LEA Aimiuwu, the transformation leader, Godspeed

LUGARD Ehimatie Aimiuwu (LEA), the Osayuwanoba n’Eghaevbo N’Ore of the timeless Benin Kingdom, left us on Thursday, April 16, 2015. It is in depressing grief that we have to bid LEA, the transformation leader, Godspeed.

Our country has lost a classic Renaissance man of immense fecundity, an excellent personification of the enormous human resources possibilities inherent in us.

Although, our potentials are stupendous, our means are still only of primary significance; if we could raise our human and natural endowment to secondary level of importance, they would necessarily propel the transformation of our country.

Nigeria, Edo people and LEA’s friends and family lost a deeply knowledgeable man who understood the tertiary import in the dialectics of synthesis and the specifics of the conversion of the quantities in population and natural resources of Nigeria to yield qualitative physical, human and social capital development outcome and vice versa.

While LEA was a prominent public figure, energetic and lively, he turned out to be strongly protective of privacy and stoutly disinclined to importune friends and relatives alike. Only such tough disposition can plausibly, explain his rather surprisingly, quiet exit.

That is to say, despite his charisma and high visibility in public and professional circles, very few unless his doctors may have known that he was seriously unwell.

But then, snippets of information of his ill-health which filtered out were scanty, lacking in certitude. And each time friends intervened with him to confirm or otherwise refute the veracity of the disturbing reports, he reassured the enquirer that he was merely tired; it was not serious to cause anxiety and that he was taking his deserved rest.

He was upbeat and revving to return to the public affairs circuits. For, soon after the presidential election of March 28, he sent me a short message advising that whatever was the hurtful matter in Edo State should be dutifully resolved. He particularly held that it was important to accord decent home support to the major national duty of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

He stressed therefore, that if there was anything he could do to assist in the common cause and remediate the troubling electoral outcome; one could count on his readiness. Then on April 9, he sent another short message not only probing the causality of the worrisome electoral results of the previous fortnight but also, whether it had been interrogated and cauterised against the ensuing April 11outing.

Born on Wednesday, October 17, 1945 to a police officer father, LEA was a thoroughbred professional, creative and resourceful personality, sui generis among technocrats and suave cultural leader. Above all, LEA was the quintessential manager with aggressive genius for results. He once remarked that he was not just a management theorist but also a proven practitioner who had run a factory, managed people and resources, excelled in products branding and carved a marketing niche for himself in blue chip companies.

In an uncanny, pithy insightful moment, he posited the management doctrine to the effect that things work because we want them to work; businesses and managements are efficient because we want them to be. His capacity to get results seems to be characteristic in the sizeable, distinguished family sired by Chief Josiah Ehiosuomwan Aimiuwu.

Himself an illustrious scion of a famous farmer, war and cultural leader in the Benin Kingdom during its glorious days, Josiah Aimiuwu served with distinction in many parts of Nigeria and retired home to the traditional chieftainship of Obamarhiaye in the court of Oba Akenzua II. Quite the strong man, LEA was the fifth child and second son of the 34 children of Chief Josiah Aimiuwu.

I had the rare opportunity to discourse with LEA the astounding lacunae in the storehouse of knowledge of Edo people. He opined that it was disconcerting but then argued that the little history of our people that had been written especially, about the great moments of old, lacked detail.

Even the current puny recitations seem to centre chiefly, on the happenings of the late 19th Century, as if our story began less than 200 years ago! In the context, the unparalleled, almost feeble resistance to the violent colonial encounter leading to the conquest of the Empire, he posited, had not been sufficiently reported or investigated or worse, had been simply scoffed. He incisively analysed some of the outstanding historical lessons derivable from the shortness of the conflict.

Deriving from this broad backdrop, it becomes plausible to partly explicate why LEA was exceptionally successful in the boardroom of over 20 companies and sterling leadership of the several professional bodies he had the duty to guide and bestrode like a colossus. I will take two instances. During his tenure as President of NIM, he strategically transformed the Institute into the largest professional membership organisation in Nigeria with the possibility of eternal renewal.

To this end, LEA brought fresh graduates in national service into the NIM fold, after months of intense preparation to pass the prescribed introductory management examinations. So long as the graduate membership runs, the dream of ceaseless production of professional managers and membership of the NIM will not fail and so, LEA’s genius at work will endure into the future. He also conceptualised and superintended overarching partnerships with a number of national organisations and overseas business schools and training institutions.

It was under LEA’s leadership that a serving President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, personally attended the Annual Management Conference of the Institute. When LEA was soon after honoured with the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), his friends transliterated it as Osayuwanoba of Nigeria! Later on, the informal leaders of the national professional marketing body felt concerned about its fractionalisation and drafted LEA to work for its unification. He did his duty with so much panache that he was requested to lead the first Council of the unified National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria.

As he enunciated his vision, the brilliance of his leadership was infectious; he radiated passion, exuded gravitas and infused us with can-do spirit. But he allowed only those errands he could not run by himself. LEA was a source of inspiration and never ceased in mentorship. He inspired by example.

LEA, the transformational leader of cutting edge brilliance is survived by a wife and daughter. He was the consummate man of culture and fount of learning; deeply knowledgeable, ever understanding and loyal in friendship. More importantly, he knew the ways of our Edo people and familiar with the fate of humankind generally.

Thus, having fully understood the ancient concept of life after life in cosmological thought, accordingly, we sublimate our grief in order to ride on the wings of hope and pray that God hearken to our petition and LEA be allowed to return hither.

•Dr. Ebhohimhen lives in Benin City.