By  Morenike Taire

Testimony of Divine Grace reads like a work of fiction from the very first page, catapulting the unwary into scenarios thereby evocated. Its flavour is immediately reminiscent of literary works of that genre set in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, a period that represented a phase of our nation’s development that straddled the old and the new; the known and unknown worlds.

Little Raymond grows up in a rural, agrarian society in South-eastern Nigeria, where value was placed on western education, but not so much that it was regarded as being affordable. Schools were mainly missionary efforts, as they were in other parts of the country at the time. To these humble beginnings, the first two chapters are devoted.

Those first two chapters were to set the tone for the rest of the book in more ways than one, most prominent of which is the unabashed honesty with which the author recounts events, conversations and even thoughts both involving himself  and acquaintances throughout his lifetime.

Sometimes, he is a little too honest. Later on ( page 133), he writes in his account of the Central Bank’s attack on Intercontinental Bank whose board he chaired: the fact remains that the CBN governor succeeded because our bank did have liquidity problems and there were questions about the mismanagement of the bank.

In addition, the author’s trust and faith in the superiority of God’s plan is the thread that runs through the entire narrative, where his hopes of gaining grammar school admission were dashed for not presenting a birth certificate, an event which was to work out in his favour in the near future.

Raison D’être
The story of Raymond Obieri’s life is of essence for more than one reason. By far the most obvious and acknowledged is that it is a proverbial grass-to-grace story, wherein the author rises from a rural, limited circumstance of life, to one of renown, privilege and honour.

Secondly, this rise does not come on a platter of gold, as the protagonist, it is recorded, has had his own share of disappointments, betrayals and tragedy. The author recalls in heart-wrenching accounts, the loss of his beloved younger brother, friend and first daughter.

Obieri, as portrayed in the book, is as much a technocrat as an entrepreneur, a thinker as much as a doer; one of the Nigerians that made the transition effortless, from banking of the colonial era to banking by Nigerians for Nigerians.

For the outsider to the financial world, the book is a peek into the fascinating processes which constitute banking and finance in Nigeria. A rare insight is afforded, in chapter 15, into the inner workings of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), where Dr. Obieri was president from 2003, overseeing the largest share issue in its history following the recapitalization of banks imposed by the former CBN Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo(page 117).

Another seemingly latent significance is the peek afforded by the book into a controversial and still contemporary episode in the Nigerian economy:  government’s takeover of five Nigerian banks in 2008, spearheaded by Central Bank Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and which saw to the eventual acquisition of Intercontinental Bank by Access Bank in October 2011; a most tenuous period of our national life.

The book’s value as a documentary work is also enhanced by his description of how the Nigerian Civil War affected his career, and indeed, life on the whole.

Socio-political Relevance
Testimony of Divine Grace is as rich a social commentary as an exposition in the author’s idiosyncratic style of critique. One subject the book addresses in this subtle way is heathen practices, first in the earlier chapters (page 59-60) when the author ignored the village soothsayer’s opinion in the choice of a wife, sticking to his choice of the beloved Bethy; and then in the last section at the burial of Ebele, the author’s mother (page 218), where he shunned masquerade displays as being “heathen”.

He critiques certain government institutions including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which refused to comply with a court order with “impunity”; and the judiciary, which did nothing about it. In page 137, he identifies our nation’s biggest problem as the dearth of the rule of law

It was only natural that he would then take up the role of a kingmaker, as it were, in the politics of his home Anambra state, backing the candidate he believed to most credible, while ensuring as much as he was able that the state’s funds were used for the state’s development during the tenure of Governor Peter Obi.

The way the book is organized is a testament to the author’s organized lifestyle. Prefaced by Dr. Emma Okey Udoye, the print is clear and readable, though the ‘devil’ shows up now and then; and there is more than enough pictorial illustration.

Indeed, without ever meeting the protagonist in person, Testimony of Divine Graceleaves the reader in no doubt as to the personality of the author: Raymond Obieri is a detribalized Nigerian. His marriage to his wife, Bethy, is a classic example of this. Recounting the recruitment of the single founding shareholder from the north for Intercontinental bank (page 110), he writes of how he instinctively ‘fell for’ Alhaji  Isyaku Umar at first contact.  Up till today, he stresses: Isyaku has remained one of the mostsupportive family friends I ever had.

Testimony of Divine Grace might constitute a redeemer for the dying art of the autobiography.