Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, has described the call by First Lady Remi Tinubu for donations to complete the National Library as a tragic indictment of the government.
He declared that the country is finished relying on birthday donations to complete a national monument as the national library.
The first lady had asked friends and associates to channel gifts for her birthday towards completing the National Library in Abuja instead of placing newspaper adverts or giving personal presents.
In a post on X, Obi wished her well but said the gesture exposed Nigeria’s misplaced priorities.
He said the development paints Nigeria as a nation that easily finds money for luxury and frivolities adding that it should not rely on birthday donations to build such a critical national institution.
“On the surface, it is noble and selfless. But beneath it lies an indictment of our nation. We are finished,” Obi said.
He recalled that during his time as governor, he encouraged well-wishers to divert advert funds to social causes like schools and classroom projects.
He however stressed that such gestures were to complement the government rather than replace its responsibilities.
Obi said it was shocking that a country that spends billions on jets, yachts, mansions and endless foreign trips cannot complete its National Library.
“What kind of country must beg for charity to build the very temple of knowledge? What kind of leaders waste trillions on luxury and vanity while our intellectual furnace remains abandoned in the capital?” he asked.
While commending the first lady for recognising the importance of education, Obi said the reality shows Nigeria still prioritises vanity over knowledge.
“If Nigeria will rise, it will not be on the wings of jets or the splendour of mansions, but on the strength of minds formed in classrooms and nourished in libraries. Until then, the lament remains true, we are finished,” he said.
Enugu State Government, on Monday, launched a major transformation of its education system with the official rollout of Smart Green Schools, marking a shift from traditional rote learning to technology-driven, experiential education.
In a statewide broadcast, Governor Peter Mbah described the initiative as a “covenant with the future,” designed to equip Enugu children with the knowledge and skills to compete in the global economy.
“We are no longer a state waiting to be saved – we are a state shaping the future on our own terms,” Mbah said, stressing that Africa’s destiny rests on the minds and hearts of its youth.
Each of the 260 Smart Green Schools, he explained, is designed as a complete learning ecosystem, featuring 25 digitally connected classrooms, ICT centres, robotics and AI labs, e-libraries, and spaces for hands-on learning.
The schools are powered by renewable energy and include smart farms where pupils learn agriculture through practice.
They also provide free uniforms, books, meals, and tablets for every child, as well as on-site clinics, water systems, and housing for teachers to ensure continuity and quality of education.
Mbah acknowledged that while some schools opened on Monday, others will follow over the next two weeks due to construction delays.
“We do not claim perfection. What we do claim is resolve. Every school shall be open this term. No school’s academic calendar will be interrupted,” he assured.
He urged communities to protect the schools and support teachers, noting that equipment alone cannot transform education without committed educators.
“Smart Green Schools are not just an investment in classrooms, but in the soul of our people. A generation raised in schools of innovation will build an economy of innovation,” Mbah said.
The governor reaffirmed his administration’s allocation of 33 percent of the state budget to education, calling it an investment in “the truest capital of our society – human potential.”
Former Obafemi Awolowo University Vice-Chancellor Wande Abimbola has criticized the federal government over the poor state of Nigerian universities, warning that the system risks collapse without immediate intervention.
Abimbola, 92, a renowned scholar now based in the United States, said professors in Nigeria take home scandalously low salaries compared with global peers. Speaking on the monthly interview series Boiling Point Arena, he described how a professor’s monthly pay is equivalent to what his gardener in America earns for three hours of work.
The former vice-chancellor said the pay gap illustrates the depth of neglect that has driven universities into decay. He noted that when he left OAU in 1989, institutions were still vibrant. Within a decade, however, he said standards had deteriorated so badly that visiting his old campus brought him to tears.
Abimbola said many professors earn about ₦500,000 monthly, which roughly converts to $300, an amount professionals in the U.S. would easily spend on garden services in a single afternoon. He argued that such conditions impoverish academics, making it difficult for them to conduct research, attend international conferences, or publish in reputable journals.
He accused both federal and state governments of indifference. “Why are they looking on as if they are not concerned?” he asked. He added that instead of properly funding existing universities, authorities continue to establish new ones with little regard for quality or sustainability.
Urgent calls for government bailout
According to Vanguard, Abimbola urged the federal government to create a commission of inquiry to recommend practical steps for salvaging the sector. Without significant changes, he warned, Nigeria’s universities will continue their slide in global rankings. Once ranked among Africa’s top 11, Nigerian universities now struggle to appear within the first 1,000 worldwide.
The scholar, who also served as Senate Majority Leader, lamented that the neglect has stripped institutions of international respect. He recalled how Nigeria once produced graduates who went on to excel in science, technology, and the arts globally. That legacy, he said, is at risk of being lost.
He added that the consequence of the current system is not only impoverished professors but also students whose education is undermined by the absence of research funding, journal contributions, and academic exchange.
“Nigerian universities are slowly dying before our eyes,” Abimbola said. “It is a shame, and it must not be allowed to continue.”
In a bold move to reposition Enugu State as a hub of agro-industrial excellence, the state government has signed a landmark N100 billion joint venture agreement with Songhai Sustainable Initiative in Nigeria and Tribu Limited for the rehabilitation and transformation of the moribund Heneke Integrated Farm into a world-class agro-industrial hub.
The deal, signed on Tuesday at Government House, Enugu, formally establishes Enugu Tribu Songhai Farms Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will oversee the revitalization, expansion, and management of the project spanning 10,000 hectares of land in Ezeagu Local Government Area.
Governor Peter Mbah, represented at the ceremony by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, described the agreement as a milestone in Enugu’s industrialization agenda.
Today, we formalize a partnership that will breathe new life into the Enugu Songhai Initiative, transform abandoned assets into thriving agro-industrial hubs, and advance food security, regenerative development, and inclusive growth for Ndi Enugu,” he said.
The governor explained that the farm, originally established in 2013 but left incomplete, would now be transformed into a multi-sectoral agro-industrial ecosystem comprising crop production, animal husbandry, aquaculture, processing plants, renewable energy systems, and eco-tourism facilities.
He disclosed that the project would rehabilitate 10,000 hectares with secured land titles, establish a 25-hectare training and incubation centre for youth and women, create thousands of jobs across agriculture, processing, and export value chains, and promote modern, sustainable farming practices.
Mbah further stressed that the partnership was anchored on a strong governance framework to ensure transparency, compliance with laws, and protection of state interests.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialization, Hon. Patrick Ubru, described the project as sustainable and transformative.
We have the land, water, good soil, and the right people. This initiative will create thousands of jobs, boost food production, and change the mindset of our people towards agriculture.
It is going to be an integrated system — crop, livestock, aquaculture, processing, export, and eco-tourism — driven by the community, private sector, and government,” he said.
Ubru added that the project reflected Governor Mbah’s broader mission to position Enugu as Nigeria’s food production powerhouse while attracting foreign investments.
With an expected injection of N100 billion in capital and expertise, the project positions Enugu State at the forefront of modern agribusiness, ensuring both food security and economic diversification,” he added.
On his part, Director of Songhai Sustainable Initiative, Prof. Godfrey Nzamujo, pledged technical expertise and capacity to deliver on the ambitious project.
“We are committed to producing more and better with less. This is about integrated farming that combines crops, livestock, aquatics, renewable energy, and human capital development. All of us must stay committed to succeed,” he said, urging young people to seize the opportunity to embrace agriculture.
Project financier and CEO of Tribu Limited, Ozor Silas Nnamdi, said the project would also serve as a model resort for eco- and agro-tourism.
We are going to build one of the best Songhai resorts in Africa. It is a shame that Nigeria still imports what it eats. This project is proof that we can change that narrative,” he declared.
Tinubu says Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly will resume work in their offices from 18 September, 2025.
Tinubu, who announced this in a statement he signed on Wednesday, explained that from the intelligence available to him, there was a new spirit of understanding, “a robust readiness, and potent enthusiasm on the part of all the stakeholders in Rivers State for an immediate return to democratic governance”.
This, he said, was undoubtedly a welcome development for him and a remarkable achievement for the country.
I therefore do not see why the state of emergency should exist a day longer than the six months I had pronounced at the beginning of it.
It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare that the emergency in Rivers State of Nigeria shall end with effect from midnight today. The Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Ngozi Nma Odu, and members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and the speaker, Martins Amaewhule, will resume work in their offices from 18 September 2025,” said Tinubu.
He recalled that the state of emergency in Rivers became inevitable following what he described as a “total paralysis of governance” in Rivers that left the governor and the House of Assembly unable to work together.
The President said the crisis also affected critical economic assets of the state, including oil pipelines, which were being vandalised.
He stated that his intervention and that of other well-meaning Nigerians to resolve the conflict proved abortive as both sides stuck to their guns to the detriment of peace and development of Rivers State.
“The State House of Assembly was crisis-ridden, such that members of the House were divided into two groups. Four members worked with the governor, while 27 members opposed the governor.
“The latter group supported the Speaker. As a result, the governor could not present any Appropriation Bill to the House, to enable him to access funds to run Rivers State’s affairs.
“That serious constitutional impasse brought governance in the State to a standstill. Even the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments in a series of cases filed by the executive and the legislative arms of Rivers State against each other, held that there was no government in Rivers State” Tinubu said.
“It therefore became painfully inevitable that to arrest the drift towards anarchy in Rivers State, I was obligated to invoke the powers conferred on me by Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to proclaim the state of emergency.
“The offices of the Governor, Deputy Governor, and elected members of the State House of Assembly were suspended for six months in the first instance. The six months expire today, September 17, 2025,” he added.
The President commended the National Assembly for taking steps immediately, as required by the Constitution, to approve the declaration in the interest of peace and order in Rivers State, after critically evaluating the justification for the proclamation.
He also thanked traditional rulers and the people of Rivers for their support from the date of the declaration of the state of emergency until it ended.
Tinubu further stated that he was aware that there were a few voices of dissent against the proclamation, which he said led to their instituting over 40 cases in the courts in Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to invalidate the declaration.
But he added that it would have been a colossal failure on his part as President not to have made the proclamation.
“That is the way it should be in a democratic setting. Some cases are still pending in the courts as of today. But what needs to be said is that the power to declare a state of emergency is an inbuilt constitutional tool to address situations of actual or threatened breakdown of public order and public safety, which require extraordinary measures to return the state to peace, order and security.
“Considered objectively, we had reached that situation of total breakdown of public order and public safety in Rivers State, as shown in the judgment of the Supreme Court on the disputes between the executive and the Legislative arm of Rivers State. It would have been a colossal failure on my part as President not to have made that proclamation,” Tinubu said in his statement.
“As a stakeholder in democratic governance, I believe that the need for a harmonious existence and relationship between the executive and the legislature is key to a successful government, whether at the state or national level. The people who voted us into power expect to reap the fruits of democracy.
“However, that expectation will remain unrealizable in an atmosphere of violence, anarchy, and insecurity borne by misguided political activism and Machiavellian manipulations among the stakeholders,” he added.
1. Two days ago, I posted a terse remark in response to the barrage of fabricated inanities from Uche Ekwunife in her incoherent response to my husband’s legitimate questions about her questionable PhD and inadequate GCE result, noting that I would not condescend to her low level. I remarked that one should not exchange words with a madman because passersby may not know the difference. However, when the “madman” is determined to kill/destroy—as she boasted in her viral audio that she would fabricate outlandish lies to destroy my family, we are constrained to respond. Initially we shrugged off and laughed at her hilarious tantrums at my husband and I as the “usual Uche’s madness”, but now that her madness has crossed the red line by even dragging my innocent children into the arena and setting to destroy them, Ekwunife has left us with no choice.
2. This is a woman for whom I have cooked and fed, together with her children on several occasions they visited my house. For her to sit down and fabricate/spew all manner of invectives and criminal allegations against me and my children without any provocation from us shows someone who can even kill. Many people called and asked me to ignore Ekwunife because, according to them, she is like a mad dog which has no shame or character and can therefore say or do anything anywhere. I understand that it has been her rehearsed strategy with every man she had a political fight. I understand that her standard template is to maliciously go after their families—especially their wives. Everyone talks about how she tried to destroy the reputation of an innocent wife of a senator when she had a contest with him. Well, let me assure you Uche Ekwunife that you are in for a different season with a different woman. My weapons are decency, character, and grace. I am a long-distance runner, and I welcome you to the marathon.
3. In all my life, I have lived an incredibly quiet family life, shunning publicity. One of the reasons I hate politics is precisely the kind of shameless obscenities from Uche Ekwunife in the name of “politics.” My phone has been inundated with hundreds of calls and texts with “evidence” of what I could use against her. For now, I will still restrain from getting into the gutters with her and focus on the issues and facts. Before the gloves are off, I will still as a Christian give Uche a chance to repent and ensure restitution by recanting her wilful and malicious allegations within 72 hours and tendering an unreserved apology. Take note Uche that if you fail to do so, I will take every step necessary to ensure justice and restitution. My lawyers have also been put on notice.
4. For starters, let me repeat three verifiable facts. One, I have never worked for anyone in my life. I have been a professional and entrepreneur all my adult life—running my own companies in Nigeria and abroad. Even when my husband was governor of the central bank and now as the first lady of Anambra, I have never depended upon public funds. As first lady of Anambra, I do not have any budget from the government. Two, I never met Dr. Mbadinuju of blessed memory in my life. Three, in my 55 years on planet earth, I have known ONLY ONE MAN, Chukwuma Soludo. I married him as a virgin and my fidelity to him in 33 years of marriage and for life is ironclad. This may be difficult for an Uche Ekwunife to comprehend.
5. With the clarifications above, I make the following challenges to Uche Ekwunife:
(a) Oath of fidelity and chastity
Since Uche Ekwunife claims to be a converted Catholic, I challenge her for both of us to swear an oath of fidelity and chastity at any Cathedral in front of the Blessed Sacrament. You mentioned screenshotting someone’s name and putting in your Bible. So, you must know the efficacy of the Holy Book. We should also add the Bible with the Sacrament. I will swear (with my children) that in my 55 years on earth, I have known only one man—Chukwuma Soludo. On your part, you should also swear (with your children or your political ambitions) that since you got married, you have never cheated on your husband. Let us do this between now and mid October 2025.
(b) Paternity Tests
6. I challenge you, Uche Ekwunife, for us to subject our children to paternity tests. Science has made life easy and there are things you cannot lie about nowadays. To avoid any stories in Nigerian hospitals, let us do it in three reputable hospitals in London. You and your family are often in London. But I will pay the expenses. As a businesswoman, I will pay for you and your family’s travels as well as for the tests. If after the tests it is confirmed that your husband is the father of ALL your children, I will congratulate you with a cash award. I can confirm that my family is ready for this test any moment of your choice, preferably between now and end of October/November 2025. As a woman of conservative Catholic upbringing, I pride myself in my chastity. What about you? In the name of God, you must accept the above harmless challenges about your fidelity/chastity as a “distinguished” Senator.
7. I watched part of your hilarious emotional outburst and infantile invectives on my husband. Laughable indeed! You know and we know the source of your frustrations. But let me assure you that the globally celebrated professor is too clean, too decent, and too sophisticated to waste his time on low lives. Nwoke bu nwoke! Enough said for now.
I have been receiving calls from people seeking clarification on my decision to withdraw support for Governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo, with many assuming he has a strong advantage due to a lack of credible challengers and incumbent factor.
I must emphasize that this is my personal viewpoint, separate from GGM as an organization . My political decision is rooted in ideology not material benefits. My personal interest is that of public interest for a better society. . It is not a rocket science to build a modern society that will create economic prosperity for all the Anambra people .
As a Professor of Economics,i expected Mr Governor to use public policies to encourage production as well as securing lives and property . But , he has scored below average in these areas . I did not expect an economist to consider building a massive Government House at the period federal government policies have thrown millions into abject poverty via the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of naira with its multipliers effect in short terms. I expected him to respond with policies that will achieve industrial revolution within a short period of time like industrial villages , Agricultural villages , modern transport system , social housing ,automation of tax system as well as reducing tax rates etc .
Again , the resources deployed to building fun city would have been used in building modern abbattoir to develop food processing value chain ,which will encourage production. Fun city is a good public investment that encourages consumption . A visionary Governor will consider purchasing power of the people first . These projects could be pursued simultaneously to achieve desired economic results.
We have seen what Gov Mbah and Gov Otti have accomplished within 27 months , indicating that development is intentional . But , Prof Soludo, to a very large extent, is playing politics with development because of ignorance of Voters.
In the area of security, Mr Governor is not simply in charge . He told us that ” touts will go”. In making that public pronouncement , he did not create a platform where the touts will be migrated like farm settlement etc. Today , touts are in charge of Anambra security and that could be seen everyday around Anambra State . Few days ago ,as i was driving out of a plaza with my daughter, Agunemba boys drove towards our direction ,wearing mask and displaying their weapons harassingly . My daughter told me that these men look like kidnappers – that was the impression the small girl has! We can do better!
Mr Governor promised that the law on open grazing will be enforced to the letters but today Cows are still having their picnic even in front of Government House.
Mr Governor has been my Mentor but he has not lived up to my expectations.
The naira appreciated strongly on Monday at both the official and parallel foreign exchange markets, opening the new week on a positive note.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria showed that the naira gained significantly, closing at N1,506.84 per dollar on Monday, compared to N1,514.87 on Friday.
This indicates that the currency strengthened by N8.3 against the dollar on Monday, marking a higher gain than recorded at the official market on Thursday.
Similarly, at the black market, the naira firmed up by N9 to close at N1,530 per dollar on Monday, compared to N1,539 at the close of last week.
The development suggests that the naira is maintaining momentum against other foreign currencies at the official market.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s external reserves continued to rise, reaching $41.54 billion on September 4, 2025, up from $41.49 billion reported on the Central Bank’s website the previous day.
To form a formidable opposition against the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and beat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election, supporters of former President Goodluck Jonathan have started wooing key aspirants to back his ambition.
With the APC hierarchy endorsing President Tinubu for re-election; and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, zoning its ticket to the South, the 2027 presidential race is panning out as a Southern affair.
For weeks now, a host of PDP top shots, especially from the North, have been pressuring Jonathan to join the race.
Before then, some PDP bigwigs had also been wooing former Anambra State governor and 2023 presidential standard bearer of Labour Party, LP, Mr Peter Obi, to return to the PDP.
Obi left the PDP in 2022 to join LP and clinched the party’s presidential ticket. Obi is among a host of opposition politicians supporting a grand coalition to square against the APC in 2027.
He is also among those backing the African Democratic Congress, ADC, coalition that has the likes of former Rivers State governor and immediate past Transport Minister, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; former Senate President, David Mark; former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola; and former Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
Asked at various times if he would return to the PDP or join the ADC, Obi who has been strident in his criticisms of the Tinubu administration, pointedly said he is for any move that will save the country from the APC.
Among Southern politicians nursing the ambition of confronting Tinubu are Mr Peter Obi; Mr Rotimi Amaechi; and Oyo State governor, Mr Seyi Makinde.
Sources told Vanguard, yesterday, that as part of his extensive consultations, former President Jonathan’s camp has started reaching out to key aspirants and has met Obi “to step down for Jonathan.”
There were speculations last night that Jonathan had met Obi in person to discuss the issue but sources close to the former Anambra State governor said no such meeting had been held.
“It is true that Jonathan’s people want Obi to step down for him but Jonathan himself is yet to meet Obi. I can assure you that Obi is committed to his cause of rescuing Nigeria,” the source said.
Best Southern aspirant
Jonathan’s backers said he remains the best Southern politician that can stop Tinubu at the polls because, if elected, he cannot do more than four years, which will pave the way for the prevailing North-South power rotation principle to be sustained.
In view of the power rotation principle, Mr Obi said recently that he would serve for a term of four years and not seek a second term, if elected.
The declaration elicited mixed views in the polity, with some saying many politicians made similar promises in the past but did not keep them, hence the need to go for a candidate that cannot do more than four years.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who ran on the platform of the PDP in 2023 but recently defected to ADC, has also promised to do one term, if elected.
However, those opposed to Jonathan said the PDP risks losing in court if it fields the former president because of eligibility.
Following an amendment by the National Assembly, which was signed into law by late former President Muhmmadu Buhari on June 7, 2018, Section 137 of the 1999 Constitution stops anyone who had been sworn-in twice as president to contest the presidency.
Jonathan, who was vice to late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was first sworn-in in 2010 when Yar’Adua passed on.
He won his first election in 2011 and was sworn-in again. He contested for a second term in 2015 but lost to Buhari, the first time an incumbent president lost an election in Nigeria.
His eligibility to run has been a subject of controversy since 2022 and lawyers are sharply divided on the issue.
While some said he is eligible to contest because the law took effect from June 7, 2018, more than three years after he left office and cannot be applied retroactively, others said the constitution is clear that no one should be sworn-in more than twice.
Going further, anti-Jonathan pundits posited that the issue will be a subject of litigation if Jonathan was handed the PDP ticket and goes on to win, adding that it is difficult to predict the decision of the courts with certainty.
According to them, if the court holds that Jonathan is not eligible after the poll, the PDP and key politicians who stepped down for him would all lose out.
When former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deputy governor Professor Kingsley Moghalu was appointed last year as the inaugural President and Vice Chancellor of the Kigali-based African School of Governance (ASG), I celebrated the news with effusive optimism.
I thought it was a great opportunity for Africa to nurture a new generation of leaders under the guidance of a thinker and practitioner whose career had consistently combined intellectual rigor with pragmatic vision.
In the octomer 21, 2024, article I wrote to celebrate his appointment, I wrote: “With Kingsley at the vanguard, I believe ASG is poised to be more than just a school. It will become a beacon for all of Africa that will cultivate the next generation of leaders who will redefine governance and public policy across the continent.”
I was not alone in this hopeful expectation. Many of us saw ASG as a chance to replicate, in Africa, the success of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, incidentally ASG’s strategic partner.
But scarcely a year into his five-year tenure, Moghalu abruptly announced his resignation. “After several months of toiling in the vineyard of a historic assignment, I will be departing from my role as President & Vice-Chancellor of African School of Governance – ASG,” he wrote on july 29, 2025, in a social media statement.
The announcement stunned observers. Why would a man who had invested his reputation and intellectual energy in a promising institution walk away so quickly?
The official explanation was disappointingly evasive. In a statement signed by Hailemariam Desalegn, former Ethiopian Prime Minister and Chairman of the ASG Governing Board, the school only offered sadly familiar platitudes: “The African School of Governance (ASG) was founded to provide a platform… to train a new African generation of ethical leaders grounded in the values of humility, servant leadership, integrity, and inclusivity. We thank Professor Moghalu for his service and wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Noticeably absent was any substantive reason for his departure.
When I hosted Moghalu on our monthly ””Diaspora Dialogues” podcast last Saturday, I asked him directly why he resigned, but he declined to go beyond what he had already shared on social media, pointing instead to his public statement and that of ASG.
Yet, even in silence, words speak. His statement delicately referenced “challenges regarding corporate governance and institutional and academic autonomy.” Paired with ASG’s coldly impersonal farewell, the implication that jumped out at me is that Moghalu’s departure was not voluntary whim but the culmination of principled disagreements.
Two things, however, are beyond dispute. First, Moghalu’s impact on ASG in less than a year was undeniable. Testimonials have poured in from participants in the school’s inaugural “Transforming Countries” program and from leaders across the continent.
Former Nigerian Information Minister Frank Nweke, African Union Ambassador to Washington Hilda Suka Mafudze, Liberian parliamentarian Taa Wongbe, and many others attested to his transformative leadership. He gave the fledgling institution credibility, direction, and gravitas.
Second, the divergence between his statement and ASG’s carefully sanitized one suggests deep fault lines. Moghalu alluded to structural issues (corporate governance, institutional autonomy, academic independence) that strike at the very core of what such an institution must embody. This contrast evokes an old truth: in Africa, visionary ideas often stumble on the hard rocks of vested interests.
And management theorist Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If ASG indeed undermined its own governance culture, then Moghalu’s exit is less about one man and more about a structural failure.
Was he brought in as a respected face to lend legitimacy to an enterprise whose true agenda diverged from its lofty mission? Did he refuse to play along with backroom interests that sought to subordinate academic autonomy to political or personal whims? We may never know the answers to these questions, but they demand rumination.
If an institution founded to champion integrity, inclusivity, and servant leadership cannot embody these very values in its governance, what hope does it have of producing the ethical leaders Africa so desperately needs?
The irony is hard to miss. ASG’s governing board is stacked with some of the most distinguished African and global figures: Donald Kaberuka, former President of the African Development Bank; Makhtar Diop, current Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation; Professor Hajer Gueldich, former Legal Counsel of the African Union; Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School; and Francis Gatare, Senior Advisor in Rwanda’s Presidency.
With such luminaries at the helm, one would expect robust governance and independence, not disputes over “corporate governance and academic autonomy.”
So, what went wrong? Scholars of governance point to three common pitfalls: phantom boards that exist only in name, rubber-stamping decisions without real oversight; boards dominated by their chairs, turning colleagues into mere ornaments; and boards handpicked by CEOs, rendering them unable to check excesses.
The third pitfall is unlikely here. Moghalu was a recruit, not the founder, and had no power to select or shape the board. That leaves the possibility of either a nominal board or one suffocated by its chair.
Interestingly, Moghalu himself was once central to restoring corporate governance in Nigeria’s banking sector after the 2008–2009 financial crisis. As CBN deputy governor, he helped clean up reckless practices that had nearly collapsed the industry. That a man with such pedigree would resign over governance failures at ASG underscores how dire the problem must have been.
Whatever the exact details, Moghalu’s departure should jolt us into confronting a recurring African tragedy: the chasm between vision and execution, between the rhetoric of reform and the reality of power politics. Institutions designed to embody excellence are too often hamstrung by fragile egos, compulsive control, and short-term interests.
This is not merely about Moghalu. It is about what kind of institutions we are capable of building. If ASG, endowed with international partnerships, global visibility, and an A-list board, cannot protect its independence, what hope exists for less celebrated African initiatives?
As we reflected on this issue with my friend Professor Moses Ochonu, who teaches African History at Vanderbilt University, we agreed that we need a bold alternative: a truly independent, private-sector-driven, pan-African institute for leadership training. Unlike ASG, such a body would not be beholden to governments, political patrons, or a single foreign donor. It would draw from the intellectual reservoirs of Africans at home and in the diaspora, free from the suffocating influence of political egos.
Imagine an institute located in a neutral hub such as Arusha, Tanzania, a place with symbolic resonance as the site of the Arusha Accords and the East African Community headquarters. Such an institution could embed shared governance, institutional autonomy, and academic independence into its DNA. It could model, not just teach, the principles it seeks to impart.
Who better to spearhead such an initiative than Kingsley Moghalu himself? His experience at ASG, though brief, has given him unique insight into both the promise and the pitfalls of such projects. Freed from constraints, he could help build an institution that truly embodies the ideals Africa needs.
Skeptics might shrug and say this is an internal squabble at an obscure school. They would be wrong. The battle over ASG’s soul is emblematic of a larger struggle: whether Africa will build institutions strong enough to outlive individuals and insulated enough to resist political capture.
If Africa is to rise beyond rhetoric, it must confront the uncomfortable truth that too many of our organizations collapse under the pressure of vested interests. Visionary leaders are often co-opted, silenced, or discarded when they resist.
Moghalu’s exit dramatizes this reality. But it also offers a chance for reinvention. If the continent can learn from this moment and commit to creating leadership institutes immune to political interference, we may yet cultivate a generation of leaders who will not only speak integrity but live it.
Kingsley Moghalu’s sudden departure from ASG is a disappointment, but it should not be the death knell of the dream that gave birth to the school. Instead, it should be a wake-up call. The values of corporate governance, institutional autonomy, and academic independence are not luxuries; they are the very foundations of credible leadership training.
The next step is to build institutions that embody these values without compromise. Moghalu may have lost ASG, but Africa has not lost Moghalu. If anything, his principled exit makes him an even more compelling candidate to lead a new, independent effort to shape the continent’s leaders.
