Christopher Kolade: I lost a mentor, a friend, by Ikechukwu Amaechi

I was in the middle of a meeting on October 9, when my friend and colleague, Emeka Duru, sent me a cryptic message: “What is going on Iyke? I am just reading on Facebook that Dr. Christopher Kolade is dead! Please can you help us confirm that?”

I froze. While praying fervently that it should be a fake news, I still braced myself for the worst. Though I had not seen him this year, the last time I visited him in his Ogudu GRA home, he was in good shape. I started working the phone and my worst fears were confirmed minutes later. That saddened me no end, not necessarily because he died. At 92, and only two months away from his 93rd birthday, Dr. Kolade enjoyed the bountiful grace of God. And I also know that he was one of the few men, who, with equanimity, reconciled himself with the fact of his own mortality long before he transited.

I was sad that our beleaguered country has lost a man of honour and integrity, one of the very few remaining in the country where evil outpaces every virtue that defines human essence. I was saddened because in his death, the youths of this country have lost their greatest advocate. I was saddened because TheNiche lost its most loyal reader and a friend. Nigeria lost a great son whose life was a study in the virtues of discipline, humility, and excellence. Above all, I lost a mentor and a friend.

I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Kolade personally and sharing many private moments with. And despite his huge reputation that always went before him in all he did, you needed to be close to appreciate the depth of his altruism, his virtuousness, selflessness and patriotism.

Of course, I knew him even before we met. But come to think of it, who didn’t? It is either you heard of his exploits in the classroom, newsroom, boardroom or diplomacy. Born in 1932 in the bucolic community of Erin-Oke, Osun State, ‘Mr. Integrity,’ as he was fondly called, saw it all, ordinarily earning a bragging right. But for him, a devout man of uncommon humility, longevity was an unmerited favour from God and all praises must go to Him.

His was a life of incredible accomplishments. A teacher, journalist, administrator par excellence, boardroom doyen, diplomat and academic, Kolade who started his public service after graduating from the famous Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, as a colonial era Education Officer in the mid-50s, went into broadcasting when Nigeria gained independence in 1960. In his 18-year (1960-78) sojourn in the media space, he reached the peak – Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC. A man with the Midas touch, his stint at Cadbury Nigeria Plc., where he was the managing director/chief executive officer and later chairman is still adjudged the golden era of the multinational company.

The story was the same when former President Olusegun Obasanjo tapped him in 2002 to proceed to the United Kingdom as Nigeria’s High Commissioner. When he retired mid-year 2007 from the position, Britain knew that a different kind of diplomat had come to town.

Before he left for the United Kingdom, he was on the Faculty of the Lagos Business School as lecturer in Corporate Governance, Leadership and Human Resource Management from 1995 to 2002. After his diplomatic tour of duty, he returned to the Lagos Business School to continue his teaching and research programme and in February 2009, he was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Pan-African University. He also served as the Chancellor of McPherson University in Ogun State.

For his contributions to nation building, he was awarded the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON, in 2000. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, the Society of Nigerian Broadcasters, the Nigerian Institute of Management of which he was President from 1985 to 1988, and the Institute of Personnel Management in Nigeria where he served as President from 1988 to 1994.

Many people in Kolade’s intimidating shoes would be boastful. Not him! He believed God only gave him opportunities in life. For his devotion, in 1981, he received the medal of the Order of St. Augustine from the Archbishop of Canterbury and he was also a Lay Canon Emeritus of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Diocese of Guildford in the UK.

I met Dr. Kolade for the first time in 2019 when Prof Anya O. Anya delivered TheNiche annual lecture and we wanted him to chair the event but none of us knew how to reach him. Then about a month to the lecture, I went back to Prof Anya to enquire if he could help us reach Dr. Kolade. He promised that he would. Two days later, he called to say that Dr. Kolade had accepted.

I was over the moon. This is a man I had not met before. But could we meet him to formally deliver our letter? Prof Anya said he would ask him. Again, after some days, he reported that Dr. Kolade said there was no need – he would be there.

I wasn’t convinced, knowing the ways of our “big men.” Should we make alternative arrangements so that we won’t be caught flat-footed if the man decided not to come? After all, he owed us nothing. Yes, he had a relationship with Prof Anya, but he was under no obligation whatsoever to come. But we worried for nothing. Dr. Kolade was not the typical Nigerian elite. His word was his bond.

And true to character, he was the first to arrive at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, venue of the lecture, on that fateful Thursday morning, October 18, 2019. That was the beginning of my relationship with the man who always signed off on his text messages to me with his initials ‘CK’, the colossus who instantly became a friend and a mentor.

There is no doubt that Dr. Kolade was a very contented man. But that didn’t necessarily come from age. Many of those still ruining Nigeria today are by no means spring chickens. He lived for others, not self – the philosophy that underpinned his worldview.

He always posited that at the root of the country’s many woes is the lack of quality leadership. For leadership to be effective and impactful, he asserted that it must be transcendental. He once told me: “To be a leader, it is not for yourself. So, any leader who is looking first at himself has got it wrong.”

But what, perhaps, many people didn’t appreciate well enough is his passion for the youths. That passion came through at the 2019 lecture when he lamented that many young Nigerians who are creative in various fields of endeavour are not recognised and celebrated. “There are active talents but they are not being given recognition,” he said.

And he devoted the last days of his life into the project of redirecting the productive energy of our youths into productive endeavours. That was what gave birth to our week offering, TheNiche Young Entrepreneur.

He would tell you that he was hopeful for Nigeria in the midst of the suffocating atmosphere of hopelessness because of two reasons. “One, we have people of an age where they can perform well and can do things that I cannot now do.  Two, God is in authority. And we pray every day that His will be done. Let God do His will. That is my hope.” He was a preacher whose belief in the Supreme Being was total.

Witty and urbane, Dr. Kolade was persuasive and made his point without being offensive. Nothing bothered him and no personal misfortune was enough to make him lose focus on what is important. He would always make light his personal problems in order not to inconvenience anyone. When he had a fall in 2022, he made light of it.

“I have been learning how to walk again,” he once told me. “I think all people who know me know that I have been the victim of the surgeon’s attention early in the year. And the amount of surgery that was done on me, I have been told not to be ambitious to run around for the rest of this year because they have repaired something that I had to allow to heal,” he further joked.

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