Former minister of aviation and chancellor of the Athena Centre, Chief Osita Chidoka, has called for fundamentally reimagining African leadership and governance.
He stated this in a keynote address at the Rotary International District 9142’s “Irresistible DisCon 2025.”
He spoke on the theme; “You Cannot Give What You Don’t Have: The Imperative of Transformational Leadership in Africa, a statement signed by media adviser to Athena Centre for Policy & Leadership, Aliyu Jalal, said.
“Across Africa, we suffer not just from poor governance but from a failure of leadership formation. We keep expecting transformational outcomes from individuals shaped by broken systems.
“But how can they offer equity when they were raised on exclusion? How can they deliver fairness when their rise comes through favours? How can they pursue the public good when loyalty is owed not to the people but to power?” he said.
Tracing Africa’s governance crisis to its colonial roots, Chidoka stated: “We inherited from colonialism the machinery of domination, a state designed to extract, not to serve, and too often, we merely repainted its surface without rebuilding its soul.”
He argued that Africa stands at a crossroads, pursuing development through material symbols – highways, skyscrapers, oil refineries – while neglecting society’s moral and institutional foundations. “We have built states without societies, governments without guardianship, economies without embracing inclusion, and cities without citizens,” he said.
