Immediate past executive secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, has said Nigeria is at crossroads and appealed to the citizens to pray and vote for the emergence of patriotic leaders in the 2023 general elections.
Bogoro who stated this in Abuja during his acceptance speech following his investiture as the winner of the 2021 Nigerian Prize for Leadership (NPL) said leadership requires that one must be patriotic and can be trusted, while the citizens complement the role of leaders by being law abiding.
“With patriotic statesmen and women, youths, politicians, professional, community and religious leaders, we can collectively change the narrative and redirect our country and Africa.
“If this happens in Nigeria and because of our numerical and economic advantages, it will be Nigeria against the rest of Africa; it will have a ripple effect on other countries in Africa.
“We do not have to plunge ourselves into an unfortunate situation or other countries of Africa before we provide the desired leadership required of Nigeria in Africa and for the rest of the world,” he said.
The event was also an opportunity for the second conferment of the NPL Fellowship on 17 young Nigerians who distinguished themselves in various sectors of the economy.
Also, the investiture was deferred as Bogoro was not available to receive the prize on Dec. 12 last year as required by the NPL status, hence the 2022 event was used to present the prize to the winner.
Speaking further, he said, “If leaders treat each other with respect and a sense of fairness in our day-to-day life in both public and public sector, we will achieve a lot, and the major tribes in the country will turn around the fortunes of the country if they can work together.”
He expressed gratitude to the NPL for finding him worthy of the award which he believed was made possible by some of the actions performed while he was in office as TETFund boss.
Bogoro said the level of transparency at which TETFund was administered under his watch, made Nigeria one of the six African countries holding research grants for the International Science Granting Council.
“I never knew I was one of those being evaluated, assessed, and screened for this prestigious award. Nobody from the committee hinted to me to the extent that one of my directors sent about 100 video clips of my activities in Tetfund and other places.
“Those are some of the information submitted that led to my selection. None of them was associated with wrongdoing.
“It reminds me of the general TETFund National Research Fund (NRF) which after my leadership as the Executive Secretary was last year evaluated along with other research grant platforms in Nigeria by the International Science Granting Council.
“Based on the transparency, grant selection, merit-based screening process, and non-interference from my office, TETFund was selected as the institution in Nigeria that will hold and manage its research grant henceforth.
“This made Nigeria the sixth country in Africa to earn such status and it was all about transparency, merit, and integrity of the process of grant management in TETFund.
“I can swear to any holy book that in my academic career, I never compromised my standard for anybody,” Bogoro said.
Earlier, the chairman, Governing Board of NPL, Prof. Anya O. Anya, said that the NPL as a product of the vision and commitment of some eminent Nigerians was determined to chart a new course aimed at identifying, and reinventing a new culture of leadership in the country.
The new culture, he said, would be driven by values and a new mindset anchored on integrity and the pursuit of excellence ready to confront the challenges of the twenty-first century.
