IN 1994, shortly after completing his National Youth Service, Prince Chukwuemeka Mamah (Ide), joined his family’s business, Ifesinachi Industries Ltd, as a director.
At 22, an age when many other privileged children like him couldn’t care less about anything, the young Mamah was already pre-occupied with how to keep the great Ifesinachi brand a going concern in a peaceful atmosphere even after the great man, Igwe James Mamah, Ohabuenyi Ozzi, himself was gone. So, he suggested to his father—and the old man agreed—that every child of his must be made a director of the company and shares duly allocated as such.
WHEN IGWE MAMAH died in 2010, Emeka’s advice came handy when a decision was to be taken as to how to share the dead man’s assets. What happened was that the vast Ifesinachi assets were equitably shared according to volumes of shares held: everyone got what was due to him/her and everyone was happy.
The process was transparent, equitable, just, sincere and peaceful. The result is that, today, not only is the family business thriving but the family itself is also a peaceful and happy one. For, unlike many similar family businesses in Igbo Land, which had collapsed following irreconcilable differences among offspring of their departed founders over assets, the Ifesinachi group seamlessly and admirably weathered the shock of its chairman’s untimely exit (Igwe J.O.Mamah died at 68) and moved on and has remained a thriving business concern ever since, thanks, largely, to the advice of a precocious 22 year-old who saw tomorrow.
EVEN MORE INSTRUCTIVE about Emeka Mamah’s human resource management capability is what he did with the family his father left behind for him to take care of. Now father to many siblings from two mothers, Emeka knew he had to hold the family together as the greatest honour he could give to the memory of his late father. So, one day, while the mourning lasted, he summoned a family meeting and put before the people just two proposals.
One, there was to be no stepbrother or stepsister; the other guy or lady was simply your brother or sister. No more, no less. Two, every child of the late Igwe must answer Mamah, including the grandchildren—there must be no deviation. To this everyone said a loud aye! Needless to say that today, the Igwe James Ogbonna Mamah family of Ugbaike, Enugu-Ezike, is one of the most peaceful and progressive polygamous families in Africa.
But, while the strength of the Ifesinachi family lies in their unity—everyone contributes from his/her takings into the common pool for operations, salaries, maintenance of assets etc—what also sets them apart from similar families is that, apart from their shares of assets inherited from their father, every single one of the Ifesinachi siblings (graduates all 10 of them) is also well established in his or her personal business(es)
YOU SEE, to manage big things, we must start with small things.
To manage large organisations, we must first demonstrate that we can manage small ones. To successfully manage a community, we must first successfully manage a family unit. If you can’t manage the little diversity in a family, how can you be trusted to manage the inherent diversity in a community, a local government or even a federal constituency?
There are those in this race whose loudest achievement is that they don’t see eye to eye with other members of their families.
Their meanness of spirit, their antagonistic off-putting self shows in their very cold relationship with virtually everyone else, especially in the party: they hold everyone in contempt–from the smallest card-carrying member to the biggest stakeholder! A snub can’t be a good representative, can he?
AND, SO, AS ASPIRANTS file out tomorrow for election as House of Reps candidates, the challenge for us in Udenu/Igbo-Eze North Federal Constituency of Enugu State and the ruling PDP in the State, is to choose a man who will work to unite us even in our diversity; who as a tested, long-standing, high net-worth employer of labour, is a father to so many children from so many different mothers and yet manages to treat all well and equally. We have to choose a man who scores A+ in diversity management. And that’s exactly whom we have been talking about all this while.
To the delegates, I say you have a historic opportunity to define a tomorrow that will bring glory to your families and our communities, not regrets because of the action you take tomorrow. When they pay you to vote for them, will they also pay you to enjoy the dividends of democracy? Certainly not, because no dividends will come your way again because you have already had your day in the sun: pray, when you have been paid to take a particular action, do you still expect anything in return for taking that action? Of course you don’t. So, vote for the man who will still remember you after he has found his way, thanks to you, into the hallowed Red Chambers in the Three Arm Zone of the FCT.
By Felix Abugu