These three former public servants who served meritoriously have not been found in any public function again. SUNNY IDACHABA writes on where they could be now.
Not many people would remember Dr Sonny Chu Okongwu who was the minister of national planning between 1985 and 1986 and later as minister of finance between 1986 and 1990 all during the Ibrahim Babangida administration. A trained economist, he was instrumental to the development of the structural adjustment programme embarked upon by that administration. Now in his 80s, people know him only as a former minister, but long before he came to prominence in the cabinet, he was into journalism and broadcasting. While reflecting on his 79 birthday a few years back, he said, “That is a wonderful reflection for me. Yes, I was a journalist but, before then, I was in broadcasting. I had my own programmes, Jaz Club and then I moved into journalism. It was there I learnt about team work, doing the work on the desk and in the case room. You don’t have case room these days. But in those days, we had manual type operators, case rooms, printers and the lead thing being melted on the slugs and then put on to cast, and then you went down to the case room or box room to copy it upstairs to proof. You could read backwards, proof read and correct. They were wonderfully skilled people. One night, the stone sub editor passed away and the post became vacant. The general stone sub then asked me to take the job. The salary was 20 pounds a month. So, I took the job and went into the case room for the production of the paper. It was a wonderful experience. The stone sub gave final approval for the paper, that means there should be no mistakes, no spelling or grammatical errors.”
Reflecting also on the current state of the economy, he said, “Well, things are very dire. Certainly, things have been down but it is still going down and down. Employment, infrastructure, transportation, education system, education infrastructure, health infrastructure are all in complete disarray. The society itself is in very bad shape to say the least, extremely disorderly. It is hyper-praetorian disorderliness. That is, everything is entirely disorganised.” This former minister is almost on his way into the club of octogenarians and it is also not clear where he could be at the moment.
Abubakar Yar Adua
Abubakar Yar Adua is the former group managing director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under the late former president, Umaru Musa Yar Adua between 2007 and 2009. Yar’Adua, according to investigation, never worked anywhere outside the NNPC all through his working career. He joined the corporation as a corps member at the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) in 1976. As usual, when he took over the mantle of leadership in NNPC, he declared the normal rhetoric associated with former chief executives that there would be zero tolerance for corruption during his tenure. This was during the valedictory session in honour of Dr Funsho Kupolokun, his immediate predecessor who was removed from office. He admitted that the downstream sector posed a big challenge to the management of the corporation and that little or nothing would be achieved without the support of staff. To that extent, he pledged that should the corporation fails to address the challenges posed by the downstream sector, he would be the first person to go. According to him, “I believe that staff are the greatest assets of any organisation and so we shall train and retrain our staff. “Our staff remains one of our top priorities. The perception that NNPC is a black box is a hoax and we welcome anybody to confront us to know what we are doing. We believe it is the right of every Nigerian to know what we are doing.”
The NNPC, he said, would contribute its quota to government’s desire to revamp the energy sector and make Nigeria one of the world’s 20 most developed economies by year 2020. In 2009, however, in what were referred to as major reforms in the oil sector, Yar Adua was sacked along with other top management staff of the corporation. Since then, nothing has been heard about him again.
Funso Kupolokun
Engr Funso Kupolokun is a former group managing director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under former President Obasanjo. Available records show that Kupolokun remains one among other GMDs of NNPC that had spent the greatest number of his life working in the oil and gas sector. For instance, far back as 1971, he was with Shell BP before he joined the NNPC in 1972, worked for a long time and rose to senior management cadre before he left. Therefore, when Obasanjo appointed him years later to head the corporation, many described him as a round peg in a round hole. However, despite his robust sojourn and wealth of experiences in this sector, under him as the boss of NNPC, the corporation battled many policy inconsistencies, the reason for which fuel scarcity and other related problems became the nightmare of the country while he lasted there. Perhaps, his major undoing was his alleged involvement in the ownership of a 269- room luxurious apartment in Accra Ghana which he was said to own considerable share as against the code for public servants. All these not withstanding, he had something good that went for him. According to Nigerian Biography, “His most outstanding contributions in the oil and gas industry and Nigerian economy at large was when he led a small team of engineers, economists and accountants to develop the fiscal policy document to salvage the economy some years back when there was a crash in oil prices to as low as five dollars per barrel and oil OPEC price structure collapsed. The developed structure guaranteed steady income and encouraged the corporation to strive for low operating cost.” Also, Kupolokun’s strength, according to Suleiman Bello a fellow colleague, lies in his openness to consult widely. “He latches on to anyone who could add value to his work; therefore, he assembles an array of individuals from different backgrounds to work with him.” In 2015, his name appeared curiously among ministerial nominees for screening, but was conspicuously removed later. It is not clear where he is and what he is doing at the moment.
