Echono, the ‘Sonny’ side of Nigeria academia
EARLY morning Saturday February 22, I was at the Lagos domestic airport enroute Oye-Ekiti where the federal university domiciled in the town was honouring accomplished Nigerians including my own, who avoids media drama. It was a private flight put together by industry-leader and Airpeace owner, Dr.Alex Onyema and for those on it, words had circulated that it was for the early bird.
Expectedly, airport coffee came in handy to clear visage fog for those who would have still preferred the ducts of their duvets at that unveiling hour of the day and as I sipped mine in quietness of my heart, a conversation or more like a thrilling solo delivery gradually got to my subconscious and eventually circled my consciousness, forcing a sharp 180-degree turn of my head to know who was the encyclopedia of Nigerian, Middle Belt and Benue politics and developmental governance, sitting right behind me.
That was my first physical sighting of Arc. Sunday “Sonny” Sylva Togo Echono, the much-celebrated 9th Executive Secretary of the Nigeria’s Tertiary Education Trust Fund. Though engaged with a subordinate as pointed by the tone of the interactions and as later confirmed when we closely socialized in Ekiti, the first thing that struck me was the total absence of airs around him. He was completely affable with his man. I returned to myself after the gaze he probably noticed but the journalist in me, took an instant interest in him. By the time he was done delivering his convocation lecture at FUOYE and the nature’s delay that forced all of us, big and small men, passing the night as guests of Ekiti State government, I had become somewhat acquainted with the gentleman architect. By the time we returned to the Ekiti controversial airport on Sunday morning enroute Lagos, he and I were already having a one-on-one conversation about governance issues, particularly in his native Benue.
Of course I had to look him up after we parted. He has been almost everything in the federal civil service; from leading spendings due process in multiple high-profile ministries to earning his place as a “super” permanent secretary, serving across Grade “A” ministries too, before being pulled out of retirement (you won’t know he is a retiree when in T-shirt and denim as he was that Sunday departing Oye-Ekiti), to bring some bliss to the almost-perpetual gloom hanging on Nigeria academia.
This piece isn’t an adulation trip, because it won’t even matter. For someone, the nation is forming a near-borderless beeline to garland, any cymbal jingling and jangling from here would be what Yoruba will describe as using teaspoon to add water to a riveting ocean; a waste of the infinitesimal. His story however is a testament to hope that all won’t be lost as long as we don’t give up; that a man can make a huge difference without necessarily appearing to form a forest; that those wishing the country well still abound and that with the right search, the right pick would always be available, among many Thats, that his success story as a civil servant and now as an appointed administrator, is teaching in a country, currently mired in deep pessimism which is not without a just cause.
Leadership in Nigeria, is a mess and it isn’t limited to the political class or the civil service, whether federal, state or local government. Ingrained in our leadership mentality is crass materialism. You dare to be different at the risk of the ire of your own, including immediate family, who will likely consider you a prodigal, throwing away their slice of the national cake, just being delivered through you.
An average Permanent Secretary in any ministry, as the Chief Accounting Officer, is expected to be rich and nearly all, are. For many of them, their secrets are buried in many skyscrapers in choice estates and shopping malls in Abuja, Lagos, among other expensive cities of Nigeria. Directors of Procurement are the blue blood of the civil service. They run things as street lingo would capture their expansive influence in contract management, process and distribution. Stories even abound of intermediate/junior officers in Procurement riding luxury “whip” (latest models of car brands) and living in mansions in Abuja, with eye-popping country homes in their villages. Most of such hidden “assets” are once-in-a-year abode for many of them. ICPC has nailed a good number of them.
Anywhere you see an average Procurement Director in the civil service, especially at the federal level where the real mint (the largest chunk of federation wealth) is, introduction is rarely needed. The carriage is unmissable. The reach of influence is unassailable. Yoruba will say, eni to ni owo lo ni owo (the one who controls cash flow dictates trading).
Then let’s do a simple arithmetic with one of our eyes partially shut and the other, open with a twinkle, to allow for unhindered flow of imagination.
Read Also: KAURAN GWANDU: Two Years of Impactful Leadership in Kebbi State
Let our minds capture the scenario of a single man as Director, Procurement in five ministries and Permanent Secretary in three ministries in a career that spanned 31 years. How silly rich would he be going by the Nigerian mentality of cornering nearly all, when in charge. Echono was DIrector, Procurement in Ministries of Defence, Water Resources, Environment, Agriculture and Power before moving up as the Permanent Secretary in Ministries of Agriculture, Communications and Education!
How he remains almost ordinary (going tieless outbound Lagos passed him up for just any flyer doing an early morning round) and self-effacing is a miracle but a major lesson to men of power who think they have to be loud to a din to be regarded.
If Echono had been greedy for money like many of his peers in service, he could be excused on the account of need, considering that he began playing big in the system as early as his early 40s, as Secretary, Ministerial Tenders Board. Don’t they say life begins at 40 and didn’t Solomon confirm that money answereth all (a lot of) things.
For him to dare to be different, he is confirming Yoruba’s saying that only those harrassed by wealth will name their children Olaniyonu (wealth is problematic). There is also the saying about empty barrel and loudest noise. Not naming his own proverbial child Olaniyonu, doesn’t mean Echono was born wealthy. Just like Alhaji Lai Mohammed would joke before getting into government, Echono had likely made peace and pact with a simple life, devoid of greed. From one podium to another, one epaulette to another, from nearly all corners of the country as his TETFund gradually brings the sunshine back to Nigerian campuses, Echono appears on a roll, continually encouraged by an applauding country and can’t afford to look back now that his hands are steady on the plough.
TETFund’s yearly budget is 3% of assessable profit of registered companies in Nigeria, which although in billions, may not really “freak” the CEO after taking charge of eye-ripping Defence and Power budgets but he must be watchful of system termites and cobras who swallow blade-crispy currency without having their gut, gutted. He can’t allow his glittering rainment blackened. Maybe Peoples House on Kashim Ibrahim Way, Makurdi, is still part of his unfolding life story. Nigerian Tribune
