The challenges to Africa’s development are enormous and daunting. They traverse a whole gamut of issues including political, economic and social. These bring to the fore the issues of leadership failures manifested in the inability of governments across Africa to deliver development to the citizenry.

As a result, Africans live in lamentably poor conditions essentially due to the irresponsibility of government. The situation has steadily encouraged corruption, all shades of militancy and restiveness and an entrenched laissez-fair culture that now are huge factors in diminishing values and standards all over the continents. The effect of these have been catastrophic and mind boggling, and have reinforced debate on the leadership question in Africa, nay Nigeria, to among other things search for appropriate leadership response to the development issues in Nigeria and the continent.

Arguably, the issues have been traced to the effects of military incursion in governance. The return to democratic rule in Nigeria which should have passed as a panacea has not been able to resolve the challenges, because of the decay in values. Thus eliciting a renaissance or a rebirth process to re-invent the ideals (values and ethics) which Africans, Nigerians and the diverse people and communities in Africa are known for. However, the belief that re-enactment of ethical values and standards are necessary wake-up calls for a better and organised society, gave vent to the establishment of Value Rebirth & Empowerment Initiative (Value Rebirth Centre), to champion the course of ethical and value re-orientation that will usher in a new lease of life to the Nigerian and African Society in building value driven institutions for sustainable peace and development.

The idea is that a return to a regime of values and ethics will elicit a near perfect society and ensure responsible citizenship and governance.

Value Rebirth and Empowerment Initiative (VREI) in partnership with The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) is running annual tuition free leadership school in Effurun-Warri, Delta State. The Leadership School came on stream on the 10th of June 2017 as the first of its kind in the South-South (Niger Delta Region) in a bid to train leaders by attempting to unravel the complexity of leadership and offering a frame work that Will help people with focus on leader development and leadership development. The school is instituted to tackle global issues on leadership relating to governance and bring true leadership to bear. The leadership training is conceptualized to equip prospective leaders with skills and knowledge as part of effort to addressing the leadership challenge in our clime and country.

At the School, there are a lot of presentations, group work, interactive sessions, coaching, mentoring and assignments to be supervised by a faculty but physical meeting takes place every second Saturday of the month from 9am -3pm at Shamar School Hall, Along Enerhen – Udu Road, Near Opp. Ecobank, Effurun-Warri, Delta State. Participation is TUITION FREE but students are expected to buy at least ten textbooks on leadership (not supplied by Value Rebirth-Centre LSD). Certificate of participation is given to deserving students who complete the necessary attendance, assignments and Community Development Service. (At least 7.7 percent).

Our desire is to produce leaders/entrepreneurs who will know how to mobilize others to get extraordinary things done in organizations and nations; transform values into actions; visions into realities; obstacles into innovations; separateness into solidarity and risks into rewards.

The school is meant for people who are motivated to become leaders and want tools to become dynamic, strategic and visionary leaders and entrepreneurs that will transform organizations, nations and change negative entrepreneurial values into positive. Effurun-Warri Study Centre have graduated 182 participants in three years.