Ashamu Austin Adelani
Nigeria needs ethical leaders to ensure sustainability in the post-oil era as government takes positive steps to diversify the economy, Prof Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC)/CEO of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has recommended.
His recommendations came on the heels of the present federal government’s resolve to move away from being a mono economy, solely dependent on oil resource to other resources the country is endowed with.
In his speech delivered recently at the end of a two day 2020 Hybrid (Online/Onsite) Annual Directors Conference, organized by the Institute of Directors (IoD) in Nigeria, Danbatta explained that the country has a lot to benefit if it paves way for ethical leaders to come on board drive the diversification agenda. According to the NCC boss, “Ethical leaders possess attributes that enable them function effectively. These attributes include honesty, integrity, accountability, empathy, humility, resilience, vision, influence and positivity.
“A leader with such attributes plays a very important role in effectively and adequately harnessing the natural and human resources of the Country”. He added that “In order to achieve sustainable economic development, such leader focuses on team building, encourages initiatives by putting the right people in the right places, is a visionary who can forecast and adequately prepare for the future and above all show leadership by example”
He said the option to recruit ethical leaders is necessary now for Nigeria by emulating other countries and societies which over the years have evolved by finding new ways of doing things to ensure economic sustainability
Danbatta noted that currently countries are exploiting the fourth industrial revolution in order to diversify their economies. “The fourth industrial revolution, which has also been referred to as 4IR or Industry 4.0, describes the age of intelligence and encompasses technologies like high-speed mobile Internet,Artificial Intelligence, automation, the use of big data analytics and cloud computing”.
But with ethical leadership in place, the helmsman at the telecom regulatory house, opined that factors such as inadequacy of digital skills, infrastructure deficit, enabling environment and inadequate infrastructure, which has limited Nigeria in her efforts can be fixed.
As he puts it “The 4IR is the information and digital economy age which if properly enhanced and exploited can serve as a major revenue earner for the Country in the post-oil era. This is because while natural resources such as oil, gas, etc are finite, data and information are infinite. Furthermore, the possibilities provided by the 4IR are limitless and can generate employment for Nigeria’s teeming youth population
“Therefore, in order to achieve economic growth using the 4IR there is the need for ethical leadership”.