A high level delegation of Nigerian public officials including a member of Parliament who chairs the Housing Committee, Hon. Dr. Shehu Garba Matazu recently visited Concordia University. They were part of the Nigerian Executives who had come in the past months to Concordia for Strategic Leadership seminars. In May, this year, the first larger delegation arrived led by the former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu.
“For the short period they were here, at least two or three days of the week, they were in class most of the day while other days they were visiting different departments of the State Government.” said Prof. Bruce Corrie of Concordia.
Hon. Shehu Matazu, who is a member of parliament and Chairs the Housing Committee, told the African News Journal briefly, the importance of such a seminar to his executives. “It is great to see how other people do business in their countries, so you can learn from and exchange ideas and then apply that knowledge to your environment.” He added that he would like to see Concordia in Nigeria, reasoning that the number who could benefit from such a course would be much higher. The seminar ended on Nov. 14, 07
An earlier group, much larger than this group, led by a former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Mantu also attended a week long seminar at the 2007 Concordia University’s Strategic Leadership Seminar. That seminar took place from May 15th-22nd; with goal being to improve the strategic planning, crisis management and ethical leadership skills of the visiting Nigerian executives; panelists presented on Ethical Leadership; Visionary Leadership; and Strategic Leadership tools.
Dr. Mantu who didn’t stay long with the rest of the delegation gave his perspective on recent developments in Nigeria briefly to The African News Journal. “This election was a historic one. I am sure; many of you don’t know that. It is the first time in our history we have witnessed a transfer of power from a civilian government to another one through a one man one vote.” Dr. Mantu said, smiling. “ For a country like ours which gets used to successive military coups, to turn around and say ‘that is it, no more coups’. Power belongs to the people. I call that a big step forward and good things are to come in the future,” he added.
Answering questions about the independence of the new president-elect, since he was hand-picked by the former leader, Dr. Ibrahim Mantu said “ Well, every President will have direct or indirect influence of who will succeed him but that does not mean anybody he wants can be a President. A President will be able to offer his support any candidate he thinks will be able to lead the nation and that is his choice not the nation.” “ This new president just like many others after him, elected by the people and only that gave him the credibility to lead our nation and we are very happy to come out successfully with little or no interruption for the most part,” said Dr. Mantu.
Comment