Nigeria, April 20 -- When the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board invited me to Yenagoa as a guest author and lead facilitator for its quarterly leadership dialogue, I accepted without hesitation. There was no extravagant fee, no elaborate choreography of protocol, only something far more valuable: a platform that aligned with a cause I consider urgent - the formation of leaders who can think clearly during turbulence, build institutions that do not fracture under pressure, and move society forward through adaptive intelligence, rather than empty performance.

I arrived with the usual mental picture of a riverine capital: a city wrestling with a difficult terrain, hemmed in by water, history, and the tired stereotypes too of...