The Group Managing Director/CEO, uac of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Larry Ettah has lauded the appointment of more Nigerians to the chief executive positions of multinational corporations, saying it was a most welcome development.

Ettah, who spoke at a party in honour of the Chairman/Managing Director, Mobil Nigeria Plc, Mr. Tunji Oyebanji, said “Tunji deserves the promotion for several reasons, and most significantly because he is Nigerian. It is a welcome idea that he is getting the job in this corporate landscape where the indigenous chief executive of multinational is endangered specie.

“It is a good thing that he is joining us. Whenever a new chief executive joins the group, I do not know whether to congratulate or sympathise with him. But I think we should sympathise with him as the head of a company operating in this brutal economy of ours.”

Ettah described the new Mobil boss as “a professional to the core and a man of great humility, whose life, work and career is a reflection of integrity.”

Responding, Oyebanji expressed gratitude to uac, while recalling that he met Ettah few years back when they had to negotiate the Mr. Bigg's and Mobil filling stations' deal.

He said, “Although we knew each other few years back, the association between our organisations had been there a very long time before the two of us joined the companies. Some of Mobil's stations across the country, as a matter of fact, were stations we took over from uac in the 1940s, which shows that this relationship has not just begun.

“For these two companies that have come a long way to put their confidence in two Nigerians means that Nigerians can deliver the goods.”

Both Ettah and Oyebanji expressed optimism that more Nigerians would join them as CEOs of multinational corporations.

The former Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke, who gave a toast to Oyebanji's new appointment, encouraged them to continue to do the country proud.

Culled from Punch (Appointment & Management) Page 21, 28th Jan. 2009

Stories written by Dayo Oketola