Ifeanyi Chukwudi

Nigeria has a leadership problem. Over the years, we’ve seen different leaders with their various leadership styles come and go. Through it all, Nigerians have built a special taste for strong men; leaders who are firm, authoritative, and can command results regardless of the hurdles, constitutional or not.  The reason for this is not far-fetched. It can be traced to our history and double-faced relationship with the military. Out of Nigeria’s sixty-one years of independence so far, the military ruled for twenty-nine years; giving us sixteen Heads of state in total since 1960, ten of which were military men. Also, since the inception of the fourth republic in 1999, we have had four presidents, two of which are ex-military generals with deep dictatorial heritage. If we take a close look into the present political leadership; governors, senators, members of the house or representatives, and heads of government agencies and parastatals, we will find a dominant class of ex-military off...

Leaving the Tarmac tells the story of Access Bank; the visionary leadership that birthed the bank we know today and the hurdles on the way to building a sustainable banking business. Aig-Imoukhuede spotted an opportunity in 2000: the Nigerian economy was up for a big boost— one that will lead a major consolidation in the banking industry. Aig was determined to not be left behind at the tarmac as this wind of change came. With his very good friend and partner, Herbert Wigwe, they made a bold move to buy a weak and trouble-laden Access Bank. Their decision was unpopular as a lot people thought they were crazy. In this book, he makes an account of how they proved the world wrong; that two young professionals without godfathers could run a bank the right way in Nigeria and make it to the top in the banking sector. They were faced with daunting challenges along the way, chief of which was the Soludo challenge. As Governor of CBN, Soludo lifted the minimum capital of banks from N2 billion to...