Special Citation on
His Excellency CHIEF (DR) Ikedi Ohakim
Governor Imo State, Nigeria
Presented on the Occasion of the Conferment on him of
the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
by Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria
(Saturday 2nd May 2009) |
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The Chief Ikedi Ohakim’s narrative is a constant validation of the common belief
that some people are born great. Greatness consistently haunts his environment,
hardly requiring any supplication to make its beneficent appearance even in apparently
improbably circumstances. And if on August 4, 1957, when the infant Ikedi was born,
his parents, Chief and Mrs. Maxwell Nwachukwu Ohakim of Okahia, Isiala Mbano, Imo
State, did not have the prescience to recognize the infant as a future leader, the
portents soon became prodigious and unmistakable as the young Ikedi grew that he
was destined to
be a leader. It was indeed in recognition of his enormous endowments
and exploits as a vibrant, dynamic youth that he earned for himself the traditional
title, Ochinanwata, one whose reign as a King started in childhood, a title that
has become a prophetic comment on his entire life.
Chief Ikedi Ohakim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration
from the University of Lagos and a Master of Science degree in Management also form
the same university. He is currently a PhD candidate. However, for Chief Ikedi Ohakim,
academic brilliance transcends the mere acquisition if degrees; it expresses itself
too in the generation to creative insights and the production of seminal publications.
In this regard, Chief Ikedi Ohakim is the author of four highly regarded scholarly
texts. His book The Marketing Imperative for Rural Industrialization is appraised
as a fresh and pragmatic approach in strategic marketing of intangible products,
especially government programmes and policies. His well-researched paper titled,
“Segmenting the Industrial Market A Strategic opinion for Survival” won the prize
for the Nigerian Institute of Management young Manager’s Competition in 1987. He
has delivered well over seventy seminar/conference papers both within and outside
the country. His most recent work is titled De-monetizing the Political process
in Nigeria.
Understandably then, Chief Ikedi Ohakim is widely recognized as a expert inn corporate
turn-around and re-engineering, marketing strategy and government policy, and much
sought after as a speaker and consultant to many leading businesses in Nigeria and
beyond. He was a prominent and highly valued member of the National Committee on
Industrial Development (NCID) where he mage widely acknowledged contributions. The
work of NCID led to the establishment of small and medium Enterprises Development
Agency of Nigeria in 1999. He has provided strategic counseling and advice to some
state governments in Nigeria and corporate organizations on development issues including
public education, investments and trade promotions. He has been part of numerous
government delegations and missions to different parts of the world. For example,
he attended the US congressional Black Caucus of 1992 and 1996, World Tourism Conference
in Indonesia in 1993 and the 17th World Oil Conference in Brazil in 2002.
Chief Ikedi Ohakim was the Chairman of Mekahog Ground of Companies, an integrated
engineering group providing world class products and services for defense, security,
construction, fabrication, oil and gas sectors. He was also the principal in Mekahog
Consulting Group, a diversified management consulting partnership. He equally served
in a senior commercial and executive management capacity in two multinational engineering/manufacturing
companies in Nigeria, ALCAL Group and CONCRAFT services for more than fifteen years.
In 1991, he rose to the position of the Executive Director of LUCON and in 1977
to its MD/CEO. He has served on the board of several companies, think-tanks and
public policy bodies including: Kaduna Refining Petro-Chemical Company Limited;
Aluminum Extrusion Company Limited; Petro-Globe Oil and gas Limited; national Committee
on Industrial Development; National Institute for Citizen Education Foundation and
Mekahog Group. Chief Ikedi Ohakim is representative of a new crop of young Nigerian
technocrats that have distinguished themselves in the areas of management, politics
and community service. No wonder then that in 1998, he listed in This Day’s 50 Leader
that Nigeria Needs and in 2000, he was in vanguard’s 30 Notable Corporate Leaders
of the Future.
Chief Ikedi Ohakim has been very visible in the political circle in Nigeria. He
served as a commissioner for Commerce, industry, and Tourism in Imo State between
1992 and 1993. He was a highly visible member of the State Executive Council and
was instrumental to the designing for the first State’s Industrial Development blue
print; he also organized the 1st Imo State investment forum. Chief Ohakim was a
prominent and founding member of the people’s Democratic Party and served in the
party’s first national Finance Committee in 1998. Chief Ikedi Ohakim was elected
Governor of Imo State on 28th April 2007, an election victory that as deservedly
revalidated only recently by the Court of Appeal. As Governor, his policy thrusts
are rooted in the “New Face of Imo” philosophy aimed at transforming Imo State into a modern model state with a strong diversified manufacturing and tourism based economy
anchored on the emerging skills provided by science and technology with guaranteed
employment opportunities. Chief Ikedi Ohakim is married to lady Barrister Chioma
Ohakim and their marriage is blessed with five children.
Honourable Chancellor, Sir, Your Excellencies, Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords Spiritual
and Temporal, distinguished ladies and Gentlemen, it is in recognition of the outstanding
qualities of this truly accomplished patriot and strategic thinker, that it has
pleased the Senate and Congregation of Imo State University Owerri, to select and
recommend His Excellency Chief Ikedi Ohakim, a recent D. Mgt, award from the Federal
University Owerri, distinguished Governor of Imo State Nigeria, the Leader whose
first name and actions are an exaltation of the indefatigable, a Fellow of the Nigerian
Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, a Knight
of St. Christopher, Ochinanwata, for the award of Doctor of Business Administration
(DBA) of Imo State University Honoris causa, with all the rights and privileges
pertaining thereto.
Honourably Chancellor, Sir, I therefore have the singular honour to present him
to you for the said Award.
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