UNILAG Honours Diri With Book On Leadership, Proposes Professorial Chair Endowment

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has completed a book project on the leadership qualities and governance style of the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri.

Managing Director of the UNILAG Consult, Prof. John Oyefara, who disclosed this on Thursday during a courtesy visit to Government House, Yenagoa, said the institution has also proposed a public lecture as well as endowing of a Professorial Chair in the Department of Political Science in his honour.

The governor’s spokesman, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, in a statement on Friday, quoted Prof. Oyefara as saying that the university had a track record of assessing the performance of various leaders in Nigeria and that the book titled: “Leadership Chronicles of Governor Douye Diri” focuses on the exemplary leadership and achievements of the Bayelsa governor.

He said: “At the University of Lagos, we have a tradition on assessing leaders in Nigeria. We use our own templates and standards that are global to measure the leadership in Nigeria.

“We identified Your Excellency to be a leading star in Nigeria, based on leadership and governance. We decided to put together all your achievements.

“The purpose of our visit was to inform you about our project in three thematic areas. One, is on the publication of the book we have been able to put together about His Excellency’s achievements in the state.

“We also propose a public lecture where renowned leaders in Africa will deliver lecture on leadership and governance to exemplify the achievements of the governor.

“The third one is for the Department of Political Science in the University of Lagos to see the possibility of endowing a professorial chair in the name of His Excellency.”

The Lead Editor of the project, Prof. Hope Eghagha, also stated that the idea was an independent assessment of the governor’s performance in office either in infrastructure or human capacity development through interviews that were conducted.

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Eghagha said the project examined the state of security in the state and discovered there had been much improvement under the present administration.

He also said Governor Diri had become a national figure that was well sought after due to his humility and humane disposition.

Responding, the Bayelsa governor said he was pleasantly surprised about the gesture of the University of Lagos.

He welcomed the idea of documenting his achievements, saying he had been nursing the idea of establishing a leadership institute to groom those with interest in politics and political offices.

Governor Diri bemoaned poor preparations for public offices, noting that this had contributed largely to leadership failure across the country.

He said he does not deserve the whole credit for his achievements as he had in place a dedicated team of appointees contributing their quota to the benefit of his government and the state.

His words: “It is really interesting when people, without your prompting, decide to do a thing for the purpose of posterity. A lot of the time we do not document these events and activities as we look at them as not too important. But they are.

“I have toyed with the idea that if I had the resources, can I establish a leadership institution in Bayelsa State? So that before anyone thinks of becoming a councillor, council chairman, commissioner, special adviser or even governor, he knows what he is coming to do in office. If you are not prepared for it, then we are bound to fail as a country and as a state.

“So, I have been pleasantly surprised by the University of Lagos and I think it is a good thing.

“Let me also state that the success in Bayelsa is not all about me. It is actually about our team. We have a dedicated team of commissioners, special advisers, technical advisers and everybody contributing their quota to the whole.

“That is why if anyone says we have done well in infrastructure, it is because down the ladder, those who have been vested with that authority have implemented our policies, projects and programmes to the best of what we expected to be.”

The governor approved the proposals from the delegation and thanked them for recognising him in the midst of others.