Tag: Gamaliel Onosode

• Exit of Mr. Integrity. When comes another?

For years, Gamaliel Onosode’s name was strongly associated with integrity in the public mind because he exemplified that high virtue in socially significant ways. He was the type whose professional career suggested a political promise. Perhaps it is Nigeria’s loss that his shining leadership qualities were denied expression on the political stage. He was a presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).

Onosode was an acknowledged major player in boardroom politics in the private sector, but his respected management expertise also proved useful in the public sector; and was beneficial to the country’s political administrations at different times.

His death in Lagos on September 29, at age 82, spoke about his life and the paths he followed to distinction. From his emergence in the 1970s as a promising chief executive following his stint at NAL Merchant Bank, Onosode rose to impressive heights in Nigeria’s corporate world. Among the distinguished positions he occupied were: chairman of Dunlop Nigeria Plc (1984 – 2007), chairman of Cadbury Nigeria Plc (1977- 1993) and chairman of Zain Nigeria. He also had leadership seats on Nigeria LNG Working Committee and Nigeria LNG Limited (1985 -1990).

A quintessential technocrat, he was Presidential Adviser on Budget Affairs and Director of Budget (1983) and President of the Nigerian Institute of Management (1979 -1982). In 1998, he became a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He was also a Fellow of the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank.  He was richly decorated in various spheres.  He made a defining contribution to public sector management by his headship of a Commission on Nigerian Parastatals in the 1980s, and it is a testimony to his positive role that the Onosode report, produced under his tenure, identified major developmental drawbacks that are still identifiable problems decades after.

According to the report: “Public capital expenditure rose during the oil boom at a much faster rate than Nigeria’s physical, technical or financial abilities; huge expenditure on particular industrial projects did not yield expected returns because of “inappropriate choices in their selection, size, design, location and management.” ; government policies laid too much emphasis on industrialisation, without regard to Nigeria’s resource base and comparative advantage; frequent changes in fiscal and monetary policies created planning problems for the private sector; the exchange rate of the naira was not managed “to reflect the basic strength of the economy and the need to encourage domestic production.”

Onosode’s image as a forthright personality and patriot was also cemented by his role as Chairman of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey, a non-governmental organisation focused on environmental and social impact assessment of oil exploration in the Niger Delta.  The group, based on research, blamed the environmental degradation in the region on oil majors, the Federal Government and the oil-producing communities. It was another case of identifying the causes of a problem that remains problematic.

There was no doubt about Onosode’s comfortable status.  But he was never defined by money — only by character and by uncommon modesty. It is noteworthy that, in a tribute, his friend of more than five decades, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku, said Onosode’s resources were “righteously acquired.” He passed through life, and lived at the top, without a whiff of scandal, which is a lesson for the country’s living men of means.

Although it is speculative how much his life was influenced by his religion and religious role, he took Christianity seriously, and in 1984 started Good News Baptist Church at his home in Surulere, Lagos. It is to his credit that by the time he died the church reportedly had over 2, 000 members. Onosode, known as a deacon, was until his death Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

A man of impressive elocution, Onosode’s signature centre hair parting made a generational statement. Of Urhobo roots, educated at the Government College, Ughelli, and the University of Ibadan, he was a generational example and represented a receding era.

•In celebration of Mr. Straight and Fastidious

He is acclaimed to be straight and that can be taken to mean both literally and metaphorically. This is because for most of his 80 years which he turned May 22, he has managed to keep a physique that is lean, trim and ramrod upright. Gamaliel Oforitsenere Onosode is also acclaimed to be a highly disciplined man and one may need no other proof than the fact that he seems incapable of growing a tummy, not even an onion-sized one, the way ‘big men’ of his age and clime are wont. In fact, his ways are so decidedly his, so defined that you could never mistake G.O. Onosode for someone else. Even his voice too – high-pitched, clear, authoritative and seeming to be always loud – is a testimony to this enigma.

Onosode is the kind of man who defines his era, but that has to be in a different civilisation. For here in his place of birth he excelled all right, but his dour environment only encrypted him like an incubus which allowed an occasional peek of sunshine. In all his marvelous efforts and glorious achievements, Onosode remains that breath never exhaled; he is a tree that could have been an Iroko and perhaps the great political leader who never found a party.

He studied Classics at the University College, (now University of Ibadan) on multiple scholarships (State Scholar and University Scholar, 1954-1957) for he was extremely brilliant and top of his class. As attestation to the quality of his mind, he won the Department and Faculty Prize; he was elected Cambridge University Jebb Scholar (1957). Onosode however, did not end up in the academia as was to be expected; he played in the boardrooms instead, earning the uncommon status of perhaps heading the most number of boards in Nigeria today.

He also chaired panels, boards, councils, commissions and committees in both public and private sectors. The list is quite long: Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Institute of Management, Federal Military Government Projects Review Committee, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, CFAO Nigeria Limited, Nigeria Stockbrokers Limited, Crusader Insurance Company (Nigeria)Limited, Dunlop Nigeria Plc, Niger Delta Environmental Survey, Global Missions Board, Nigeria Baptist Convention. There may be over 50 more if we add directorship and trusteeship of all sorts of businesses, bodies and groups.

In a country bereft of good people and leaders of character, Onosode would earn his place anywhere on the globe as a man of conscience and shining integrity. Why do you think he is so much sought after to be at the helm, not just because he is brilliant; he is simply a gem, a rarity in a famished land where honest and decent men are few and far between. He must be a classic example that honesty meshed with brilliance, rigour and industry will never fail.

From 1960 up until the early 1990s, Onosode was the authority to be referred to in merchant banking, stock broking, development economy and even manufacturing. By the time he was 30 years, he was already Secretary, Nigeria Idustrial Development Bank (NIDB) which was known then as Investment Company of Nigeria and at 40, he was chairman and chief executive officer, NAL Merchant Bank.

It is difficult to hold anything against Mr. G.O. Onosode except that he was too straight, too strict and perhaps colourless. You are not likely to catch him in a big Owanbe party and he once said in an interview that he was not one to go to the stadium on a Saturday afternoon to watch a football match. He is also too down to earth to deserve a seat in the pantheon of Nigeria’s big men. Unimaginably, he chose to live in the Surulere suburb of Lagos State; a part of town not good enough for his senior managers when he was at the height of his corporate glory. He still lives there till today. He could have owned half of Ikoyi and Victoria Island if he was a wee bit covetous. We salute Mr. (yes, he is simply Mr.) Onosode as he turns 80 years. Shall we just say that he is a rare gift that Nigeria never really accepted or fully utilised.