Former Mobil Executive Vice Chairman Otunba Solomon Oladunni, was among senior managers, who recruited the young Bola Ahmed Tinubu – fresh from America in 1983 – into the American oil giant. Forty years later, he speaks of what Nigerians should expect from the administration of the president-elect. He explains how Tinubu impressed the panel, made of indigineous senior staff and expatriates, during the job interview, and later revolutionised the auditing department at the giant oil company, leaving an enduring financial footprint in the sourcing of funds for building the Mobil House – then West Africa’s best corporate office building – and showing the traits of intelligence, diversity and inclusion that have also made him to navigate the difficult political terrain to become the president-elect.
How that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is President-elect of Nigeria, what are your expectations?
First and foremost, we give God the glory that he had a resounding victory at the poll: No question he worked extremely hard, campaigning in all the nooks and crannies of all the states of the federation and the people responded by electing him. So, we thank God and we are also appreciative of Nigerians for giving him the confidence to become the President of this country, come the next four years and hopefully, further years.
As is often said, the morning shows the day and boyhood shows manhood. In terms of my expectations of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu, they’re all positive, because this is someone I have known for about 40 years. Over the years, he struck me as a very dependable, hardworking and visionary leader. He is not new to me by any means, because when he returned to the country about 40 years ago, I was very heavily involved in his recruitment into Mobil and you would know that in those days, at that time, the oil industry was heavily dominated by expatriates. Few Nigerians were recruited at higher levels and, of course, the interview process was so rigorous that only the best could be attracted to work in such an organisation. When Asiwaju came in, in 1983, as a manager of administration at the time, once I saw him, I was enamoured by his appearance, his behaviour, by his personality, and, when you look for people to work in the oil industry, certain qualities are expected in such people. The first, of course, in those days was appearance, because through the appearance, we were able to decipher the person’s likely character traits, his habits, his behavioural patterns, what his likely sense of accomplishment was, and confidence because appearance did matter a lot. He dressed very well, he was confident and responded quite intelligently to questions. Apart from appearance, we also looked at his credentials, his qualifications and, as an accountant, he was eminently qualified, having gone to one of the best schools in the United States, in Chicago. We scrutinised his credentials, we looked at his curriculum vitae and his certificates; and even checked his transcripts; we were more than satisfied that he was someone that could work with us.
And don’t forget that a company that was heavily populated by expatriates they were also involved in the interview process. So it wasn’t just Nigerian to Nigerian. That was even my first time of meeting with him anyway. And this interview panel made-up of Nigerian managers and directors; experts interviewed him and everybody came out very strongly that we should hire him, in other words, that we should employ him because he was looked at as a future asset of the company not just for that period but even for the future.
He carried out his job in the audit function and rose. He was manager audit, he became general auditor. The striking thing about him was that whenever he audited any section of the company, such managers were on their toes because apart from looking for financial loopholes, there were also processes, failures that could happen in any department, in other words, following the policies and procedures, so that, if people short-circuited the procedures or policies no doubt that would be regarded as an audit exception and these are some of the things we looked at when he was auditing and made managers become so extremely careful that the audit would be done and if they were found to be wanting they would be punished one way or another. As a general auditor he wrote one audit that even affected the managing director and the MD had to be recalled.
So, he was good at what he was doing, extremely good and in fact that it earned him a promotion because when we eventually wanted a treasurer to work for Mobil, he was immediately recommended and appointed to that position.
He brought financial engineering into the treasury work. One of the things that I still remember very vividly in terms of lasting legacies that he left behind even in the financial sector is that he was heavily involved in the financing scheme to source for funds that led to the building of the Mobil House which is a standing edifice up till today. In fact at that time, that was the best building in this country and even in West Africa as the corporate headquarters. His contribution to that cannot be overemphasised.
In terms of his relationship with people, he is very good and comfortable in making friends; he mixes very freely with the low and high and he had so many friends in the company and up till today those friends are still with him. The striking thing is when you see a man who would make it in life, it starts from his youthful beginning. He exhibited the leadership traits in him. He showed himself as a very visionary leader; he showed himself as a strategically positioned individual to man the affairs of anywhere he may find himself successfully well. He began to set strategic goals and objectives for himself and he began to imbibe the ExxonMobil culture of which some of it were diversity and inclusion. The diversity and inclusion were what was reflected even in his cabinet in Lagos State in which he brought to bear people from all over the country regardless of tribe or ethnicity. So, it amuses some of us when we hear people accuse him of ethnicity and tribalism; he is far from that. He is a man that is Nigerian to the core. You cannot fault him in terms of his disposition to the well-being, to the welfare and to the cohesion of Nigerians. So, he from that experience, we believe that coming now to what he did in Lagos State and the fact that Lagos is still growing and still progressing and still soaring today as the 5th largest economy in Africa, those were his handiworks because he set the foundation and he also developed people that built and continue to build on those foundations.
Did you suspect that he would ever join the political fray that he would ever become a politician?
Initially one would not. I’m an admin man, a human resource professional and that didn’t come out immediately. But, I did see him as a leader not only at Mobil but anywhere he found himself and eventually he decided to get into politics. When he told us, we told him “You’ve done your best in this organisation, if you want to go higher and that is the best thing you want in life we pray for you and wish you all the best.” And we kept the friendship going. What he did in Lagos in terms of the various things, infrastructural projects he did, the schools he built, the hospitals, roads, electrical projects, various innovative schemes such as LASEMA, LASTMA, waste management disposal and others that he introduced to make Lagos a more habitable, a more friendly society and a society more worth living, he brought all these to bear. Look at Eko Atlantic City; he started it during his time. There are certain objectives that I know can be accomplished by that; the erosion from the Atlantic Ocean is contained, which also we will no longer threaten the lives and properties of those who live along the coast. Also, the industries that will develop in that corridor and the tourism it will encourage and the revenues that will accrue to the state and foreign exchange to the country as a result of those projects; the employment that it will also create, the transfer of technology, ICT development; all of those things are benefits derivable from some of the things he introduced in Lagos State.
You seem very confident in his ability to transform Nigeria…
Absolutely. We are in a very challenging times but we also need men of courage, wisdom and knowledge to steer the ship of state when things are difficult and this is one man among the various people who have raised their heads that they want to lead this country, who stands out very clearly that he can be trusted, that he has the wherewithal, the knowledge, sagacity, the reach, not just within the country but also outside the country. His tentacles spreads beyond this country and we need people not just within Nigeria but also outside to help move this nation forward and this is a challenging economic time with the difficulties of our children unable to get employment when they leave school, those who are even able to get some meagre employment are underemployed, with inflation at an astronomically high level, with the rate of insecurity, the rate of poverty, Nigeria has become a poverty stricken nation. Those are some of the problems that we are facing. There’s also the security challenge. We believe and I believe and many Nigerians believe that President-elect Tinubu stands out as one man that can get Nigeria through these vicissitudes of life, that can change things for the better, that will move Nigeria from despair to hope and from hope to reality, that will change unemployment to employment and gainful one for that matter, that will move us away from the poverty index capital of the world to a cornerstone of rich nations, that will move Nigeria from an insecure nation to one of the secure places on planet earth, that will move Nigeria away from a place where the youths are scared for their future to a place where youths have many opportunities that will give them – at their beck and call – jobs, jobs and more jobs. He will also give them an opportunity to use their own God-given talent in terms of their knowledge and skill to develop on their own. President-elect Tinubu is a man who is very innovative, he has a big entrepreneurial spirit and I’m sure all these will be brought to bear in the governance of the country. The youths are going to be the beneficiaries mainly, the older ones too will benefit because he will make good provisions for old age, so that an old man or woman doesn’t have to worry too much about where he or she is going to place his head, what he or she is going to have for dinner, breakfast or lunch. He’s not going to get worried about whether he will get medical care or not if for any reason he’s not feeling so well. He won’t have to worry if he will be able to move with ease from one place to another. These are some of the expectations that I know will come to reality with a Tinubu Presidency.
As somebody who has known him for a very long time and who discusses freely with him, I know that with his international connections, I can confidently say that international businesses will return to Nigeria. Nigeria is a place that we’re heavily dependent on the oil business for foreign exchange and for the substantial part of our revenue, but even that is being threatened by international oil companies (IOCs) leaving or downsizing in Nigeria. I’m sure Tinubu will do something about it. We need the IOCs back in the country. We need them because they have, even beyond what they do as an oil conglomerate, there are also some other externalities in terms of what benefit will accrue to the nation by virtue of the presence of the giant oil companies in a particular country. Other businesses will follow them and I am sure that he will do something and that is one of our expectations that he will certainly do something in that area so that we can get these giant oil companies to rethink some of their decisions as well as encourage some other ones who are not in the country to come and as much as we can get them back to this country the history of Nigeria could become the Eldorado and the mega gold city county of Africa. And then other businesses in the manufacturing sector will follow; ICT will follow, agric businesses which used to be the cornerstone of our economy and which has been neglected for a very long time will see a very big light of the day because there will be a rapid revolution taking place in the agric sector. So, it is not just planting and reaping commodities for export, we will have some processing done in this country and even manufacturing of agric products, so that that will further create employment and will also add value to the countries’ GDP.
Do you see him resolving the power sector crisis?
Yes. If there’s one area we can be very optimistic about it is that one. Because you would recall that around when he came on board as Governor of Lagos State around 1999 and 2000, he tried to bring Enron Corporation to bring some independent power projects to Lagos and in fact he had already signed a contract with them and they were supposed to bring in their equipment, but that project was truncated by the powers that be, otherwise Nigeria would have gone past where we are today. Now that God has given him the mantle of leadership I am sure he will crack that nut and get the country power. I’m sure this will be one of his cardinal programmes because once the power sector is done with and electricity is regular other businesses will thrive even the local artisans whether you a vulcanizer, mechanic, fashion designer, barber, etc, they will all have good electricity supply to work with and the manufacturing companies will not have to spend a substantial part of their revenue on having an alternative source of electricity. Go to manufacturing companies today, go to the hospitality industry, go to the real estate industry, I am sure one third of their costs goes to alternative sources of energy which could easily have been saved and ploughed back into the business to further expand such businesses to the advantage of the economy.
Can Nigeria also expect the resuscitation of moribund refineries?
Certainly, not just the moribund refineries. I believe that there will be new refineries in the country. Being someone endowed with a lot of entrepreneurial and innovative skills, he will encourage a lot of companies to come in and set up refineries. He will also try to ensure that the current refineries are remodelled and rebuilt. Of course it’s going to take a lot of money because the technology that was used in those days are becoming obsolete so they would have to put in new technology. I’m sure he will use some experts to study what the best option is; is it repairing them or building new ones or scrapping them or selling them off? There will be many options but he will need some experts to study the situation very well and make guarded recommendations so that people will not read meanings into whatever he does. But the best bet is to have more Dangotes in Nigeria building refineries so that the issue of fuel scarcity will be overcome. For a long time oil will continue to be a very big driver of the economy and we need to work to make sure that our refineries are okay and there’s no limit to the number of refineries you can have in this country because in Africa there’s still a ready market for crude oil products and even apart from refined petroleum products, we can also go to gas utilization projects in Nigeria, develop a lot of gas so that instead of just flaring this gas we can have more of LNGs etc. That will add more to the country’s revenue. We also need to do more by way of, like I said earlier, getting more oil companies including indigenous oil companies to come together and get more areas in Nigeria where prospect for oil and gas, through seismic studies, exploration activities can be carried out and get more work done to get areas that have potential for hydrocarbon development. I think that is one area we need to focus on because in Nigeria we’ve not really explored much, we are only being lucky that the ocean, especially the shallow waters as as well as the deep waters in the Atlantic have given us substantial crude reserves. We should grow our reserves. We should be looking at about 100 billion barrels of reserves and this is only achievable through exploratory activities. So, we need to pay some attention to that area as well.
How can the Tinubu forge national unity in a country that appears divided?
Well, that is a job for everyone of us and I think he has started well even right from the party primaries when some people contested with him and he won. He embraced them, he went round and met with many of them and even right now he has invited them to join hands with him – when he was addressing the nation after he was declared winner – he called on all of them to join hands with him and build this country together. I’m sure he knows how to reach out to people and most of these people were connected to him in one way or the other. I believe he will continue to talk to them and talk to others that can also be of help and that will also cascade down to the generality of our people. The media too have to help him, because sometimes the media makes some sensational headlines which may not be positive, so generally the media should also be seen as a partner in this new government so that even when you have a reason to report certain things, check, is it going to add value positively or is it going to be negative? Because a leader cannot be all knowing, so, you also have to be partners with him and his associates in making sure that the current tense atmosphere will be relaxed. Of course, whenever elections are held contestants either accept the results and congratulate the winner, or if they don’t accept, if they have reasons making them believe that they have won, they have other option like going to court. As a civilised country, people should explore such means of seeking redress rather than whipping up sentiments. I don’t think we as Nigerians should encourage those ethnic divides amongst us, we should not encourage it. More so that he himself is not ethnic-oriented; he’s a broad-minded Nigerian. He reflected that when he was Governor of Lagos State. He even reflected it in his political life even when they formed ACN, he gave somebody who is not in his party opportunity to contest for the presidency, so I believe that when he is sworn in, he would develop such strategies that will address this current thinking of people. When he’s sworn in as president steps can be taken holistically as well as individually in making sure that everybody is on the same page. I believe Nigerians will come together again.
As he begins to set up his cabinet, what is your advice to him?
He should use – I pray God guides him – I believe he should also use the right pegs in right holes. He should use very capable Nigerians who have pedigree in terms of their antecedents in either the private or public sector of the economy in managing organizations, in managing people and then people who are also technically and professionally qualified and he should look at Nigerians as a whole, and even when we talk of inclusion and diversity, he should use the best, people who are eminently qualified in their own fields to man specific portfolios. He should even have one-on-one discussions with anybody he wants to appoint and have his own assessment, his own personal assessment of the individual before even the group assessment, so that whatever is being recommended to him, he can either say “yes, I agree with them” or “I have a different opinion for these reasons” and make sure that the best person is taken for the position.
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