Borodo: Managing Shareholders is the Most Critical Responsibility of a Company Secretary
In this interview with select journalists, the outgoing Company Secretary of FBN Holdings Plc, Alhaji Tijjani Borodo speaks about his experience working with the group and expectations of the incoming secretary, among other issues. Peter Uzoho presents th
It’s been over two decades of working for the bank, transiting from the First Bank into the Holding company, how would you describe the journey? It’s almost three decades. It’s been an interesting journey particularly talking of transition from First Bank to FBN Holdings. Perhaps from the beginning I was working with the Kano State government as the Director of Public Prosecutions. Then in October, 1988, I moved to First Bank from Kano State as the Regional Legal Manager. I was in Kano for a couple of years before I moved to Lagos as the Assistant Company Secretary, so that’s where my company secretariat career really started. First Bank then was a public company where it had all the shareholders and all the subsidiaries. So I started there as the company secretary till it got to a situation where in late 2010, the directing minds of First Bank Group decided that we cannot continue to run all the businesses that we had under First Bank. That we’re going to have a Holding Company. I was the secretary of First Bank, so I midwifed the creation of the Holding Company. I was thinking that when we finished with the creation of the Holding Company, I was going to move out to do other things not knowing that by providence I was going to continue to be the company secretary of the FBN Holdings.
And that was really the public facing entity for the whole totality of the First Bank Group, and of course, that was where the shareholders are – the institutional and the retail shareholders. And arguably, as the company secretary, one of the key responsibilities is to manage the shareholders. And so, if the shareholders I have been managing in First Bank have migrated to another vehicle (FBN Holdings), it didn’t make much sense for me to stay back in First Bank knowing that there was no role for me to play there. And because one of my critical responsibilities is to manage those shareholders and if they have moved to another vehicle it would be difficult for me to stay there at First Bank. So you can just see where the transition came – how I joined the First Bank Group; the Company Secretary in First Bank, and then, when we had the Holding Company where we are now.
People who have followed your career will marvel at how you have handled all of this very smoothly. How did you cope within this 30 year period – family on one hand, responsibility of the bank on the other hand, and the shareholders which is another critical stakeholder group you must have had very difficult time trying to manage? Cope is the word you used which I agree with you. It was coping but the most critical thing for me was that I enjoyed it. You know one of the most critical things that I always wake up with in the mornings –the kind of things that keep me going, is that I have passion for my work; and not only do I have passion I also have a sense of satisfaction. So these are the kind of things that keep me going – the satisfaction I get at the job and the passion I have for it. But of course, as you said, there are challenges – family, society and the job itself.
For family, I came out of a polygamous background – about 23 of us, close to my father; I’m about the number 10. So you can see where I was in the family.
That’s the kind of family I came out of and we had values from the late old man – integrity, hardwork and, above all, religion. You make sure you go to school, you must have integrity; you must be committed to whatever you are doing and, above all, the hand of Almighty God has been upon us; and I think this family value of a thing helped me through the thick and tin of my career.
Also you find that we are talking about different stakeholders. When talking of stakeholders we are not only talking about the shareholders; and for the businesses that we run we are talking about stakeholders because it’s beyond the shareholders. When you say stakeholders, you are looking at even the environment that we operate because we have a responsibility to our environment; our employees, the shareholders, the business associates.
So you can see that it’s a multitude of people, and managing these things has not been an easy thing. That’s why I said the most critical thing is the passion and the satisfaction you have on the job. So when the challenges come you face them squarely.
How did your transition from a public service man who has risen to a position of a director to now a banker happen? It’s a very interesting question. There is providence, because before I joined the First Bank, I had offers to go to another bank with a colleague of mine who has been my childhood friend through the university, who is working with the ministry of justice. So there were offers to go to another bank and I told him I’m not going to another financial institution, that if I finish working in the ministry of justice I’m going to set up my practice why he goes to that bank.
So he went back to an uncle of us who brought the offer and told him what I said. So that’s why I said it’s providence. You can see me now, leaving public work to private work for another 30 years. When I moved into this public thing, of course, there was a shake in terms of focus, in terms of work responsibility, but prior to that I think I had one of the best privileges as state counsel. I had senior counsels in the ministry of justice who were there to handhold you, show you the rudiments of the practice – solicitor’s work, advocacy. So we had that in the ministry of justice.
So it’s a sort of training you and guiding you in terms of growing, in terms of responsibility, in terms of leadership. And by the time I left the ministry of justice, I was already the director of public prosecutions, and arguably, that time, Kano State had the largest criminal cases next to Lagos State, and you can imagine what that was.
Really I had that privilege and I was supposed to be a senior in the ministry. I made sure that before I left for any environment there are certain values I need to take there. So when this offer came I struggled, but when I made up my mind to go I made some consultations with the family and some of my seniors and that was it.