John Gaul Lebo

John Gaul Lebo
Lebo after bestowed with the Zik's International Leadership prize award for Best State Legislature Leadership in 2017
Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly
Constituency	Abi State Constituency
In office June 2011 – June 2019
Personal details
Born	(1972-03-15) March 15, 1972
Spouse	Barr. Binta Gaul Lebo
Alma mater	University of Calabar Calabar Nigeria
Occupation	State Legislator
Profession	Lawyer

John Gaul Lebo (born March 15, 1972) is a lawyer and legislator in Cross River State. He was a former two-term member and Speaker of the House of Assembly representing Abi State Constituency. He is married to Barr Binta Gaul Lebo, with whom he has three children.

Education

Lebo started his studies at St. Bernard's Primary School Ibalebo, Adadama Abi, and gained his WASSCE at St. Brendan's Secondary School, Iyamoyong in Obubra. He got admission to study Law at the University of Calabar, Nigeria where he graduated with an LL.B. in 1996. In 1997, he got admission to further his studies at the Nigerian Law School, where he obtained the qualification to become a Barrister at Law and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1998.

He studied further at Lagos Business School. He has a Diploma in Business Advisory Services, Strategic Planning and Management at Regenesys Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa; an Executive Master's in Business administration from the Dubai Business School at the Dubai World Trade Centre; an International Diploma in Climate Change Law from the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law in London; and a Master's degree in International Economic Law.

Lebo attended the 2017 Special Selected (G65) Emerging Leaders Executive Leadership Course at the Kennedy School of Harvard University, where he specialised in Decision Science. He finished his Harvard University Decision Science fellowship programme focusing on Reinvented Service Delivery. He became an alumnus of the Kennedy School of Harvard University in November 2017.

Political career

In 2007, he was appointed a member of the Cross River State Legal team. He was a member of the transition committee of Cross River State in 2007. In 2011, Lebo won sufficient votes at the primaries of the People's Democratic Party (Nigeria) to run for a seat to represent Abi local government of Cross River State. He was elected on 10 June 2015, as the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly. He was the Pioneer Chairman of the People's Democratic Party (Nigeria) Speakers' Forum and Secretary Speakers' Forum Ad-Hoc Committee on the constitutional amendment of Nigeria.

Legislative career

As a member, Lebo sponsored a large number of bills in his first tenure, which got him voted as the Best Lawmaker in the Cross River State House of Assembly by the People's Democratic Party South South Zone. He successfully argued the highest number of motions in the Assembly. Lebo sponsored the following private member's bills:

• A Bill for the Establishment of Songhai Farms in Itigidi, Abi.
• A Bill to create the Cross River State College of Nursing in Abi.
• A Bill to include 7 communities in Cross River State under the [[CRS BODERCOM law, of which communities in Abi became Beneficiaries.

Lebo has sponsored over 50 Abi students in higher institutions through the John Gaul Lebo scholarship. He also sponsored 100 Abi indigenes at the CBN Enterprise Development Center in Calabar the training of 30 Abi women under Forever Living Products. Lebo has served as a law lecturer at the University of Abuja and managing editor of Law Reports of Nigeria. His firm, Gaul-Gate Law, was the first to introduce the ICT law report to the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

In 2015, he attended the ceremony for the 46th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association African region annual parliament meetings for Legislative Direction and Conversation in Nairobi. In February 2015, he attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Lebo also attended a four-day professional training on Strategic Climate Change Adaptation. In November 2016, Lebo participated in the 22nd session of the Marrakech World Climate Change Conference. Lebo, in February 2017, participated at the 5th session of the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he took part in different sessions on decision architecture, future of governance and developing special legislative purpose vehicles.

Alumni and fellowships

Lebo has acquired several fellowships and alumni to his name, as follows;

• Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow Institute of Strategic Management, FISM.
• Fellow Chartered Management Institute, FCMI.
• Fellow Institute of Corporate Management, FICM.
• Fellow Chartered Institute of project CIMP.
• Alumni John Kennedy school of government alumni 2017, Harvard University Boston.
• Alumni Regenesys Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Honors and awards

In February 2017, Lebo was given an award by the Ghana Civilian Institute of Administration for promoting a model in Legislative Administration, which is part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association annual performance review and referral award. He was invited to participate in the 5th session of the World Government Summit in 2017. The same year, he was awarded the Nnamdi Azikiwe Zik's International Leadership Prize award for best state legislature leadership in Nigeria.