Latest News

The latest news from the African Leadership Institute and its Fellows. AFLI Fellows are leaders and change-makers, so this section has a lot of news. Please use the icons below if you want to sort posts by category, such as: regular news posts, video posts, audio posts, by tag, or by blogger. Additionally, all text in all of the posts is fully searchable.

Oluseun Onigbinde launches new book - The Existential Questions

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2018 Tutu Fellow Oluseun Onigbinde has launched his debut book The Existential Questions: Uncomfortable facts confronting Nigeria after a 60-year journey.  Nigeria's 60th anniversary took place in October 2020. He asks the question 'why has the country failed to live up to its potential', and his answers lie within the 285-page softcover.

Oluseun looks at where his country is and how it got there by examining Nigerian leadership, the country's socio-economic status, its weak legal and judicial systems, and other human development systems and arrives at the conclusion that Nigeria has been grossly mismanaged.  But he doesn't stop there.

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Fellow part of Evercare, which is seeking to transform healthcare in Nigeria

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Evercare Hospital Lekki, a private multispecialty tertiary care facility, was officially unveiled by the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on March 11 2021. The building is a concrete example of efforts by 2018 Tutu Fellow Temi Marcella Awogboro to bring it into being and she currently serves as an Executive Director with Evercare Hospital Lekki. The hospital is wholly owned by the Evercare Health Fund, a $ 1 billion emerging markets healthcare fund managed by The Rise Fund, the impact investment platform of global alternative asset manager TPG Capital. Temi played a key role in bringing this deal together and she was the West Africa deal lead of the fund.

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Beating the odds recounts stories of new young officeholders in Nigeria

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The organisation led by 2019 Tutu Fellow Samson Itodo has published a book about the impact of young legislators who are, in the words on the cover, "changing the face of politics in Nigeria". Beating the Odds is a compilation of powerful stories of young people - especially the beneficiaries of the Not Too Young To Run law - who ran for public office and won seats in the National and State legislature in the 2019 general election in Nigeria.

Samson is the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, a community of change makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa, anchored on the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism. He was also the convener of the #NotTooYoungToRun movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in the Nigerian constitution.

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Fellow appointed as Acting National Chair of the Youth Party in Nigeria

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2013 Tutu Fellow Tomiwa Aladekomo has been been appointed as the Acting National Chair of the Youth Party, a registered political party in Nigeria, in preparation for the 2023 general elections. This appointment was announced by Party Chairman Seun Sule and the Board of Trustees in a statement in late October 2020. Tomiwa's appointment is expected to be ratified at the party’s convention in March 2021.

The Youth Party recently regained the right to compete in all elections moving forward till 2023, following a Federal High Court ruling.

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Open Letter to President Buhari from Archbishop Tutu Fellows

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The following is the full text of an open letter from Nigerian Tutu Fellows to President Muhammadu Buhari on the violent treatment by Nigerian security forces of #EndSARS protestors.

Open Letter to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

October 21, 2020

President Buhari,

You appealed to Nigerians to give you a mandate in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

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Nigeria appoints Fellow to assist with development planning

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2019 Tutu Fellow Samson Itodo has been appointed by the Nigerian government as a member of the national steering committee for the new Nigerian development plan, Agenda 2050. Itodo is the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, a community of change-makers focused on building sustainable democracies in Africa anchored on the principles of inclusion, justice, accountability and constitutionalism.

He convened the Not Too Young To Run movement that led the successful advocacy for the reduction of age limits for running for public office in the Nigerian constitution. The campaign was adopted by the United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS as a global campaign.

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Access Bank appoints Hassan Usman to the board

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2007 Tutu Fellow Hassan Musa Usman has been appointed as an Independent Non-Executive Director of Access Bank Plc, following the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Access Bank is a Nigerian multinational commercial bank, owned by Access Bank Group. Hassan brings his experience as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aso Savings and Loans Plc to his board position, as well as other previous experience in this space.

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Fellow appointed as an Ekiti State Commissioner in Nigeria

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2019 Tutu Fellow Akintunde Oyebode has been appointed as the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development for Etiki State in Nigeria. He was sworn in by the State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, following a cabinet reshuffle. Akin has played several senior roles in Ekiti state government, with this now being his most senior role.

Akin was previously the Special Adviser on Investment, Trade and Innovation at Ekiti State government, where he was responsible for leading the state government’s efforts to make Ekiti an attractive destination for investors and innovation-driven enterprises. An additional element to that portfolio had been creating jobs for young people.

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Two Fellows appointed as Special Advisors to President Buhari

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Two Tutu Fellows, Lai Yahaya and Moji Rhodes, have been appointed as Special Advisors to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.  Lai is a 2009 Fellow and Moji a 2014 Fellow.

Lai was appointed as a Senior Special Advisor to the President handling Strategy and Planning, while Moji was appointed as a Special Advisor handling Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs. Their appointments were announced in August 2020.

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Ifeoma Malo named Power Industry Leader of the Year

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2013 Tutu Fellow Ifeoma Malo has been awarded the Power Industry Leader of the Year at the prestigious Nigerian African Power, Energy and Water Industry Awards

Ify is the Nigerian Campaign Director for Power for All, a global decentralized renewable campaign organization. She is also the founder and CEO of Clean Tech Hub and the Energy Innovation Center in Abuja. She was the immediate past Senior Policy Adviser on Energy Policies, Regulations and Partnerships to the Minister of Power in Nigeria and advised on the policy direction for large-scale grid-connected and off-grid power.

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Tutu Fellow's company wins Nigerian Impact Investing Award

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2007 Tutu Fellow Mezuo Nwuneli's Sahel Capital team has won the Impact Investment Award given by the Impact Investors Foundation at the Blending Finance for Social Investment Conference in Nigeria. The foundation says that the award honors and recognises a leading social enterprise and an investor within the Nigerian impact investing space who have made significant impact by providing solutions through their innovations, products, services or investments.

The award recognises entities who are able to set high standards through their business activities and investment decisions which further underscores the possibility of “doing good while doing well.”

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2007 Fellow featured for agribusiness finance

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Nigeria's Business Day has written a lengthy profile on the groundbreaking work that 2007 Tutu Fellow Mezuo Nwuneli has done in financing and agribusiness.  It tracks how his company, Sahel Capital, started in agribusiness by backing a startup after discovering that a local noodle company was importing 50 tons of chili pepper a month. 

Mezuo and his wife, who ran the company, believed that chili could be sourced in Nigeria and set out to facilitate import substitution. This was a change from their initial business plan, which was to produce jams, spreads, spices, and seasonings.

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Tutu Fellow appointed as Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State

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The Governor of Kaduna State in Nigeria, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has appointed 2011 Tutu Fellow Muhammad Sani Dattijo as his new Chief of Staff. Previously, he served as the Commissioner of Planning and Budget and was also the Director of Strategy for the Governor’s 2019 re-election campaign. In 2015, he joined the Kaduna State Excecutive Council as its youngest member. 

As budget czar, he was acknowledged as a champion of reform and was instrumental in moving Kaduna state to commence the implementation of  the Open Governance Partnership and presenting and delivering budgets ahead of time to the state legislature.

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New book on Nigeria's football history

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By day, 2015 Tutu Fellow Wiebe Boer is an impact investor who works with partners to increase access to commercial energy products and services.  By night - or in his spare time - he is a Nigerian football historian. 

Dr Wiebe Boer's latest work on Nigerian football, a book titled The History of Football In Nigeria - A story of Heroes and Epics, is to launch in Lagos on 10 June 2018.  It's been favorably reviewed by no less than Aliko Dangote, the President and CEO of the Dangote Group. 

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Fellow's Job Portal site featured

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Bella Naija, a leading online site, has featured 2015 Tutu Fellow Deji Adewunmi and his two co-founders for their employment portal, called Jobberman.  The company has been listed at number eight by Forbes in tech start-ups in Africa.   Jobberman is Nigeria's largest job website and quite possibly the largest site of its kind in West Africa.  Deji, along with Opeyemi Awoyemi and Olalekan Olude, met at university as undergraduates and became friends, going on to launch the business together.  The site has more than two million job applicants and carries jobs from more than 40 thousand employers. 

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About AFLI

 

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The African Leadership Institute (AFLI) is unique among leadership initiatives in that it focuses on building the capacity and capability of visionary and strategic leadership across the continent. Developing exceptional leaders representing all spheres of society, the Institute’s flagship programme is the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellowship. Offering a multifaceted learning experience and run in partnership with Oxford University, it is awarded annually to 20-25 carefully chosen candidates, nominated from across Africa. Alumni of the African Leadership Institute form a dynamic network of Fellows passionately committed to the continent’s transformation, bridging the divide between nations and ensuring that Africa is set centre-stage in global affairs.