PROTOCOLS:
Madam Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos; Mrs. Folasade Ogunsola, the leadership and faculty of this great institution, and, in particular, of the University of Lagos Business School; partners, friends, well-wishers, gentle men of the press, Ladies & Gentlemen. Good morning to you all.
It is a deep honour and privilege to stand before you today at this significant moment in the life of an idea whose time has come.
It was Victor Hugo who said:”there is no army so powerful as an idea whose time has come. I agree with him totally”.
Madam Secretary, Condolessa Rice also wrote in her book that “history is lived forward and it is written in retrospect”. We all are witnesses to history today.
Today, I stand here by the grace of God, not just as the founder of the Citadel School of Government, but as a proud alumnus of this great institution, the University of Lagos, where I studied Law from 1977 to 1980.
It was here I was taught how to cross swords at the bar ever before cutting my teeth with some of the nation’s brightest legal luminaries, including Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Chief Rotimi Williams.
It was here I was first introduced to the practicalities and intrigues of politics when I contested for the office of the President of the University of Lagos Students’ Union in 1978.
It was here I joined fellow students like Gbenga Daniel, former Governor of Ogun State, as a founding member of the Dyna Club that operated on campus as the youth wing of the Unity Party of Nigeria
(UPN), under the direct mentorship of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
It was Dyna Club that brought the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo to this university to address the students before UPN was launched in 1978.
Those formative years introduced us to the imperatives of principled leadership and the notion that the ivory tower is not only an intellectual shrine, not just a place of ideas, but a cradle of practical training in public leadership.
This moment — the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between the University of Lagos Business School and the Citadel School of Government — is deeply symbolic for me.
It represents the institutional realisation of a vision birthed more than seven years ago when I became burdened by the glaring gap between Nigeria’s governance challenges and the leadership capacity available to solve them.
Over the years, I have been privileged to lead several strategic interventions in governance: from national protests to policy advocacy; from education sector projects to local governance capacity building;
from electoral participation to high-level, behind-the-scenes, political mediation and conflict resolution.
But we have now come to a critical point, where we must address the root of governance capacity gaps with the right tools – knowledge and skill as demonstrated by King David who shepherded Israel with the
integrity of his heart and the skillfulness of his hands. (Psalm 78:70-72.)
The governance academy we briefly piloted under our registered NGO, “The International Centre for Reconstruction and Development” seven years ago, provided the curricular foundation for approaching the University of Lagos with a robust framework for the Advanced Diploma in Public Leadership and Statecraft.
This framework has been further refined and tailored for excellent delivery through the academic expertise and institutional support of the University of Lagos Business School.
While ULBS provides top-rated faculty with national and global recognition, we at the CSG will supply practitioners from the world of governance — from political leadership, civil society, public
administration, corporate strategy, and more — so that our students are not only taught but shown the path by those who have walked it.
To make this dream accessible, we are offering 87.5% subsidised tuition to the pioneer class, reducing the ₦4 million programme value to just ₦500,000.00 payable in two installments.
But more than anything else, what we are launching today is a vision, that believes Nigeria can and will work, one that insists that our continent can become a bastion of just, competent, and visionary
leadership; and one that is committed to equipping those called to the task of rebuilding nations.
We invite you — students, faculty, partners, and patriots — to join us in this bold journey. Let the world know: a new breed of trained, prepared, and purpose-driven public leaders is rising.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless the University of Lagos. God bless the University of Lagos Business School. God bless the Citadel School of Government. And God bless our beloved nation Nigeria.
Pastor ‘Tunde Bakare.
Founder/Board Chairman, Citadel School of Government.
& Serving Overseer, Citadel Global Community Church.