He did not train as an accountant or a banker. He read law at the London School of Economics and worked with the British Parliament. In those days, lawyers’ ambition was to become successful and get to the peak of the profession, and he returned to Nigeria young . He could have been a judge but he didn’t like that. At a point, he was among officials earning the highest salaries at the Federal Ministry of Justice.
I pray a lot and the good Lord is answering my prayers. As I said, a number of the top staff of the banking industry passed through these walls. And by divine design, my children followed my footsteps. I have four sons; three of them are fully in finance. My eldest son has even gone to the extent of setting up a finance institution of his own. He is just in his fifties.
Then-CBN Governor said “go ahead, make him Deputy Managing Director”. About three-four years later, at 70, I decided I had had enough and decided to make the expatriate who died the Chairman and we proposed Ladi as Managing Director but one particular official again said he was too young and that if we allowed it, Pascal Edozie and Mrs Cecilia Ibru would bring their children. Another Deputy Governor said, “Baba, let him stay there acting until about a year and a half later”.
Amazingly, my second son, at the age of nine, was just about to go to school in Britain; he walked to his mother and said, “I pitied daddy when he was praying. Why is he seeking to be the boss of other people’s bank? Why can’t he set up his own?” And my wife said to me, “Did you hear what Jide said?” Jide is 49 plus now and I said to my dear wife, “A nine-year-old boy, how can he say that?” We were going into our bedroom. So, I branched to Jide’s room which he shared with his brothers.
You have been doing things that many people will think are impossible all your life. What is the magic? I took the call and said “Your Excellency” but a lady answered and said it was not Obasanjo but that the President had agreed to see me the following Tuesday. So, I assembled about 15-16 staff members, even my wife followed us. When we arrived Aso Rock, one lady, then-Chairman of Public Service Commission came and said Obasanjo would see me alone. So l took file no.13. We had carried files in ‘Ghana must go’ bags.