Keeping Faith

By Kola Olutimehin

Keeping Faith is the biography of a man who has been described as one who has the ability to associate with the good, the bad, and the ugly without being tainted by the inconsistencies of those lives. It has been written in an entertaining manner for ease of read and relaxation, whilst you also learn those qualities that make for a life with good results. It records Pat’s family history and his early life. It continues into his life of service since he was an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsuka and how this life of service became his way of life. At the end of each chapter, the iconic principles are written to highlight key principles in Pat’s life that can be learnt and imbibed in order to produce worthwhile results.

A great achiever, whose name is boldly written for his commitment to good values and governance, he became a politician with a passion to bring correction to the ills in government that the society can no longer tolerate. During his graduate school years at the Indiana University in Bloomington, USA, he had the opportunity to experience firsthand the political and governing process of the USA legislative assembly. He spent some time at the US Congress Office in Washington with the congressmen and understudied them. He left with a determination that what was being practised in the USA could be replicated in Nigeria. Pat Utomi, a humble, very well educated academician, business man and mentor stands out with rare leadership qualities in Nigeria. A presidential candidate for the 2007 elections in Nigeria, he generously lends himself for the good of the youth, who greatly admire and follow him, as well as to the society at large. Pat is a gentleman and committed family man. He is married to his dear Ifeoma and they together have five wonderful children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MakeWay Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2014
• ISBN: 9781907925399

Kola Olutimehin

Kola Olutimehin (also popularly known as getKOLA) is a Dream-Driver and an internationally acclaimed inspirational speaker who travels around the world inspiring people and corporations to channel their energies and focus towards their endeavour. An accountancy graduate from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in the UK, Kola has consulted and contributed significantly to productivity and business process re-engineering with blue chip companies and entrepreneurs in two continents.Kola is the author of The Nigerian Dream, a book that challenges every Nigerian and Nigeria lover to contribute their personal and corporate efforts to uplifting the nation out of a state of despondency to an enviable one. The foreword to The Nigerian Dream was written by His Excellency, General Dr Yakubu Gowon, GCFR, the former Head of State of Nigeria from 1966 to 1975.Kola is also the author of another inspirational book titled Dream and Achieve, which is independently published in some countries. Dream and Achieve guides one to induce a dream and work towards the achievement of the dream in one’s lifetime. The introduction to Dream and Achieve was written by the Napoleon Hill Foundation (author of Think and Grow Rich – an international classic published in the USA in 1937); whilst the foreword was written by Chief Olu Akinkugbe, CON, a prominent Nigerian industrialist and philanthropist.In addition, Kola is a serial author in ‘The Making of an Icon’ series. He has co-authored the auto-biographies of eminent personalities, extracting principles that may be learnt from their lives, in what he has referred to as the Iconic Principles. An innovation, the Iconic Principles, which come up at the end of each chapter, provide an educational aspect to these biographies.INSPIRATIONAL TALKSIn building organisations’ human capital, Kola’s firm highlights the significance of taking relevant and definite action steps, amongst other values, and infuses a passion that challenges and assures the success of the organisation.The ability of all people, irrespective of their positions within or without an organisation, to relate with our talks has made for better drive and accomplishment in their lives, as well as the productivity of the organisation. Excellence is show-cased as an ideal that is attainable.THE ‘TALKS’Kola’s talks can be summarised by W Clement Stone’s phrase; “whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve through a positive mental attitude.” The underlying impact of these talks is productivity and fruitfulness in the lives of those that attend the sessions. The speeches create opportunities for both personal and organisational development and attainment of desire. The following are often derived from the talks:•The ability to believe in one-self and one’s capabilities•How to eradicate fear and taking daring action steps•Boosting the capacity to make decisions•Inspiring initiative and desire for personal and professional change•The ability to set goals and work towards the accomplishment of these goals•Enabling a vision that produces social responsibilityKola helps you to break free from the rut of familiar living and the inability to make a profitable change, especially where adverse results have set in.Various organisations have greatly benefitted from these services from around the world. The goal from his standpoint is that the more organisations that work towards their desired direction, the better our universal world can become.A BUSINESS COACH/CONSULTANTFrom his background as a chartered certified accountant, Kola focuses on the provision of business coaching and consultancy services to corporations and entrepreneurs; in order to help ascertain a business direction and work towards the attainment of the organisation’s goals. The following are some of his areas of professional expertise:•Review of corporate strategy, and ascertain practical steps towards attainment•Policies and procedures review, recommendation and implementation•Operating process and systems review and recommendations•Internal control review and recommendations•Assessment of periodic management reports and re-design, where required•Specific project assessment and management•Operating systems analysis, recommendation and implementation•Business restructure (including employee profile reviews)•Business start-up advice and consultation

Book preview

KEEPING FAITH

The Making of an ICON

An authorised biography of

Pat Utomi

By

KOLA OLUTIMEHIN

~~~

Smashwords Edition

MAKEWAY PUBLISHING LIMITED

‘making way for your ultimate success’

© 2010 Kola Olutimehin

First published, 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN: 978-978-906-569-1

Published by:

MakeWay Publishing Limited

Order this book online at:

Website: www.makewaybooks.com

Email: [e-mail]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Introduction

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 A Dream Unfolds

2 Here Comes The Boy

3 Paradise Deferred

4 Paddling Through The Path Of Life

5 Equipping For Life’s Call

6 From Knowledge To Praxis

7 A Gift From Heaven

8 What Happened At Von?

9 To Serve Is To Live

10 Keeping Faith With Hope

Appendices

--Appendix I

--Appendix II

--Appendix III

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated on the one hand to the Nigerian youths whom Pat Utomi desires that they live the life that he had dreamed of whilst still in their youth. On the other hand, it is also dedicated to today’s leaders (current and aspiring), in their genuine quest for preparing for a better tomorrow.

We can create and attain our desires.

FOREWORD

Surely the subject of this biography, Professor Pat Utomi, is just halfway through his sojourn on earth, so other biographies will need to be written about him. Yet this biography serves a useful purpose – it is timely and extremely relevant given the times we live in.

Keeping Faith tells the story of Pat’s life in simple, direct, easily understood, endearing language; starting with his grandparents, all the way through to recent times. One can see that it has been written primarily for that segment of the population with which Pat enjoys a special relationship – young people. Usefully, at the end of each chapter, key lessons for living are extracted and presented, to help one derive the most value from this book.

Though Pat is one person about whom it could legitimately be said no introduction is needed, yet the reader of this book is sure to gain greater insight and understanding from the contents.

I have had the honour and the pleasure of knowing Pat for almost twenty years. He had by then already become a big fish in a big pond yet was so simple in his ways. However, it is only in periods of extreme stress and physical danger that one gets to see what people are really like. I was able to be close to Pat and see him perform under such conditions, beginning with the annulment of the 1993 elections, through the terrible Abacha years, when his name featured on lists of those targeted for elimination. Throughout these experiences, my respect for him, for his courage and for the way he maintained his high principles, has only deepened.

What also continues to amaze me over the years are his unending striving and many efforts with both young and old, in spite of daunting circumstances, to inspire them to work with him and build a Nigeria of which we could all be proud.

Pat ran for President in 2007. Whenever I would hear him speak and explain not just his vision but the concrete ways by which that vision could be attained, I would repeatedly exclaim to myself ‘Wow!’ as I saw before me how great Nigeria could so easily be and how quickly it could happen – if we ever had a person such as Pat as President.

Readers of this book are taken through many of these events, in greater or lesser detail. I am especially glad that the biographer has taken time to explore what really happened at Volkswagen of Nigeria (VON). On far too many occasions I have heard that question asked, full of innuendo, by many of Pat’s would-be detractors (who in a saner country would be amongst his greatest supporters). Well, now you know!

The youth of today, indeed all of us, do need genuine role models – today more than ever. Pat is one such role model; I commend the author of this book for once more reminding us of this fact.

Dr Ayo Ighodaro

Lagos, Nigeria

9 January 2010

INTRODUCTION

Tony Nnachetta, Pini Jason and I were at a public event in Lagos. If I recall rightly, it was the presentation of a book by a mutual friend of ours. We were all seated and the event had got under way. I turned to my friends and commented: "I recall that Pat told me he would be here for this event, I wonder what has happened." Tony Nnachetta laughed and said: "Ah, you can be sure Pat will definitely be here. That much I will tell you, but he will be late. The reason is that he will be coming from another event, perhaps two or three others before he gets here." Not to be outdone, Pini said: "And trust Pat, if he sights us in good time, he will find his way to where we are sitting. But, Fr, mark my words; Pat will come in, sit down here and in less than five or ten minutes, he will check his watch. In less than another five minutes, he will check his watch again and then he will turn to us and say: Gentlemen, please excuse me, I have to go for another event." We all laughed.

Almost five minutes later, lo and behold, Pat showed up at the door and as if acting a script, walked right up to the fifth or so row where the three of us were seated. We exchanged pleasantries. Pat apologised and said he had just come from the Nigerian Institute for International Affairs (NIIA). Since the event had already commenced, we did not wish to cause any further distraction. And, believe me; about ten minutes after he had sat down, Pat looked at his watch. Pini gave a mischievous grin while Tony pretended to look away in mischief. And, believe it or not, a few minutes later, Pat looked at his watch again. Before he could say a word, I put out my hand as if to rescue him; "Oh, Pat, please, please do not let your enemies triumph over you." I repeated the gossip we had been engaged in, prior to his arrival. Could you please stay a bit longer, even if it is to prove your enemies wrong? We all laughed but Pat still insisted that he had to go. "I have an event at St. Anthony’s Gbaja" he said.

I would later get to know Pat as the years rolled by. I had first met Pat through a friend, Fr, now Msgr Gabriel Osu, a few months after I arrived in Lagos in 1990. Anyone slightly familiar with Pat would wonder how anybody could pack so much into his life and still continue to be so mentally and physically productive. The name is today a household name, and so it would be hard to imagine anyone in Nigeria who is not familiar with the name Pat Utomi.

This work is a commendable attempt at placing Pat Utomi’s life before the public eye. As it is with public figures, their lives often become the ‘stuff of myths’ as individuals begin to make all kinds of claims. School and class mates, colleagues at work, fellow town folks, spectators, opinion writers, and so on, come to define their relevance by their proximity to the individual in question. In the end, when a conversation about a public figure comes up at a social function, no one wants to be left out. More often than not, what a public figure hears about him/her self later on from some of these pretenders, would shock him or her.

Due to his occupation of the national stage, most of the early parts of Pat Utomi’s life, his academic feats at a relatively young age, his engaging brilliance, personal humility and sense of self sacrifice, deep commitment to family values, his near obsession with how and why things should work in Nigeria, his abiding commitment to his Catholic faith, all these have been out there in the public domain. However, what many people have not read much about are the early phases of Pat’s life and the kind of values that formed the foundation of his life.

Mr. Kola Olutimehin’s authorised biography gives the reader an insight into Pat’s early life. It brings to the reader a lot of the background material that is otherwise not available to most people. This is the first time that many readers would get real close-up shots of Pat from his early life in Kano, Gusau, or other parts of Nigeria where his parents had worked. Clearly, a man born into privilege and entrusted with the silver spoon early on in life, both parents and Pat himself would never take that silver spoon for granted. For, even with little prodding from mum and dad, Pat took that spoon and immediately realised he had to constantly wash and clean it himself. The result is a life that has become, in the words of the author, iconic.

The debate as to what shapes us remains understandably controversial. How much of our lives are shaped by our environments? And does an environment automatically guarantee our life’s outcomes? In other words, if we are born in the ghetto, must the ghetto be in us? Many would argue that the life of a person, like one of the greatest boxers in the world, Mike Tyson, is indicative of the fact that you could be out of the ghetto but the ghetto is still in you. Others might argue that from the likes of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, this logic does not necessarily have to be so. It is not my duty to resolve these competing issues.

Pat has demonstrated by his personal life that a person can assemble all these experiences and put them to great use. As a result of his experience and willingness to learn a lesson from every experience, Pat is comfortable in Washington as he is in Kuala Lumpur; he is one moment in the company of a President and the next, he is bending down trying to help lift and resettle a widow who with her children, is threatened with eviction.

A passionate and almost redemptive commitment to doing good deeds is what seemingly combines to push Pat to both the limit and the edge. This is why even his best friends worry about how one man can have his finger on almost every pie on the shelf at the same time. This is Pat’s major weakness but it is also his strength. His capacity and the dexterity with which he is able to hold so many balls in the air are what make him a remarkable individual. Almost everyone who knows Pat wonders how he does it. How does one man pack in so much into his personal life? Naturally, when this happens, something has to give. The first casualty is often those closest to the individual: immediate family, values, friends or leisure. The person in question then adopts the culture of ‘no time’. That means they neglect or have no time for their immediate family, have no time to pray, no time for parents, no time for friends and no time for leisure. The result is not known to me but we can guess, because we know one or two persons who may have been caught in this mesh. Such lives are often marked by divorce, child abuse, neglect or alcohol. Somehow, something will have to give. Those who know Pat will testify that his life has been different: a man who, despite it all is almost daily at Morning Mass, insists on high quality time for his wife and children, and insists on an annual holiday. Pat writes profusely on almost every subject and is perhaps the most sought after public speaker nationally. How he does it, I do not know. I end on a personal note to illustrate this point.

One night, no morning, I sent Pat a text message at about 1am, hoping he would read it and reply the next morning. I put my phone away but to my surprise, a text message came in. I discovered it was Pat. I decided to continue with my work. Later on as I prepared to go to bed, I sent him another text and this was almost at 2am. When a reply came in, I decided to scold Pat by asking him: "My friend, for goodness sake, what are you still doing at this time of the morning? He sent me a terse response: Just what you are doing."

Mr. Olutimehin deserves our appreciation and commendation for serving us a readable, accessible look into the life of one of our nation’s greatest icons. It is a book that deserves to be read by especially young people but also professionals and others who wish to know this great citizen.

Reverend Father Matthew Hassan Kukah

Kaduna, Nigeria

January 23, 2010

PREFACE

My first personal interaction with Professor Pat Utomi was in January 2008, when I was preparing for the public presentation of my book, Dream and Achieve, in Nigeria. As a non-resident Nigerian at this time, I was unaware of how things like this were done in the country.

When the name Pat Utomi was suggested as one of those that I may approach to chair the event, it was amazing how approachable he was. He did not have the paraphernalia of protocol, despite his high perception in the minds of many. When we met, we seemed to strike a quick chord of association.

One day, I discussed with him about my plans to inject into the lives of the younger generation, including those unborn, the passion in the lives of those eminent personalities in Nigeria with values that can propel and sustain coming generations. As we talked, it suddenly dawned on me that I was indeed talking to one of these eminent personalities! The result of that conversation is the book you are now holding and reading.

Pat speaks Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba languages fluently and has a good understanding of all these cultures. He is also widely travelled around the world, and mingles freely with differing peoples.

He once told me about a book by C Wright Mills titled The Sociological Imagination. He had gleaned from the book the fact that the fullness of history is formed by the historical account of individuals as it intersects with the grand march of events. He said this book had greatly impacted his life.

The purpose of this book, Keeping Faith, is to share aspects of how this life, which has risen to the stature that we admire, can become an inspiration to many. It is hoped that this work will result in an echo of I can, too in the minds of the millions of readers that will get hold of this book. I am in no doubt as to the continuing positive enlargement to this life, which is what has inspired me to take on this work.

Meeting Pat at home for the interviews revealed the bubbly fellow he is, as he demonstrated, for example how his father looked like Rambo with his double-barrelled gun and carrier! A very busy man, but with rare gentleman respect for his home and family, Pat makes time for quality time at home, as well as other people regardless of race, colour or creed. He stands on the