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By Olakunle Olafioye
The newly established policy think tank and intellectual resource centre of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, The Progressive Institute, TPI, has commenced operation with the setting up of its pioneer management in Abuja.
According to Mohammed Garba, the Chief of Staff to the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has approved the appointment of TPI management team with one director from each of the six geo- political zones in the country. Garba said the appointment which was based on merit had seen three of the directors cleared while three others were still under scrutiny.
The pioneer Director General of the institute is Olanrewaju J. Adebayo, PhD. Sunday Sun gathered that Adebayo got the nod of the party’s hierarchy to steer the affairs of the institute in view of the pivotal role he played in its establishment and against the background of his expertise in journalism, management consultancy and as a university lecturer in public policy.
Until his appointment as DG of TPI, Adebayo was the Director General of the Institute for Governance and Leadership Studies in Africa, an International Non-State Intellectual and Professional Resource Centre which focuses on governance and leadership training and research
He had at various times served as a reporter with the NTA as well as a freelance journalist with the West Africa Magazine, London. Dr. Adebayo was a lecturer in Public policy and Public Administration with the then Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University). He was Chairman of the Department’s Post Graduate Committee which introduced the Master’s Degree programme in Public Administration of the University.
The TPI DG was Director of the National Orientation Agency in Ogun and Ondo States between 1994 to 2002, after which he was appointed as the Executive Director in charge of Political and Civic Education in 2002 until 2010. During his tenure, he initiated and chaired the National Technical Committee on Civic Education. The Committee commissioned the Team of Experts that developed the Civic Education Manual. The Civic Education manual was the intellectual material that was utilized to develop Nigeria’s Curriculum on Civic Education. Dr Adebayo was a member of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council’s High Level Policy Team which developed the current civic education curriculum. The course was made compulsory in the Country in 2007 by the National Council on Education.
The Progressive Institute is an unprecedented contribution by the APC to strengthen its internal governance system through quality training, enhance the leadership recruitment process of the party while also promoting its policy support role through research. The Institute is recognized by the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the National Board for Technical Education and is chartered by the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria.
