The
Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic
Studies, Professor Ayo Omotayo, has described the Institute as a
strategic pillar for leadership renewal in Nigeria and across Africa.
Speaking at the international colloquium marking the 89th birthday of
former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Omotayo said the establishment of
NIPSS in 1979 reflected a deliberate effort to institutionalise
reflective and ethical leadership within Nigeria’s governance
architecture. According to him, the celebration was more than a birthday
tribute. It was an opportunity to interrogate a philosophy of
leadership grounded in discipline, integrity, and national purpose.
He
recalled Obasanjo’s remarks at the Institute’s 30th anniversary in
2009, where the former President emphasised that institutions, like
individuals, must demonstrate performance once they reach maturity. He
warned at the time that politicisation, weakened standards, and
compromised selection processes could erode institutional credibility.
Omotayo noted that those warnings remain pertinent amid contemporary
pressures such as economic volatility, climate change, technological
disruption, and geopolitical competition. He stressed that leadership
today demands strategic depth, analytical rigour, and ethical clarity.
Describing
NIPSS as Nigeria’s apex policy and strategic studies institution, he
said the Institute was designed as a crucible where senior leaders from
the military, civil service, private sector, academia, and related
sectors step away from routine responsibilities to interrogate national
challenges through research, dialogue, and peer engagement. He explained
that leadership capacity building at NIPSS entails exposure to policy
complexity, multidisciplinary debate, evidence-based analysis, and the
cultivation of long-term national thinking. Ethical grounding, he added,
is central to competence in leadership.
Omotayo
further observed that Africa’s persistent development challenges are
often rooted in weak institutionalisation and implementation gaps rather
than the absence of policy ideas. Strengthening leadership capacity, he
argued, is therefore essential to converting potential into prosperity.
While
commending Obasanjo for the vision that gave birth to NIPSS, Omotayo
urged a deliberate reinvigoration of NIPSS to meet the demands of a
rapidly changing policy environment. He therefore called for sustained
institutional renewal anchored on stronger policy research, the
integration of digital foresight tools, expanded continental
collaboration, and clearer measurement of policy impact.
The
colloquium attracted diplomats, scholars, senior public officials, and
industry leaders, reinforcing the enduring relevance of NIPSS in shaping
nationally minded leadership for Nigeria and the African continent.
