61 GARLANDS
FOR A CZAR
—Eze Festus Odimegwu at the age of New
Beginnings.
~ By Ingram Osigwe
Many people go through life
without attaining the purpose of their existence. Yet within the bounds of time
and chance, limiting the ability of man to determine his own destiny, some
people by mere dint of hard work, diligence integrity and depth of vision,
manage to elevate the gift of natural intellectual endowment given to all men
in varying measures, to the echelon of genius thus attaining a level of
actualization and achievement that is almost superhuman. Festus Odimegwu is one
such rare genius. As he celebrates his 61ST anniversary this year, one could
not but marvel at the life of this super achiever.
Eze Festus Odimegwu was born on August 6, 1953, in Aba,
currently in Abia State of Nigeria. He started his primary
education in Christ the King School, CKS, in Aba,
but it was interrupted by the Civil War, for three years. His parents had to
relocate back to his village, Umuoka Ubirielem in Orsu Local Government Area in
Imo State
of Nigeria.
After the war, his father was not sure that there would not be another civil
insurgence, so they stayed back home and young Festus had to complete his
primary education at St. Mary’s Primary School, Umuoka Ubirielem. He earned his First school Leaving certificate,
making him the only Grade-I distinction
at St.Mary’s then.
He enrolled into Community Secondary School Awo Idemmili in Imo State.
His stellar performances in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics earned him the
title of “Prof”. from admiring teachers and students. He proceeded to
University of Nigeria Nsukka from whence he graduated with a first class
Honours in Chemistry and joined Nigeria Breweries PLC.
Within a career that spanned 26 years and five months, he progressed
from Trainee Brewer 1980-1982, Shift Assistant Brewer in Training April-July
1982, Shift Brewer I/c Bottling 1982-1984 Brewer I/c Brewing 1984-1985
Technological Controller 1985-1987 Production Manager 1987-1988. From 1988 till
1989, he proceeded to Heriot Watt University Edinburgh for his MSc and coming back home, he resumed as
Brewery/Senior Technical Manager 1989-1992,
Sales Director 1992-1993 Food Coordination AMEG Unilever London
1993-1995 Marketing Director Lever Brothers Ghana 1995-1997 MD/CEO Nigerian
Breweries 1997-2006 .
He also attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business,
Wharton Business School and Unilever Four Acres Training Centre. Apart from his
basic background in Chemistry and the Natural sciences, he has amassed a panoply
of knowledge and certifications in Business Strategy, Business Planning, Change Management ,Turn Around
Management, Leadership, New Business Development Strategy, Strategic Planning, Team Building, Entrepreneurship Management, Negotiation and Marketing Strategy.
In 2006, he left the management of Nigerian Breweries PLC. He was
billed to proceed to a new appointment with the Heineken Company in Germany,
but he elected to stay back in Nigeria to pursue other personal business
interests. He then set up the Royal Lifestyle Services Group of Companies Ltd and
other strategic business units of the group like Quintessentially Nigeria,
Recherché signature Events and Gifts and Palatially sole marketers of Angel
champagne, for which he now acts as a non Executive Director.
On Tuesday 26th June 2012, Eze Festus Odimegwu was
appointed Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), by President
Goodluck Jonathan. In appointing Odimegwu to the head of the NPC, the president
went for a twin goal of diligence and integrity, both choices that characterize
Eze Festus Odimegwu. He was the spirit behind the partnership that resulted in
one of the world’s biggest breweries, and which made Nigerian Breweries PLC,
the most capitalized company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. His modernization
programme at NB PLC, lengthened the gap between Nigerian Breweries and its
competitors. An uncompromising stickler for excellence and a goal getter,
Odimegwu distinguished himself as a primus inter pares within the role call of
Nigerian corporate czars, serving on the boards of other companies such as
Dangote Cement PLC, Union Bank of Nigeria as well as Transnational Corporation
of Nigeria, as a Director.
President Jonathan in entrusting the sensitive position of Nigeria’s Chief
Population enumerator unto Odimegwu was undoubtedly guided by the brewer’s
solid foot prints in the sands of corporate management.
The National Population Commission, NPC, was created to give life to
the nation’s population policy, thereby assisting in the achievement of
sustainable development and a higher quality of life for the people and to
promote policies to meet the needs of the current generation, while not
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Upon
the appointment of Eze Odimegwu as the new NPC chairman, President Jonathan
also charged the Commission to spearhead efforts towards the issuance of a
national identity card to every Nigerian by 2015. Thus immediately rising to
the task, the new NPC chairman, proposed a new biometric data capturing process
for the country’s next census. According to him, the new biometric capture
process will save the country billions of Naira by unifying similar projects,
being conducted by various agencies of government. Already approved by
President Goodluck Jonathan, it will also help in better economic planning for
national development.
The new NPC Chairman needed no clairvoyant to tell him that the task
of conducting a country-wide acceptable census in a diverse and politically charged
country like Nigeria was no mean one. The President who appointed him also knew
this. The importance of a credible census to an emerging economy like Nigeria
can’t be over emphasized; A population and housing census is the total process
of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and dissemination of data on
demographic, economic and social conditions of the people as well as the
conditions under which they live at a specific period of time. Censuses are
primary sources of basic benchmark statistics on the population and housing
characteristics of the nation. They provide information on population size, age
and sex composition, geographic distribution and housing characteristics and
facilities that have bearing on the social aspects of the housing.
The fundamental purpose of the
census is to provide the facts essential to government for policy-making,
planning and administration. The characteristics of the population drive the
decision-making that facilitates the development of socio-economic policies
that will enhance the welfare of the population. Additionally, the population
census provides important data for the analysis and appraisal of the changing
patterns of rural/urban movement and concentration, the development of
urbanised areas, geographical distribution of the population according to such
variables as occupation and education, as well as the socio-economic
characteristics of the population and the labour force. These variables also
provide the basis of questions of scientific interest that are of importance
both to pure research and for solving practical problems of industrial and
commercial growth and management.
The findings of the census are
also critical in the decision-making processes of the private sector.
Population size and characteristics influence the location of businesses and
services that satisfy the needs of the target population. Population censuses
also constitute the principal source of records for use as a sampling frame for
the household surveys during the years between censuses. Population Census is an important exercise
because it provides the most comprehensive picture of the social and living
conditions of the people. The appointment of Eze Festus Odimegwu as the
nation’s chief enumerator is a perfect fixation of round peg in a round hole as
his versatility as a strategist and his excellent qualifications and experience
will ensure a state of the art census and demographic information management
for the country.However,Odimegwu, principled and a believer in thoroughness had
his tenure as the NPC boss abbreviated by his insistence on bringing to bear on
the 2016 census, certain far-reaching re-inventing of the process.His principled
stand on the issue ruffled political feathers in a part of the country,
threatening age-long vested ethno-religious and demographic interest. Rather
than stay on as the boss of the NPC and pander to the above interest, Odimegwu in
October last year chose the honourable part of resigning his appointment.He
thus left the NPC with his head unbowed.
On Saturday 27th of July 2013, Eze Festus Odimegwu CON, was honoured
with a Professional Leadership Award at the 2013, Leadership Awards, which took
place at the Civic centre, in Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island Lagos. The
Prestigious award, named the ‘Zik Prize in Leadership Awards’ after the
legacies of one Africa’s greatest and foremost post-colonial leaders,
journalists, publisher, and independence crusader, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the
Owelle of Onistha, second and last Governor-General of Nigeria, first President
of Nigeria as well as a foremost Nigerian Nationalist, Pan-Africanist and publisher of the West African Pilot
Newspaper, was an inimitable platform, for the acknowledgement of leadership
merit to deserving Nigerians.
The Award to Eze Festus Odimegwu, was not only perfectly deserved, but
also perfectly timed. It offers tremendous hope to millions of Nigerians
whenever it is brought to light, the fact that the country still has a crop of
superlative achievers, sitting quietly in strategic positions within the
country’s socio-economic machinery, ensuring that all ramifying advancement is
wrought in the country’s civilization system, despite every appearance to the
negative.
Some notable past
recipients of the awards include former Ghanaian President J.J. Rawlings
(1995); President Nwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (1997); former Secretary
General, Organisation of Africa Unity, Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim (1998); Zambia
President Sam Nujoma (1999); former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa
(2000); President Yoweri Museveni (2003); the late Ghanaian President John
Kuffour (2008); President Seretse Lan Khama (2009); Senator David Mark, Alhaji
Yayale Ahmed and Otunba Subomi Balogun (2010); President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
of Liberia (2011).
History is made by the passage of time and events, but certain men
hold the wheels and steer its course. They champion the events that mark the
epochs, they define the defining moments. The list is endless: from Tutankhamen
and Moses, to Achilles; from King David to Julius Caesar; from Oliver Cromwell
to George Washington; from Winston Churchhill to Mahatma Gandhi; from chairman
Mao Tse-Tung to Ben Gurion; from Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela to Barack
Obama. These are men who by their genius and destiny, were depended upon by the
rest of humanity to foster form and direction in a formless directionless
situation; Odimegwu is a man within this cadre of history makers.
As he marks his 61 birthday, the world attests to the
brilliancy,sagacity and shrewdness of this first class brewer and illustrious
son of Imo state as he continues to avail the nation his energy and experience
in the spheres of social,economic and political development of his fatherland
***********
Ingram Osigwe Consults for Quintessentially Nigeria.
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