Biodun Shobanjo: Good head, good heart
IWAS worried stiff by the cantankerous outbursts that I was hearing from the University of Lagos’ top officials, precisely the Vice Chancellor and the Chairman of the Governing Council last year. This led to the cancellation of its convocation ceremony. I therefore decided to meet the two combatants, the Vice Chancellor Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe and the Chairman of the Governing Council Dr Wale Babalakin to see if I could be helpful in any way. After meeting with both men I submitted my findings to Dr John Momoh, President of the Alumni Association who then invited me to join the Alumni Committee of Elders that was searching for a solution to the crisis that was threatening to tear this citadel of high learning apart. I am happy that the Federal Government acted promptly by doing the heavy lifting that brought the crisis to an end.
Last week, the university held its convocation ceremony in an atmosphere that gave no impression that that tussle left serious wounds on the university. I was there on Thursday when honorary doctorate degrees were given to four distinguished Nigerians: Mr Mohammed Indimi, Chief Kessignton Adebutu, Dr Stella Adadevoh and my friend and brother Dr Biodun Shobanjo in whose corner I was at the event.
Shobanjo, an advertising guru and I have known each other since the early 80s in the broader field of mass communication and in the narrower field of social interaction. Since then we have become inseparable like gin and tonic, and have transformed our friendship into brotherhood. In the book, The Will to Win: The Story of Biodun Shobanjo written by Mr Dotun Adekanmbi, Shobanjo’s life is given full airing, warts and amperage. The author tells us that Biodun’s father Joseph was a Christian and his mother Morin, a Muslim. His father worked for the Nigerian Railway and was transferred from place to place and his son was always in tow. That is how it happened that the young Biodun attended St Patrick’s Catholic School in Jebba and St George’s Anglican School in Zaria. These experiences of mixing with children of different backgrounds and of having parents with two different religious orientations moulded him into a detribalised and broadminded citizen. He puts it this way: “Without being immodest I am totally detribalised because one just saw people as human beings. It never occurred to me that some were Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba.” The acceptance of diversity is the highway to fairness and equity. That is why Shobanjo was able to assemble a crack team of highly trained Nigerians from various cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds that helped him to build a great and successful institution.
The show of disdain for diversity in appointments in Nigeria by the Federal Government has caused incalculable harm to the search for efficiency, unity and harmony in the country. It has also poisoned the relationship between and among various segments of the Nigerian population as it has reversed the gains of the federal character provisions in our books of
governance. Even though Shobanjo father died when the young man was only 15 years old, the gift of support for diversity stayed with him into adulthood. That made him the refined human being that he grew to become. Nigeria has been badly hurt by the present primitive resort to parochialism and exclusiveness in the management of the country’s affairs. This has led to the unreplied charge of nepotism and lack of inclusiveness. The country is the poorer for it, for it has led to the rise in agitation for a fairer deal for all sections of the populace, which has grown into crisis proportions.
Biodun’s father died at 49 when the boy was only 15 years old and had just been promoted to class three at Odogbolu Grammar School in Ogun State. A week later his uncle also died, leaving the young man absolutely devastated, imposing on him the tough responsibility of supporting his mother and his three younger siblings. He was thrown into the abyss of grief. Fate had dealt him a bad hand but despite this he was convinced that he could still shoehorn himself into the palace of success. He used the scaffolding of broadcasting and later advertising to shore himself up, rising to become Deputy Managing Director of Grant Advertising. At this point he had come into advertising with both feet. But he wanted more. He and a group of like- minded staff decided to start Insight Communications Limited. In January 1980 he entered the advertising market with 18 staff as a greenhorn entrepreneur with only one client. Armed with tenacity and the quest for excellence, Biodun and his staff pounded the streets and knocked at every door in search of business. He had selfbelief and his philosophy was that “Advertising primarily helps a rolling ball to roll faster but cannot get a ball to roll uphill.”
As he was savouring the blaze and dazzle of popularity that came with the success of Insight Communications Limited tragedy struck. On January 30, 1992 he received an early morning call from a stranger that asked him to keep N100, 000 for him that day otherwise he and his gang will blow his brains out. At 3: 00am they came, four in number, shot his guard as evidence that they meant business. Biodun returned the favour. The police came into the fray not knowing that the hoodlums had gone. Biodun had no idea that they had gone and the police had arrived. The exchange of gunfire continued but it was friendly fire on both sides. Biodun was dragged into detention but was released after a few hours when it was clear that there was a mistake.
Biodun did not choose to cower in a corner. He and his team went out, firing on all cylinders on the way to conquering the advertising market. He and his company now have a dominant presence in the market. This dominance is helped by his abiding philosophy that “it is good to be big. It is better to be good. It is best to be both.” His entrepreneurial exploits, business acumen and the white whale of perfection have, together, taken him to the very top of his profession. He knew that he had to climb high to pluck high hanging fruits because success is not low hanging fruits.
In the book earlier referred to the author describes Shobanjo as “a self- made man who with a team of brilliant young minds created his own luck.” I agree absolutely with the characterisation of him as a self- made man, perhaps in the same category as Warren Buffet, Sam Walton, Andrew Carnegie or Moshood Abiola. They all rose from rags to riches. It is these exertions that have brought him into the circle of fame and got him good ink in the press. Without doubt Shobanjo has earned his wings.
His good head has taken him to the totem pole of success. By good head I mean his iconic achievements in the advertising industry, which is now comprehensively referred to as Marketing Communications. Marketing Communications embrace the trinity of advertising, public relations and publicity, a total package arrangement for marketing goods and services in the modern era. Shobanjo also has a good heart by which I mean his readiness, infact eagerness, to give a helping hand to the needy, individuals and institutions include some of our tertiary institutions such as the Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Lagos. He is an exponent of quiet philanthropy; he doesn’t seize the bragging rights that are available to all philanthropists. He simply gives and goes. For some of our higher institutions he has brought town to the gown and the gown has responded by giving him the crown of honour, of achievement, of large- heartedness. Obafemi Awolowo University did it a few years ago. Now the University of Lagos has done it, giving honour to whom honour is due and offering the society the opportunity to savour the goodness of being good.
For Shobanjo last Thursday was a post- card perfect day, a day in which gold standard performance was recognised and gold standard philanthropy was acknowledged.
I was happy to see my dear alma mater rise and crow again at the ceremony. As I drove into the campus I saw a sparkling seven- storey building with its signboard “Faculty of Arts” staring magnificently at the onlooker. At the ceremony, Professor Ogundipe said that 3,500 indigent students will be given tablets to help them access lectures online. He also told the audience that in the library there are two robots that help students to find information that they are looking for. With what we were told the claim that UNILAG is the University of First Choice and the nation’s pride may not be too far off the mark. The university was beaten by the rain a little while ago. Now it has come in from the cold. I hope it stays there in the comfort zone of rainlessness.
fathe“Biodun’s r died at 49 when the boy was only 15 years old and had just been promoted to class three at Odogbolu Grammar School in Ogun State. A week later his uncle also died, leaving the young man absolutely devastated, imposing on him the tough responsibility of supporting his mother and his three younger siblings. He was thrown into the abyss of grief. Fate had dealt him a bad hand but despite this he was convinced that he could still shoehorn himself into the palace of success. He used the scaffolding of broadcasting and later advertising to shore himself up, rising to become Deputy Managing Director of Grant Advertising.