Category: Sunday Interview

Chief Bamidele Alimi is the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, an institution that sets store for the ideas and ideals of good corporate governance within the corporate and the public spheres. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, the Osun-born technocrat, who had a glorious journalism career spanning almost two decades before joining the corporate world of business, speaks on his vision for IoD, challenges of leading a 36 year old organisation vis-à-vis issue of succession planning, leadership crisis at all levels, etal. Excerpts

Nigeria has a huge reservoir of talents but these talents have not translated to positives for the country judging by the challenge besetting the country in many fronts. What do you think is really the problem?

Nigeria does not lack talents, we have them in Nigeria but the issue has been how we are going to manage these talents and how we have provided the inclusion of these talents in the management of our system, our economy, our industry and our state owned organisations. In my little writings some time ago, I have said that we did not manage little things in Nigeria and as we cannot manage little things, the bigger things have eluded us. Little things are just what we are taking for granted. And without them being there, the big things will never happen. But we are in a country that has not learnt in the area of managing our little things but we want to manage big things, and that’s why we keep getting it wrong. I looked at our civil service structure, every time we talk about our politicians; we talk about governor, the chairman of local government, our senate, the president and so on, on how we have no foresight and planning. These are tenured political office holders, at most, they spend eight years and they go. Nobody is looking at our civil service where people work for 30 years and above before retirement, where the big offices such as Directors of Planning, Director of Maintenance, Director of Engineering Services and then you’ll never see any of these things happening. We have roads in this country that were constructed when maybe about 2000 vehicles were plying on them and today the same roads are still there with the same structure now that 50,000 vehicles are going on them and you think the roads will remain the same? It’s not possible.

Maybe we need to shift our focus and look more at these service providers, top civil servants who are supposed to lend their experiences into ensuring that when we have short term plan, midterm plan, Vision 2020, the goal behind these initiatives are achieved. What has happened to all these beautiful figures? But don’t forget that we have the civil servants who are supposed to be the visioners of this government. How are we going to hold them responsible for what’s going on? For me, I think we need to shift focus. I’m not saying we completely leave and absolve the political officeholders of fraudulent activities. But then for one governor, imagine the number of civil servants he works with. For one local government chairman, imagine the number of civil servants he works with. Same is applicable to a minister but we are holding one governor and president responsible for whatever we did not get right.

At the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, a lot of people invested hope in the country and envisaged that the country would turn into an Eldorado. But the rest, as they say, is history. This time around what can the government do to win the hearts of Nigerians who appear disappointed with the happenings in recent times?

For me, the challenges are beyond the last four years and what has happened in the last four years is just a consolidation of what has been happening in the last 30-35 years. And a country that has not planned to succeed will definitely find itself where we find ourselves. And some of the issues that were raised earlier, we have had a situation where anything goes. Every Nigerian has contributed to the situation we find ourselves today. It’s easy for us to push blames here and there on politicians but the truth of the matter is that we are all responsible for where we found ourselves today in terms of how we live our lives, in terms of what we’ve taken as priorities. By virtue of my position, I am very careful about commenting on issues so that it won’t be misconstrued as official position of the body, but then it must not stop us from talking generally about governance, especially in public sector. I will say we are in a country of brilliant people that has been ruled by the worst of us. And every time you discuss politics in Nigeria, we believe that politics is a dirty game; why are we then expecting something clean to come out from it? We need to be more politically-conscious and we need to be ready to pay the price of change. When President Buhari came, everybody was expecting everything to happen like magic but nobody was ready for the change that will make things to happen and then government needed to be careful. We are in a country where because there was availability of free fund/money everywhere, we are paying premium for things that were just ordinary. You want to go for a show that people will pay N10, 000 in UK; here we pay N50, 000. Take this same show to UK or US, people will pay 25 pounds or dollars. We need to look at ourselves and know that we have gotten to a stage where we can let go of politics. I always make a joke that if you want to know the problem with this country, it is when you’re driving. We are not concerned about the welfare of the next person, everybody is concerned about me alone and we are selfish. We should just have faith that this is only the country we have; this is the only country I can enter without visa. Whenever I travel and come back, I’m always proud because there is always entry form to fill in other countries but here, they don’t give me any. But beyond rethorics, we need to face the fact that we need to be more strategic in choosing our leaders in Nigeria. We have seen the people who were so good before they got into position but when they got there, there was no difference. Saying this, I’m not making reference to the incumbent president, but I’m talking about the past. We have seen military promised heaven on earth. But when they got there, there was no difference and the civilian came and we believe they are going to make it better yet there is no difference. But thank God we’ve been able to sustain democracy in Nigeria and that’s a critical win for us.

How many times have you stopped for people using the Zebras crossing when you’re driving? The elite especially, they speed off. When we go abroad at the airport, we queue and do what the law says we should do but the moment we get to our own country, we do the wrong things. It’s not all about government. We are talking about flooding today, it is the composition of taking their rubbish and dumping it into the gutters; some people build their houses there and allow water to run into the streets. I pity those in governance in Nigeria because the problem is huge. Nigerians do not want to pay for anything but they want to enjoy everything. When you get to government offices, you’ll discovered that there is a master plan for everywhere; we have turned play ground to churches and mosques; we have turned them to houses and you live in a community and the children do not have a place to play like normal children; the children will have to play on the road and motorcycles will hit them. So in building up these children, we have not built them to understand the value of life and there are the children that will grow and become leaders. Those are the little things that am talking about. I remember when former governor Fashola was building flowers in Lagos and people were complaining that they are hungry and he was busy planting flowers; today look at the value those flowers are bringing to the community. How many cities in Nigeria have that? Those are the little values. We have old and handicapped people in this country; do we have what I will call conscious plans to include them in our system in such a way that they don’t regret growing old in Nigeria? So, it’s not about politicians. And I can tell you that we have enough funds in this country to give us that. And we have enough opportunity to attract enough investment that will replace government spending money. I have said it and I will say it again that we have international investors that are carrying money around, looking for opportunities but the atmosphere is the key to unlock such opportunities.

Since you came on board as the CEO of Institute of Directors, what were the initial challenges you faced and how were you able to make successes so far? Where do you want to leave IoD?

Actually, I came on board about last two years ago, and honestly, I must confess that the Institute of Directors (IoD) is a body with good reputations over the years. It has been in existence for 36 years. IoD is a body known for advocating for good governance, especially in private sector. As an institute, it has gone through its own stages of development. Over the years, it has and continues to attract high level directors in private sectors. The organisation has been blessed by very great people and notable Nigerians who had been captains of various companies, so when I came in to work in the shoes of these highly respected people; it was not an easy task. The governance of the institute is in two ways, vis-à-vis, political governance and executive governance. The political governance is led by a President in the institute, while the executive governance is led by Head of the secretariat. He was first an Executive Secretary evolving over the years as the General CEO, and each of these two people must work together to create the institute that is required by the entire members, so we have the political and executive headships which now is the DGC.

When I came in, there’s been instability, in terms of high turnover, a situation where there have been four people in that position; so it was left for me to bring in stability at the executive because there are staff who are supposed to be doing the great bulk of the work to have the confidence to move on, because if we have an institute where the CEO continues to leave, assistant directors, the managers, will not feel safe. I think that was the first challenge I had and we got the stability in the executive arm of this institute. Again it is not just stability but you must behave in a way to provide that stability that will give confidence to the staff and members that they will know and believe they have the right person, somebody, who can actually support them in their vision and mission to move the institute to rest; so I think that was the first thing we did, and the second was to harmonise the working relationship between the political and executive arms of the institute. The institute runs using the experience of members, so anytime I sit with the members, I usually look at the years of experience of those members sitting in the same table with me, and it is only a fool who will not appear to take advantage of those. I’m talking about even retired CEOs of blue chip companies who are there within one committee or the other within the institute; for me, it is something that makes the job easier.

In the last three years, we have been able to create awareness of what I would call a globally accepted template on how we run our organisation and it is becoming more stringent and the directors have known that now. Last year, we came up with a well-accepted code of governance in Nigeria and it is called acquiring principle and now anybody across the world knows Nigeria principle and must adhere strictly to it.

Now, we have a lot of organisations because we have expanded our coasts, and we are now sending them reports on what IoD will come and do in those places. We are here to tell them what is expected of them. Being able to look beyond the immediate stakeholders by creating values and trust through proper evaluation and ensuring whatever we do does not hurt other stakeholders or staff and that is why we have trainings, conferences to achieve that. For example, there is a Committee of Women Development Committee of Directors on board, challenges of women on board and the peculiarities of women on board or possible way out of all these issues confronting women.

Small businesses also have lots of challenges. Is the IoD planning any intervention of such category of businesses in terms of governance, planning and management?

Last year, we created what I would call the SME Directors Forum, though this forum is very much in development stage. We realised that very many organisations will start up, make progress like two-three years and before you know it, they are not there again, and the reason for such is bad administrative governance. For example, if a chairman of a company is only interested in the company and not concerned about his staff, it leads to things like that, not knowing that there is a way he can eat the fruits of his labour and sustain his organisation. We embraced the SME by bringing our company direction to their level and it now surprised them, such that they were able to run companies over a year sustainably without creating walls and not running organisations like a family business. Let them see the value in it and not creating a wall or issue of control. We brought them a movie to watch with ten million naira to watch and see how a company is better run and sustained in trusts and confidence of the workers without walls but added values, which now helps us to expand our scope in creating productions, yet controlling about 70 percent and retaining our values and creditability. We are now moving from a national company to an international organisation and the more international organisations we have, the better for our nation. So on the long run always, when an organisation is well run, they move from small company to a large one, from national to international and now it is no longer business as usual because of the consciousness and awareness IoD had brought to the fore. No director smiles to the bank by crumbling investors’ money and causing people or staff to lose their jobs because the trend has changed.

I would like you to expatiate more on issue of succession planning. Beyond rhetoric what can a company do to survive and outlive the owners?

The issue of succession planning has not been a major issue or challenge in major companies because over the years, companies and bigger organisations learn from their challenges and mistakes. When you look at their structure, you find out, there is always somebody there responding and hearing what they are saying, and there is always a transition from Deputy Managing Director to an MD or from an Assistant Director to an Executive Director. But the same cannot be said of large national companies, quiet but they are big. Over the years, they have put in structure in place for sustainability; they assume that no chairman or director on the offices would be there forever, so the first thing that we train is about strategy because there must always be transition in such big companies. There must be a conscious and deliberate effort to bring in strategy, not just that but categorically in the arms to replacing the CEO, in replacing the Chairman, Directors or Assistant Directors, even board members. They try to find out what are the plans to be taken should any transition come and that is part of the training we have in IoD. We found out that a million content of our IoD training is typically on succession strategy. Looking out some of the wills of some companies as regards to succession plan, you find out it is either wife or son or daughter. The question remains, is that person, whether wife, son or daughter, the requirement to run the company ensuring sustainability and profitability? If not, there is nothing wrong in handling governance to any member of the family, if such in question had the real training to so do. There must be a deliberate and conscious effort to train whosoever will control the company on governance and succession planning for sustainability and profitability to ensure that the company can continue to exist, thrive, and if that is not guaranteed, it could be given to people who have the pedigree to run the organisation and everybody will see that, this is the one who can best handle it.

It’s easier to open up the two leaderships of a well-structured board that everybody can see that this is the succession plan. At the end of the day, you find out that the son can still be the Executive Director or a Director of a company but then he chose the ability to choose the best person, that’s the key. We advise SME owners, for large business owners, to look beyond their immediate families or environment to choose successors. The act of choosing a right successor on its own is not easy, and that’s why I said there must be a strategy. It starts with putting the right strategy of where a company wants to be in the next five years. In management they will tell you that we have different types of managers; we have those who are very good starters, they can take a company from the scratch, make it grow but once a company gets to what we call a plateau, they don’t have the confidence to move it beyond that plateau. At that point, you need somebody who may not be a good starter but an expert in moving an organisation from scratch to the peak. So you must match up the plan with the right personnel.

Asiwaju Reuben Olorunfunmi Basorun, frontline member of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC) in Lagos State, was in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as deputy director in charge of currency operations before he surprisingly emerged as the Secretary to the Lagos State Government (SSG) under Alhaji Lateef Jakande in the Second Republic. The eighty-one year old politician who was a member of the Obafemi Awolowo-backed Action Group Youth Association later became the pioneer chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State on the return to democracy in 1999. In this interview with Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader revealed the role he and others played during the wetie crisis of the 60s.

NIGERIA celebrated 59th independence anniversary earlier this month. Incidentally you also celebrated your 81st birthday few days ago. What is your take on the journey so far for the country?

Well, I may sound odd, but I think we have made progress. When you put it on a scale and look at the negatives and the positives, you will agree with me that Nigeria has made tremendous progress since independence. At independence, we had three regions, not three states. In 1963, there was an additional state, the Midwest. So, we had four. But by the time the military came in, Gen Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State, increased our states to twelve. And progressively like that, through military fiat and not by parliament, we got to thirty six. When America started, it was with thirteen states. But now, with the last state, the one on the sea, Blue Hawaii, America now has fifty one states. So, when you look at it from that angle, I say it is progress. We operated regionally, with functions more in the units than the centre, but we later decided to adopt presidential system. In the presidential system, the residual powers are with the states and the exclusive powers with the federal. But in our own system, despite the fact that the federal has taken too much of the powers, we still made progress coming from three units to thirty six and the devolution of power moved gradually closer to the people.

Are we going to now blame our not making progress on the performance of local governments, 774 of them, created by fiat and not by acts of parliament or any democratic system? Yes, we should have gone more democratic, but we have not. But that does not mean we have not made progress. The 774 local governments moved nearer to the people and were supposed to be agents of development at that level. On that score, I believe we have made progress. Whatever are the lapses largely have to do with the attitude of our people to positions they hold. On the part of the government, there is not enough commitment.

But many people are of the opinion that we should have gone farther than we have done in almost six decades. What do you think?

The world is a global village and as a country, we are not outside it. There is no box telephone on my table again. There is none in America or Europe again too. So, we have caught up with the world and it is progress. We have the GSM telephones and we all can talk about the numerous advantages of these. And then, the latest is the cashless policy. I remember in the 70s when I was in London for a training, I used to envy those with Master cards. In Nigeria today, we have all sorts of cards. This morning I have made three transactions to my customers on my phone. I transferred money to them and got products and services instantly without having to see any one of them. I call all these developments. But very seriously, the negative sides mostly have to do with the gap between the rich and the poor in our country. The gap is too wide. And many of these rich ones will not keep their mouth shut. One recently said he had hundreds of Europeans in his employment. Where did he get the money from? Was he a businessman before? These are the people who cornered our commonwealth and prevented development from spreading across board.

The disparity between the masses and the rich elites here is too wide. That explains why I said here in Nigeria, we practise government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. As depicted by one of these newspapers in a cartoon last week, the son of one Orji who was a governor and now a senator; is now the Speaker of the state assembly in their home state. I looked for the paper but I didn’t get it. I wanted to put it on my notice board for people to see what we have been talking about. And then it goes on like that. There is nothing wrong if our children mount positions, but the thing is too rampant. It is widening the gap between the rich and the poor from generations to generations and this is dangerous. We cannot continue to perpetuate ourselves in power. Saraki held Kwara for years, his son Bukola took over for years until Otooge stopped him. And I don’t know if the change is not temporal unless the people are serious. Okay, the man who came in too is the son of another man we knew, Abdulrahman. We are not saying that the rich should become poor, but government should create a system to ensure that the rich do not continue to press down on the poor forever. In fact, those of us in the middle class are facing extinction.  We are all at the mercy of the almighty rich people.

Government must save us all from them. The middle class is fast downgrading to the lower level. If I own a jeep now, I don’t think I can ever be able to replace it at the current price of N155m so, those you see riding jeeps in the country today are either sponsored by government or by these people oppressing all of us. So, discussing all these are trying to look at some of the negatives since independence. But on the balance, I think we have made progress. If our roads are bad, we have to continue trying to fix them. If we don’t have 24 hours electricity yet, we have to continue to work towards achieving that. We know the factors and they are difficult to erase. One of those who midwifed whatever we are calling governance today in the country owns a whole generating set manufacturing company and he is probably not ready to let go of the market just yet. And we want PHCN to work.

There have been calls on the President to beef up his economic team. Do you think this is an issue?

And when he made effort to do that, what happened? People are currently criticizing the President that he set up an economic team. I think there must be progress and to do this, we will correct our mistakes. After continuing with what we have been doing since 1960 for four years, the President felt that somebody who is not an economist should not head the nation’s economic team. It is an economic team, not a management team. Anybody can head a management team. But, it not so with an economic team, bringing an economist to head the team, to my mind, does not downgrade the position of the Vice President. The President and the Vice President are what we call The Presidency. So, when those people finish their work and submit to the presidency, the President and the Vice President are likely to look at the report together. My only grouse is that Soludo shouldn’t be in that team. What is he doing there? He belonged to another party and campaigned against the President. He has no business being part of a team he didn’t believe in.

Secondly, he was denied second term as Governor of the Central Bank. I believe he was denied because he didn’t perform well. You will recall that he restructured the banks, insisting that they should all go to N25billion share capital. Many banks went into extinction. This resulted in a lot of losses for businesses and individuals. But I want to believe they have better facts on all these. I, however, insist that as an opposition politician, he should not be in such a team in a government he campaigned against. Apart from that, let us pray for those in the team and the presidency so that we will begin to see improvement.

How will you compare governance during your time in government to what we have now?

One thing is still missing in Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo called it mental magnitude. I remember when we were in government in the Second Republic; the very day Jakande was sworn-in, he went on air to declare free education in Lagos State. Before he went to do that, we had sat down and he briefed us about his own idea of how he wanted to achieve the policy. He called the technocrats and told them he wanted education to be free in the state. He wanted the two shift methods eradicated and other such ideas. He then asked us to go and give him a proposal on how to implement the policy. It was easy to do because the Governor had already spelt out what he wanted done. So, at any level, even a commissioner, must have an idea of what is needed to be done. That will make it easy for those working with you to easily work towards implementing your ideas. That is one thing that is seriously lacking in the system today. Apart from that, like I said, we have made some progress and we should continue working harder at making life easier for our people.

You remained in the bank? At what point then did you veer into politics culminating in your going into government?

Already all those times, I was doing some background politics. To start with, I was involved with a lot of community work all along. Pa Ayo Fasanmi was at that time my political leader. He was the national President of Action Group Youth Association of which I was a staunch member back then. I was then the Organising Secretary of the association here in Igbogbo. People like Senator Abiru, the father of the popular Abirus, were my seniors. He was very active. He was practising law on his own then so he could be open about his politics. I was still in the bank and hiding then, so I was not very open. To be Organisng Secretary then I had to bear Ogunmuyiwa as surname, I didn’t bear Bashorun. Until 1978 when party was formed, I remained in hiding as a politician. But before party was formed, somebody took me to Alhaji Lateef Jakande in 1974. And my complaint to him then was that Ikorodu was cheating us here in Igbogbo. The elders here then were dealing with Papa Allison and Chief S.O. Gbadamosi both of blessed memories. Then they had called on me to be involved in politics. I started through Fasanmi who was in Osogbo. When I complained, Jakande said ‘Funmi, you cannot fight the battle outside, you have to join them.’ He advised me to move close to Femi Arokolaro. He urged me to make him my leader and use his platform to fight the cause. I obliged.

How did you emerge as the Secretary to the State Government in the first term of Governor Jakande during the Second Republic while still working at the Central Bank ahead of more established politicians of that era?

When we were moving towards civilian government in the 70s, we were holding meetings in Jakande’s house. I wrote a paper on rural development and all that. Many people were impressed by my submissions and thoughts. Then, five people were asked to come from each division. Divisions were recognized even as at that time. I was one of the five from Ikorodu division. Myself, Arokolaro, Ajisebutu, Baba Olukoga, who was our chairman and Alhaji Danmola from Ijede. Five of us were recognized. And in 1978, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) was formed and I became the Secretary for Ikorodu Division. Baba Olukoga was made chairman of the party. When we ran the election in 1979, even before we won the election, Jakande had invited me, because of the nature of my paper on rural development. He told me I will be commissioner for agriculture to implement the rural development programmes of the party. And I was still in the bank. I think on September 27, 1979, he invited all of us to his house and announced the cabinet one by one. When it got to my turn, he announced that I was Secretary to Government. I was shocked. I couldn’t question him that he earlier said Commissioner for Agriculture. I just kept quiet and prepared to serve. We had earlier in our meetings, designed 14 policy papers with which we intended to govern. We had it all worked out in areas like education, rural development, agriculture, economy, health  name it. We were ready to work.

You mentioned your relationship with Pa Ayo Fasanmi severally. How did you come in contact with him?

I met him through my activities. It was a natural inkling to serve and be useful that led me to him. Back then in Igbogbo here, if you form an association, I will come and lobby you to make me the Secretary. I was secretary to all sorts of associations as a result of this; co-operatives, market women, traders etc. it was in the process of going up and down that we met and since then, I have been tied to him. He is an epitome of commitment and courage and consistency. He remained so till date. Many people don’t know him and the many roles he played. When the crisis of Awolowo was on, he was the one in the forefront. Ajisebutu and myself were in it together with him. He led us to do a lot of things. I was in the bank then and Ajisebutu was in the local government working. But we were the ones here for Awolowo and Fasoranti. I gave my car to them to use in carrying petrol to go and burn houses in those days and years you people have read and heard of in the 60s. That is what you call the wetie crisis. I was there in Lagos but they went around with my car for operations. I took part in some and I didn’t take part in many because I was still in the bank.

Can you recall the roles played by some more prominent Awoists during that crisis?

When some people claim they are Awoist I just laugh at them because I can’t recollect seeing them or hearing of them at that crucial time in the life of Awolowo. It was Fasanmi and some others we knew as progressives then. They are the Awoists we knew. I don’t call myself an Awoist like some of these funny people but I can tell you how we operated back then. But today, everybody is an Awoist. For me, progressiveness entails those three Cs; consistency, commitment and courage. That was what Fasoranti taught us. He was courageous. He was committed and very consistent. His loyalty to Awolowo was total and he showed it. He risked his life many times for Awolowo’s sake. We were all in it. It was the face-off between Awolowo and Chief Ladoke Akintola. Ikorodu was in the Western Region too then and Fasoranti led us to stand firm for Awolowo. I’ve been in the thick of politics and Awoism as far back as that time. But I don’t flaunt my relationships. I allow what I do to speak for me. It is not enough to just declare yourself an Awoist. People know who is who and some of us know who was there when it mattered most back then. Many of them are just using the name of Awolowo to keep their dying politics alive a little longer. Most of them cannot make five percent of the sacrifices Awolowo suggested and made. Even when we had five governors, it was only Jakande who was keeping the dictates of Awolowo to the letter. They were meeting with Awolowo every Tuesday when they were governors. It was only Jakande who was using his own car and living in his own house. When he was going to change the car, it was I who went to Toyota to arrange for it. I had a friend from Central Bank who made it easy. How many of them can do this? I don’t call myself Awoist but those who know me know quite well that I have followed Awolowo and Fasanmi all my life.

Before emerging as SSG, what other political positions did you hold?

I was councilor in the 70s and rose to be deputy chairman of the Ikorodu district council. I was still at Central Bank all that while. I once attempted to get clearance to play politics but I was told it was not allowed and I just ignored them and continued my politics. I told my leaders and they told me to ignore them. Closeness to Awolowo was not planned, it was through activities. There would be meetings and we will be asked to come. We will sit down and hear the discussions. Jakande especially will call us and take us to meetings with Awolowo. There were so many of us across the state. I recall a particular meeting. Awo had invited us all to his house because he had got indications of about three different people who wanted to be governor of Lagos. Ganiu Dawodu wanted to be governor. Dr. Femi Ayantuga wanted to be governor. It was there we raised the issue of Jakande wanting to be governor. We were the ones who raised it. He asked us who will be our choice before telling us about the other two. I recall that it was my friend from here, Ajisebutu who said ‘Baba give us paper. Don’t let us talk. Let all of us write who we want on paper for you to see.’ Twenty five of us wrote Jakande. That was when Awolowo reclined on his chair and said ‘I have a problem.’ Ayantuga wants to be governor. Dawodu also wants to be as well as Senator Shitta Bey. Later, he invited the three of them and told them what happened without mincing words. He suggested that Shitta Bey should go to Senate. Ayantuga too go to Senate. Dawodu who served as commissioner under the military was advised to return as commissioner under Jakande. I also can recall that I used to take notes when listening to Professor Aluko and members of his economic team for Baba Awolowo back then. If I check the house, I will still see some of the notes. I was there. There was a day Aluko spoke for hours before Awolowo dismissed all their recommendations and proffered very simple solutions.

He said we should canvass free education and free health for all. He said once we take care of those two, others things will fall in place. Awo is a great man and knowing him helped me greatly in life. I read all his books.

For you, what has the journey through life being like for the past eight decades?

I was born here in Igbogbo by Albert Adewamiwa Ogunmuyiwa and my mother, Abigail Olowu. My father died in 1944. I was already in school. Following my father’s death, I relocated to Lagos because my mother was betrothed to an uncle by the name Bashorun. I lived at the popular Oluwole area of Lagos till 1946. Then he took me to where he was living and working in Agege area.  I entered District Central School, Agege.  But by September 1, 1948, I returned to Igbogbo again. I had to go to Ikorodu for my Standard 3 class at Ita Elewa. We later moved to Etunrenren. From there, I moved back to Lagos to join my mother and step-father. I joined Tinubu Methodist School and completed my primary education there. I moved to Eko Boys High School for my secondary school. I sold kerosene after school to help my mother raise some money then. At a time, my mother even suggested that I stopped schooling after primary school but I insisted that since others were taking forms for secondary school, I will too. I sat for the entrance examination and I was admitted in 1954 and left in 1958. We were 64 of us admitted that year.  In a nutshell, that was how I went through elementary, primary and secondary school moving from one school to the other between Igbogbo, Ikorodu and Lagos areas of the state.

How did you get employed by the Central Bank of Nigeria?

While we were preparing to leave Eko Boys High School in 1958, Central Bank was established. That was in September 1958. So, they went round trying to recruit and our school was one of the schools visited. We discovered later that they didn’t get good response from other schools. So, they gave a condition that whoever they will employ must have credit in English and Mathematics. So we were recruited. By January 5, 1959, I was in Central Bank. When the result came in March, fortunately, the four of us recommended by our teacher made it. So we were retained. But we found later that the Secretary of the Bank then brought people from his place in the then Western Region. But they didn’t make the two credits required. They were asked to go while we remained there. It was while there I started improving my education. It was there in 1967 that I qualified as a banker. I got ACIS 1968. And then 1977 I became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. But before then, immediately I finished my ACIS in 1968, I enrolled at the University of Lagos for a course in Business Administration.

It appears you had it all rosy and smooth working at the Central Bank?

I won’t say so. In the bank there, there were a lot of politics. I emerged the President of the workers’ union in 1970. It was by accident because in 1969, the staff of Central Bank went on strike twice. The grouse was that the staff wanted to earn more than those in the commercial banks back then. The management felt otherwise. So the leader of the union, the President back then, abandoned the strike midway during the first strike. So, I became the leader of the strike. Eventually, I was confirmed as the President of the union. But because of these activities, I was transferred. I was sent to Maiduguri. It won’t be the first time I would be transferred. In 1966, I was sent to Jos. That was when the war came. Then I went to Enugu during the war. The transfer to Maiduguri I recall affected my course at UNILAG though the Dean of my Faculty was gracious enough to grant me permission to come back. So I went back in 74/75 session and completed my degree. I remained in the bank during all these times.

So, how did you disengage from Central Bank?

So, I went back to Central Bank. I was still there till the very day I was appointed into government by Jakande as SSG. The Governor of the Bank then was Ola Vincent. He was not around then. But one Ahmed Abdulkadir Ahmed was the deputy governor. When I told him the development, he asked me if I knew Jakande before. I couldn’t tell him I was into politics already so I said he has been my old friend. He said it was a good thing for me and the bank. He advised I take the opportunity right away. I was then deputy director and quickly did all I needed to do for all the branches of Central Bank because I was then in charge of currency operations which is now headed by a deputy governor. I cleared my table and left. We resumed office Tuesday October 2, 1979. We had the first executive council meeting on Thursday. I was sworn in ahead of the commissioners and I started working immediately. Jakande later sent the list of nominees to the assembly and it was easy to get them cleared because the members were 36 and UPN won all the 36 seats. I remember that Oba Hamzat won election into the assembly from Mushin and his name was also on the list of commissioners sent to the assembly that year. He had to step down from the House to become Commissioner for Public Transportation. So that was how I got into government and I was there for the four years and became Commissioner for Education after the first term. Just like in the first term, he invited us all to brief us of our new assignments. We were in office till the coup. And after we left government I continued politics till today.