There’s Urgent Need to Match Nigeria’s Huge Population with Productive Capacity

IDORENYEN ENANG

Mr. Idorenyen Enang is the former Managing Director, Samsung Technologies and Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Shepherds Limited. He is a leading corporate player with career spanning over three decades in several key positions in major multinational companies, including Coca-Cola, Cadbury and Guinness. Enang speaks on salient issues about the economy, business management and what informed his book: ‘The Grip of Grace’, which will be unveiled soon. Raheem Akingbolu brings the excerpts

You have always sounded so passionate about Nigeria and its working system. What are your thoughts on the current state of the nation and how can we make things work?

The truth about it is that no nation can ever be successful without the people. I am one person who has consistently maintained that our greatest assets are our people, and until we harness those potentials and the assets, we might not make progress. It is just like you have assets, if you don’t sweat the assets, you can’t get anything out of it. It is putting a priority on people. Where Nigeria is today, we have a lot of great things happening for us, but unfortunately we have not been able to harness it because we are not harnessing the people resource.

We are always quick to talk about our population. Our population is great. It is a number, but the question is how productive is that number. Productivity is what drives efficiency and effectiveness. It is the productive nature of your people that matters. When I talk about being productive, you know one person generates one, by the time he gets into another, it multiplies and that multiplication effect drives the whole spectrum. Then, the biggest part of our problems which we must address is indiscipline. Until Nigerians become disciplined in thoughts, in actions, and every other thing would line up.

A disciplined thought produces character. Disciplined action will produce a person or people who have a sense of duty. Where does it start from? It starts from the family. For instance, as I am sitting here, I am a product of a family. You are a product of a family. We are all ambassadors of our different families. We all come from somewhere; somewhere also means a union of two people. In some cases, they may both be Nigerians or they may not be. But take away ethnic nationality, but they are two people.

Fundamentally, it is about the genetic nature of it. So I take something from my mum, I take from my father and both of them have me. From that time, a lot of things that happen to me would come from how my parents have nurtured me, what they see, what they teach me etc. From there, I will learn as I step out of my cocoon, whether in school, whether out of school, neighborhood, whether with my friends, and gradually, something begins to form. By the time I get to a certain age, I would not be with my parents again. It is those things that they said to me that would become a landmark in my heart that would carry me in the journey of life. Unfortunately, we have lost our sense of values. So discipline is the anchor that would make a lot of things happens.

When people are disciplined, in the way they think and the way they act, you will see productivity. You cannot say that Nigerians are disciplined people, but when the same Nigerian steps out of this country, gets into an environment, whether high class, low or medium, they conform to those working standards. This is because the environment there is fixed to consequent actions. There are consequences involved. Are there consequences in the families? Are there consequences in society? All these have broken down. So what would happen at the end of the day? It is just like a farmer. The farmer sows seeds, but before he plants the seeds, he has to look at the soil, he would go there and excavate, and then begin to plant the seeds. He won’t just leave it anyhow.

He would nurture it. So there are processes he must follow. If at the end of it all, nothing comes through, he would say I did try. And he could also see that he didn’t put in any efforts, number one, there were no rains. So if there were no rains, he would pray for rain. But because there was no rain, he would look for one form of irrigation system or the other, or he would look for a way to water the plants so that the plants can grow. God has provided elements like sunlight. Every living thing has one principle: must grow. The minute a living thing is not growing, it is dead.

So, we need to ask the questions: if we are truly growing?” and “In what ways are we growing?” because not every growth is good. For cancer or tumor growths, people pay huge sums and risk their lives for them to be taken out. Discipline is a currency that we, as Nigerians, need to bring back.

You have grown from zero to hero. What was growing up like for you?

First and foremost, I must admit that I am still in the process of becoming one. This is because; you can only become a hero when you might have completed the assignment. Where do I start from?

I come from a very humble family. My parents, thankfully, are still alive. My father is 86 and my mother is 79. They are both back home in my village, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom. My father came to Lagos at age 20; he spent 60 years of his life in Lagos. He left at the age of 81 back to the village.

He met my mum in Lagos and they had me. I am the first of their four children – three boys and a girl. One thing I’d like to establish here is that we all married from different parts of the country.

My wife is from Edo State, my brothers’ wives are from Osun and Imo states, and my sister’s husband is from Akwa Ibom. My dad always used to joke that he has donated his children to the nation. This tells you that we are detribalised. It speaks to the way I was brought up. My parents had a great deal of influence on my life as a child. I was born in Lagos and we lived in Surulere up till I was 13. We moved from Adeniran Ogunsanya to Sam Shonibare Street.

This big size of mine you are seeing is not something that happened today, I was actually born as a big baby. But if my mum is here you would probably be wondering, how this man came out of this woman. As a matter of fact, there was a joke at a point in our house. When people come to our house, and they see me, they used to ask my father who my mother was, thinking that my father had had a first wife before my mum, but that that wasn’t the case.

I attended St. Mary’s Prep School, and St. Catherine’s Model School, where my Headmistress was Mrs. Agbaje, Jimi Agbaje’s mother in Yaba. I moved to Baptist Academy and I spent five years there. I had my West African Senior School Certificate Examination at age 15 and moved on to do my A’ Levels at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo. I was a bit of a rascal at that time, all thanks to Ben Murray Bruce’s Silverbird productions where we had to leave school to watch shows. At the end of my examinations in FSAS, Ondo, I failed a paper – Government – so I could not gain admission to study the course I would have loved to study. When I returned home, my dad, being a highly disciplined and success-oriented person, was not pleased with me. In order to prove to myself and my father that I was not a failure, my friend and I had to go to the Ministry of Education to apply to go back for the A’ Levels.

In between, I got a job. I worked for nine months as a civil servant with the Ministry of Defence, as a Level 6 clerk through the help of my aunt, who told me about the opening. We were paid N178 a month. This was the period of Gen. (Ibrahim) Babangida. This was not my father’s wish; he wanted me to go to school as the first child, but I took it upon myself to earn my own money, so I could see myself through school. I went back to do my A’ Levels at the Federal Government Academy, Suleja. I paid my fees and sorted out my accommodation independently. I was shocked when, one day, my friend came to tell me my dad was at the school gate, wanting to see me. It was a surprise, but he indeed came that day to see me.

I advanced towards my hometown, when I heard that the then University of Cross River State, now University of Uyo, was beginning to admit students for Economics. I applied but instead of Economics, I was given Religious Studies. I went to the office of the Head of Department of Economics one day with my cousin, and told him about my dream of studying Economics. He pondered over it for a while and then agreed to give me a chance if only I passed Mathematics in the first year. I not only did that, but I was also on the honours roll for three years; I missed making a first class by a whisker. When I got my result, I took a night bus to show my dad. He was so pleased with me and we gave all glory to God. I did my national youth service in Port Harcourt.

Nigerian Breweries was recruiting, I applied, but my application was not complete. Coincidentally, Mr Otu Umoren, my best friend at the time, was the Personnel Officer. He called me to tell me that I was ineligible to get the position, because of my incomplete application. I didn’t get the job despite having my best friend at the helm of affairs. There is one thing that young people should learn from that. My friend was disciplined enough not to cut corners for me to get into Nigerian Breweries. So, when the opportunity for Guinness came, I was careful enough to get all my documents in, and I went through the process and was employed as a management trainee at Guinness.

You have worked with great brands like Coca-Cola, Samsung and Guinness at top management levels. What normally necessitated your decision to quit each time you did?

I started out at Guinness and I worked there for seven years. I moved from Guinness to Coca-Cola; I spent 11 years there. These 18 years baked the solid foundation for my professional career. When Cadbury had issues with finance and strategy, I was called upon to revamp the system. I came into Cadbury as commercial director in 2007. I spent three years there, leading the commercial team – sales, marketing and operations – and we moved the company from near-crumbling to where it is now. Then it was time for me to go. I moved over to Samsung Electronics as Managing Director. I led the team to change the dynamics of the business. Samsung was a clear case for me of how things can turn around with strategic planning. In 18 months, Samsung was leading the market. I met a team of 20 people, but by the time I left, the team was over 120 people.

I spent two plus years there. My values and theirs were always clashing. I walked out of that building that fateful day in 2012 and I’ve never walked into that building ever since. This still points back to discipline. It is my tradition. I say this with every sense of humility and glory to God, that I’ve never had any issue in all my places of employment. After that, L’Oreal Group came calling. I was appointed Managing Director, West Africa, in charge of Ghana and Nigeria operations. In 2015, I resigned and came back home to focus on my social enterprise, Corporate Shepherds. It started in 2009. The mission of Corporate Shepherds came to teach, guide, and motivate. It is a vision that God has given to me to mentor a generation. The vision came when I was in Coca-Cola, I didn’t know God was preparing me for the future.

Many people call you ‘Trustee of posterity’. How did that appellation come about and what does it mean?

I did not call myself that, but the first time I heard it many years ago was first from my father in the faith, Pastor ‘(Tunde) Bakare. He took us through a series of teachings many years ago. When I go somewhere and my friends wanted to introduce me, they would say, ‘’ID is a trustee of prosperity.’’ That was how it started.

This (Trustee of Posterity) means that I am one with something kept for the future. If you look at my life and my journey, you can mirror it from there. You can also mirror it from the people that I’ve raised. I give God the glory in that aspect. Today, there are several people, especially young people that I have impacted their lives positively. I have given a lot of young men scholarships. Let me give you an example, starting from my home, I am grateful to the woman I married, she is a fantastic partner.

I have given three of my security operatives’ scholarships to go back to school. The fourth one, also just got admission into Benue State University. For me, you can’t just come and sit down as a security man; you need education to do something for your life. So I can see what they don’t see and my job is to help them invest in it. That’s one side. Within my corporate journey, there are young people who I always raise their hands up because I see myself as a life coach.

You published a book, In the Grip of Grace. Tell us about the thrust of the book.

The title of my book is: In the Grip of Grace. In the Grip of Grace is an autobiography. This book encapsulates everything that I had to go through in life. It has been really God’s grace and not by my strength. When I left Samsung, I took one year off, went to LBS, where I was always invited to give a talk. I wrote this book because I am very driven about legacy. How else can I drop my legacy if not in writing? This book is long overdue. My greatest motivation in writing this book is to influence a generation to understand that if I can make it, they also can.

You left the corporate world and started your own company. Would you say the Nigerian environment is friendly to entrepreneurs?

Well, it is a function of the individual’s lenses. We have different visions. What we see are different. Some see problems, challenges; others see opportunities. It is all a function of what you see. There is no one-size-fits-all. I always counsel young people that business is not for everybody. Some things are innate. A child may begin to portray skills of business from around age seven. But if we want to be brutally honest, you will tell yourself that nothing is working. Ask yourself who fills up those business class seats on the planes and the rooms in the hotels. What a lot of people have not done is to identify a purpose. Most people are working in ignorance. I am not getting a salary, but I have inner peace. Being an entrepreneur is a spirit; you must have it. You must be ready to learn, know and serve, so you can create value. If you jump into entrepreneurship, because of your greed, you will be disappointed. Is the environment friendly? No. So, you can call me an entrepreneur, but what I really am is a farmer. The environment is harsh, there’s no ease of doing business, and most of the things the government is saying they are doing are lies; why this is so is because of the people factor.

What gap was your company, Corporate Shepherds Limited, created to fill?

Corporate Shepherds started in 2009. It is a vision that God gave me in 2003, to mentor a generation, teaching, guiding and motivating them. God used my corporate experiences to build me for the place I am now. Shortly after this, I started going to universities with my wife to teach and speak to young people about life. 2008 was a turning point for me, and in January, 2009, we registered Corporate Shepherds. We had a small office in Amore Street in Ikeja; people still located me to mentor and guide them through their lives, which is fulfilling. I started a radio programme – Navigate with Idy – in 2009 on Radio Continental. I expanded to Beat FM and Brila FM courtesy of my friends Chris Ubosi and Larry Izamoje who supported me and still do. These days, my programme runs on Lagos Talks, Inspiration FM, Uyo and Ibadan, Classic FM Abuja, with over two million listeners. I enjoy doing what I love doing. I started afresh, from the scratch. So, when you ask me about nation building, I know what it is about.

What would you consider your biggest achievement so far?

I have seen a lot of my mentees grow to become solid men and women, and to me, that is my greatest fulfillment. Today, I have several young people on my scholarship scheme. I am grateful that I married the woman I married. She is a fantastic partner and has supported me all the way.