2017 Education Convention (April Edition)
The Education Convention provides an opportunity for education stakeholders (school teachers, school owners/school heads, parents, community leaders, government officials) to gain fresh perspectives on educational issues from their interactions with educational experts.
The Education Convention comprises of the following:
Theme: “Transforming our Society through Education”
Keynote Speakers: Dr. Oby Ezekwesili (Former Minister of Education) & Mr. Fela Durotoye (CEO Gemstone Group)
Day 1: Education Conference – this session includes education seminars, panel discussion and networking opportunities
Date: Thursday, 20th April 2017
Time: 8:00 am – 4.00pm (Prompt)
Venue: City Hall, Lagos Island
Day 2: Mentor-Mentee Event – Meadow Hall Educational Leadership Team bring their experience to bear in impacting other educator’s practice through this segment of mentoring programme. Few of the topics the educators will be mentored in are: instructional, social emotional intelligence, financial literacy etc.
Date: Friday, 21st April 2017
Time: 9.00 am – 3.00pm (Prompt)
Venue: Meadow Hall, Alma Beach Estate, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lekki
WHO TO ATTEND
School teachers, School owners/heads, Parents, Community leaders and Government Officials.
SPEAKERS
Dr (Mrs.) Obiageli (Oby) Katryn Ezekwesili
Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili is a chartered accountant, former Nigerian Minister of Education, and former Vice President for the World Bank. Dr. Ezekwesili served as Vice-President for the World Bank’s program in Africa and was responsible for a portfolio of about $40 Billion and the delivery of projects, economic and sectoral work in 47 Sub-Saharan countries.
She was until recently the Senior Economic Advisor to Open Society, aimed at building vibrant and tolerant societies with democratically accountable governments. She currently runs the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI), which provides policy expertise and advisory support to African Heads of Government and their cabinets.
Dr. Ezekwesili began her career as an auditor and management consultant Deloitte and Touché Akintola Williams. She was one of the co-founders of Transparency International. She was one of the pioneer directors of its Global Board in Berlin where she held the position Africa seat from 1994-1999.
She served as Special Assistant and Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Budget Monitoring, and the Price Intelligence Unit, where she spear-headed institutional reforms of the country’s Public Procurement system through the establishment of due process mechanisms and strategies.
Dr. Ezekwesili subsequently served as Minister of Solid Minerals Development, appointed in 2005. She focused on reforming Nigeria’s mining sector to internationally recognized standards. She also served as the Chairperson for the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2004 -2007 and pioneered the voluntary sign-on of Nigeria to the EITI Principles, as well as the first ever audit of the oil and gas sector.
In June 2006, Dr. Ezekwesili was appointed under President Olusegun Obasanjo as the Minister of Education, where she led a comprehensive reform program within the education sector including Restructuring and refocusing the ministry for the attainment of Education for All (EfA) targets and Millennium Development Goals.
Following the abduction of nearly 300 girls from Chibok in 2014, Dr Ezekwesili co-founded the viral ‘#BringBackOurGirls’ campaign on social media, which trended internationally and has world-wide support, including from international personalities including the former First Lady, Michelle Obama.
She is also a member of the Global Ocean Commission at Somerville College, Oxford, jointly chaired by former Costa Rican President José María Figueres, the former Minister in the South African Presidency Trevor Manuel, and former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband. She is on the board of three public policy schools, namely, the Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy at Tel Aviv University, Israel, the School of Public Policy of Central European University, Budapest- Hungary, Global Leadership Institute at Tufts University, New African magazine – London as well as several other institutional and corporate board memberships.
Dr. Ezekwesili holds a Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The University of Agriculture in Abeokuta awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2012. In 2016 the University of Essex Business School also awarded her an honorary Doctorate Degree in Business in recognition of her role in promoting economic and social justice in African countries.
Dr. Ezekwesili was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the Time-100 Most Influential People and by New York Times as one of the 25 Women of Impact for 2015. In 2006 she had been decorated with the Nigerian national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), holds the Robert F. Kennedy Award of Excellence in Public Service of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the Tuft University EPIIC Jean Meyer Awards and other numerous local and international awards.
Dr Ezekwesili is married to Pastor Chinedu Ezekwesili. They have three sons– Chinemelum, Chinweuba and Chidera.
Fela Durotoye
FELA DUROTOYE is the Chief Executive Officer of the GEMSTONE Group, a leadership development institution with a distinct mandate to raise a Generation of leaders that are Empowered, Motivated and Stirred To Operate with Natural Excellence (GEMSTONE).
The GEMSTONE Group is dedicated to building exemplary leaders of excellence for all spheres of National Transformation, such leaders who will be committed to building their nation, shaping their continent and becoming positive earth shakers and history makers.
Fela is also the President of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organization which engages, empowers and equips nation builders and community transformers through the platforms of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Network (GNB Network) which was established May 2013.
The GNBNetwork actively engages transformational leaders at all levels of the society; through the GEMSTONE Leadership Clubs in over 300 primary and secondary schools as well as GEMSTONE Leaders Connect Network on more than 70 campuses in tertiary institutions across Nigeria. The GEMSTONE Leadership Corp network activates recent graduates on the National Youth Service Corp program to engage is community transformation projects across 30 states of the nation.
Perhaps Fela’s most significant contribution to Nation Building is the VALUE SYSTEM which he developed and is currently being endorsed and actively promoted by over 30,000 Nigerians across all gender, tribe, social class or religious affirmation. The 10 Values have now been articulated into a PERSONAL CREED and is being adopted by individuals, organizations, professional associations ( such as Association of Private Educators of Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria), and more recently government agencies and parastatals.
In 2014, the government of Anambra state formally endorsed & adopted the 10 Values for the citizens and civil service of the state, also in November 2014, the government of Lagos state trained 500 of its top civil servants across all ministries & agencies on the 10 Values.
The VALUES INFUSION project is the largest non-governmental effort at reorienting the citizens of a nation and integrating a value system into our nation’s consciousness in recent times.
Fela DUROTOYE is widely acclaimed as Nigeria’s most sought-after transformational speaker and his passion for Nigeria has earned him the pet name “Mr. Nigeria”.
Over the last 10 years, Fela has created the platform to connect Speakers who accept responsibility to be thought leaders and culture shapers for a New Nigeria. Today, the platform called Speakers Connect is unarguably the largest annual gathering of aspiring, emerging, renowned & distinguished speakers in Nigeria.
Fela recently founded the GEMSTONE Speakers Network with the aim to raise and train a critical mass of eloquent speakers who have voluntarily committed to facilitate a 1-day Value-Based Leadership training program FREE OF CHARGE in city halls, schools, churches, mosques and corporate institutions across Nigeria. Every one of the speakers trained for free is committed to train 1,000 people to date, we have trained 350 trainers nationwide who facilitate the program every 3rd Saturday of the month across training hubs in Nigeria.
Over the past decade, Fela Durotoye has built a track record of National Transformation projects, many of which are so bold and audacious; near impossible tasks. For instance, in December 2009, he championed the largest urban renewal project in Nigeria’s history. In the course of the project – titled MUSHIN MAKEOVER – Fela mobilized over 2,000 volunteers to paint 296 houses across 7 streets of the Mushin suburb of Lagos, AT NO CHARGE to the owners and resident of the buildings. The effort was seen as one of the largest community development project with no government funding but which was accomplished through individual donations and corporate sponsorship as well as the endorsement and physical involvement of many of the nation’s celebrities (Music stars and Nollywood actors), entrepreneurs, professionals, law-makers, students as well as the notorious ‘area boys’, all of who collaborated in an unprecedented way to bring about community transformation.
In the course of the Mushin Makeover project, over 100 unemployed youths were trained by Berger Paints PLC in ‘The Art & Technique of Painting’. Today, they have become vibrant painters and are able to earn a living as a result of the Mushin Makeover project.
On the 24th of November 2012, FD organized the epoch making GEMSTONE GLOBAL READING FESTIVAL where over 12,000 students spread across 18 state capitals in Nigeria as well as in 9 countries across Africa, Europe and the USA all read out aloud in their various locations selected sections of Fela’s book (17 Secrets of High Flying Students) at the exact same moment in time (across several time zones).
Also in November 2012, Fela broke the world record for “autographing the largest number of books by one author” when he autographed non-stop 10,000 copies of his book in one-seating over a period of 8 hours and 43 minutes.
EDUCATION
Fela Durotoye obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science with Economics, as well as a Masters degree in Business Administration (M.B.A) and a Master of Philosophy Degree (M.Phil.) in Strategic Management from the prestigious institution after it was renamed the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. For his MBA thesis, he understudied “The Management of Change in Complex Organizations”.
He is also an Alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government of the prestigious Harvard University, Boston (Massachusetts) as well as an alumnus of the prestigious Yale University, New Haven (Connecticut) and The Leadership Institute, Arlington (Virginia) all in the United States of America. He is also a certified leadership coach of the John Maxwell Team.
In 2015, Fela completed the Executive Seminar program on Strategy, Innovation & Governance with specific focus on Sustainability for NGOs and Corporate Organizations at the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS).
Also in 2015, Fela concluded the supernumerary police training program at the Nigerian Police Training School Ikeja and received the Distinguished Student Award at his graduation and passing out parade.
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
Fela Durotoye started his professional career as a Project Finance Analyst in Ventures & Trusts Limited (V&T) in 1992. In 1998, he brought his experience to Phillips Consulting Limited (PCL) where he excelled to head the Customer Service Group. There, Fela designed and facilitated several customer service and personal mastery training programs and retreats.
In 2000, he established V.I.P CONSULTING Limited and soon gained the reputation as one of the leading experts in the fields of Customer Management and Workforce Activation in Nigeria.
In 2007, V.I.P Consulting went through a corporate transformation from a purely management consulting firm into a social enterprise called VISIBLE IMPACT LIMITED. The restructuring added to its existing Consulting group, four other divisional groups comprising the Project Management group, the Multimedia group as well as the Investment Management and Foundation groups to the new Visible Impact corporate structure.
The list of corporate clients in the private sector that have been assisted by Fela Durotoye in their quest for phenomenal service leadership culture and corporate transformation management include Access Bank, GTBank, First Bank, Zenith Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa, Skye Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
His clients in the Oil & Gas sector include Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, Oando, Total, Addaxx Petroleum, Masters Energy, Bell Oil & Gas and Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company
In the telecommunications sector, his clients include Airtel, MTN, Etisalat and Multichoice Nigeria.
In the Manufacturing & FMCG space, his clients include, Lafarge, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, Sanofi Aventis and Pfizer.
In the multilateral and public sectors, the client list also includes African Finance Corporation, The European Union (EU Nigeria office), The Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) as well as the state governments of Lagos, Oyo, Kwara, Abia, Anambra, Rivers, Ondo and Ekiti.
He presently sits on the board of several companies across the spectrum of Nigerian’s economic space such as O NAPHTALI (leading scratch card print company in Nigeria), and BUBEZ FOOD COMPANY.
He is currently the chairman of the boards of Directors of some of Nigeria’s leading companies including HOUSE OF TARA INTERNATIONAL (Nigeria’s leading beauty company with over 4,000 beauty representatives, 22 beauty studios & 12 make-up schools), HOMEBASE MORTGAGE BANK LIMITED (a foremost mortgage institution led by Mr. Femi Johnson who is also the president of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Nigeria), I-ASPIRE MEDIA (Operators of Nigeria’s premier inspiration and leadership radio) and ORBRA ICT (manufacturers of cutting edge smartphones, tablets, smart devices and accessories).
Fela is also on the advisory board of Nigeria Canada Forum (NCF) based in Regina Canada.
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP
FD, as he is fondly called by his friends and protégés, has emerged as a credible voice of leadership for a new Nigeria across the wide spectrum of the young and old as well as business and political leaders. His fan base on Facebook currently about 265,000 and he is followed by about 125,000 on Twitter.
In February 2013, Fela was profiled by the US-based Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 10 Power Men in Africa on Twitter.
He has also authored four best-selling books including 17 Secrets of High-flying Students, The Surbordinate (How to become the right candidate for promotion always), the award-winning Mr. Fantastic and most recently, the A-Z of Wow Speaking.
Fela has won several national and international awards for his leadership development and nation building activities including the prestigious Nigerian Achievers Award in 2009. In recognition of his contributions to the field of Human Resource Consulting, he was honoured with the “Excellence in Human Resource Consulting Award” by NIPRO, a body of Nigerian Professionals based in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, at their global convention in Miami, Florida in December 2004.
Also in July 2005, he was awarded the most prestigious Award of Excellence, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN), in recognition of his excellence and professionalism in extending knowledge frontiers in Human Resource Management.
Others awards include, Nigerian Achievers Award Institute (NAAI), Fly Network Africa Integrity Award, City People Award and Role Model Award by ICPC.
In 2006, he received the Heart of Africa Award by the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication in recognition of his efforts towards building a new Nigeria.
In 2011, Fela Durotoye was recognized by the Universal Peace Federation and the Youth Federation for World Peace as a UNITED NATIONS YOUNG AMBASSADOR FOR PEACE.
In 2016, Fela was given the Presidential Youth Award (as a Trail blazer) for his achievement in the field of Youth and Community Development.
Adetokunboh Olufela Durotoye was ‘conceived’ in Toronto Canada but was born in the city of Ibadan in the south Western region of Nigeria to the family of Prof. Layiwola and Prof. (Mrs.) Adeline Durotoye on 12th of May 1971 as the third child and second son of the family.
He is happily married to Tara; a renowned and celebrated make-up artist and beauty entrepreneur, and together, they have three boys, (Mobolurin, Oluwademilade and Morolaoluwa) who think their dad is a super hero!
Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh
Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh is an astute visionary, strategist and administrator per excellence with a verifiable track record of impact in his almost 20 years of professional and social service engagements.
Representing a new generation of middle-aged Nigerians, he is passionately committed to the realization of the “New Nigeria”.
Before his recent appointment as the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Education, he was the Chief Executive Officer of MediaVision Limited, Nigeria’s Leading Events Management & Sports Marketing company, now with international affiliates.
Mr. Bank-Olemoh’s entrepreneurial spirit was nurtured at SystemSpecs Limited – the leading provider of software solutions for the Nigerian and the African Market, where he was enlisted as a graduate trainee and eventually rose to become Senior Manager (International Sales) before he resigned to pioneer and co-found MediaVision Limited in 2003.
Having obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Degree in Accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife, Mr. Bank-Olemoh participated in the OMP Entrepreneur programme from the Lagos Business School of the Pan African University in 2007 to deepen and entrench his entrepreneurial orientation. He is also an alumnus of the Business School Netherlands (BSN), where he obtained a Master in Business Administration in 2012.
Mr. Fela Bank-Olemoh is a very passionate leader whose service to humanity led to an endowment of the Lagos State Merit Award for his contribution to the education sector in 2014.
He has also functioned in various capacities such as:
- Director, Publicity & Media: Prof Yemi Osinbajo Campaign Team- 2015
- Chairman: Lagos State Chess Association 2012 – date
- Sub-committee Member: National Sport Festival, Lagos State LOC – 2012
- Pastor: Foundation of Truth Assembly, Ajah, Lagos 2013 – date
- Board Member: Sickle Cell Advocacy & Management Initiative 2011 – date.
- Board member: Nigeria Academical Sports Committee (NASCOM)
He is the Lead Pastor of Foundation of Truth Assembly in Ajah on the Lekki Peninsula and the convener of “Parenting in the 21st Century” – a project with an overriding purpose to equip parents as well as guardians with the right knowledge sufficient for effective parenting.
He is happily married Deaconess Jumoke Bank-Olemoh and has 3 children – Oluwanifemi, Anjolaoluwa & Ebunoluwa.
Mrs. Kehinde Nwani
Mrs. Kehinde Nwani is a social entrepreneur who has a passion for national transformation and believes that education can be used as a viable tool for societal development. She began her career as a lawyer obtaining her Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Ife (now ObafemiAwolowo University) 30 years ago and was called to the Nigerian bar thereafter. She practiced law for about 14years before finally deciding to pursue her lifelong passion-education.
To adequately equip her for this, she obtained a Montessori diploma, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (International) PGCEi and subsequently a Masters degree in Education from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. She is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Leicester.
She has successfully grown Meadow Hall which started as a summer school in 2002 to an education group with 5 sub-brands: Meadow Hall Education, Meadow Hall Consult, Meadow Hall Foundation, Spring Meadow Edutainment, Meadow Hall Branchise.
Mrs Nwani has been widely recognized for her educational pursuits, achievements and notable contributions to the growth of education in Nigeria. Consequently, she has received such awards as ‘Entrepreneur of Our Time’ by Junior Achievement Nigeria in 2008. The Fellow for the Order of Sustainable Education’ by the Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University in 2012 ‘The Christian Business Woman of the Year’ by the Wise Women Awards in 2013, ‘, ‘Excellence in Quality Education’ at the 2015 Nigeria Entrepreneurs Awards. National Outstanding Leadership Award 2016, by the National Association of Nigerian Students.