Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, the astute visionary teaching you to thrive in tough times

I got an invite to attend the WIMBIZ 2015 Annual Lecture Series themed ‘’Thriving in Tough Times: Navigating Challenging Environments’’ and the speaker was Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede. I knew I had to attend, he is such a brilliant orator and an exceptional visionary, the event was therefore not to be missed. I will do my best to share with you in summary what he said and I know you will find it enlightening like I did.

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede CON, has been the President of the National Council of The Exchange since September 24, 2014. From 2002 until his retirement in 2013, he was the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank PLC. During his tenure, the bank was transformed to rank amongst Nigeria’s top 5 banks. His distinguished banking career has spanned 25years of which 10 (Ten) were spent at GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank PLC) where he resigned as Executive Director in March 2002.

Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede was the Board Chairman of FMDQ OTC PLC until August 2014, and is the Chairman of Wapic Insurance PLC. He is a member of the National Economic Management team and a foundation Board member of the Africa Finance Corporation.

As the Chairman of Friends Africa, a partner organization of the Global Fund to fight HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis, he led the Gift from Africa campaign which has raised millions of dollars for the Global Fund. He is Co-Chairman of the Board of GBC Health and is a founding member of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria.

He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School having attended its Executive Management Programme and also an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede holds an LLB degree from the University of Benin and is qualified to practice as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He graces these pages this week.

He began his speech by thanking the organisers of the program especially the visioneers of WIMBIZ.  “When I received numerous missed calls from powerful women from WIMBIZ, I wondered what I had done wrong. When I was later informed of the topic I would be speaking on, I wondered if perhaps I had scars showing from having scaled through turbulent waters in Nigeria” he began wittingly and added “WIMBIZ plays a very important role in Nigeria’s development. Your roles as mothers, sisters, wives are very important. The world will only achieve 50% if women are not empowered. I do not say this to impress the women; it is just like you having Merci a key player in Barcelona on reserved…what for?” he quips.

His description of turbulent times while in the banking sector showed his droll side when he says “I danced skelewu to the tune of Soludo’s consolidation till I swam like a fish in tsunami but I thank God I have left the banking industry and God knows what is going to happen next however, I swam till I made it.” He says and we all applauded amidst mirth.

Going to the topic in question, ‘’Thriving in Tough Times: Navigating Challenging Environments’’, Aigboje reveals that challenges are not new to Nigeria. In his words, “It is not the first time Nigeria will face challenges.  There are situations where negative circumstances have happened simultaneously. Beyond the macro economic challenges, there is also the challenge of insurgency with boko haram meanwhile, the national election is also intensely contested so much that everyone around the world is wondering how it is going to play out. We can indeed say we are facing challenging times in Nigeria. Times we haven’t faced in a long time. It is indeed a right choice to discuss this topic and so I applaud WIMBIZ  for this.” He commends.

“I am not a prophet so I won’t stand here to prophesy what is not but I can tell you Nigeria will struggle to maintain its current rate of job creation.” Aigboje says and continues “we are going to struggle to maintain jobs and  employment both in quantity and quality. Economists local and international agree that our economy will grow at a slower rate and the early signs are there that whilst income may not be reducing in absolute terms, in nominal terms, it is. Like a woman said, it is better to cry at the back of a BMW than to laugh at the back of a bicycle but, as we make these adjustments as a nation, it is not likely that we will be doing this with a smiling face.”  Aigboje warns.

Aig observes that in these times, consumers feel less financially secured but with confidence, you can pull through however, there is work to do. In his words, “You will always face challenges regardless of you race, sex or religion. Others may not face your type of challenges but let’s not think others are exempt from tough times.”

His speech became very emotional and mind bugging when he shared with us about a story he read recently about a woman in the UK and the other his friend in Nigeria. Again he speaks. “I read a story recently of a woman in the UK, a talented pianist who had earned her place at the royal academy of music at the age of 18 and by 23 she was already teaching music. She was also a concert pianist and had given various recitals and recently the victim of a hit and run at the age of 77.”

“Worthy of note is that for 30 years before she died, Anne lived as a destitute in her car. Her car was a Mercedes. How did this lady so talented, having worked with several big names in her industry end up homeless and killed like an abandoned animal on the street? It was traced to when her husband left; she struggled to pay her rent, was evicted and lost it and that was how it all began” Aig shares with us and if you think that’s all, you guessed wrong, listen to the story of what happened when he met his friend.

“Not long, I went to see a friend who lives in a block of flats. As I pulled up to the gate, the security guard approached to find out who I was. I was stunned when he reached my window; the security guard opening the gate for me was my class mate. I kept wondering till date what happened. What I can therefore make from both stories I have shared is that nothing is permanent, adversity cannot be avoided it is to be survived!”

“I share these stories not to dampen your spirit but to let you know that even in countries that appear to be doing better than ours, people can and often do run into tough times and they don’t always navigate them successfully. Our ability to overcome these tough times is important. We are moving from the world of macro-economics to a world of practical realities.” He states.

For everyone going through challenges, Aigboje has this to say “When it comes to coping with challenges, there is nothing more important than having a vision. Nothing noteworthy has been achieved without a vision. It is vision that makes you an entrepreneur and also to succeed in it. When Martin Luther proclaimed that he had a dream, it was the dream for a black man to be in the White House. Though it is a reality today yet, they are still marching on the strength of that vision. It means vision is fundamental to survival.”

Still on the importance of vision, he adds “Imagine for a minute that you are a ship in turbulent waters, storm raging, ship rocking, you need an anchor to hold you firm and that anchor is your vision, your anchor of hope, without which you have no reason to get up when beaten down. It is your source of hope and stability and it motivates your action and desire to succeed.”

“Steve Jobs was championing innovations while he was battling cancer and even undergoing chemo. It may be hard but if you don’t love what you do, you will give it up. Vision will keep you self motivated. It is not sufficient to have visions alone because visions without plans are mere dreams and dreams are good but then you wake up from every dream. Plans are actionable steps you must execute to make your vision a reality so do you have a game plan?” he ends with the mind bugging question.

And for those who believe that focus is all you need, Aigboje has this to say to you “Focus is relevant but focus without a plan is a meaningless term. You must have a game plan and unless you have a plan there is nothing to focus on.” I hear you loud and clear sir!

Aigboje had always loved the civil service growing up but his views changed. “The civil service way back was a job that tested your faculty and at that time, when you heard of an entrepreneur it was hard to understand but when I saw what Nigeria did to its public servants in terms of managing the economy, it just made me have another view of the civil service. I looked at my uncles in the private company; I wanted to be an executive in a multinational company. I envisioned myself in the private sector and by the time I left the university I already had a plan.”

“I focused relentlessly on that plan and I had to keep my eyes on the ball and till date I reminiscence on my plan and how it has played out. I am not an executive in the banking sector anymore but I have a game plan to see me till I am 60 and I assess my performance on that plan daily. I ask myself what I am doing and how I can do it better. I am my critic, all in the view to challenge myself to focusing on my vision.”

Aigboje further admonishes everyone to ensure a right support system which is a key factor to thrive in challenging times warning that who you spend your time with and who you spend your energy on determines how far you go because it can cripple or enable your support system.  “I have never been shy of acknowledging enablers in my life. I continue to strengthen my support system.” He admits.

For Aigboje, it is important to be bold and tenacious to do brave courageous things, to go where no woman has gone before but warns women to avoid being reckless and embrace risk management. “You must be sincere enough to ask yourself what can go wrong with your plan and if it happens. You must spend more time with your bankers, particularly those ones that have great plans for women, spend time with people who can assist you in identifying and mitigating risks. I don’t just have plan B, I have plan C and D.  You may never need it but trust me when that trying time comes; it becomes important to know how to deal with it.”

“It is a great deal to be able to find opportunities in times of adversities. Men can survive a storm and come out alive but those who come out stronger are the real winners. How do you react to crisis? Do you freeze and retreat to your shell hoping it blows over? If you do not thrive in crisis, you have no business leading others and certainly, forget about being an entrepreneur. Crisis is not meant to curb or define you; it is a test for you to overcome adversities. When the 2008 banking crisis came, many panicked, there was a good reason to panic because there was a global meltdown of some sort however, I chose to think different, we were not distracted. When people were losing their heads and minds, I took time off work.”

“My mandate from the board was to go and get a better understanding of banking crisis, so I studied banking crisis everywhere, going back 500years and the more I looked the more I began to see that there are winners and losers and there are big opportunities so I came back, shared with my colleagues and the board and we started searching for the opportunities. We stripped all the arrogance of knowledge which brought all the banks into trouble in the first place and like an innocent one seeking for opportunities, Access bank began to search and in crisis, we saw the result and the rest in now history.”

“Have the vision, believe the vision, be passionate about it and ask for strength from God to deliver. I pray that God will enable your vision and favour your plans even as I commend you to Him. Thanks.” These were his final words. I left the hall inspired, motivated and determined to surmount all obstacles. There is no way you can remain the same after listening to such an outstanding raconteur and a visionary per excellence!

KEMI AJUMOBI