How I became emergency CEO after my husband death in plane crash – Nwaeze

…hails Tinubu For Subsidy Removal

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer News Engineering Nigeria Limited, Lady Josephine Nwaeze, has explained how the death of her husband, Sir Ojimadu Nwaeze, in plane crash led to her emergence as the head of the firm.

According to Nwaeze, after her husband’s death in the 2006 ADC plane crash, her son, Ugo, joined his father years later.

She observed that her consistency, resilience, hope and trust in God made her overcome the adversity and take leadership of the legacy company.

Nwaeze made the revelation at the closing of the National Leadership Conference, organised by the GOTNI Leadership Centre in Abuja on Saturday.

Narrating her ordeal, the fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineering (FNSE) said: “I call myself an emergency leader because the position I am occupying now I wasn’t prepared for it. I woke up one Sunday morning after having husband and wife time and my husband travel and he never came back. He died in a plane crash and I couldn’t understand it and I was still expecting him to come back. (The leadership of the Company was thrusted upon me.

“My son (died) I started mentoring this boy from secondary school because he was more like the father. He relates with the people, I said Ugo you are going to be an Engineer. I gave him every support and then he died. I said it’s time for me to go now and sit down and then depression set in, anxiety, sadness, grief, fear of the unknown everything.

“But then as the leader, I had to weigh my options if give you what happens? I will be in a most difficult situation. Then I had to gather myself together. I started leaving a triangular life from my house to office, from my office to church every day. God gave me a lot of comfort and strength, then I continue moving. So there are three things that have made me to overcome these times; consistency, resilience hope, and trust in God.

“There are a lot, I expect people to learn from me, number one is consistency. Whatever you do you need to be consistent on it. Secondly, don’t lose hope because the moment you lose hope is over. Always look forward to something better happening and then always develop a positive mindset. As a leader, you need to be positive at all times irrespective of what you are going through.”

She hailed President Bola Tinubu for taking the bold decision of removing fuel subsidy, saying it was a hallmark of bold leadership which portend good for the country in the long run.

“He (Tinubu) said I am going to be your President, I will remove the subsidy and I will be your President and the first thing he did was to remove the subsidy. That’s why he earned my respect as a leader. He is a leader. A leader should be the one that is able to solve problems.

“The removal of the subsidy is inevitable. I think it’s a good decision for the President to take that decision. What Nigerians are looking forward to is accountability. They are looking forward to, this has been removed what and how are you going to better our lives. So if the President can also look into that area, I think is something that we are all going to be happy about,”
Nwaeze said.

CEO, GOTNI Leadership Centre, Dr Linus Okorie said there was need for the Nigeria to invest multi-billion Naira in leadership development.

He said: “The United States Government as a country spends more than $160 billion every year for leadership development across the country. My thinking is that everybody in this country who runs a company, who runs an organisation must create budget for leadership development.

“As a government precisely, to run public sector and private sector, government must invest billions of Naira to leadership development. Because leadership capital development is specifically connected to growth.

“It’s opportunity cost, is either you invest in the leadership capital and then growth is driven or you don’t. Is either you invest or you won’t be able to produce the type of leaders that would connect with the central government and drive the type of growth we are talking about.”

On the outcome of conference Okorie said: Nigeria is going to experience transformation like never before. There is going to be sustainable leadership that would begin to drive leaders like never before. My thinking is that it is high time Nigeria started investing heavily, creating budget for leadership development because the future of Nigeria is tied to leadership development.

“The future of Nigeria is tied to the quality of leadership capital that leaders at different levels are able to actually create. The truth of the matter is that Nigeria must make progress; institutions must make progress, organisations must grow but at the heart of it all will be the quality of leadership culture that exists within organisations.”