WORRIED that the country is still far behind expectations of founding fathers, a group of concerned Nigerians came together last year to set up a non-governmental organisation, Foundation for Value Transformation (FVT).

The initiative, according to the founders, is aimed at actualising the immense potential of Nigeria for greatness and well being of its people. The platform brings to the table a globally validated process to indentify and drive shared national values that provide firm foundation for national cohesion and growth.

The core objective of the organisation is to stimulate societal values that support economic growth and good quality life, as well as promote cohesive national values to strengthen unity and diversity in the country. Creating platform that will support leaders in building sustainable high performance system, as well as develop a stakeholder network for national transformation are also tops the organisation’s agenda.

Using researched based cultural transformation tools, FVT initiates dialogue among leaders and stakeholders, including civil society organisations, labour, politicians, religious groups and youths, with the hope of evolving a culture that delivers a future with remarkable improvement for all.

In a chat with the founder and Executive Director of the NGO, Segun Caulcrick, the former Country Manager of UPS observed that great nations are built on strong pillars of values shared by the people, which provide the foundation and guiding spirit for their constitutions, laws and behavioural expectations.

“Despite its outstanding credentials for greatness, there is a heart-felt cry from Nigerians today for a clear path out of the jungle of dysfunctional socio-political system that has trapped the immense energy of our people. The whole purpose of FVT is aimed at good quality life to all Nigerians; it is a nationwide initiative. The people of Nigeria have the power to determine their destiny and FVT is committed to mobilizing citizens to once again discover the path to sustainable greatness,” he said.

According to Caulcrick, who is also the Executive Director of Courtney Inglis Consulting, a firm that focuses on maximising   enterprise performance by facilitating the development of human capital through innovative processes and tools, changes in systems often times comes from the leadership.

“Everywhere around the world, leadership drives change. However, what you find though in our environment is that the leadership is enmeshed in the current system and they seem to benefit from it, making it difficult for them to lead that change. So, you really need an external influence to get them to make that change.”

Through its ‘Deep and Wide’ strategy, the initiative seeks to engage various stakeholders, including the civil society groups and youths, to come together and speak with common voice in demand for change.

“Deep’ in the sense that we are looking at creating cells from State to Local Government levels of people, who will be engaged in looking at our values and how to embed those values in the society around them. The ‘Wide,’ there are other organisations at the local level, who are involved in similar struggle; they are expected to interact with them. So, we are engaging on the local level, the state level and national level,” he noted.

Though the organisation has come out with clear-cut tactics for its operation, there’s also room for partnership with existing groups, who are interested in leading the country to greatness.

“There are lots of people, who are also looking at a way to change Nigeria; it’s going to be a teamwork. The idea is to engage our effort together and move Nigeria. What we want to have is a platform that will give people a voice and that’s why we are looking at our values.”

To the Executive Director, mindset plays a vital role in forming the behavioural pattern of individuals, assuring that the organization has perfected plans on how to change negative perception of the people towards Nigeria.

“If you are looking at changing behaviour long term, then you need to look deeper; you need to find the values that should drive new bahaviour. From then, we can then demand from the government that these are the values we want to see in our system. And if that is not forthcoming, then we want to engage with them on how it can be done.”

The problem in Nigeria, according to Caulcrick, is that people have power to demand change, but they don’t use it.

“We always feel, ‘I’m alone.’ But if we can come together, then we can demand those things. A lot of things are happening in the country that is not right; we talk about it for some time and we forget. There’s no organised body that helps to sustain the action. If we have a network of people, who are interested in the future of this country, they will help in sustaining the tempo. The change you see in other country is no a personal thing; it’s always teamwork by people who are committed.”