An important annual event for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative [NLI] is the Christopher Kolade Symposium [CKS] which aims at enriching the discourse on the best ways to make leadership effective in Nigeria. The goal of the CKS is to provide a major platform for healthy debate on key national issues.

The 6th CKS is planned for Thursday, December 4, 2014 at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, from 10:00am to 1:00pm. The theme of the symposium is: CENTENARY LEADERSHIP: NIGERIA AT 100 AND THE NEXT 100. The invited Keynote Speaker is His Royal Highness Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano. Responding discussants and voices on the expectations of the younger generation are Zainab Usman, Toyosi Akerele and Linus Okorie.

Most of the challenges, confronted by Nigeria, can be traced to purposeful leadership. A number of theories exist for Nigerian leadership models and profile, but the evidence for result has not matched the aspirations of Nigerians who are genuinely desirous of progressing from a developing to an emerging nation. Several explanations prevail for why the “problem with Nigeria” is purposeful leadership. The choice of the theme is premised on the occasion of Nigeria’s centennial commemoration and the imperatives to review our leadership trajectory and project for the future.

Given the foregoing, the 6th CKS will focus on the analytics of leadership in Nigeria: a retrospective look at our leadership successes and challenges, in the past 100 years; and recommendations from Nigeria’s younger generation on the ideal leadership for the next century.

Our goal is bold and foresighted: develop a formula for the emergence of purposeful leaders for Nigeria’s development. The anticipated results are to: enable an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of leadership issues in Nigeria; enable the existing leaders to draw lessons from the past; motivate the younger generation for critical thinking on leadership; and enable a constructive dialogue