In the October 2011 edition of the much revered Harvard Business Review, the editor-In-Chief, Adi Ignatius, quoted a profound response from a reader in regard to a powerful essay by the celebrated Harvard Business School professor, Clayton M Christensen titled “How Will You Measure Your Life”.
Let’s report the said reader’s view: “values and relationships are what ultimately matter, and if we do not pursue a legacy, we will have gone into business, management or governance in vain”.
This is true because one vital lesson a beginner in marketing learns in the field, and I think this also applies to beginners in politics, is that people who accept you will most likely accept your propositions or offerings.
This has been proven right time and time again in business and in politics. The inspiring story of how a young man from Greece came to Nigeria just before the Second World War and built a huge business empire eloquently gives credence to the centrality of people’s skill to success in life. Chief John B Mandilas, the Bamesse of Lagos and the first nationalised Nigerian recorded enormous success in part due to his extraordinary appreciation of the Nigerian personality and environment but to a large measure his ability to make and retain friendship.
While working for a firm, he discovered the untapped business potentials of Nigeria and in 1943; he started his own business which today is the giant commercial and manufacturing concern known as Mandilas Group Limited with tentacles in many industries and leading brands in many categories. But what is the moral of Chief Mandilas success story?
Governor Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala aka 3A has walked paths many failed by the way side. It is an open secret that the progression of deputy governors in the Nigerian political ladder has been very unimpressive that you can easily count in your palm a small minority that has graduated to greater responsibilities. Otunba Alao-AKala belongs to the very few that has made this transition. When he was compelled to take over from the man he always refers to as “my boss”, many thought that the ascension would be a fluke and that his meteoric rise and rise in politics would soon begin a crumbling slide.
When his boss was returned to his seat by the courts, he assumed his former position and remained ever humble until they finished their term. He is not one to complain or agonise even when there a well orchestrated plan to frustrate and humiliate him. He bears provocations well and seldom takes a pound of flesh even when the pendulum swings in his favour. Rather he kept his eye on the ball and quietly plotted his return to Agodi Government House 2007- proving all the pundits and book makers wrong. This, however, never got to his head as he quickly rolled up his sleeves to selflessly work for the people so as to fulfil his campaign promises anchored on his 13 point agenda.
Somehow, Adebayo Alao-Akala obstinately believes that a good product should sell itself and has unwittingly paid little or no attention to publicising his good works, leaving the field wide open for his detractors to create wrong perception of him and his government. He abhors cheap publicity, hoping instead that his solid achievements in office in the past three years and half will speak for him.
He prefers instead to throw his energy into ensuring unlike his predecessors in office that the dividends of democracy are fairly distributed to all nooks and crannies of Oyo State. In the process, his efforts have elicited a critical mass of following that cuts across age, sex, income, social class and tribe who today have voluntarily taken up the gauntlet and are everywhere canvassing for his re-election and return to Agodi in the 2011 election.
Yes Governor Alao- Akala has done very well in evenly and fairly distributing the dividends of democracy and this alone can swing votes in his favour in a state where no governor is yet to do second term. Seeing this unique man at work and at play, one is convinced that his greatest asset is his uncanny understanding and appreciation of human behaviours which even to the casual observer is like a second skin to him, so to speak. In short, it comes to him naturally to lead great men and women to get things done with little or no fuzz.
Here, he is in the company of other great legends such as Andrew Carnegie – the home boy who started out as a poor sales man but through his uncommon mastering of human motives and achieving excellent results through others amassed huge wealth and built the much talked about Carnegie Steel which contributed to America’s economic and technological Advancement.
As the 2011 elections draws near day by day and as the usual struggle for the heart and soul of Oyo State voters intensifies, His Excellency, Otunba Alao-Akala is poised to make history as the first re-elected governor in Oyo State and will thereby be enlisted in the small and elitist club of jinx breaking governors such as Mr Peter Obi of Anambra State.
He has many positives going for him among which is his large heart has made it possible for him to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of the dividends of democracy, ability to make and keep friends, his astuteness to detect the genius in other people and above all a natural talent to lead a crack team while at same time being a good team player.
Alao-Akala is pursuing a legacy in Oyo State to do good to the greatest number-not a small self serving clique; and when he is done, he will surely be remembered like Andrew Carnegie as a great man who enlisted in his service to achieve outstanding results greater men and women than himself. No doubt, his unique style will surely enrich management literature and practice.
When this writer stumbled on him recently when he called at a mutual friend’s residence to share in the joy of the wife whose prodigious intellect and focus culminated in earning of a PHD, he was in his best elements throwing banters and sharing jokes with both the old and young. In between hearty laughter’s, waving of hands, pumping of hands, exchanging of pleasantries with old friends and associates, Alao-Akala constantly keep promising and assuring that he will do much more. Yes he will do much more. OYA TO
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