USAfrica: “Africa has no reason staying poor; needs leadership that counts” — says Linus Okorie, GOTNI President

USAfrica: “Africa has no reason staying poor; needs leadership that counts” — says Linus Okorie, GOTNI President.

Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASSmagazine,  and USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston. Follow USAfrica at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido , Facebook.com/USAfrica247 and Twitter.com/Chido247

By Dr. Chido Nwangwu

He is a vibrant and visionary young leader with a focus on the dynamics of leadership. On August 29-30, 2014 his organization GOTNI will hold its annual leadership conference at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. Some of the speakers are Professor Chinedu Nebo (Minister for power and steel), Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina (Minister for Agriculture), Governor Kayode Fayemi (Governor of Ekiti State), Prof. John Keenan, Ms. Biola Alabi (MD of DStv Nigeria) and Mr. John Momoh (Chairman of Channels Television), Mr. Dayo Israel, Mr. Debola Williams and Ms. Toyosi Ogunseye. The other panel on Business and Creative enterprise will have the likes of Ms. Funke Akindele, Mr. Julius Agwu and Mr. Chude Jideonwo.

I have known Linus for the upwards of 10 years; through his work with his mentor and my fellow UNN alumnus Prof. Pat Utomi. Linus who is based in Abuja visited me at USAfrica (in Houston and Richmond) in May and July 2014 and we had discussions about leadership and governance and…. In August, he attended the U.S-Africa summit in Washington DC.

Excerpts from our exclusive interview for the multimedia platforms of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com, USAfricaTV and CLASSmagazine.
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USAfrica/Chido: Linus, welcome back to Houston, Texas. Tell us about your work with GOTNI (Guardians of The Nation International), its mission and projects.

Linus Okorie: GOTNI is a leadership development initiative that I founded while I was in the University. I was only about 21/22 years at that time and I was inspired by a story about a gentleman called Nehemiah was able to build his country. I was very excited about his leadership competences that were displayed by this gentleman. I began to think very deeply about how Nigeria, Africa could produce a leadership capital that would help save it from collapsing. It was in the process of thinking and consulting with friends that the concept GOTNI came about.

We started GOTNI in my first year in the university and we organized meetings and conferences in leadership training. We had a team that was committed to the whole assignment. At the end of the day, more than 2/3 years in University, our impact was already felt and a lot of us became leaders within the university structure, and I became the Student Union president. On the basis of what we learnt within the one year of service, we were able to make such a huge impact. Everyone who belonged to the Initiative GOTNI, made a difference, so I began to think about it further.

I said to myself why GOTNI not become a full blown leadership development organization providing leadership for the Nigerian continent? Basically, that is what we are about right now. GOTNI is in the business of developing a very strong youth development agenda for Africa. In the process of doing that, we have over 15 brands and our brands take care of the different segments of the young population. From those in schools, admission to school projects, those in the local communities, we have leadership community programs. To those who are spread around the country, with our emerging leaders’ conference, to the leadership forum that happens every week and wherever GOTNI is in the world, as the case may be. We have been in the business of ensuring that these brands succeed. The latest brand we are running is our women leadership program where we focus on young women, who are working very hard to become leaders in their various life endeavors. We give the competencies that they need to be able to succeed as leaders. We have also launched our Diaspora leadership program, which is basically why I am in America at the moment.

USAfrica/Chido: What inspired you to undertake this August 2014 trip to Washington DC?
It will interest you to know that in 2013, I had the honor and privilege to be invited by the American government, under the department of states. To be part of the IVLP (International Visitors’ Leadership Program), which is an initiative of the American government recognizing young people in the world who are making great impacts in their countries, who could be change makers, presidents, head of states in their countries, in the future. This program was initiated in 1937 and we had people like Tony Blair as a member of that community. While we were in America, we visited about 4 states, had meetings with corporations and institutions, government and private sectors, as well as the nonprofit sector, interested in leadership development. There was huge level of investment going on in America for leadership development and we also discovered that there are a lot of Africans spread all over this continent.

Most of them are doing great and I am thinking, how can we pull the resources of these communities of people, integrate them and invite those young people to be part of the leadership development movement in Africa. How to get these young people to return to Africa, so that they can integrate with the best of the best in Africa? If that kind of peer review mechanism happens, then we would be able to experience a transformation that is genuine, innovative and a transformation that is seeking to make Africa really work because of the exchanges of the ideas that will happen. So, I decided to come back to America this time around, to officially launch our leadership program called “The Connect”, which is our leadership forum in Washington DC. From Washington DC, we intend to take it all over America, where we have high levels of African concentration. Because at the end of the day, it how can we Africans, put our ideas together, to be able to develop a continent that is a grenade of leadership. On Friday, as part of the one week intensive Africa leaders’ summit, as a side event, GOTNI will be hosting the African communities, Nigerians and other groups will be part of this meeting, and at the end of the day we would be able to create a membership stream that will guarantee that this activity continues to happen in America every week.

USAfrica/Chido: What should the average Nigerian and the world need to know about what you offer in youth and leadership development?

Linus Okorie: No nation can make progress, unless the nation deliberately begins to invest in the leadership of the young people of that country. Singapore as a nation, for instance, was a nation that was lacking in development, but because it did the right thing by investing in young people; they taught the young people about leadership, about making a difference, about leadership competencies, because leadership flows to the one who knows, who is reliable, competent etc. They taught these young people the true meaning of making a difference, and these young people became very outstanding. See what they have become of their country! What we are trying to tell the world is that, Africa is a great country, with great resources. It has both human and natural resources blessed by God.

Africa has no reason staying poor. What Africa requires is that leadership that counts. It is the leadership that would be selfless. It is the leadership that will think about the common good than the individual and private interest, which is what, is currently going all across Africa, where a lot of leaders do not what to leave office. They want to ensure that they continue to manipulate the people all the time. Most leaders that fall into this trap are forgotten once they are no more.

So, what I am saying is that, GOTNI is stimulating such a leadership development movement like never before that would create a hunger for quality service, for impact among the young people of Africa. So that as they grow with the mentality that life is about impact, with a mentality that says that life is about making a difference, about service, that leadership is about serving other people. Once that mentality is accepted across Africa; a critical mass of people thinking in that particular direction, a consortium of a thought process that says others first, until that happens, we would not be able to make the kind of progress that we are supposed to make. We have been all over Washington within this period of time and the message that has been all over the place has been, President Obama is asking Africans to go back to their continent, to begin to develop their country, if they are going to be true leaders indeed. I am asking myself, what we were doing to have waited for president Obama to do this great work. Why shouldn’t an African leader inspire that in the African soil? So that is why I am saying that, the only thing we must do right now, in the spirit of what Obama has done, in the spirit of what the friends of Africa are trying to do, we must as a sense of responsibility and necessity begin to identify with this project of ensuring that we build a leadership culture in Africa. That is what we are trying to do right now. We are trying to set up a leadership sector that is comprehensive, that will provide an opportunity for every African to learn leadership from all the institutions from Africa that is producing young people who are already in schools.

USAfrica/Chido: What are your key achievements and challenges to date?

For the past number of years that we have been in the business of building leaders, over 60,000 leaders have been groomed within our various brands and programs, and also by television, we have been able to reach millions of Nigerians and Africans, and the impact has been quite outstanding. What we are saying at this point in time, is the fact that the greatest challenge that we African people face is that most people in Africa are only paying lip service to leadership development. If we want to be able to make the progress, it is for leaders in Africa to be able to make huge investment. It is the way we are saying “Power Africa”, you know what I mean? That must be the way we must say, “Invest in leadership development in Africa”. With the kind of resources we are putting in infrastructure, if we put those resources in building leaders in Africa, then we would be able to build a system that will work.

A great man once said something that inspired me; we are blind until we know that nothing is worth the making if it does not make the man. “Why buildeth these cities glorious, while man unbuildeth goes”. We cannot talk about building infrastructure, without building the human mind to think differently, so that they can begin to create more ideas, institutions, things that can help Africa work. Instead of thinking about consumption, we create a system where people are thinking about what to produce at every point in time. Our greatest challenge has always been the lack of involvement of the powers that be in creating policies that can stimulate great support for leadership development in our continent. For me, it is something I must change.

USAfrica/Chido: What do you do on a daily basis; and tell us about your leadership style and hopes?

On a daily basis, my mind is occupied with thoughts that have lingered on for the past 18years; thoughts that focus on how we can help Nigeria work. I am occupied in the journey of mentoring, answering questions about issues that have to do with leadership development and also spending time with my family. I think that for any leader to make a difference there must be a balance; you should have a family life that is consistent with the leadership principles that the leader believes in. I also spend my time travelling and sharing the message of leadership development across Africa and also across the world. At the moment, I am currently thinking about how we can set up offices in America, so that people who identify with the call can have a place where they can engage in. So, on a daily basis, my life is purely leadership development. I hope I will be able to have more time after we achieve this milestone to be able to probably rest.

USAfrica/Chido: Any role models?

Of course, I have role models! I have people like Dr. Myles Munroe, Prof. John Adair, who have always been there. People like Chris Asoluka , Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, Dr.David Oyedepo, Prof .Pat Utomi and Dr.Godknows Igali and many other leaders that I am unable to mention for space. These are people that are making a difference already. There are so many of them. Other people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.; some of their principles are shaping me. These are people who lived for the sake of others. Currently, what Obama is doing in the context of leadership development, excites me towards recognizing his great work.

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#Achebe USAfrica Founder Dr. Chido Nwangwu gets award for his works on#ThingsFallApart author Chinua Achebe from ASA-USA Dallas. Chido is completing the book on Mandela & Achebe: Footprints of Greatness. by Chido Nwangwu ISBN 978-0-9893970-0-1. www.MandelaAchebeChido.com

VIDEO of the CNN International broadcast/profile of USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido Nwangwu.   http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn  

 and friendship hold lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and consequence to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.”

He chronicles, movingly, his 1998 reporting from the Robben Island jail room in South Africa where Mandela was held for decades through his 20 years of being close to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that historic Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief executive of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when President Bill Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and came to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes  Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia 
specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the internet, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/

IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary, exclusively, at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/

USAfrica: BOKO HARAM’s latest killings sharpen divide for security team at Nigeria’s presidency. By Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/10/21/usafrica-boko-harams-latest-killings-sharpen-divide-for-security-team-at-nigerias-presidency-by-chido-nwangwu/

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Dancing with “ghosts” of BOKO HARAM, President Jonathan, Sultan Abubakar and Nigeria’s national security. By Dr. Chido Nwangwu
https://usafricaonline.com/2013/04/05/dancing-with-ghosts-of-boko-haram-president-jonathan-sultan-abubakar-and-nigerias-national-security-by-chido-nwangwu/

Margaret Thatcher, Mandela and Africa.  By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, and the first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com. Click for newscast video of London-based SkyNEWS, the global, 24-hour British international tv network’s interview with USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu on April 11, 2013 regarding this latest commentary http://youtu.be/G0fJXq_pi1c )

There’s a compelling political trinity to Nelson Mandela: the man, the messiah and the mystique. https://usafricaonline.com/2013/07/18/mandela-95-hearty-cheers-to-his-footprints-of-greatness-by-chido-nwangwu/