How Aig-Imoukhuede Programme Is Deepening Leadership In Africa — Oyewo

The deputy director of the Public Affairs Department of the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), Oyebola Oyewo, has outlined how the Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation Public Leaders Programme is strengthening leadership and governance in Africa.

In a statement in Abuja yesterday, Oyewo said the programme, known for promoting ethical leadership and governance across Africa, creates a rare discipline of introspection. It does not simply teach policy frameworks or reform models; it examines how we think as humans with diverse cultures.

Oyewo emphasised that leadership is often defined not only by visible choices but also by the invisible narratives that people accept without question.

She also recounted how one course during the programme, Harnessing Digital Technology, pushed her beyond her comfort zone.

“At one point, I shared my concerns with a few peers, quietly wondering whether my background had fully prepared me for the material. What followed was illuminating. My colleagues—accomplished public servants from diverse sectors—insisted that I had what it takes to succeed,” she said.

According to her, this does not exclude intelligent leaders. In fact, some of the most accomplished leaders are often the most confident in their reasoning—and that is precisely where the danger lies.

She said some of the costliest leadership mistakes are not caused by bad intentions but by unexamined patterns. Intelligence does not immunise us against bias, she added, noting that she learned this during the AIG Public Leaders Programme (PLP).

Oyewo explained that during the programme, she encountered a confronting idea: leadership failure often begins not in corruption or incompetence, but in cognitive blind spots.

Recalling her personal experience, Oyewo said she had once applied for the PLP but was not selected. Prior to that, she had also applied for another international scholarship repeatedly without success.

“That history shaped how I interpreted the AIG outcome. My mind quickly constructed a narrative: perhaps this is simply not for me. When the next cohort application opened, I felt the pull to withdraw. The easiest decision would have been to protect my ego and move on,” she said.

She noted, however, that rejection often feeds confirmation bias, making people believe further effort is futile.

“But something in me resisted that automatic conclusion. I applied again, and this time, I was selected. Looking back, I realise the most pivotal decision was not the application itself; it was the decision to interrogate my interpretation of rejection,” she added.

Although they were all exposed to the same data, assignments, and classroom interactions, their interpretation of her abilities differed significantly from her own.

“Where I saw limitation, they saw competence; where I felt uncertainty, they saw potential. It was a powerful reminder that bias does not only show up as overconfidence; sometimes, it appears as underestimation. Self-doubt can disguise itself as objectivity,” she said.

Oyewo explained that reform environments are filled with data, yet different individuals can interpret the same evidence in contrasting ways.

“This is not a failure of intelligence but the architecture of the human mind,” she added.

Applying this approach to her work at the Nigerian Copyright Commission, Oyewo said she began asking critical questions before launching initiatives, including copyright awareness campaigns and projects such as Copyright Connect, as well as public service announcements in partnership with MultiChoice Nigeria.

She stressed that reforms rarely fail because policy statements are poorly written; rather, they fail because reformers underestimate what it takes for reforms to succeed.

She emphasised that reform is sustained not by announcements but by culture—and culture is shaped by daily decisions.

“If reformers do not examine their own thinking—their assumptions about resistance, their interpretation of feedback, and their tolerance for dissent—they may inadvertently sabotage the very change they seek to champion,” she warned.

According to her, reform requires mental vigilance. Public servants operate in complex environments shaped by politics, scrutiny, limited resources, and competing interests, making technical expertise alone insufficient.

She outlined key practices she adopted from the programme, including pausing before defending ideas, inviting structured dissent, interrogating first impressions, conducting pre-mortems, and distinguishing between data and the narratives built around them.

“These are not abstract theories; they are practices that shape institutional outcomes,” she said.

Oyewo added that in her work designing copyright awareness campaigns and public engagement strategies, she has become more conscious of how assumptions influence decisions.

“Intelligence alone does not safeguard reform. Awareness does,” she stated.

As applications open for the next cohort of the AIG Public Leaders Programme, she encouraged public servants committed to institutional reform to apply.

“The programme creates a rare space where you are challenged to examine how you think, not just what you know. It brings together leaders who question assumptions, strengthen reasoning, broaden perspectives, and build networks of reform-minded peers,” she said.

She concluded that in an era of increasing policy complexity and fragile public trust, reform must be grounded in disciplined thinking.

“If we are to build stronger institutions, we must first build leaders who are aware of their own blind spots. Ultimately, the decisions that shape nations are formed in the quiet architecture of the mind—and the quality of our institutions will reflect the quality of our thinking,” she said.