Ambode: The story of the Nigerian dream

Every champion's journey begins with a dream.” So goes the pay-off message of the Academy for Sports Excellence, ASPIRE, based in Qatar. We may not be talking sports here and now, in spite of the fast approaching World Cup in Brazil and the global fever it is generating, but in every sphere of life, winners are those who dare to dream big. And more importantly, take determined steps to actualize those dreams, against all odds.

Agreed, life itself is a test of will power; of grit and guts from people propelled by the CAN-DO-IT spirit. America with its several self-accomplished citizens, who started with barely nothing, rose to the top of the socio-economic ladder and prides itself on the American Dream. Here, in Nigeria, the quest is still on.

So, what makes the quintessential Nigerian Dream? What really defines it? What unique characteristics of greatness etch them visibly in the portrait of the persona of the archetypical Nigerian success? Is it the usual rags-to-riches story? Or, is it challenging story of that hitherto unsung individual who, by sheer determination to succeed, pulls himself up by the bootstrap and moves from total obscurity to that of the social, economic or political limelight?

Whichever way we view it, the inspiring story of Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, a public finance management  expert, and the Chief Executive Officer of Brandsmiths Consulting Limited, whose compelling biography, The Art of Selfless Service, was recently launched in Lagos, should illuminate our concept of the Nigerian Dream. More so now that he has become a beacon bearer of no mean stature, pointing the way forward to others still trapped in the dark pits demonized by gnawing ignorance and grinding poverty.

A public finance and management-consulting expert with a deep knowledge of the Nigerian public finance management expert and the Chief Executive Officer of Brandsmiths Consulting Limited whose compelling biography, The Art of Selfless Service was recently launched in Lagos to critical acclaim should illuminate our concept of the Nigerian Dram. More so now that he has become a beacon bearer of no means stature, pointing the way forward to others still trapped in the dark pits demonized by gnawing ignorance and grinding poverty.

A public finance and management-consulting expert with a deep knowledge of the Nigerian public sector, Ambode is a former Accountant General of Lagos State, serving in that capacity between 2006 and 2012. He also served in several other capacities, including permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance, Auditor General for Local Governments and across all cadres of Lagos State civil service for a total of 27 years, before his voluntary retirement in 2012. He gained recognition for outstanding excellence by the Joint Tax Board (JTB)/Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) on the successful organization of the 1st National Tax Retreat in Nigeria in 2005.

With a humble beginning from the backwaters of Epe, a serene town in Lagos, Ambode was determined to make a headway in life through the acquisition of sound education, against daunting circumstances. Incidentally, those odds started manifesting with the death of his father when he was still in his tender years. With that rude shock of losing the family's breadwinner, his dream and aspiration of achieving his lofty academic goals seemed to have come to a dead end! Worse still was when the uncle he approached to inform him of his ambition to someday qualify as an accountant ridiculed him: “You this small boy become an accountant?” were the words pierced with a hot knife deep into his very soul. But it served as a wake-up call. Not one to lament his saddening situation, he took up the gauntlet as a great challenge rather than allow it to cow him to submission.

And as fate would have it, he graduated from the University of Lagos at 21 with a degree in Accounting. Subsequently, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant at 24 combined with a master's degree. The alumnus of Wharton Business School, Advanced Management Programme has also attended related relevant courses at several renowned institutions, including Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield, England; the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland; INSEAD Singapore and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Boston, U.S.A.

Armed with a master's degree in Accounting (Financial Management), his well-heeled professional expertise cannot be in doubt. To reinforce this, he is a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in Accounting and Finance from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

With that proud professional pedigree in the highly demanding job of accountancy, many would have expected him to head straight into the world of private business. But the uncommon passion for selfless service in him saw him pitching his tent with local government administration in Lagos State. Being the Auditor General at this level offered him the valuable opportunity to understudy the nuances and challenges of that most neglected level of administration in Nigeria.

The scenario was no less different when he emerged as the best student in an accountancy course while on Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in the United States. The expectation then was that he would stay back there and feather his professional nest. But true to type, as one desirous to impact on his community as a selfless servant, he returned home to fulfill the Nigerian Dream. This time, he requested to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance. And as the hand of providence would have it, it was there his unique professional competence and rare ingenuity in the accounting profession was discovered by none other than then state governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The distinguished Nigerian with the uncommon knack for discovering talents took a closer interest in the self-effacing man driven by the mantra to serve his people to the best of his abilities.

Typical of his career trajectory, he rose to the enviable position of the permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Lagos State, at the young age of 37, in a system that normally takes years to attain. He worked with other professionals and colleagues well into their 50s and early 60s. The age difference notwithstanding, he was humble enough to gain from their wealth of experience, while they gave their maximum support that saw the ministry reaching unprecedented heights in a symbiotic relationship that placed the entire state's finances in good stead.

With the zeal to excel, the team he led was able to re-engineer the financial base of the Centre of Excellence. That saw to it that the state survived during the trying months when the Obasanjo-led administration unilaterally and unconstitutionally stopped monthly allocations to the local governments of the state. It would also be remembered of his exemplary selfless service that it was he, who ensured that cheques for contract works completed, which had piled up for years, got the desired attention as the beneficiaries got paid with desired dispatch and promptitude.

Little wonder that at 48, he left the service after 27 years of meritorious service with his head held high. Here indeed, one good Nigerian had discharged his duties to the best of his abilities driven by the philosophy of selfless service.

The exemplary evolution of Ambode, the brilliant accountant, the auditor with avid interest deployed at grassroots financial affairs, the astute manager of men and materials and a financial guru with the Midas touch and now a politician with an eye on the future, surely has  the unfailing hand of God in it all.

Here is a man who, in the course of his career, traversed virtually all the local government councils across the state as an accountant/auditor of repute and contributed substantially to restructuring the state finances to act as the catalyst for the economic renaissance of the state.

As a former Permanent Secretary in the sensitive area of finance, he is no doubt eminently qualified to build on the firm foundation laid by the pathfinder of modern Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which has since been raised to the skyscraper status by the iconic actualiser of the dream, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. It is indisputable that Ambode, who has been a labourer in the vine yard of re-engineering Lagos, is now ready to move in as a tested, knowledgeable and competent project manager.

For him, Lagos remains the epicentre  of his professional calling, the place he returned to after being fully equipped with both the Chartered Accountancy and a master's degree; the home where he had come back to and offered to rebuild as circumstances demanded. That Lagos is to him today, a land of vast economic opportunities and indeed, the Centre of Excellence that would forever remain home to every Nigerian citizen, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, social background or gender.

According to Sophocles, the Greek writer, in his play, Antigone, “No other touch stone can test the heart of a man, the temper of his mind and spirit, till he be tried in the practice of authority and rule.” Ambode has been severally tested over time with challenging assignments, which he discharged with his characteristic efficiency, industry, diligence, innovativeness and commitment to excellence. As he aspires to loftier heights in his service to Lagos State, Nigeria and humanity, this man of destiny is certainly set to lift the pedestal of selfless public service to new heights.