Chief Eze Festus Odimegwu

Remember Chief Eze Festus Odimegwu, former Managing Director/CEO of Nigerian Breweries Limited? He lost his job at the Nigerian Breweries allegedly for sticking out his neck too far for former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his third term project.

He was one of the arrow heads of Corporate Nigeria, the group of top businessmen and captains of industry who was in bed with Obasanjo, who saw no evil or heard no evil once the issue had to do with the former president. When he lost his job, one naughty colleague of mine coined the term Odimegwuism and went further to talk of the limit of Odimegwuism, which he meant to refer to the limit of obsequiousness.

But the news now is Odimegwu is back again; it’s spring time again for the former Nigerian Breweries MD. President Jonathan on Tuesday appointed Odimegwu chairman of the National Population Commission.

He charged the 22-member body with Odimegwu at the head with the compilation of a new national identity card, saying he wanted every Nigerian to have a national identity card by 2015. Some said Odimegwu is a graduate of business and specialises in Business Management all his life, having been educated at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Wharton Business School, London Business School, Kellogg Graduate School of Management and University of Nigeria, Nsukka among others. But what does that matter. It’s a job for the boys, apparently. It’s pay back time for Odimegwu. And as he put it, all that is required is management, managing others. NPC, according to him, has officers from the local government to the federal level and that’s very true. He can manage them to deliver on the mandate of NPC.