…Arthur Mbanefo: Rare-bred accountant, distinguished diplomat

By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor

CHIEF Arthur Christopher Izuegbunan Mbanefo, MFR, CON, Odu III, 90, is a rare breed personality. Highly intelligent, cerebral and talented, he has excelled in many walks of life, making his marks in accountancy, business, international diplomacy, public policy formulation, educational administration, philanthropy, culture and the arts.

Born in Onitsha on June 11, 1930 to the famous Mbanefo family, Arthur was educated at St. Patrick’s College, Calabar, and trained in the United Kingdom as a chartered accountant. The young Arthur Mbanefo qualified as a chartered accountant in the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s and worked with respected accounting firms in Brighton and London.

On  returning to Nigeria in 1961, he joined the accounting firm of Akintola Williams and Company, as a partner and served for 25 years. He left as senior partner in 1986 to establish his own management consultancy firm. Very resourceful, Chief Mbanefo’s business acumen is highly sought after. His reputation for probity and excellence ensured that he sat on the boards of host of Nigeria’s distinguished firms, and also placed him in leadership roles in professional bodies like the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN.

He served on the boards of directors of numerous blue-chip companies including UAC of Nigeria Ltd., Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Reckitt & Coleman, Standard Flour Mills Ltd, and Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd. Chief Mbanefo was a member of the Justice Ayo Irikefe Judicial Commission of Inquiry on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s Crude Oil Sales set up in 1980, and was chairman of the Committee on State Creation established in 1996, which led to the creation of six new states.

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In 1999, he trudged on the diplomatic terrain and excelled when the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration appointed him Nigeria’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Operating at the epicentre of global diplomacy, he was to ensure the projection of Nigeria’s interests, maintain and develop existing alliances, and facilitate the creation of new ties. He handled these tasks seamlessly bringing his famed charm, reputation for honest dealing, and unimpeachable moral standard to bear.

Chief Mbanefo also brought his administrative talents to bear on the country’s tertiary education sector as well. He served as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos (1984-1986), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (1986-1990), and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1990-1993). Through these positions, he steered those institutions through some of their most challenging times, while ensuring that academic and moral standards were maintained.

Unapologetically committed to causes he believes in, 34 years after leaving the University of Lagos as pro-chancellor, he returned in June 2020 to launch the N100 million Arthur Mbanefo Digital Research Centre, AMDRC, as part of his 90th birthday celebrations. Several years ago, he established the Arthur Mbanefo Digital Resource Centre at the University of Lagos as a philanthropic gesture.

Chief Mbanefo’s actions and attitudes make him the quintessential detribalised Nigerian, with friendships and relationships that cut across Nigeria. His vigorous advocacy of the Biafran cause did not stop him from pushing Nigeria’s interests with similar dedication after the civil war.

Arthur Mbanefo was a key player in the General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu-led government of the short-lived Republic of Biafra. He was Ojukwu’s envoy for the procurement of arms and fundraising in Europe and other parts of the world during the Nigerian civil war, events he recounts with detail in his biography, “Arthur Mbanefo: A Fulfilled Life of Service” published by Bookcraft Africa Ltd., Ibadan.

In a tribute to the nonagenarian recently, 2019 Presidential Candidate, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, described Arthur Mbanefo thus: “To my mind, he is, beyond himself as an individual, a symbol of a generational distinction between Nigeria’s hopeful contemporary past, a decidedly dreary present, and a future with several scenarios that some stakeholders remain unwilling to negotiate.”

Vanguard News Nigeria