Prof Olasunkanmi Abari urges compulsory leadership study for citizens …Says it’s knowledge will promote quality leadership, followership

Professor Ayodeji Olasunkanmi Abari, a Professor of Educational Management in the Faculty of Education, Lagos State University (LASU) has delivered the 126 inaugural lecture of the university, and came up with recommendations.

The inaugural lecture which took place on Tuesday, 28th July, 2026, at the Buba Marwa Auditorium, Main Campus, in Ojo, was titled “Leadership is the Answer … But What is the Question? An Octopus Threshold Model.”

In his lecture, Prof came up with some recommendations towards making leadership an answer in response to the dimensional questions raised in the lecture.

He said Conscious efforts must be made by everyone in a leadership position to ponder over the ramified question raised herein and provide appropriate answer to it personally, adding that it would most probably serve as the guide in exhibiting leadership characteristics effectively, efficiently and quality wise; assess the source of one’s leadership; make a study of the organisation, its environment and the followership; and assess one’s personality as well as the personality of the followers and that of the organisation.

He went further saying “Every individual must undergo a study of leadership, its process, elements, characteristics and practices and make use of the knowledge acquired to provide and exhibit leadership. For one thing, everyone would attain a leadership position at one time or the other willy-nilly, even if it is at a lower level or in a small group as in the family or in a unit of an organisation. For another thing, if one is not a leader, he/she would be a follower. Therefore, there is the need for training and re-training in leadership and even followership.”

Additionally, he said that attention must seriously be paid to the source of leadership particularly in educational organisations and in Nigeria as a whole. He said the question is, how are leaders selected and or elected from an appropriate source? “This must  rightly and objectively be attended to otherwise the system would continue to falter for want of appropriate leadership.

“In a similar vein, attention must be paid to an individual’s personality in the selection and or election of people to leadership positions. The psychologists would be of immense assistance in this wise,” Abari added.

He maintained that conscious efforts must be made to provide and or create an enabling environment for leadership to take its proper and required shape. “The system must necessarily make provision for this just as the leader should struggle to create the enabling environment where and when necessary.

“Leadership antecedent, skill and cultural expression should be a significant yardstick for selecting or electing leaders to lead organisations because good leaders facilitate objective followers for productivity and the prosperity of all,” he said.

He concluded that it is highly discernable that leadership is not as simple and easy as ABC. He said, “It is an answer to multidimensional societal problems flaunting a five-legged question – much like the octopus though the octopus is eight legged. However, like the octopus threshold, these legs present a visual field in seeing leadership in it right perspective. From the moment of selection and or election: the source of leadership to the nature of an organisation, the environment we operate in, the quality of following, and the personality of the leader… the legs must move in unison. If we attend to all the five questions with wisdom, courage, and integrity, then the octopus-like leadership moves swiftly, powerfully, effectively and efficiently seeing the right direction to produce positive results.

“May I leave you with this simple, axiomatic statement;  As is the source, so is the leader; as is the following, the organisation, the personality and the environment… so is the leadership we deserve. The thesis of this lecture has been: “The five-dimensional question in leadership as the answer to organisational achievement.” If we answer these five questions honestly – in our homes, our schools, our institutions, and our nation – then we will no longer lament the leadership quagmire. We will become the answer! Behold! The future of our organisations, and indeed of Nigeria, does not lie in wishing for perfect leaders. It lies in building complete systems – where source, structure, environment, following, and personality all rise together. That is the challenge. That is the hope. And that, I believe, is the work ahead of us all.”