Dr. Layi Fatona
…Aret Adams was a quiet activist, strong achiever and open to new ideas from all directions.
…He had a massive great mark in the sound of times.
-Felix Douglas
It was a delightful sight as stakeholders converged for the 23rd Aret Adams Memorial Lecture in Lagos. Chief Adams was the first Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and led efforts to exploit and open frontier basins of Nigeria with record of great successes and major discoveries during his time as GMD.
Speaking at the memorial lecture, Vice Chairman of Aret Adams Foundation (AAF) Board of Trustees, Dr. Layi Fatona, was elated to be chosen by Late Aret Adams and other founders of Niger Delta Exploration and Production Plc, now Aradel Holdings Plc as pioneer Managing Director.
“That act of confidence by all the seven involved plus I, as founders of the company, has shaped my own personal, professional life.”
Continuing, Dr. Fatona asserted: “that one plus my humble self as indeed the youngest among the group. I will describe myself as the boy among the men. So I was and it was apparent.”
The AAF Vice Chairman said Chief Adams passed prematurely on 7th August, 2002 and one of the most difficult responsibilities before him was ensuring leadership continuity at the board level, the chair vacated would not remain empty and the institution could not pause.
Dr. Fatona turned an independent director of the company.
Giving his remarks at the event he said: “I sought for a man of discipline quiet strength and immense credibility.”
“Ben Osuno, he hesitated. He understood the weight of the robe and appreciated the expectations. He knew stabilizing a great indigenous enterprise required firmness and sacrifice.”
“I insisted by asking and pleading for his assent to become the chairman. He reluctantly accepted and for 12 to 15 years, he provided steady principal leadership as chairman of the board.
Speaking further he said I have two people, one built a vision, the other preserves the institution he built.
“Here I stand today. I am privileged and honored as one on what would have been on Chief Adams 88 birthday, celebrating both him and Ogbueshi Ben Osuno who is 90 years old.”
Dr. Fatona described Osuno as “still going very strong and I consider both of them that we are celebrating today as a very rare convergence.”
He also spoke about the chairman of the event as a distinguished industry leader, Dr. Femi Lalude who was the first Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo), deep water Shell. He was leading Nigerian deep water frontier at a time when local capacity and capability in that terrain was still being tested.
Dr. Lalude’s leadership represents another dimension of what Chief Adams stood for excellence at the highest technical and managerial levels.
He is also a fellow member of the Board of Trustees of the Adams Foundation.
Dr. Fatona believed that Dr. Lalude’s presence reinforces continuity and thought integrity with professional standards that the foundation presents.
Dr. Fatona stated thus:
“Responsibility now rest on the young generation that we are going to present today, this generation and those following have to deepen the foundations and broaden the frontier.
In his remarks, Dr. Lalude said he had a special relationship with Chief Adams which many people don’t know.
“We were colleagues together in Port Harcourt, more than 50 years ago, when he led petroleum engineering and I was in charge of engineering facilities, we became the terrible duo in Shell trying to shake up the status quo in the days when Nigerians didn’t matter in the oil industry and foreigners destroyed Nigeria as though it was their playground.”
“We shook the whole place up so badly that they will never forget. We were constantly planning, shaking and altering things in ways that they never expected. We were always three to four steps ahead of them.”
According to Dr. Lalude, many of the things that people see in the oil industry presently were the result of their activities.
He described Chief Adams as a special person in simplest form, calm, soft spoken, selfless and welcoming all and sundry.
He was a quiet activist, strong achiever and open to new ideas from all directions. He never felt too big to listen to anybody and left a massive great mark in the sound of times.
Continuing Dr. Lalude said many of the things they did together were not in the public view, even in the Board of Trustees. “Many people don’t know many of the things that we did. He and I spent hours upon hours late at night in his office, in different places, scheming different things.”
But nonetheless, we achieved all the successes we needed to have.
What is important is team spirit which is key to success in life not just for the individual, but for society at large. Commitment to dignity for all that’s another principle and reinforcement for each other.
“We need to make some efforts to correct the successes we achieved with small numbers of people which couldn’t have been achieved if we were individuals. We worked as a team.”
Nigeria is in transition and the needful must be done if the country is to arrive at glorious future which it is looking forward to achieve.
“Our generation is not pessimists. I hear a lot of young people say Nigeria is bad. Nigeria is irredeemable. I got bad news for such people, the country will not die. It will survive. Nigeria is already growing again and it will continue to grow. Those people who leave the shores and abandon the country will be too late when they return because the ground will be solidly different from when they left it.”
Dr. Lalude advised that the petroleum industry must return to its basic roots.
He commended the present government for quick approval of agreement and improvement of incentives among others.
Notwithstanding, the country still has some issues in the area of gas that must be addressed.
He explained further that collegiate behavior is what drives big things, not individual enterprise because that doesn’t stay long. Every individual has limitations but groups well coordinated and endowed can move a mountain which is expected to achieve positive objectives.
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