This week in Street Talking on NEXT, I review the agenda and style of Ms. Arunma Oteh, the recently confirmed Securities & Exchange Commission of Nigeria boss, whose low decibel method could mask a high intensity focus on fixing the market's plumbing.
Back in the Age of Innocence, 2008 to be precise, after my one millionth sighting of the ubiquitous ‘Change We Can Believe In’ on car bumper stickers, t-shirts and banner ads on the web, that motivational slogan tripped over to the land of cheesiness and corniness. It became a victim of its own success. It was one thing to be moved by the empathetic oratory of Barack Obama but quite another to see its commoditization. For me, it was all too much of a good thing to see all those emblazoned mugs, flags and tie pins when walking down the street. It gave ‘pedestrian’ a whole new meaning. At that point, all I could think of was ‘Change You Had Better Deliver or Else.’ Maybe it is still early days to judge the Obama presidency, but after the Messianic undertones that marked the last months of his campaign, even the real Jesus Christ will have a tough time living up to outsized expectations.
Two years later, I once again find myself secretly hoping for another Believer’s High. Maybe I am getting soft with age, but one would need a microbetight inspiration-immune system to finish reading Arunma Oteh’s Financial Times interview without being impressed by the director-general of the Securities & Exchange Commission’s sense of purpose. Halfway through the interview, I found myself nodding with approval. I thought that, at last, here is someone who knows what the matter is and appreciates what needs to be done. No doubt, she has her work cut out for her. When things are broken, it does not require blinding insight to tell what needs fixing. Actually, there is nothing extraordinary in Ms. Oteh’s identification of the problems and proffered solutions.
No, what impressed me was her style. She was tactful without being cagey and subtle without being ambiguous. As the market regulator, she knows the impact her words can have and weighed each one carefully. Populist blurting is not her thing. In comparison to her opposite number at another regulatory hegemon, the SEG D-G is a study in opposites. While she obviously shares Lamido Sanusi, the Central Bank governor’s zeal for sanitizing the financial services sector, she has none of the ‘my way or the high way’ unilateralism that seems to characterize her peer’s utterances, admirable as his intentions might be.
Ms. Oteh’s quiet way of going about her job has won me over. Forget the grandstanding. Trash the showmanship. The lady has work to do and she clearly prefers to beaver away far from the limelight. Here again, the contrast with Lamido Sanusi comes to the fore. While the Central Bank governor, in spite of his best efforts, seems to have become identified with the dreaded role of The Enforcer, Ms. Oteh has side-stepped the terrifying Labour Prefect label.
But are words enough? Will Ms. Oteh deliver the goods? At the end of the day, that is what it will come down to and not her fine words. Not even her ‘twenty-two years spent building a global reputation’ will pave a royal road for her. To scale the mountain before her, the former Group Treasurer of the African Development Bank (ADB) will require more than intellectual competence and administrative pedigree. She, more than anyone else, should know that the task before her is as much technical as it is political. The barons of the ancien regime will not just stand back and watch her hack away at the status quo. They will cajole, threaten, resist and fight back. Too much, too soon will dissipate her strength, and too little, too late, will steal her momentum. This general must pick her battles carefully. Her assumption that the SEC is the apex regulator and should enjoy deference, as a matter of course, will be put to the test. The market miscreants will need to see more than her badge to surrender.
I find some comfort in her past statements that action, not words, will lead Africa out of the abyss. In the Preface of African Voices, African Visions (2004), which she co-edited with Olugbenga Adesida, the Harvard MBA holder does not hide her impatience for the soporific swings between analysis paralysis and analysis lacunae that plagued commentators over structural adjustment programs (SAP) in Africa:
While we were reacting to the international financial institutions no one was really busy trying to map out a future for the continent or design alternative strategies to transform Africa. . . Our fear about the future is not just that Africa is facing tremendous challenges on almost all fronts. Africa can overcome these, as others have overcome similar handicaps. Our fear is centered simply on the lack of new and innovative ideas. This is the danger: the poverty of ideas and of the mind. Because it is only with ideas that we can dissolve the multiple crises facing Africa.
Sweet talker or action woman? We will soon find out. I desperately wish that the D-G has the steely resolve to say like Margaret Thatcher, that other Iron Lady, ‘to those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. “You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”‘ Ms. Oteh, straight!
The original article can be read here on the NEXT website.
One cannot help noticing how Niyi Meka Olowola, Oando's Head of Corp Comms, is nodding in approval. Maybe Goldman Sachs can learn lessons.04:47:49 PM January 25, 2012from HootSuite
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