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By Paul Williams
Leadership school, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), has graduated a total of 3071 students in over fifteen years of its existence in Nigeria.
This was made known as the Centre LSD/Kebetkache Women Development Centre Leadership School graduated its 7th Set/Cohort at the Port Harcourt centre on Saturday October 25, 2025.
Founder of Centre LSD, Dr Otive Igbuzor, addressing participants at the event, said the students had passed through the various centres of the institution across the nation, which include those in Benin, Abuja, Warri, Jos, Abakaliki, and Port Harcourt
He said the school represents “our collective journey toward raising a new generation of dynamic, strategic, transformative and visionary leaders (DSTV leaders) who are ethical and value-driven to transform their communities and our nation.
“When we established the Centre LSD Leadership School over fifteen years ago through the Ejiro & Otive Igbuzor Foundation, we were motivated by one conviction: that leadership is the most critical determinant of the progress or failure of any nation. As Chinua Achebe (1983) wrote, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.”
“Over the years, we have sought to change that narrative. Through deliberate investment in leadership education, mentorship, and practice, we have built a model that transforms ordinary men and women into change agents. Across Nigeria — in Abuja, Benin, Warri, Jos, Abakaliki, and Port Harcourt — our schools have graduated 3071 leaders who are influencing systems, institutions, and policies.
“I am proud that the Centre LSD/Kebetkache partnership, under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Emem Okon, has become a beacon of hope and transformation in the Niger Delta. Together, we have nurtured visionary men and women leaders who are breaking barriers, redefining gender roles, and shaping sustainable futures for their communities,” he said.
Igbuzor described the theme of the graduation ceremony, ‘Visionary Leadership: Building Bridges Beyond Politics,” as both timely and profound.
He said, “In a world polarized by division, distrust, and political rivalry, visionary leadership calls us to a higher moral and strategic ground—to see beyond politics, tribe, religion, or gender, and focus on building bridges of understanding, collaboration, solidarity and shared prosperity.
“Visionary leaders are bridge-builders. They transcend personal ambition to connect people across boundaries of class, religion, ethnicity and ideology.
“They understand that leadership is not about primitive accumulation of wealth, domination or position but about service, transformation, and legacy. True visionary leaders think generationally, not political election cycles. They plant seeds whose fruits they may never eat, but which will feed nations yet unborn.
“Across Nigeria and Africa today, we are confronted by deep divides—religious, ethnic, political, economic, and gender-based. These divisions have eroded trust and slowed progress. Yet, every crisis of division is an opportunity for visionary leadership.
“Nigeria needs leaders who will build bridges between government and citizens, between men and women, between the powerful and the powerless, between generations, and between communities. Visionary leadership, therefore, must become a moral and developmental necessity—a conscious effort to heal the fractures in our national and regional fabric,” he said.
Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Dr. Emem Okon, said “The Leadership School has come to stay in Port Harcourt, and this becomes part of the hope that our society is changing for the better.”
She urged the school’s Alumni Association to be more active and adopt steps to implement what was learnt in the larger society, through programming and interventions.
“The Centre LSD/Kebetkache Leadership school is set up to train leaders by unravelling the complexity of leadership and to offer a framework to help people become great leaders. The school is meant for those who are motivated to become leaders and want the tools to become dynamic, strategic and visionary leaders that will transform organizations and communities,” Dr. Okon said.
The school runs for a period of one year and hold lectures once a month, precisely every first Saturday of the month, she said, adding that admission for the 8th set continues till the end of November.
Governor of the 7th Set/Cohort, Ifeanyi Francis Achebe, said “At Kebetkache, we have come to a deeper understanding: true leadership is service, responsibility, courage, and vision. We have learned that leadership begins with the mind but must be expressed through action. We have learned that a leader is not just someone who gives instructions, but one who listens, who empathizes, and who stands for justice, even when it is not popular.
“We have been taught to lead with integrity, to communicate effectively, to mnanage conflicts with wisdom, and to always keep the greater good above personal interest,” he said.
Achebe said the graduation as “a milestone in our journey as leaders, change-makers, and voices forjustice and transformation,” while urging his classmates to put to practice that which they learnt at the school.
The event, which was chaired by Prof Festus Mbalisi, had paper presentation on the theme, ‘Visionary Leadership: Building Bridges Beyond Politics’ by Prof Patricia Donli of the University of Maiduguri, and panel discussion moderated by Prof. Roibito Ekanem.
