Chairman of Arco Group Plc and former Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Petroleum Refining Company, Chief Joseph Akpieyi, who would be 80 tomorrow, reflects on his modest beginning, stewardship in the oil and gas sector among others, and concludes that the desire to be successful brought him this far.

By CHARLES KUMOLU

Clocking 80 is a milestone in a society where life expectancy is very low for men?

I feel happy and I want to thank God for blessing me with longevity. My father passed on at 103, while my mother was 92. So, it looks as though longevity is a blessing from God to my family.

Joseph Akpieyi,

A lot has happened in a span of 80 years. I was born in the backyard of my paternal grandmother in Efurun, Delta State. When I was seven, my parents relocated to Warri and decided I should go to school.

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For my dad, going to school was a priority. He enrolled us in a Catholic school in Warri. We  sat for  entrance examination into Government College, Ughelli. I later found out that my grandfather did not allow my father to benefit from western education because he was a Prince. Also, the man didn’t want his children to be caned by white men.

Treated by the military

As time went on, he discovered that the children that went to school were the ones whose living standard was higher than those who did not. I passed the entrance examination and got a scholarship after my secondary school. I gained admission into the University of Ibadan. After my university education, I worked in the public sector for 26 years and I retired voluntarily because I hated the way public officers were being treated by the military.

The situation at the time was quite challenging. One could  wake up in his house, and a message would be delivered that person had been retired.  To avoid that , I retired voluntarily. After my retirement, I set up my own company.

It has been 50 years of happy marriage for me.  We are blessed with six children and 14 grandchildren as well. By the grace of God, I am not suffering from any disability of any sort. I also thank God at 80 I feel fulfilled, my faculties are still very much alert.

Can you share the memorable moments of your upbringing and how instrumental they were to the successful person you are in the society?

I must confess that my dad was a very strict person. But I did not realise that the strictness inculcated in me the need to always produce quality output. As a young boy, my dad had a white Raleigh Bicycle which was my duty to clean. After cleaning it, he  inspected it to see if it was thoroughly clean. If he found any area of the bicycle dirty, he gave me  a very heavy knock on my head.

I had to devise my own method of making sure that after washing it, I would inspect it myself to see if he will find any fault. After three or four knocks, he never found any reason to knock me again. He was now saying ‘’your work is very good.’’ Also, he used to send me on errands to my mother in the market place which was about three kilometres from where we lived.  Sometimes when he woke up and found me sleeping, he  scolded me thinking I had not gone to see my mother. The training influenced my habit of waking up early.   Catholic School, Sapele Road Warri, which is now a cathedral, was where I started getting my religious training. I was a mass server at my tender age. It influenced my religious culture.

Government College Ughelli

Attending Government College Ugheli was a turning point in my life. I was a scholar. In those days, the first six candidates in common entrance were automatically given scholarships. I did not get a scholarship immediately. I learned I was beaten to the seventh position. When I got there, within three months, we were called by the Principal to his office. He told me I had been granted a scholarship by the government of the Western Region. At the time, the school fee was 32 pounds  yearly. By the virtue of the scholarship, we were paying just three pounds. This gave my dad a relief.  I maintained it to avoid it being withdrawn from me. We had Cambridge School Certificate, not the West African Examination Council Certificate. Ughelli instilled excellence, values, and culture in us. The school was an excellent one. Values like punctuality, morality, humility were instilled in us. In GCU, we were not allowed to wear pants, we wore shorts but no pant because they believed it will affect our fertility in the future.

Everybody was required to put on the attire that represented their locality, like wrapper and skirt, irrespective of the family you belong. We never knew who came from a rich or a poor family.

Secret of success

Cutting  grass was a routine to keep the environment clean. The effect on me is that I never looked down on anyone involved in manual labour activities because we were all taught to do such works.

Most college boys of my time, were very law-abiding because, for those schooling years, we were under strict control.

It also instilled time management  in  us. The Ughelli boys of my generation placed a lot of importance on time. In our days, if you were not punctual, you would be detained. Those things instilled in us good time management skills, obedience to the law, and value of hard work as the secret of success.  I have been living in a disciplined environment. To a large extent, I would say that most of those principles guided me. I can say that for the 26 years I was in service, I did not get to work late any day, even when I was chief executive at the organisation.

The period you schooled in Ughelli, Ibadan, England and the United States, was regarded as the good old days in Nigeria. Looking back at those days in the light of the state of affairs in Nigeria, how do you feel?

In fact, we are very distressed. I was the President of Lagos Branch of Government College, Ughelli. I was also the President General, of Ugheli Old Boys Association between 2011 and 2015. Therefore, I know much about the low quality of education in Nigeria.

I   lay blame for the terrible decline in the education system on  the military governments, and some previous civilian governments, who completely ruined the education system in our country. The standard that was instituted in our days, has disappeared. Teachers are not devoted to teaching, and students themselves do not care these days. For example, I know many students gain access to sites where they get answers to West African Examination Council Examination, WAEC, examination.

Future of this country

I am afraid about the future of this country, because, it is the quality of students from secondary schools that go to university. And those from the universities go into the civil service, the media, and military among others.  Those who do not have a good grounding, add to the inefficiency in the civil service.

Our systems are completely ruined. It makes my heart bleed when I think of it.

It is sad that a university student cannot even construct a simple sentence these days. How can we grow the system?

I sincerely hope that the government will realise that we need more attention to the education system.

We were taught how to study, how to  research and we worked with an encyclopedia, and trained ourselves.

We also learned how to train ourselves. These days I don’t know if those things still exist.

I just hope this country does not collapse. If you go to Ghana today, the Ghanaians are very proud to be Ghanaians, but, here in Nigeria, it is different.

You must have had people who mentored you in your days.  Sadly, young people of today hardly find such mentorship. What does that mean to you?

During my secondary school days at Government College, Ughelli, a senior student who is assumed to be intelligent gives assistance to others. They are assumed to be mentors. In GCU, we were mentored on how to use cutleries by our seniors. Many of us came from homes that had never used cutleries.

These days, when the senior themselves have not given themselves good groundings in their studies, how can they mentor the students? This is why we must make sure that our children acquire knowledge, rather than rely on the internet for everything.

They have to indulge in habits of reading their books, only go to internet sites are a study not just to download answers. I still have a colleague today, who was my senior in secondary school then, he was very good in mathematics that not a single problem he will defer me.

Sometimes the teachers themselves whom you like, you find a way to imitate them, because they are very sound in their subjects.

The younger generations, you need to have some people who are providing you with advice, guardians on how to become excellent in what you are doing, you do not need someone high up. In all stages, you will have mentors.

With your background in Chemical Engineering, you spent over 40 years in the energy sector. How was that longevity possible for you in an industry where people of prominence hardly leave without having their reputation stained?

While I was coming up, my dad reiterated the fact that we come from a good family, and we must make sure that in all we were doing, we do not tarnish our name, because if it happens, you have lost everything.

Until you lose your name through tarnishment, you do not know the repercussion. It was instilled in us to keep to the rule when I entered the service in 1965, we use to have what we call General Orders, (GO).

This GO stipulated very clearly the conduct that civil servant must show in managing funds of the nation, you can even spend money outside the budget. When the military boys came they threw it away. To me, is one of the great harm that has happened to Nigeria as a country (military intervention 1966).

When the military came, they started ridiculing the civil servants. Somebody who was keeping to the rule was now stigmatizing as lacking in initiative. These are some of the reason some of them retired forcefully because they are seen not to obey GO.

You do not do service because you want to enrich yourself, you do so because that is what is required of you. To me, Ugheli and my parental training made it clear that I must preserve my name at all cost. I remembered that our late boss then will tell us not to do anything I will be ashamed of, do a thing in such a way I will defend you in absentia.

Looking back to where you are coming from and where you are, was there any experience you had in the past, you want to happen again?

I am worried about the future of Nigeria, the educational system has been ruined. The crop of people we are producing to take responsibility for the affairs of the country are not being well prepared. They do not understand the implication of some of the actions they will take, which will hurt people.

I will like to see our country go back to those high-value system days, high integrity days, and days when putting the interest of Nigerian citizen above self-interest was a priority. We need to go back to those days when a public officer was a servant of the people. Politicians need to understand that they are employees of the people, not masters.

It is indeed interesting that after your retirement in 1991, you remained an authority in the oil industry with so many achievements to your credit. How did you achieve that?

After my retirement, I  served as the Chairman of Arco Group, Chairman of Socol Well Servicing Company, and President of Nigeria Society of Chemical Engineers, among others. All these are to keep my brain working.

Beyond your success in the civil service and boardroom, were there goals you set for yourself that have not been achieved?

My driving force was to be successful, and to provide effective leadership. I was always sent to trouble spots when I was in service in NNPC. I always held positions which were two to three grade higher than my substantive position.

For example, when I was asked to go to Port Harcourt Refinery to be the Chief Executive Officer in 1980, there was trouble at the time. The union had said they will not allow the CEO to enter the refinery, my bosses decided they will send me. Then I was a Deputy Manager and saw it as a challenge.

I held meetings with them monthly to proactively make an inquest if there was anything in their mind.

I saw it as a challenge to prove to my superiors that I could deliver. I was supposed to stay there for three months. I ended up staying five years. And there was no union action, because of the strategy I applied.

When I was pulled out from there, I was again redeployed to the pipeline sector which was a problem spot at the time. Before a year, it became a division where people wanted to come to serve.

I utilised what they called management by objective. At the beginning of every year, I sat with my immediate lieutenants to discuss what to achieve in the year. We also went into each person’s area of responsibilities and set goals to achieve. I did it quarterly by calling the lieutenant s to give an account of their stewardship based on those objectives.

With that, they knew that my leadership style was impartial. My style of leadership was based on objective and participation.

Any regrets or pains at 80?

If I had any weakness, I will say it is being too blunt. I was blunt to my superiors and they do not like it. I got knocks several times by my superiors because of that. Maybe in my next life, I will acquire emotional intelligence. If I had emotional intelligence during my days, I probably would have done my things differently.

Superior officers anywhere in the world do not like their subordinate officers speaking too frankly. They like people who are subservient, who flatters them. But for me, I preferred that colleagues spoke frankly to me. I hate being subservient.

If I had this during my career then, I would not have suffered the way I did, like being denied promotions when I was due for it.