• Exit of Mr. Integrity. When comes another?
For years, Gamaliel Onosode’s name was strongly associated with integrity in the public mind because he exemplified that high virtue in socially significant ways. He was the type whose professional career suggested a political promise. Perhaps it is Nigeria’s loss that his shining leadership qualities were denied expression on the political stage. He was a presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).
Onosode was an acknowledged major player in boardroom politics in the private sector, but his respected management expertise also proved useful in the public sector; and was beneficial to the country’s political administrations at different times.
His death in Lagos on September 29, at age 82, spoke about his life and the paths he followed to distinction. From his emergence in the 1970s as a promising chief executive following his stint at NAL Merchant Bank, Onosode rose to impressive heights in Nigeria’s corporate world. Among the distinguished positions he occupied were: chairman of Dunlop Nigeria Plc (1984 – 2007), chairman of Cadbury Nigeria Plc (1977- 1993) and chairman of Zain Nigeria. He also had leadership seats on Nigeria LNG Working Committee and Nigeria LNG Limited (1985 -1990).
A quintessential technocrat, he was Presidential Adviser on Budget Affairs and Director of Budget (1983) and President of the Nigerian Institute of Management (1979 -1982). In 1998, he became a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He was also a Fellow of the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank. He was richly decorated in various spheres. He made a defining contribution to public sector management by his headship of a Commission on Nigerian Parastatals in the 1980s, and it is a testimony to his positive role that the Onosode report, produced under his tenure, identified major developmental drawbacks that are still identifiable problems decades after.
According to the report: “Public capital expenditure rose during the oil boom at a much faster rate than Nigeria’s physical, technical or financial abilities; huge expenditure on particular industrial projects did not yield expected returns because of “inappropriate choices in their selection, size, design, location and management.” ; government policies laid too much emphasis on industrialisation, without regard to Nigeria’s resource base and comparative advantage; frequent changes in fiscal and monetary policies created planning problems for the private sector; the exchange rate of the naira was not managed “to reflect the basic strength of the economy and the need to encourage domestic production.”
Onosode’s image as a forthright personality and patriot was also cemented by his role as Chairman of the Niger Delta Environmental Survey, a non-governmental organisation focused on environmental and social impact assessment of oil exploration in the Niger Delta. The group, based on research, blamed the environmental degradation in the region on oil majors, the Federal Government and the oil-producing communities. It was another case of identifying the causes of a problem that remains problematic.
There was no doubt about Onosode’s comfortable status. But he was never defined by money — only by character and by uncommon modesty. It is noteworthy that, in a tribute, his friend of more than five decades, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku, said Onosode’s resources were “righteously acquired.” He passed through life, and lived at the top, without a whiff of scandal, which is a lesson for the country’s living men of means.
Although it is speculative how much his life was influenced by his religion and religious role, he took Christianity seriously, and in 1984 started Good News Baptist Church at his home in Surulere, Lagos. It is to his credit that by the time he died the church reportedly had over 2, 000 members. Onosode, known as a deacon, was until his death Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
A man of impressive elocution, Onosode’s signature centre hair parting made a generational statement. Of Urhobo roots, educated at the Government College, Ughelli, and the University of Ibadan, he was a generational example and represented a receding era.
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