eventually earned an M.Sc. in Animal Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1988) and proceeded to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) where he completed his PhD programme in Animal Science in 1997, with composite research and bench-work equally shared between ATBU, Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland and The Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The then rising university don, after acquiring his PhD, started his teaching career at the ATBU, Bauchi, in 1984, as a pioneer Graduate Assistant. He rose to become Professor of Animal Science (specialising in Biochemistry and Ruminant Nutrition) in 2003. A prolific researcher with numerous publications in international and local journals, Bogoro’s cerebral capacity is nationally and globally acknowledged. He has supervised and mentored scores of post-graduate students at both M.Sc and PhD levels, with more than 14 of them attaining professorial status. He has delivered high-profile public lectures in excess of 70 in diverse areas of development, with no fewer than 10 convocation lectures dwelling on research thrust and funding.
There’s no doubt that his track record of excellence is anchored on humanity and intellectualism. As someone who espouses Servant Leadership, he believes in the acquisition of globalised knowledge that places emphasis on technology and product development: “A deliberate investment in Research and Development (R&D), remains the most potent strategy in achieving the knowledge-intensive development agenda. A nation cannot take advantage of the global Knowledge Economy, unless we develop our research institutions to create knowledge, absorb knowledge and communicate knowledge”.
This excellent scholar of unblemished public service record stands as a towering giant for the public good. His footprints on the sands of times not only draw urgent attention to the need to have the right leadership imperatives in transforming Nigeria, Bogoro’s commitments to excellence has shown that with the right people in the right places, nothing can stand in the way of resolving leadership quagmire confronting the nation. Here is wishing this globally recognised academic and acclaimed Orator a belated 66th birthday wish, praying to the Almighty God to grant him good health in the service of his country and humanity.
