Engineer (Dr.) Oladele Amoda, the immediate past Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, was recently celebrated by colleagues, family members and well wishers after a meritorious service to the nation. He looked over his shoulder into his past and wrote an account of his life odyssey, which he said is more than a historical account, but a chronicle of God’s goodness and blessings in his life. In this article below, he reveals why he wrote his new book titled FORGET Not HIS BENEFITS.
If I had any motive for weaving strands of my memories into a book, it must be because I did not want to forget God’s benefits.
He has been my tower of refuge in journeys of life; and I think there is no greater way to testify to this than to give an account of over sixty eventful years that His grace has granted me and will continue to dispense. .
Certainly, I believe every creature on earth deserves to have its story told. Yet I hesitated to tell mine until sometime in early 2016; not because there was nothing worth telling. In fact, the idea of a publication that distils my odyssey started a few years back. But I made no serious move to ensure it materialised.
However, on that day, I boarded a flight en route Dubai, I had a compelling urge to scribble a few reminiscences on a pocket notepad that I usually carry with me everywhere. As I reviewed my experiences, I took fast, but random notes to keep flashbacks on them within accurate timelines and contexts. Right there, my entire life began to unfold before me.
It dawned on me that my involuntary hesitations, over the years, had deprived God acknowledgements that were due to Him, for His goodness in my life. I was, at once, humbled by my ingratitude and overwhelmed by a sense of assignment.
Will I push the opportunity to do just that back again? No.
I felt there couldn’t be more convincing indications that time was ripe to tell the stories within the covers of this book.
So, I had my mind made up, before the plane touched the tarmac, to do something about it.
Although, it seemed appropriate to tell my stories after much wavering, I must admit that was not the first time I had been overwhelmed by such feeling. The impulse to reminisce had gripped me on many occasions, particularly whenever news of death of a once vibrant life was broken, or when tides turned in favour of a supposed laggard.
When confronted by those stark realities of life, I could not but remember where God picked me from, in my quest for survival. Actually, the more I reflected on certain trajectories in my life, the stronger the feelings to disseminate the stories through a book. If not for anything, they came across as a reminder that God is in control of history, and that I had been walking on a path pre-arranged by the Creator.
In a sense, therefore, this autobiography is more than a historical account. It is a tribute to God. It is the outcome of a resolve to count not just my days, but my blessings as well, and to present in black and white instances of personal foibles and pains turned to gains that only God could have designed. More than mere glimpses into the past, it is a chronicle of God’s goodness; of His unfathomable wisdom, designs and desires.
Also, this book provides a much-awaited medium to append footnotes to my career. I would be saying the obvious, if I said I have come a full cycle; beginning with National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), then its successor entity, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and through the era of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).
I have been privileged to witness important administrative reforms, and have participated in technical implementations in the power sector in Nigeria and beyond, for more than three decades. Over the years, there were sketches of episodes that I would have loved to flesh up with some details but which, for want of an appropriate opportunity, I am holding to my chest. This, to me, is an avenue to share some of them. There were occasions when I was a victim of sabotage and evil ploys, but from which I emerged stronger and better. This is my opportunity to share with you how, through His help, I sailed through those tough times and seasons of trials and temptations.
I have a few regrets and have made mistakes and unseemly decisions that I could not be proud of. Some of them almost undid me, and I hope every reader of this book will draw useful lessons from them. But, much more than that, I hope to shed light on my footprints on the sands of time, particularly, on how we have enjoyed the privilege to touch and be touched by other people’s lives through community engagements, religious commitment and social interactions.
I cannot ignore the truth that I am a product of relationships.
I have encountered individuals within and outside government and its agencies, among interest groups and in corporate organisation circles, whose personal grace have yielded opportunities for my private life and career endeavours.
God has blessed me with the best family anyone could wish. Thus, as I tell my stories, I simultaneously relate theirs; beginning with those in inner circles of my life: wife, children, parents, siblings and cousins, without whom life would have been a thread of boredoms. My story would be incomplete without them.
Outside my family are individuals, whom we have been together from childhood and had jointly weathered the turbulent years of survival as young adults, but still having strong influence on each other. Our stories together are worth telling; so are those of other memorable people, events and places that have helped made me what I am.
As I prepared the manuscripts, I faced the problem all authors have to contend with; that of selection. The stories in the book, spread across over twenty one thousand, nine hundred and twenty five days of my life (21,925) – counting from the day I was born to the day that I turned 60. Several hundreds of people across several continents are connected to these stories.
How did he become the MD/CEO of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc in 2011? He revealed all these in the book. According to him, sometime in July 2011, I received a telephone call from my boss, Engineer Ayo Obilomo, then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc. that the Minister of Power, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Professor Bath Nnaji, had requested to meet me urgently. At that time, I was participating in a workshop on Advanced Energy Distribution Management, convened by Israel Electric Energy Professional School in Tel-Aviv. The Nigerian Power Training Institute (NAP TIN) had then sponsored a select group of technical officers in the Distribution Unit of PHCN to understudy Israel electricity distribution models.
I had no idea what he might want to see me for. If there was ever going to be any executive briefing on operations of the Company, the CEO was in a better position to hold that brief; not me, an assistant general manager. Even my boss was astonished by the unusual summon. Despite the urgency of that invitation, however, the honourable minister was kind enough to keep it on hold until my arrival from Israel.
I arrived his official residence in Abuja on a Saturday, the day after my arrival in Nigeria, to honour the call. At the meeting, he told me he had impressive recommendations about me from sources he would not disclose. After brief chats, he scheduled a more formal meeting in his office on Monday morning. I had to procure a pair of suits for the engagement, as I could not go back to Lagos within the brevity of available hours before Monday.
It was at the Monday meeting I realised he had met separately with and invited 3 other officers drawn from 4 of the 11 distribution companies of PHCN, to the same meeting, which held on the conference table in his office. All the four of us were in the management team of our distribution companies and on a cadre not lower than Assistant General Manager, and probably due for retirement in a few years. In my case, by November that year, I would have put in 28 years in service.
The meeting turned out to be a press briefing on the approval of our appointment as CEOs in our distribution companies by the Presidency, with immediate effect from July 2011. Apparently, the ministry had decided to replace four of the substantive CEOs, who were to, forthwith, proceed on retirement.
The change of baton was in the news by evening of that day. In fact, we were alerted to it by a myriad of congratulatory messages from well-wishers, friends, relations and colleagues, who heard the announcement on Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) news at 7pm.
I was choked with emotion. The question on my mind was: why me? But while I struggled with no clear answer, some people who had watched me from afar and closely did suggest a couple of probable reasons.
To one of them, ‘your recent appointment is a clear demonstration of federal Government’s confidence in you as a leader of men and, most especially, as a dynamic and resourceful professional’ .
To another, ‘you have reached this position through hard work, dealing with new challenges and your determination and vision’.
Someone even affirmed that he was ‘convinced that your scholarship and intellectual acumen, hard work, thoroughness, moral and managerial capabilities and general disposition – all point towards taking you to the highest position in your chosen career’.
In fact, a well-wisher admitted that ‘your appointment did not come to me as a surprise because I have always known that good things will always happen to good people’.
I totally appreciate their sentiments. But I could not agree more with the one who ‘sincerely believe that this is as a result of sheer hard work, coupled with manifestations of the hands of God’.
For good reasons, I can attest to ‘manifestations of the hands of God’ For instance, I have had no course to lobby for any good thing that has happened to me at every turn in my life since childhood. Divine favour delivered it and moved me ‘from grass to grace’ Not just in matters of career, but also in every other endeavour.
Looking back, I can confidently say that ‘I am what 1 am by the grace of God’.
(Culled from his autobiography)
