Fola Adeola at 70, by Olusegun Adeniyi

THE ESSENTIAL

Ahead of the 10th memorial anniversary of the passage of Brigadier-General Solomon Giwa-Amu in February 2018, I was detailed by his widow, Judith, to liaise with Mr Fola Adeola who had been scheduled to deliver a keynote speech. The late ADC to President Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2003 was a man to whom my wife and I were close. As it would happen, Adeola had another commitment in Lagos on the day of the event, so he forwarded me the speech, ‘Transforming Self, State and Society’ to read on his behalf. Going through my archives last week, I came across the speech, which also reminded me of a promise I made a decade ago. On 10th January 2014 when Adeola clocked 60, it was from newspaper adverts that I knew about his birthday. When I called that day to wish him well, I also promised: “I will be one of the first to congratulate you when you clock 70.”

Since he will be 70 on Wednesday, I am fortunate to be alive to fulfil a decade-long pledge to be the first to wish Adeola happy birthday. The pioneer Managing Director/CEO of GTBank (which he co-founded), who was also instrumental into building PENCOM into the multi-trillion Naira institution it is today as founding Chairman, is one of the wisest persons I know. If your desire is for ‘Black Tax’, you will be wasting your time with Adeola who though an Egba man is rather ‘Ijebuish’. But if you need good counsel, he is gold standard. Better still if you are Yoruba because of his mastery of the language and the manner he uses it to convey deep messages. 

I had three memorable encounters with Adeola before I left Lagos for Abuja in 2007, and I shared one two years ago. On the day he retired from GTBank in 2002, he decided to walk from his office in Victoria Island to his Ikoyi residence. Having been detailed to stay with him that day, we did the walk together after which I interviewed him for a THISDAY special report. One thing he spoke about that day was the concept of ‘to have and to yield’ which is one area where many Nigerians, either in politics (given perennial fights between office holders and successors) or the corporate world, fail miserably because it is an attribute that speaks to integrity and selflessness. I will leave the two other encounters for my memoirs.

As a tribute to Adeola, I want to share his thoughts on how we can reshape our society as captured in the speech at the Giwa-Amu memorial. He started with an anecdote. “A traveller came upon three men working at a construction site. He asked the first man what he was doing, and he replied that he was laying bricks. He asked the second man the same question and he responded that he was putting up a wall. When the traveller posed same question to the third man, he said he was building a cathedral. They were all doing the same thing but with different perspectives. The first man had a job. The second man had a career. The third man had a calling.”  

This is instructive because of my second encounter with Adeola which I consider life-changing, since it had to do with taking a crucial decision on job offer. But the challenge of the present generation of Nigerians, according to Adeola in the speech under reference, “is that many are looking for jobs; and of those who have, majority of them are dissatisfied. Fewer still are searching for career by which they intend to climb up the ladder. But the pertinent question is: How many of them take it to the next level by helping to right the wrongs of society and serving as true change agents?” He added: “As we reflect on the state of our nation and the role of individuals, the message here is simple: It is good to have a job or career, but good societies are built by people with a calling.”

To transform our society, Adeola said we could borrow from the ‘Broken Windows’ theory in urban policy, made famous in the case of crime reduction in New York when Rudy Giuliani was Mayor of the city. “In the 1980s, New York was a very scary place. Crime was rampant almost everywhere. Two American social scientists: James Q Wilson and George Kelling came up with the theory. The title comes from the following example: Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a pavement. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of refuse from take-out restaurants there or even break into cars.”  

Adeola then applied this to Nigeria, and how we gradually built a system with scant regards for transparency and accountability both in the private and public sectors. “When people get away with small crimes and misdemeanours, it is not a huge leap to the bigger ones. If I can get away with traffic violation by giving money to the traffic management officer, I can certainly get away with theft and kidnapping by bribing the police. What’s to stop me there? Why not buy my way into political offices or bribe to get big contract…”  

But Adeola also reminded us that the problem starts from the home in a society where students now ‘earn’ foreign university degrees within two months after which they are mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)! “Your children tell you their teachers are making monetary demand that you know to be wrong but consider insignificant and you oblige with no questions asked. The next time, you are asked to pay for ‘expo’ for those children and you rationalize it. You pay for the questions ahead of examinations and your children pass without efforts. The foundation for fraud is gradually being built as you destroy the future of those children and that of the larger society. But how many people see it that way?” 

Notwithstanding, Adeola is optimistic that the narrative can change, if only each one of us can play our part. He suggested several ideas, including  giving back to teachers in our various alma maters. “These are your teachers; these are your schools. How much does a teacher earn? You mean we cannot find it in us to sponsor a teacher? It’s not about how much you give, but that you give. In your hometown or village, what would it take to adopt a school, and do one thing for that school annually? How many lives would be touched?”  

 Meanwhile, using that speech to reflect on the 70th birthday of Mr Tajudeen Fola Adeola is because I know he is not a hypocrite. He is a man who lives by the ideals he espouses. As he therefore joins the elite Septuagenarian Club on Wednesday, I can only wish him happy birthday, long life, and good health.

Adeniyi is chairman of THISDAY Editorial Board