Charting New Governance Models: African Student Leaders Define the Future at ASLS 2025

At ASLS 2025 in Akure, leadership expert and UNIJOS alumnus Ekenedilichukwu Charles Emmanuel gathered African students to move beyond complaints and design the future of governance.

For many young Africans, conversations about governance often feel like echoes of the same old story: corruption scandals, broken promises, and systems that rarely work for the people they are meant to serve. However, in Akure, Nigeria’s Southwest, inside the halls of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), something different unfolded. Students gathered not to complain about yesterday’s failures, but to imagine tomorrow’s possibilities.

This was the heartbeat of the African Students Leadership Summit (ASLS 2025), where the theme “Reimagining Governance: Shaping the Future of Leadership and Societal Systems” became more than words on a banner. It became a challenge to rethink what leadership could look like if built on values, vision, and systems designed from Africa’s own realities.

Convener Ekenedilichukwu Charles Emmanuel, Director of the Ekkolaptikos Institute of Strategic Leadership (EISL) and an alumnus of the University of Jos, Plateau State, set the tone from the very first session: leadership, he reminded participants, is not about doing what one likes, but about doing what is right. His call framed the summit as less of a conference and more of a mirror, urging Africa’s next leaders to see themselves as responsible actors, not just critics of the present order.

From there, the summit leaned heavily into ideas. Babajide Marculey, a lecturer at FUTA, urged students to view education not as a mere pursuit of academic credentials, but as a tool for transformation. His gift of books to two students, a simple gesture, reinforced the point: knowledge is not a trophy, it is a compass.

Titilayo Obileye, Communication Strategist to the Ekiti State Governor, went further. Through an imaginative exercise, she asked students to re-picture their communities. Her piercing reminder — “What you value is what you govern with” — left the room silent for a moment. The message was clear: Africa’s governance systems must be rooted in its own values, not borrowed templates.

Even goodwill moments carried weight. Mr. Chinda, Managing Director of the International Institute of Project & Safety Management, spoke less like a guest and more like a mentor, sharing how reimagining governance had reshaped his own institution. His message to the students was blunt: systems thinking is not a theory, it is a survival tool.

Panels and fireside chats, moderated by Emmanuel, turned abstract debates into practical lessons: how to manage dissent, how to align vision with people’s needs, how to measure time and decisions. Again and again, the refrain was the same: the future will belong to leaders who design with intention, not those who govern by accident.

The summit also spotlighted students who are already building futures through enterprise. A “Waste-to-Wealth” recycling initiative and a youth-driven beauty products brand stood out as proof that governance is not limited to political office, it is about solving systemic problems, from the environment to the economy.

Backed by partners such as The Homes Group Limited, International Institute of Project & Safety Management, Vimedia Africa, and PSJ Nigeria, ASLS 2025 showed the power of shared responsibility. Its Pan-African vision, One Africa, One Future, One Leadership Voice, carried through every session.

For students, ASLS was not a symbolic gathering. As one participant put it:

This summit didn’t just tell us to lead; it showed us how to think about the future differently, as designers, not just as dreamers.

A Participant.

The summit ended with the launch of the Civic Futures Network and a communiqué to guide ongoing engagements. Organisers also revealed plans to produce a documentary film capturing the transformation journey.

In the end, ASLS 2025 was less about titles and more about mindset shifts. It was a rehearsal for Africa’s future — one where governance is foresight-driven, systems-oriented, and rooted in values.