Faith Abiodun - Strategic Leadership

In this episode, I discussed the events of October 20th, 2020 in Nigeria - a devastating turn in the two-week long #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. After several years of inhuman behaviour by a rogue unit of the Nigerian Police Force, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), young Nigerians took to the streets in a series of peaceful protests first demanding the disbandment of SARS, and then demanding broader police reforms and good governance in Nigeria. These peaceful protests were met with live ammunition by members of the Nigerian military at the Lekki Toll Plaza on October 20th, amid reports of other killings in parts of Lagos state. Nigeria's president gave a tellingly nonchalant response the following day, typical of his uninspiring leadership style.

In this podcast, I discuss a wide range of issues with Stephen Grootes, ranging from the impact of COVID-19 on the world to the June 2012 ruling of the South African Constitutional Court allowing for independent candidacy in elections, the Black Lives Matter movement and the removal of colonial statues in the USA and the UK, and the poor legacy of Burundi's Pierre Nkurunziza. As much as the world grapples with repeated rounds of negativity, there are splashes of positive news everywhere and I challenge people to lean into them. All in all, I encourage people to humble themselves to learn about the world around them and engage decisively. Statues might be pulled down today, but they are only symbolic of the failure of leadership in public spaces. We must never tire of demanding for real change, even as we pull down symbolic statues.

In this interview with Ashraf Garda on SA FM (South African Broadcasting Corporation), I discuss the rising wave of populism around the world and the future of politics in South Africa. I argued that while the rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as a political party is impressive, the world is yet to get a firm grasp on what their governing style might be. I predict that while they will gain an increasing share of votes in the forthcoming elections, they are still quite far from becoming the dominant party in the country.
On the continental level, I complained about the absence of credibility in the continent's leaders, ranging from Joseph Kabila in the DR Congo to Paul Biya in Cameroon and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Our continent needs a new brand of leaders.

In this podcast, I discussed some of the key outcomes of the deliberations of Africa's future leaders at the fourth African Leadership Academy Model African Union conference, with topics ranging from how to redesign education systems in Africa to revolutionizing Africa's agricultural landscape. I equally stressed that Africa cannot 'entrepreneur' its way out of its development challenges. As much as entrepreneurs are doing a terrific job in helping to change the story of this continent, we cannot always rely on them to do the heavy lifting that governments are mandated to do.

This podcast features an intimate conversation hosted by Ashraf Garda on SA FM's Afternoon talk, ranging from my personal entrepreneurial journey to my work developing entrepreneurial leaders at African Leadership Academy and my perspective about leadership in South Africa. Ashraf asked me for a quote at the end, so I said "If you always work hard at the things that matter to you, you will find success, no matter how long it takes".

In this podcast with South Africa's Power 98.7 FM, I discussed what motivated me to establish the Model African Union in 2013, some of the outcomes of the conference series and my hopes for Africa's future leadership through this conference. For all intents and purposes, the conference is an academic simulation of the structures at the continental level, but I have always been a firm believer in starting people young on the paths that we expect them to pursue. Programs like the Model African Union give so much context about the grand decisions that are taken by political leaders and place young people temporarily in those same positions and challenge them to think consciously about their own leadership styles, the constraints facing them and the need to negotiate to solutions. 

In this podcast, I joined the BBC World Service to discuss the State of Emergency imposed by Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, in three northern states of the country, after weeks of violence. In the conversation, I reflected on the different times in which a similar state of emergency had been declared in the country, and how these hardly helped to quell the violence. Nigeria needs a much stronger approach to anticipating bouts of sectarian violence, strengthening its military response and importantly building a cohesive society founded on socio-economic independence of citizens.