34 •
The Lion King
• July - September 2017
Feature
TONY ELUMELU: A
LEADER WITH PURPOSE
T
he Tony O. Elumelu amphitheatre
at the UBA house on the marina
in Lagos was filled to the brim on
August 16, 2017. The packed house
began to assemble as early as 2pm in
anticipation of the lecture that was to
be delivered by the Chairman of UBA
group at 3pm that afternoon.
Tony Elumelu’s success story is now
widely known. Not only in his home
country of Nigeria, but across the
globe. The philanthropist who is
empowering youths across the African
continent through his $100 million
endowment fund has been chang-
ing lives positively. Elumelu’s theory
of Africapitalism is becoming today’s
watch- word. The MDGs didn’t meet
their objectives of alleviating poverty,
but the billionaire economist is doing
his best to ensure that the continent
moves towards self - sustainability
through empowerment. Enough of aid
says Elumelu. ‘Nobody can empower
Africans but Africans themselves’. He
is definitely helping change the narra-
tive positively.
A charismatic leader who success-
fully led the biggest banking merger
in Nigeria in 2005 and has been at the
top of many conglomerates includ-
ing his own Heirs Holdings group, Tony
Elumelu definitely knows what it takes
to be a leader.
A citation was read as he walked
into the room full of over 200 UBA
group executives, and associates of
the bank. But when Tony took the
stage, he wasn’t impressed by the
accolades. ‘I don’t need all of this’ he
said humbly. ‘Leadership must always
go with humility. When you get leader-
ship, you need to become automati-
cally humble in order to succeed. You
all already know who I am but I would
like to tell you the story of my journey
to success’.
Elumelu started off selling photocopi-
ers when he first graduated from uni-
versity. He mentions the name of the
photocopiers and no, it wasn’t Xerox.
Hardly anybody in the room knew the
brand he had been selling. But the
point he wanted to make by starting
off his lecture with this introduction
was that you cannot sell a product
you do not understand. ‘In everything
that we do, product knowledge is very
important for success. Understand and
dissect the history of everything about
an organization so that you can do
your job excellently’ he said.
He didn’t sell photocopiers for very
long, because he became one of the
youngest bank managers in Nigeria
when a couple of years after starting
off as a Financial analyst at AllStates
bank, he was appointed a branch
manager. He was only 26 years old.
Elumelu doesn’t know the word impos-
sible. He had been relentless when he
applied for that job at AllStates bank.
He didn’t even think he was qualified
By Bola Atta
