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Ernest Shonekan goes home
Dr. Boniface Chizea
The news broke that Ernest Shonekan of Interim Government fame goes home at the ripe old age of 85 years. It is also correct to observe that prior to his appointment as Head of State by military President Ibrahim Babangida as he stepped aside that he was a reputable board room guru as he was for many years the Chief Executive Officer at United Africa Company (UAC).
It is also on record that he played a pioneering role in the push for public, private sector collaboration under the auspices of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group to fast forward the growth and development of the Nigerian economy.
I used to have incredible rapport with him as I would occasionally simply visit his Luggard Road Ikoyi residence to simply have a long chat with him in relaxed circumstances all in my understand that you need to build bridges with influential persons who might be of assistance when it matters most as destiny helpers.
I still have an enlarged picture hanging in my office which both of us took at a Harvard Business School old boys Association annual ball which the dress code was strictly dinner suit. He was a sharp legal mind who truly was interested in contemporary happenings in Nigeria and was keen to have someone to have enlightened discussions with. But after sometime he lost interest in such conversations. I suspect that was due to the ravages of age rather than a case of giving up hope on Nigeria.
My link to him was Isaac Aluko-Olokun of blessed memory. Isaac and I were both colleagues in the 80s at United Bank for Africa. We were both with the Corporate Development Division of the Bank which was made up of Strategic Planning Department which I headed, Economics Department which published in those days the very popular Nigeria Economic Digest with the Corporate Library as an annex which was headed by Aluko-Olokun and then the Public Relations Department headed by Sebastian Ezirim also of blessed memory. You are sometimes nonplussed when almost everyone around you seems to have departed to the great beyond! It is incredible!
Isaac was later hired by Shonekan as Economic advisor to him as the CEO at UAC. That was when he provided the link as one received hosting invitations to events/dinner which were held at the sprawling garden of his residence. Another gentleman with whom we would regularly rob minds with and share company was Rashid Gbadamosi also of blessed memory, a brilliant economist who was a youthful Commissioner for Economic Planning with Lagos State government and was the pioneer proprietor of Ikorodu based Ragolis Water.
He was also an arts connoisseur very much at home with classical music. Sometimes we shared company with Asikiwe Adione-Egom of motor park Economics fame who spent years at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs. Honestly I don’t have an inkling what has happened to him. I just fear what I am thinking now is not correct! Isaac was appointed a minister under the short lived interim government led by Shonekan.
We pray for the peaceful repose of the avuncular, soft and slow spoken Elder Ernest Shonekan. We pray for his wife of many years and his children that our good Lord himself will grant consolation to them all on this irreparable loss and stand in the gap for them as their Father/patriarch is accorded a deserved National Burial as a former head of State albeit interim. May his gentle soul rest in peace. Amen.
Dr. Boniface Chizea
