Leading Without Limits

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The Spark | Ignite / Connect / Achieve with the young people; people are a product of the society they grow in. “Our focus on certification rather than skill has destroyed the fabric of our human capital. This is because we are not building a workforce in line with our national plan. If you talk to a lot of young people, you will find that they want to do well. Of course, there are those who don’t fall into this category – you will always have those, every society has them. But a large number want to do well. They are looking for opportunities and to be empowered the right way with skills and knowledge that would enable them achieve something.” www.thesparkng.com “There are too many things in life that money cannot buy. When you look at it from that perspective, it demystifies money and makes it easier for you to make the right decision when you are at a point of conflict in your journey in life.” …on what an entrepreneur needs to grow business Placing emphasis on the fact that small businesses are the engine for economic growth has changed everything from government policies and programmes to how private firms perceive the market. There is so much drive for entrepreneurship, but the business and socio-economic environment seems to be a hindrance for these risk takers. Mrs. Awosika believes that entrepreneurs can grow regardless of the economic downturn if they continue to seek after knowledge, show financial discipline at all times, become more and more teachable and have a sense of delayed gratification. They must also be innovative and responsive to changes in their market or business environment. She puts it like this: “First and foremost, I don’t think there is one entrepreneur that would have all the skills they need. That tells you about learning to work with other people, collaborating and drawing resources from others. “Secondly, openness of mind is pertinent. You can start out with what seems like a really great idea but very quickly find that changes in the market or around you can make what once seemed like a good idea not good anymore. And you must have the openness of mind to respond to that. “You have to learn delayed gratification because one of the best ways a young company can grow is that the resources are retained within it to help it grow. I am firm believer in small beginnings for enterprise because it is important to prove a concept and prove it at different scale level. It is important to grow in stages and not seek overnight or rapid growth.” “Our focus on certification rather than skill has destroyed the fabric of our human capital.” …on raising visionary leaders The optimism with which Mrs. Awosika speaks on this topic is heart-warming, she says without a doubt that there are many who are capable of visionary leadership in Nigeria. For her, the worry is whether we have the proper political process and machinery that would make it possible for them to emerge. She touches on the topic like this: “It is a question that we all must ask ourselves. It must start from asking what we really want. Do we want the same thing? How committed are we to the goal of building a great Nigeria as opposed to building our tribe, family or friends? Those are the questions we all must ask because we are all responsible for Nigeria, no matter what we say. Ultimately, the kind of leadership we have affects every single one of us. Until we get to a point where we set a different kind of standard for ourselves and educate ourselves on it. “For me, I personally believe that an unenlightened electorate is a major risk for democracy. It is absolutely important that we educate our people because when people are welleducated, they will think differently, even though there are people who are well-educated but when they speak about the political system, you will bury your head in shame. So sometimes even education itself does not guarantee enlightenment but we can’t give up because this is our country. We just need to get to a place where we are committed to a more equitable society and then we will push and fight for a process that will permit the right kind of leadership to emerge.” As a Christian, Mrs. Awosika seeks in all she does to live by the values of her faith. Fairness and equity are her watchwords. She believes that there’s a lot in life more important than money. She says: “Again, money is nothing; that is the truth. If you do what you do well, you will get paid for it. But it is also a temporary thing; it is useful but it cannot be the ultimate, because there are too many things in life that money cannot buy. When you look at it from that perspective, it demystifies money and makes it easier for you to make the right decision when you are at a 24 @the sp ark ng
www.thesparkng.com The Spark | Ignite / Connect / Achieve Osaretin Demuren The Trailblazer In an age where the tides are moving in favour of entrepreneurial pursuits, it is both inspiring and necessary to celebrate the achievements of the few women who have made it to the top of their corporate careers. From a demanding work environment, to welldeserved promotions, and advocacy for women in her organisation, Mrs. Osaretin Afusat Demuren shares vital tidbits from her illustrious career. Damilola Oyewusi “Laziness kills. Hard work doesn’t kill. Hard work makes you stronger, it makes you excel because people are expecting so much.” The Beginning Like many school leavers in the ‘60s, Mrs Demuren took her first job before she clocked eighteen years. She became one of the first four women engaged as office clerks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). This glass breaking action in a male dominated institution was accompanied by high expectations to deliver on the job. “We were expected to live up to expectations and we did. It was also a continuation of what I had been brought up with; just do your best and give your best.” For a female growing up in that decade, she enjoyed the gift of a man of the house that had no particular preference for boys or girls, giving all his children equal opportunity to education and a dream to make the most of their God-given potential. She describes her upbringing as ‘fun and non-discriminatory’ in a home with fifteen other siblings. The family moved her from the Midwest as the civil war heated up in 1967, preventing her from taking her A-Level classes after her WASSCE*. Less than a year later, she got engaged as a clerk with the CBN. However, between the stress of keeping up with work demands, unofficial assignments, and the desire to further her education, this job would be shortlived as she soon got a scholarship to study in the Soviet Union. She was away from the country for six years, returning with a degree in Economics and Statistics and the man who would shape the major part of her life story, Harold Demuren. Back to the Motherland with Zest A confident and excited Osaretin A confident and excited Osaretin returned to Nigeria in 1976, ready to take on a challenge in a different environment from the CBN. She giggled lightly as she shared that she had accepted the Federal Government Scholarship and travelled out of the country while she was on her annual leave, giving no formal notice. Fortunately, the CBN runs a structured system that requested a resignation letter and the return of her ID card, which she did from the USSR. Going back to the same organisation wasn’t the first thing on her mind. She had eyes set on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. However, her husband’s insistence on how her expertise would be more relevant to the Central Bank soon won her over. And so began a second chapter of her CBN career in December 1976, that would close with her retirement in December 2009 as a Director. This World is your Oyster Brimming with confidence acquired through her years in school and a certainty that she wanted to get to the peak of her career, she began her journey to “set some records right and to prove cynics wrong that a woman would not be able to make it.” She started out in the Research department and soon enough, caused a stir that would change things for women in the institution. “I wanted to make a difference. Then in the Central Bank, when females were recruited to the graduate level, they were deployed to the Research department. It was like an unwritten rule.” With activism for women in its early brewing stages at the time, the women of the Research department started questioning the reasons why there wasn’t more diversity in their job roles. They got together and wrote a letter to the CBN Governor at the time - Governor Abdulkadir Ahmed, asking to work in other departments of the bank. Refuting reasons as “You are women. You are married. You have children. You won’t be able to do late hours”, these women who signed their names in a circle to avoid a ring leader getting targeted opened the way for other qualified females to work in any department of the apex bank. Mrs. Demuren got deployed from the Research department to the Budget and Statistics office of the Exchange Control department. The journey from there was only upward and forward. With hard work, an insistence on ‘no shortcuts and godfatherism’ the system became favourable to women taking higher positions within the institution. “In 1999, I was appointed acting director by the then Governor, Chief Joseph O. Sanusi, and confirmed by Dr. Paul Ogwuma in March 2000.” The sky has been the limit for the female employees of the Central Bank. With positions like the Branch Controller, Directors, and even the Deputy Governor occupied by women, a female governor in the office may come sooner than expected. @the sp ark ng 25
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