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By Henry Akubuiro
Becoming by Grace, Anesis Global, Lagos, 2022
Nebolisa Arah’s meteoric rise to the top of Nigeria’s banking echelon reminds one that how you end a difficult journey matters most. Not the best student in class, he, as he went on in life, his brilliance shone in everything he did, as he became one of Nigeria’s most revered bankers and boardroom gurus, a man with midas touch.
Reading Becoming by Grace (Expanded Edition), an autobiographical work by Arah, the pioneer CEO of Fidelity Bank, is like lending your ears to an oldstager teaching life lessons on how to transit from different stations of life amid deadly obstacles. It offers valuable lessons on grace, benevolence, family life, faith and communal history. If you are unsure of how to ascend to the pinnacle of your profession, Becoming by Grace is an inexpensive masterclass. Arah has seen it all, and has elected to pass on the knowledge to the present and next generations.
The book is enriched with nuggets and quotes from diverse authorities to reinforce important points and serve as hooks to detain your curiosity. The Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe, in the Foreword, applauds the author’s recognition of God for the miraculous interventions in his life and writing a book that attests to transformational leadership typified by the author.
The book contains fifty chapters divided into thirteen parts. The major divisions are a historical glance of Onitsha and his family roots, his early days and education, building a career and staying the course. The author also dwells on the highpoints of his banking career and post retirement era that has seen him plow and sow in different acres of life that have continued to benefit humanity. All through the book, Arah makes it clear that the divine hand of God has been the pilot of his trajectories in life. He hints in the preface that “the reader must come to an understanding that the book is a record of things being orchestrated from ‘on high’.”
Arah, in the first chapter quotes Edmund Burke, who says “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors” to justify backward glance to his ancestral past, beginning with the history of Onitsha and its connections with Edo and Ife in the “Ado-na-Idu” matrilineal triangle before tracing his family roots and the generations from Eze Chima, the founder of Onitsha, to Anwah. There is so much ancestral matrix to delight historians and culture aficionados.
Looking back to the beginning of the 20th century, the reader realises how much things have changed as the author recounts his parents’ lives and how the second world war impacted on his education negatively. The author and his siblings learnt while growing up to focus on God and do first things first. School days were fun right from his primary school at Saint Mary’s School, Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt, to his later years in Cameroon, Government College, Owerri, and the University of Ibadan.
In the fifth chapter, the author recounts harrowing civil war experiences where he and his family endured constant raids, moving from location to another as refugees, and escaping death by whiskers, a development he attributes to the divine more than anybody’s cleverness.
The book also chronicles the author’s journey to Columbus for his masters on a federal government scholarship where he was shocked to discover unkempt Americans in a rickety car coming to pick him up at the airport. Another unforgettable experience he narrates is when one of his lecturers invited him to register his disappointment after scoring 78 percent in an exam, which he thought was a good grade in Nigeria, and even counseling him to drop the course.
Arah’s return to Nigeria saw him making steady progress in his career from ICON Merchant Bank. The author offers the reader a sneak preview of the commercial and merchant banking terrain of the country. Early 1980s favoured Arah as far as career consolidation was concerned at IMB before its decline.
Fidelity Bank has become a big brand in Nigeria today, but its history is incomplete without the role played by the author, its founding CEO. Details of this can be found in the fifth part of the book, which the author begins with an overview of the Nigerian banking system. How he managed to grow the bank, initially meant to finance the chairman’s businesses, to a reputable national bank (1988-2003), is awesome. You surely would be proud of Arah’s achievements at this juncture. He lays bare the internal workings of the bank, reforms undertaken, plus the challenges encountered along the way.
Part 8 of the book chronicles Arah’s recall from retirement to work in Afribank as its CEO/MD (2009-2011) in what turned out to be an illustrious banking career. It was a national assignment where he showed he still had something to prove. Besides, the board dynamics of the CEO, recollected in the book, is an eye opener to anybody outside this sphere.
In the concluding chapters, the pages teem with faith related topics. The author emphasises on honesty and giving,as well as punctuality. In the light of the insecurity in the country, especially the mindless killings in the country, the author calls for caution. As he says, “Man is still unable to learn that violence solves no problem. Violence only exacerbates them” (p. 366).
Arah’s climb to the top of his career speaks of amazing grace mixed with hard work. The book isn’t just a banker’s professional odyssey. It is a mesh of history, culture, banking, nationhood, current affairs and humane living. There is a visible panache in the rendering of this narrative. Quite impressive.
