When the history of Nigeria’s corporate evolution is written, one chapter will forever shine brighter than the rest — the age of the corporate elders. It was a period when the boardroom was not merely a place for deals but a sanctuary of discipline, truth, and service. The men and women who defined that age have now mostly gone, but their values remain immortal. Among them, the late Dr. Christopher Kolade, CON, stands tall as the emblem of integrity and intellect.
Kolade belonged to a rare academy of business statesmen — Chief Michael Omolayole (Mr. Omo), Chief Ernest Shonekan, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, Alhaji Ahmed Joda of SCOA, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo, Chief (Mrs.) Bola Kuforiji-Olubi, Mrs. Titi Adeleke of Tate & Lyle Sugar, and Chief Niyi Osunkeye, among others. These were individuals who treated leadership as stewardship. They built reputations not on wealth but on wisdom, not on access to power but on accountability.
They were the custodians of Nigeria’s moral economy — men and women whose word was their bond. They governed corporations with the same sense of duty a judge brings to the bench or a priest to the pulpit. The likes of Kolade saw the private sector as an extension of public trust, not a theatre of personal greed.
Today, as Nigeria struggles to redefine her economic and ethical compass, the vacuum left by these titans is glaring. The new generation of corporate actors must return to that enduring ethos — where profit is pursued with principle and success is built on substance, not shortcuts.
Dr. Kolade’s passing is, therefore, not just the loss of a man but the closing of an era — a time when character was currency, and credibility was capital. May his life remind us that leadership without values is mere ambition, and that integrity — like gold — never tarnishes with age.
THE CORPORATE ELDERS WHO BUILT NIGERIA’S MORAL ECONOMY BY DARE ADELEKAN
