Manufacturers in Nigeria expressed a lack of confidence in the nation’s economic outlook in August 2024.

This is according to the latest Business Expectations Survey (BES) conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The survey, which involved 1,600 business enterprises, revealed that while many sectors were optimistic about the economy, the manufacturing sector was notably pessimistic.

The report highlights that the manufacturing sector posted a negative confidence index of -5.5 points, reflecting ongoing concerns about the current business climate.

Mixed sentiments towards Nigeria’s economy 

According to the BES report, the sectors, such as manufacturing, construction, mining, and utilities, had mixed sentiments.

Manufacturing and construction both showed negative indices of -5.5 and -10.0 points, respectively, signaling a significant lack of confidence.

However, sectors such as mining, quarrying, and electricity displayed optimism, with an index of 30.4 points, highlighting the varied sentiments within sectors.

The report read: “Business sentiment for the Agriculture and Services Sectors was optimistic in the current month, but the Industry Sector was pessimistic. However, all the sectors expressed optimism for the next month. The index of optimism in the Agricultural and Services Sectors were 5.2 and 1.2 points respectively, while that of the Industry Sector stood at -3.9 points. 

“For the subsectors, Mining, Quarrying, Electricity, Gas & Water Supply; Non-Market; Market showed optimism at 30.4, 2.7 and 0.7 points, respectively, while Construction and Manufacturing Sectors were pessimistic at -10.0 and -5.5 points, respectively.” 

The negative sentiment within the manufacturing sector can be attributed to several challenges, with the BES report identifying insecurity, high interest rates, and multiple taxation as the primary constraints to business activity.

The survey also noted that an unfavorable economic climate and insufficient power supply are contributing to the businesses’ struggles in the country.

These factors have made it difficult for manufacturers to maintain operations at optimal levels, eroding confidence in both current business condition.

Expansion and Employment Outlook 

Despite the gloomy outlook for the manufacturing sector in August, businesses across all sectors expressed optimism about their expansion plans for September 2024. The mining and quarrying sector showed the highest potential for growth, with an index of 66.7%, while manufacturing indicated a moderate interest in expansion with an index of 47.9%. This positive outlook reflects the anticipated growth within several industries, including agriculture, market services, and non-market services.

The employment outlook for September 2024 was also positive across all sectors, according to the survey. The mining and quarrying sector again held the highest potential for job creation, with an index of 13.0 points, followed by the construction sector at 10.0 points, agriculture at 9.9 points, and manufacturing at 8.3 points. This indicates that although the manufacturing sector currently faces significant challenges, there is potential for job creation and expansion in the near future.

Optimism for September 

Despite the pessimistic outlook for August, there is a glimmer of hope as manufacturers expressed cautious optimism for the upcoming months. The manufacturing sector is expected to see a slight improvement in confidence for September, with a projected index of 7.7 points. This anticipated improvement signals a potential rebound in business activity as companies look to adjust to the challenging operating environment.

The overall business outlook for the next three and six months also remains positive across most sectors. This optimism is driven by expectations of improved market conditions, as businesses anticipate better operating conditions moving forward.

What you should know

• Nairametrics earlier reported that Nigeria’s manufacturing sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) witnessed a significant contraction over the past two quarters, reflecting a decline of 20.95% from the end of 2023 to the second quarter of 2024.
• This decline over the first half of 2024 highlights the sector’s vulnerabilities, particularly in the face of ongoing economic and infrastructural challenges.
• Despite these challenges, the sector has remained a major contributor to government taxes.
• The Director-General of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) , Segun Ajayi-Kadir, recently criticized the multiple and high rates of taxes and leviesimposed by the three tiers of government and their agencies.
• Ajayi-Kadir noted that the challenges facing the manufacturing sector, particularly due to the current macroeconomic conditions, are exacerbated by the ongoing foreign exchange volatility and high electricity tariffs.
• He also called on manufacturers to support the implementation of the recommendations from the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.

Nairametrics

Following years of research and planning, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has successfully launched a bone marrow transplant programme for people with sickle cell disease (SCD).

The new programme would allow people with SCD to locally access a bone marrow transplant via a procedure that involves replacing the patient’s diseased stem cells with healthy ones from a matched family donor.

It is the country’s first locally available bone marrow transplant programme for treating sickle cell disease.

According to a statement jointly signed by the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Wasiu Adeyemo, a professor, and the National Director/CEO of Sickle Cell Foundation, Annette Akinsete, the programme is an initiative of the two institutions.

The statement noted that the teaching hospital and SCFN decided to introduce the initiative after identifying existing gaps in the treatment of sickle cell disease patients in the country.

It added that the first set of sickle cell patients who were admitted for the programme in August are currently undergoing bone marrow transplants at the hospital.

The statement reads in part: “They received a treatment regimen of exchange blood transfusions, chemotherapy and anti-infective prophylaxis to prepare them for the infusion of bone marrow stem cells that were harvested from family donors, processed and given this week (17 and 19 September).

“Both patients are currently undergoing immediate post-transplant care within the transplant unit at Lagos University Teaching Hospital”.

SCD in Nigeria

While the process comes with risks such as infection and infertility, increased research advancements over the past 20 years have greatly improved outcomes.

LUTH, in its statement, affirmed that the newly established bone marrow transplant programme in Nigeria meets up with international standards for the cure of sickle cell disease.

The prevalence of sickle-cell disease in Nigeria is about 20 per 1,000 births. Also, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 24 per cent of the Nigerian population are carriers of the mutant genes for this disease.

A study published by Lancet Journal showed that Nigeria has the highest birth prevalence of sickle cell disease in the world, with an estimated 150,000 annual births of babies with sickle cell anaemia, the most common form of sickle cell disease.

Meanwhile, WHO, in 2014, said at least 100,000 babies die from the disorder in Nigeria every year.

Despite this, medical care for people with SCD has been limited and the bone marrow transplant, the only known cure for the disease, has been unavailable in the country.

Adeyomo said “the leadership of the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria (SCFN) and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) established a bone marrow transplant programme at LUTH” after recognising the gaps in care for affected individuals in Nigeria,

He said the programme is guided by in-depth scientific research and expertise carried out by a team of high-level health professionals within and outside Nigeria.

A resource person from the UK, Josu de la Fuente, from the Imperial College London Healthcare NHS Trust UK joined the team to assist with the paediatric aspects of the programme.

The statement noted: “In preparation for a locally adapted and cost-effective bone marrow transplant programme in Nigeria, a post-transplant clinic was initially established in 2019, a first in sub-Saharan Africa, to provide post-transplant care to patients who had travelled to other countries for bone marrow or stem cell transplants, thereby developing clinical expertise in post-transplant care.

“Transplant nursing has been supported by the Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT), which offers both in-person and virtual training at periodic intervals.”

PT

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said the 5GHz and 2.4GHz that are presently being used for Wireless internet technology (Wi-Fi 5) in the country are becoming overwhelmed due to an increase in demand for capacity.

Disclosing this at a stakeholders’ consultative meeting in Lagos, the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, said Nigeria urgently needs to identify other frequency bands to complement the 5GHz and 2.4GHz being used for Wi-Fi.

“The vast majority of home internet traffic is connected to the end-user through Wi-Fi. In enterprise settings, Wi-Fi is essential for handling large amounts of data and simultaneously connecting large numbers of devices with improved reliability, higher data throughput, and lower latencies.

“However, the 5GHz and 2.4GHz that are being used for Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 5) at the moment are becoming overwhelmed due to an increase in demand for capacity. It is, therefore, imperative to identify other frequency bands to complement the 5GHz and 2.4GHz”, Maida, who was represented by Executive Commissioner, Technical Services at NCC, Abraham Oshadami, said.

Daily Trust

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, has been declared the winner of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

The INEC Returning Officer for the election, Faruk Kuta, made the declaration at exactly 9:27 p.m. at the State Collation Centre in Benin City on Sunday evening.

Kuta, a professor and vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, announced the final results after collating results from the 18 local government areas of the state.

The returning officer said Okpebholo polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo, who scored 247,274 votes.

The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Olumude Akpata, came a distant third with 22,763 votes.

“That Monday Okpebholo of the APC, having satisfied all the requirements of law and scored majority of the lawful votes, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected,” Kuta declared.

The final results showed that Okpebholo won in 11 local government areas in the state while Ighodalo won in seven.

The candidate of the Labour Party, Akpata, did not win in any local government area.

Unless his victory is overturned by the courts, Mr Okpebholo will succeed the incumbent governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, whose second term will end on 12 November.

Meanwhile, the PDP in the state has protested against the election result, which it alleged was manipulated in favour of the APC candidate.

Earlier, Tony Iyoha, the PDP state agent, said the results did not reflect the votes cast at polling units.

Iyoha asked the electoral officials to suspend further collation of results because the election process did not follow the procedures of the electoral body.

But Kuta asked those who have issues with the exercise to file a formal petition against it.

PT

Hungarian intelligence agency interviewed CEO linked to exploding Hezbollah pagers

Hungarian intelligence services have conducted several interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company linked to deadly explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members this week, the Hungarian government said on Saturday.

Taiwanese pager firm Gold Apollo said on Wednesday that the model of pagers used in detonations in Lebanon were made by BAC Consulting, adding it had only licensed out its brand to the company and was not involved in the production of the devices.

Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of BAC Consulting, told NBC News earlier this week that she did not make the pagers and said she was "just the intermediate."

Hungarian intelligence agencies have been conducting their investigation since Wednesday and have interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times, the Hungarian government's international press office said in a statement.

It quoted the Constitution Protection Office (AH), one of Hungary's intelligence agencies.

The AH reiterated an earlier statement from the government that said that the pager devices used in the mass detonations were never in Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government also said earlier that BAC Consulting was "a trading-intermediary company, which has no manufacturing or other site of operation in Hungary".

In two days of attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded. The total death toll in those attacks has risen to 39, and more than 3,000 were injured. The attacks were widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's air defence units destroy 71 Russian drones, Ukraine's air force says

Ukraine's air defence units destroyed 71 out of 80 attack drones that Russia launched overnight, Ukraine's air force said on Sunday.

Six more of the Russian drones were lost after getting neutralised by Ukraine's electronic warfare, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia also launched two guided missiles from occupied parts of Ukraine's Luhansk region, the air force said. It did not say what happened to the missiles.

** Russian strike on apartment block in Kharkiv injures 21

Russian forces struck a multi-storey apartment building in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday evening, wounding 21 people and prompting an evacuation of some of its residents, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Kharkiv, 30 km (18 miles) from the Russian border, has been a frequent target of Moscow's attacks since the Kremlin's troops launched their February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Terekhov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the Russians had deployed a guided bomb and that 60 residents had been evacuated from the building. An 8-year-old and two 17-year-olds were among the wounded, he added.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the strike and repeated his call for more weapons from Kyiv's Western partners to defend against Russian strikes.

"Ukraine needs full long-range capabilities, and we are working to convince our partners of this," he wrote on social media.

Further south, a Russian drone attack killed two people on Saturday in the city of Nikopol, the regional governor said.

In the eastern town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of Russia's slow advance through the industrial Donetsk region, one person was killed in a Russian artillery strike, regional prosecutors said.

And local authorities in Sumy region said Russian aircraft struck energy infrastructure in the town of Shostka.

Sumy has been another frequent target of Russian attacks and lies opposite Russia's southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion last month.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says battlegroup West struck 4 Ukrainian brigades

The Russian battlegroup West struck four Ukrainian brigades and caused the enemy to lose up to 420 troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Units of the battlegroup West improved their tactical position, struck manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian 30th, 53rd and 116th mechanized brigades and the 114th territorial defense brigade in the areas of Petropavlovka and Peschanoye in the Kharkov Region; Serebryanka and Torskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic; and Nevskoye in the Lugansk People's Republic. Five counterattacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian 66th and 67th mechanized brigades and the 1st brigade of the National Guard were repulsed," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the enemy lost up to 420 servicemen, two tanks, three pickup trucks, two 152mm D-20 guns, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, a 122mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery unit and three US-made M119 105mm guns. Also destroyed were US-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar station and five ammunition depots.

Russia says its forces strike Ukrainian military airfields

Russian forces hit the infrastructure of military airfields and energy facilities that supply power to Ukraine's defense enterprises, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Tactical aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, rocket troops and artillery of Russian battlegroups destroyed a 36D6 radar station for detection and tracking of low-altitude targets, struck energy facilities that support the operation of Ukrainian defense enterprises, the infrastructure of military airfields, workshops for the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, and clusters of enemy manpower and military equipment in 141 areas," it said.

Russia says Ukraine lost up to 160 soldiers in area of responsibility of battlegroup North

Ukrainian forces lost up to 160 servicemen in the area of responsibility of the Russian battlegroup North over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Units of the battlegroup North in the Liptsy and Volchansk areas struck the formations of the Ukrainian 57th motorized infantry brigade, the 36th marines brigade and the 5th border units of the Ukrainian Border Service in the areas of the settlements of Volchansk and Liptsy in the Kharkov Region. The enemy lost up to 160 servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, a 152-mm D-20 gun and two 122-mm D-30 howitzers," the ministry said.

Russia says its air defenses shot down 6 Hammer bombs, 6 HIMARS rounds

Air defenses shot down six Ukrainian Hammer bombs, six HIMARS projectiles and 106 unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Air defense capabilities shot down six guided French-made Hammer aerial bombs, six US-made HIMARS rounds, two S-200 anti-aircraft guided missiles, which were converted for firing at ground targets, and 106 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said in a statement.

Since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed a total of 646 Ukrainian warplanes, 283 helicopters, 32,089 unmanned aerial vehicles, 579 surface-to-air missile systems, 18,325 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,457 multiple launch rocket systems, 15,025 field artillery guns and mortars and 26,370 special military motor vehicles.

Reuters/Tass

When Major-General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the elected civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari on the last day of 1983, he inherited an economy in a mess and a political system in a turmoil. This crisis of a dysfunctional political economy was Buhari’s principal reason for sacking the Shagari administration.

For Buhari, Nigeria’s crisis of balance of payments was the result of two things: indiscipline and economic crimes. His answer to the former was a War against Indiscipline (WAI), a catch-all acronym for everything from instilling a queue culture in the population to capital punishment for drug suspects. Turning to the latter, Buhari invented a very capacious category of economic sabotage. Those arrested for these did not necessarily have to suffer a predictable judicial ritual.

In 1984, the Buhari regime ordered the detention of five citizens of Taiwan arrested by the officers of the Customs Service who caught them in possession of blank attested and proforma invoices for goods supposedly imported into Nigeria. One of the arrested persons was known as Wang Chin-Yao. They were supposedly involved in economic sabotage of the country which was meant to be a crime. Rather than charge them with a crime known to law, however, the regime arranged to have them locked up in administrative detention under the State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree No. 2 of 1984. Under this decree, a detention certificate issued by the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters was enough to lock a person away interminably. Among its features, the decree precluded courts from inquiring into anything concerning the detention of persons held under its authority.

Fearing interminable detention, Wang Chin-Yao and his compatriots sued the Chief of Staff in the hope that the court could pronounce on the lawfulness of their detention but the High Court chose to emulate the Biblical Pontius Pilate and decided that the decree under which they were held precluded it from questioning the detentions. On All Fools Day (1 April) in 1985 the Court of Appeal decided their appeal against the decision of the High Court. In a judgment delivered by Phillip Adenekan Ademola, the Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling of the High Court. Adenekan Ademola, whose father was the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria, stated his reasons with flamboyant economy holding “that on the question of civil liberties, the law courts of Nigeria must as of now blow muted trumpets.”

These words were to prove exceedingly corrosive in their effect on judicial imagination under the military. A mere three years after this judgment by Ademola, his bossom friend and Sarkin Wurno, Shehu Malami, became the subject of considerable interest by the security services of the military government when he threw his hat into the ring to become the 18th Sultan of Sokoto at the death of Sultan Siddiq Abubakar III. It was impossible to find a court without its own muted trumpet. The muted trumpets of the courts enabled the abuses that ultimately made military rule untenable and brought about its demise one decade later.

The hope – with the end of military rule – was that the return of the country to government with electoral legitimacy would unleash the civic imagination of Nigerians. In the run up to Nigeria’s presidential elections of 2023, part of the claim made in favour of the man whom the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) eventually anointed as president, Bola Tinubu, was that he had fought the excesses of military rule as a chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a pro-democracy collective, many of whose leading members were exiled during the last half decade of military rule in Nigeria. It is natural to expect that the government of a man with those credential would be a paradise for the kinds of rights for which he reputedly took the military to task.

The reality has been anything but…. The government of Tinubu has instead become the graveyard of freedoms of expression and association and of the right to protest in Nigeria and it is only just a little over 15 months in power. The numbers are there to prove it.

In the first year of the Tinubu administration, the Press Attack Tracker recorded 37 incidents of attacks against journalists and the press. The first five months of 2024 alone witnessed 27 such attacks. For comparison, advocacy organization, Global Rights, which monitored similar patterns under the Buhari regime recorded 189 journalists arrested, detained or harassed over the eight years of the Buhari administration. At the current pace, the Tinubu regime of NADECO graduates will by the end of its second year easily eclipse the record of the entire Buhari administration in press freedom violations over its eight years of existence.

At the end of August 2024, Tinubu’s Nigeria comfortably topped the league table of attacks on journalists in Africa with over 76 recorded incidents of attacks against journalists, beating Somalia (with 18 attacks) into second place, with Congo DRC a distant third with five incidents.

These numbers only provide a peek into a more troubling pattern. Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported “at least 56 journalists who were assaulted or harassed by security forces or unidentified citizens while covering the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in Nigeria.” The “unidentified citizens” who were involved in some of these attacks mostly conducted themselves in ways which suggests that they were agents or emissaries of the ruling party or government.

The #EndBadGovernance protest and its aftermath have been a squalid advertisement of the illiberal credentials of the Tinubu Government. After failing in intimidating citizens out of the protest, the administration resorted to third-degree methods to squash it. It arrested thousands of citizens whose only crime was peaceful expression of dissent, instructed the freezing of the accounts of persons and groups whom it claimed to be organisers of the protests, and procured suspicious court orders to unsafely kettle and intimidate the protesters. Security forces killed at least 13 protesters although the real casualty count is thought to be well north of this number.

Not content with these, the government arranged in Abuja to charge many of the protesters with treason or conspiracy to commit treason. Campaigners at Human Rights Watch have rightly pointed out that this signals the extent of the regime’s “intolerance for dissent.” The significance of these charges go well beyond this, however. The charges of treason for the #EndBadGovernance protesters are designed to intimidate any wannabe protesters. They are also a dog whistle for the judges before whom these protesters are charged to treat them as beyond the pale and beneath the law.

The judges are listening. At the trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the court has eventually granted the protesters bail on rather stringent conditions. Citizen groups are now working hard to socialize the costs of meeting these conditions. Lawyers for the government meanwhile go around intimidating the courts with specious reasons as to why protest has become treason under the government of a serial protester.

Nearly 40 years ago, when the son of a former Chief Justice of Nigeria told judges to blow muted trumpets on questions of civil liberties, there was an assumption that the judges were capable of doing different. Now and again many of them indeed served the soldiers with a judicial bloody nose. Today, that capacity no longer exists. Nigerian courts no longer want to be associated with any trumpets, not even muted ones, lest they inadvertently let out some judicial sound.

Instead, many courts, under the thumb of their Chiefs or administrative judges have become enablers of the authoritarian instincts of the government of NADECO veterans. When the security services invade the offices of advocacy organisation, SERAP; or interdict the passport of Omoyele Sowore at the airport, they don’t even contemplate the existence of judges capable of playing Pontius Pilate. For them, the courts no longer exist. That is some progress!

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

I believe great leaders are made in the moments that matter—the little moments in time that form and influence what a person stands for and who they are personally and professionally. 

When it comes to leadership, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach or handbook, nor is there necessarily even a specific moment in time when you become a true leader. We are all molded by our own experiences and driven by our own strengths.

My father was one of my first inspirations for leadership. When I was 10 years old, he showed me what true leadership looks like, exposing me to moments that would shape my leadership mentality for the rest of my life. He was a volunteer director at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico. Every weekend for more than two years, we drove 70 miles together to help organize, prepare, and host the competition. 

This meant that, at a young age, I was given a crash course in how to run an international event, helping with everything from meals to transportation logistics. And when someone needed an answer, and my dad wasn’t readily available, I became the “go-to guy.” Little by little, I built my skills and ability to shoulder responsibility. I learned how to make the big picture happen effectively and successfully—without shortcuts.

That was more than a few years ago. Since then, I’m proud to say that I have learned a great deal more from many mentors in my career. They have taught me this key lesson: Great leaders grow in the little moments, the big moments, and everything in between. However, growth as a leader also requires intentionality. To build yourself as a leader, you need to take certain steps. 

DEFINE YOUR LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY 

First, it’s important to define your leadership philosophy. Your leadership philosophy should be your voice of reason, constantly present in the back of your mind throughout everything you do. By getting clear on your leadership philosophy, you can better guide your team. When your employees know how you approach leadership, they’ll know what you expect from them. 

It takes effort to zero in on what your leadership philosophy is because there’s no singular leadership philosophy. A person’s leadership philosophy is rooted in their values. If you’re a leader, I encourage you to do the work. Sit down and reflect on your values, write them down, and then commit to walking the talk. One of my all-time favorite quotes, which one of my early mentors told me, is: “Keep your promises. Have a high do-to-say ratio.” I think that applies here.

GET COMFORTABLE WITH THE UNCOMFORTABLE 

Another reason why having a leadership philosophy is imperative is that it will help you get comfortable with the uncomfortable—and as a leader, you’ve probably experienced firsthand that there are many uncomfortable moments in leadership. I learned this lesson in high school. 

When I was a freshman in high school, one of my best friends suggested that I should run for treasurer of the student council. I thought she was crazy, but with her urging, I ran and, to my surprise, got elected and took on more responsibility than I ever had in my life. I loved being an active part of our school’s leadership, and in the following years, I became vice president and then president of the student council. Those moments mattered—they helped me build a foundation for who I am as a leader today. Had I not gone outside of my comfort zone, I might not have made it to my current leadership position. 

Give yourself a nudge, and be okay with going outside your comfort zone. Give others that nudge and encouragement as well. We all need mentors and advocates in our careers, people who believe in us and see us as bigger than we see ourselves. When mentors and advocates inspire and empower us to do more and try new things, that’s when we can begin to envision and realize our full potential as leaders. Sometimes, to move forward, you just have to be able to put yourself out there in an uncomfortable situation to make it happen. 

STAY CURIOUS

Throughout your leadership journey, it’s incredibly important to continually ask questions—and acknowledge when you do not necessarily have all the answers. 

I once read an article in Fortune Magazine about how business professionals stop growing when they hit the age of 40. The main reason they “die” is because they stop learning. A few years after I read that article, I was at another event where leaders shared an internal study about major career derailers. In the top three, once again, was that people stop learning. I promised myself to remain curious.  

In my opinion, one of the most important qualities a leader can have is the constant drive for more knowledge. Whether at work, home, or school, whether parenting, running, exercising, cooking, driving, or reading a book, seizing opportunities that challenge your thinking is always a winning formula. 

I’m inspired by this quote from Bernard Baruch, an American financier and statesman: “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.”

In other words, curiosity fuels innovation, which drives meaningful change for everyone. We must focus on the “why” and ask questions when we are confronted with complex issues and old habits, so we can seek out a new truth or way of thinking. Questions such as “Why is this important?” and “Why does this support our overall goals and vision?” are vital. 

Behind innovative ideas and organizations are, oftentimes, innovative leaders who are courageously challenging traditional thinking to make the world a better place. By building your leadership philosophy, getting comfortable with the uncomfortable, and staying curious, you can continue to seize the moments that matter—and foster the best leadership practices possible.

Fast Company

Mixed reactions have continued to trail the donation of N500 million by Seyi Tinubu, son of President Bola Tinubu, to flood victims in Maiduguri, Borno state.

Seyi made the donation during a visit to Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno, alongside his brother and friends at the government house, Maiduguri, on Friday.

He said the visit was the “first step” towards ameliorating the plight of over 400,000 persons displaced by the flood.

While some X users appreciated him for the donation, others questioned the source of the money.

Mister Jonah

@MisterJonahh

I saw a report earlier today stating that Seyi Tinubu donated over 500 million to the Borno State government following the flood incident. My concern is: what does he do for a living? We should be asking these questions because 500 million is a huge amount of money.

Starton

@Debishops1

Seyi Tinubu visits Maiduguri and donates over N500 million to flood victims and I ask as who?

Wale Gbeminiyi

@WaleSupo

The gesture from Seyi is good but the amount donated is outrageous. The highest a whole State has donated is 100m. Atiku - 100m; Peter Obi - 50m. But Seyi and Remi Tinubu coming to donate N500m each says a lot about how the family has been exposed to public funds over the years

heisadebayo

@lunguboiii

But where dem see such huge amount of money?

Imagine tinubu son's donating 500m naira for just flood victims how much do you think their dad have?

Hmmm

INTERCONTINENTAL SPORTS TV

@oneistvv

Though the news says

That is so kind of him, but I see all these things as playing to the gallery maybe he want to contest for an election in tye future .

He could easily use that money to empower 500 Yoruba youths in business cos I think enough money has been donated already

Even his father has donated

John Jones

@adetiloye_john

Seyi donation feels more like a PR move than genuine help. Let’s be real-where did he even get that kind of money? Meanwhile, the government’s neglect and corruption are the real reasons we’re facing these floods in the first place.

A fat check doesn’t solve the issue. If they had invested in infrastructure and planning, we wouldn’t need these flashy handouts. Nigerians deserve real solutions, not band-aid fixes from questionable sources.

Uncle Choice

@unclechoice

How did he made the N500 million to donate. Which job or business is he doing to Donate half a billion Naira?

Instablog9ja

·

16h

@instablog9ja

President Tinubu’s sons, Seyi and Yinka storm Maiduguri to donate N500 million to flood victims

North Star

@echoeofself

The other time I asked I was attacked.

Who is bankrolling these people?

Whose funds are they donating?

Do you all know what 500M means?

Ike-ume

@ume_nwokedi

That's the problem with Nigeria clueless politicians & their litters. The money that should be given to experts in a particular field in a timely manner for research, mitigation, & pro-activity solutions are thrown around for gaslighting, especially when it's already late.

The Cable