By Ikedi Ohakim
We have never really lacked men, but more often than not, we have suffered a system that throws up not our best for positions that only our best should occupy. At independence we had the articulate and eloquent Nnamdi Azikiwe, the visionary Obafemi Awolowo, the imperial Ahmadu Bello leading the charge.

The most valuable factor of production, in nation-building, must be human capital. This is why no nation can risk its development and progress by presenting less than its A-team for leadership.

Okonjo-Iweala

Every nation requires its best and brightest to pilot it through the turbulence of nationhood and the challenges of development. Most developed countries take this philosophy very seriously and strive often to put their best foot forward. For them, the second team just does not suffice.

Only the First Eleven will do. But this does not seem to be the case with Nigeria. Somehow, the most qualified seem not to often get the job, giving room to mediocrity in government. Yet, Nigeria is not lacking in the quality people department. It may be lacking though in a proper system that ensures that the most suitable people get into positions of leadership. There is ample evidence to show.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

I have never met Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala one-on-one. But I am greatly enamoured of her. Although she was a vice president at the World Bank until the year 2000, little was known of her back home in Nigeria until she was rooted from the comfort of her highbrow job and luxuriant home in Washington DC and brought to the challenging terrains of government in her home country by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who asked her to serve as finance minister.

She was to head the team charged with rescuing the country’s badly brutalised and massively vandalised economy. It was no mean task but she delivered the goods.

Her mandate, among other things, apparently, was to use her economic expertise to rescue the Nigerian economy from the brink and use her extensive global contacts and international clout, to attract attention to, and support for the reforms she was to spearhead, reforms that would reposition the country and make her, once again, attractive to investment and commerce, reforms that would remove the country from the pariah list, and accommodate her, once again, in the comity of civilised and respected nations.

So, Okonjo-Iweala was not just to be our minister of finance, but our ambassador of dignity and integrity. She was to be our new face, a face fresh and unblemished, different from that bloodied by a reputation of crime and corruption, the face that said Nigeria was changing and Nigerians must, once again, be respected as a people of quality, dignity and integrity.

Okonjo-Iweala approached her mandate with zeal, she went at her task with gusto. She showed zero tolerance for corruption and worked passionately to combat the cankerworm. She moved to make government financial transactions more transparent, pioneering the system of publishing federal government financial activities and encouraging state and local governments to do the same.

She led the government to institute reforms to make the nation’s economy more hospitable to foreign investment. Under her guidance, the government unhinged its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to check perennial cashflow crises, and in continued pursuance of her economic philosophy of transparency, oil companies were made to publish how much they pay the government.

Because of her world-class level of competence and achievement, Time Magazine Europe named her a Global Hero of the year 2004, Euromoney Magazine named her the Global Finance Minister of the year 2005 and the Financial Times and The Banker magazine named her the African Finance Minister 2005.

Shortly after her Nigerian mission was over, having served briefly as foreign minister after serving as finance minister, she was snapped up again by the Word Bank, this time to serve as Managing Director! Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian heroine and would be a heroine anywhere in the world.

Oby Ezekwesili

I have never really met Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, the woman Nigerians like to call “Madam Due Process”, one-on-one, except once from a distance at the home of former Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara. But like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, Mrs. Ezekwesili is a woman who has earned my respect and the respect of many Nigerians, and indeed the respect of the world. At just 43, she registered herself in our national consciousness as one of those Nigeria can truly be proud of.

The Obasanjo administration had established the Due Process Unit to check the abuse of process in the award of contracts and the general process of handling government business, and Ezekwesili had been appointed to lead the charge. Going by the rot that had attended the system in all spheres, this was no mean task. It was one which came with a lot of danger, including the danger to life.

There were entrenched systems and strong cabals in the various sectors, entrenched to carry out government business for selfish interests and personal gains. These included lots of very powerful men and women, who fed fat on government through the fraudulent award of contracts and the inflation of such contracts.

Men who took government money and offered no service, who over-invoiced payments and over-inflated contracts, desperate men who were ready to protect their fraudulent businesses at all costs with emphasis on ALL, men ready to cajole, induce, seduce and if need be coerce and intimidate or even eliminate.

These were the men Ezekwesili was employed to stop. It was not a job for the faint-hearted or the lily-livered. It was a job for the brave and lion-hearted. It was a job for the fearless and incorruptible. Ezekwesili fit that bill.

She spear-headed institutional reforms through the establishment of due process mechanisms and strategies and became the nightmare of fraudulent businessmen and public  officials who connive to inflate contracts and swindle government. She was fearless in the discharge of her duties and shunned attempts to compromise her. She spoke with authority and acted with finality against corruption.

In a country where the 10% tradition had long been established and had since increased to 20%, 25% until it got to doubling and sometimes tripling contract sums to settle corrupt government officials, Ezekwesili stepped on every toe imaginable to achieve the goals of her office. In the first two years of the establishment of the Due Process office, Madam Due Process led her team to save the nation a whopping N120 billion!

One can only imagine the pressure upon this Nigerian woman to compromise or to shift grounds. It is a tribute to our heritage that there is no record or even rumour of that ever being the case.

Mrs. Ezekwesili subsequently served as Minister of Solid Minerals development, with emphasis on reforming Nigeria’s mining sector to internationally recognised standard and later as Minister of Education where she was tasked with leading the country’s comprehensive reform strategy within the education sector.

She was also Chairperson for the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) from 2004 till she left government in 2007 and pioneered the voluntary sign-on of Nigeria to the EITI Principles, as well as the first-ever audit of the oil and gas sector. Today, she is Vice President of the World Bank in charge of Africa. Talk of proven high achievers and profiles in courage and Mrs. Ezekwesili is in the first rank.

Charles Soludo

Five years ago, only a few Nigerians had ever heard of, or known Professor Soludo. I am one of them. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, professor of Economics and expert on macro-economics is my friend and brother. Until recently, he was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and has been one of the guiding lights of our recent administrations. In 2004, when he was appointed Governor of the CBN after serving as national economic adviser to  the President, he became the first non-banker to be so appointed in Nigeria.

One year later, he sent shock waves through the banking industry when he announced that all banks must recapitalise and have minimum deposits of N25 billion. To an all-comers banking industry that boasted banks with borderline deposits, this was like asking the impossible.

Of course, he caused pandemonium in the industry. But the pandemonium was apparently needed to shake the industry awake from its long slumber. And it did. The bankers went from, “oh, you can’t be serious”, to running helter- skelter to meet the requirements of the new man in charge. And Nigeria has never been better banking wise.

Now, there is greater confidence in the banks and no more is that perennial fear of the banking public that this or that bank is going to collapse.

Goodluck Opiah

I have also met the man called Goodluck Opiah. Only a few people may know this man across Nigeria though, but in Imo State from where he hails, he is a hero to those who know his all-important role in the political stability and progress the state enjoys. Opiah is the Speaker of the Imo House of Assembly that boasts 26 PDP members of the 27-man House. He was elected Speaker on 4th June, 2007.

The Governor of the State is of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), yet there has been no single day of rancour between this governor and this House under Opiah. Instead, the relationship between these parties have become a reference point of how politics can be played for the development of the country rather than for selfish interests and massaging massive egos.

Opiah has led his House to show that the political party is only a vehicle to attain power to offer service. In spite of massive pressures, threats and inducements to make the state ungovernable for the Governor of the State, this man made of a stern stuff has led his brother parliamentarians at the Imo Assembly to always look at what is on the table which is to remain focused on the job of governance and service to the people rather than playing politics with their destiny. Opiah is an exemplary leader, a committed servant of his people, a man money cannot buy.

Aliko Dangote

In March 2008, Forbes Magazine ranked Alhaji Aliko Dangote the 334th richest man in the world with a net worth of $3.3b. This figure makes him the richest African citizen and the second richest black person in the world! And Dangote is one of us, a Nigerian. He has been a personal friend of mine for many years.

But what is important is not that some magazine has rated him wealthy enough to be listed among the richest in the world. What is important is the gargantuan vision and unrelenting industry that has brought this man to this status. What is important is how he has used, and is using his wealth to transform our economy and our ernational profile as a nation, how he is providing employment to thousands of Nigerians and putting bread on the table for thousands more. What is important is how he is inspiring a new generation of young people to believe in themselves and come to the realisation that they can do whatever they put their minds to.

Dangote

Aliko Dangote began his career as a trader at the age of 21with a loan from his uncle. Today, he has branched from trading into manufacturing and transformed his small business into a conglomerate with interests in sugar, flour milling, salt processing, cement manufacturing, textiles, real estate, haulage and oil and gas.

His business spans many countries along the West Coast  content with just trading. He wanted more. He wanted to do more than just earn money. He wanted to add value to the economy. So he delved into manufacturing, taking fresh risks and opening factories when many were shutting down and giving jobs to thousands of Nigerians in the bid. In striving to serve the people, he has become even richer, perhaps beyond his own contemplation.

Fola Adeola

In 1990, Fola Adeola took office as pioneer Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank, now GTBank, which he jointly owns with his friend Tayo Aderinokun. In 2000, 10 years after, when the two young men had put the bank on what many would agree was a strong footing, Adeola dropped a corporate bombshell. He retired from the business he owned to pursue other challenges.

Although, the story is that this was in line with an agreement between the two partners before they signed up to do business, the transition from Adeola to Aderinokun was so seamless that it can be comfortably described as “rare” in our clime. Adeola just retired, and moved on. There was no name-calling, no voice-raising, no legal-sparring. Adeola was brave and courageous.

To go from the known to the unknown is a venture even the lion-hearted are often too scared to contemplate. But that is what he did. He left a brand that he had helped to create and develop; a brand that had won the battle of newness and had come to have a name, integrity and recognition, to start afresh the process of building a new brand. But he was not totally a fish out of water. Through the FATEFoundation which he founded while still MDof GTB, he has, over the years, been teaching, developing and supporting entrepreneurial skills for business, job and wealth creation.

Mike Adenuga

As I travel across the West Coast and see banners, billboards and other advert and promotional paraphernalia of Globacom, I feel truly proud to be a Nigerian. The man who has made this possible is Chief Michael Adeniyi Ishola Adenuga, owner of the Nigeria-based international telecommunications company. Known by many simply as Mike Adenuga, he was first denied licence to float and operate his telecoms company in Nigeria in circumstances that were quite controversial.

Everyone thought that was it in that line of business for the magnate who also has interests in banking, oil and gas. But his never-say-die spirit would not be crushed. He soon bounced back, re-presented his bid when another opportunity was presented and Globacom was born. What makes him special is how Globacom has presented a Nigerian challenge in an African market that is dominated by telecoms companies from Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Globacom is fast becoming the Nigerian representative in the telecoms business along the West Coast. What makes him special is how he has invested the money at his disposal to develop Globacom and his other businesses in Nigeria providing employment to thousands of Nigerians and expatriates and driving commerce in the country.

Many of our rich prefer to keep their money hidden abroad or stashed away in numbered accounts in Switzerland or some of the tax-free Islands but Adenuga’s money is working for him here in Nigeria and in the process working to boost the Nigerian economy.

Matthew Kukah

Reverend Father Matthew Hassan Kukah has been a strong voice in advocating for a better Nigeria for decades. The Catholic Priest who was secretary general of the Catholic Secretariat has shown great courage in challenging poor leadership and displayed great vision in pointing directions to freedom, liberty and national development.

As secretary of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission, otherwise known as the Oputa Panel, Kukah’s understanding of the dynamics of Nigeria was clear as he most intelligently posed questions to draw the information he wanted and most diplomatically averted tense moments that could have boiled over.

But most especially, he showed rare sincerity and courage at the panel, making no distinctions in how he handled and addressed the different calibre of people that came before the Commission. Although the reports of that Commission were never officially released by the government that set it up, Kukah acquitted himself properly as a man who truly loves his country and will do everything possible to salvage it from its malaise. Today, the highly cerebral priest continues to speak out for his country from the pulpit, from the newspaper pages and from the various commissions and panels where he serves to resolve conflict and put Nigerian democracy on a strong footing.

Dora Akunyili

Dora Akunyili and her family were driving down a road in her native Anambra State, one day in 2003, when snipers opened fire on her car. The back windscreen of the car was shattered and a bullet pierced through her head gear and grazed her scalp. That afternoon, Akunyili escaped violent death only by the whiskers. Such were the risks this woman faced constantly as she battled the dangerous syndicates of fake and counterfeit drugs in Nigeria, for years, as director general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

Akunyili practically laid her life on the line in service to Nigeria as NAFDAC DG. Before she came into the saddle, fake and substandard drug lords had free reign in the country, and filled it with their medicines that at best were ineffective and at worst deadly.

Akunyili would have none of their poisons or ineffective drugs on our streets. So she took the war straight to their doorsteps, shutting down warehouses and destroying tonnes of fake and sub-standard drugs and food. In the event, she stepped on the toes of hitherto untouchable kings of the cartels, taking many of them and their businesses head on.

She travelled to India and China from where many of the sub-standard drugs in Nigeria enter the country, made a list of over 23companies from these countries indicted for manufacturing fake drugs and banned the products of these companies from entering Nigeria. She placed NAFDAC analysts in the two countries to recertify any drugs manufactured there before they could be shipped to Nigeria.