Tag: Ambode

The Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, was yesterday declared winner, polling 811,994 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr. Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Agbaje got 659,788 votes.

Announcing the result at the Independent Nigeria Electoral Commission (INEC) state headquarters in Lagos, the state Chief Returning Officer, Prof. Isaac Adewole, who is the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, said Ambode won after satisfying relevant provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act.

Agbaje congratulated Ambode, even before the official declaration of the result.

But the PDP state agent at the collation centre, Wahab Owokoniran, refused to sign the result sheet.

The PDP alleged irregularities.

Every champion’s journey begins with a dream.” So goes the pay-off message of the Academy for Sports Excellence, ASPIRE, based in Qatar. We may not be talking sports here and now, in spite of the fast approaching World Cup in Brazil and the global fever it is generating but  in every sphere of life, winners are those who dare to dream big. And more importantly, take determined steps to actualize those dreams, against all odds.

Agreed, life itself is a test of will power; of grit and guts from people propelled by the CAN- DO -IT spirit. America, especially the U.S. with several self-accomplished citizens who started with barely anything but rose to the top of the socio-economic ladder prides itself with the American Dream. Here, in Nigeria the quest is still on.

So, what makes the quintessential Nigerian Dream? What really defines it? What unique characteristics of greatness etch them visibly in the portrait of the persona of the archetypical Nigerian success? Is it the usual rags-to-riches story? Or, is it the challenging story of that hitherto unsung individual who by sheer determination to succeed pulls himself up by the bootstrap and moves from total obscurity to that of social, economic or political limelight?

Whichever way we view it, the inspiring story of Mr.Akinwumi Ambode, a Public Finance Management Expert and the Chief Executive Officer of Brandsmiths Consulting Limited, whose compelling biography, The Art of Selfless Service was recently launched in Lagos to critical acclaim should illuminate our concept of the Nigerian Dream. More so now that he has become a beacon bearer of no mean stature, pointing  the way forward to others still trapped in the dark pits demonized by gnawing  ignorance and grinding poverty.

A public finance and management-consultant with deep knowledge of the Nigerian public sector, Ambode is a former Accountant General of Lagos State serving in that capacity between 2006 and 2012. He also served in several other capacities including Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Auditor General for Local Government and across all cadres of Lagos state’s civil service for a total of 27 years before his voluntary retirement in 2012. He gained recognition for outstanding excellence by the Joint Tax Board (JTB)/FIRS on the successful organisation of the 1st National Tax Retreat in Nigeria in 2005.

With a humble beginning, from the backwaters of Epe, a sleepy town in Lagos, Ambode was determined to make a headway in life through the acquisition of sound education, against daunting circumstances. Incidentally, those odds started manifesting with the death of his father when he was still in his tender years. With that rude shock of losing the family’s breadwinner, his dream and aspiration of achieving his lofty academic goals seemed to have come to a dead end!

Worse still, was when the uncle he approached to tell him of his ambition to someday qualify as an accountant ridiculed him: “You, this small boy become an accountant?” came the words of derision from the man. At that point, the words pierced like a hot knife deep into his very soul. But it served as a wakeup call. Not one to lament his saddening situation, he took up the gauntlet; as a great challenge rather than allow it to cow him to submission.

And as fate would have it, he graduated from the University of Lagos at 21 with a degree in Accounting. Subsequently, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant at 24 combined with a Master’s Degree. The  Alumnus of Whartton Business School, Advanced Management Programme has also attended related relevant courses at several renowned institutions, including Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, England, the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, INSEAD Singapore and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, U.S.A.

Armed with a Master’s degree in Accounting (Financial Management) his well-heeled  professional expertise cannot be in doubt. To reinforce this, he is a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in Accounting and Finance from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

With that proud professional pedigree in the highly demanding job of accountancy many would have expected him to head straight into the world of private business. But the uncommon passion for selfless service in him saw him pitching his tent with local government administration in Lagos state. Going through several of them as the Auditor General offered him the valuable opportunity to understudy the nuances and challenges of that most neglected level of administration in Nigeria.

The scenario was no less different when he emerged as the best student in an accountancy course while on Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in the United States. The expectation then was that he would stay back there and feather his professional nest. But true to type, as one desirous to impact on his community as a selfless servant he returned home, to fulfill the Nigerian Dream.

This time however, he requested to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance. And as the hand of providence would have it, it was there his unique professional competence and rare ingenuity in the accounting profession was discovered by none other than the then state governor,  Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The distinguished Nigerian with the uncommon knack for discovering talents took a closer interest in the self-effacing man driven by the mantra to serve his people to the best of his abilities.

Typical of his career trajectory, he rose to the enviable position as the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Lagos State at the young age of 37,in a system that normally takes years to attain. He worked with other professionals and colleagues well into their fifties and early sixties. The age difference notwithstanding he was humble enough to gain from their wealth of long years of experience, while they gave their maximum support that saw the Ministry reaching unprecedented heights in a symbiotic relationship that placed the entire state’s finances in good stead.

With the zeal to excel, the team he led was able to re-engineer the financial base of the Centre of Excellence. That saw to it that the state survived during the trying months when the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration unilaterally and unconstitutionally stopped monthly allocation to the local governments of the state. It would also be remembered of his exemplary selfless service that he it was who ensured that cheques for contract works completed which had piled up for years got the desired attention as the beneficiaries got paid with the desired dispatch and promptitude. Not for him is that deliberately contrived bureaucratic bottleneck that keeps files unattended to for eons. No!

Little wonder that at 48 he left the service after 27 years of meritorious service, with his head held high. Here indeed, one good Nigerian had discharged his duties to the best of his abilities driven by the philosophy of selfless service.

For him, Lagos remains the epicenter of his professional calling, the place he returned to after being fully equipped with both the Chartered Accountancy and a Master’s degree; the home where he had come back to and offered to rebuild as circumstances demanded. That Lagos, is to him today a land of unlimited possibilities, a land of vast economic opportunities and indeed, the Centre of Excellence that would forever remain home to every Nigerian citizen, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, social background or gender.

According to Sophocles, the Greek writer in his play Antigone, “No other touchstone can test the heart of a man, the temper of his mind and spirit, till he be tried in the practice of authority and rule.” Ambode has been severally tested with challenging jobs and has never disappointed anyone. Now is therefore, the auspicious time for him to be given a worthier responsibility, to fulfill his Nigerian Dream.