Otunba (Dr.) Michael Olasubomi Olayiwola Oladimeji Olaonipekun Balogun was a great man in his lifetime. He fought many battles (including the many surprises life threw at him) and he won all of them. He never ceased to tell anyone who cared to listen how he won each one at critical points in his life.
His story started from when he was born in Ijebu-Ode, in Ogun State on 9th March 1934. He had his secondary education at Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos where he passed out with Cambridge School Certificate in Grade One in 1952.
He was a Secondary School Teacher for one year before proceeding to the London School of Economics (‘LSE’) to read Law in 1956 after having passed with distinction – 3 subjects at the GCE Advanced Level as one of the pioneer students of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science & Technology, Ibadan. He graduated from the LSE with Second Class Honours Degree in June, 1959 and was called to the English Bar in December 1959.
Under the sponsorship of the then Western Regional Government, he was the first Nigerian to receive training in Legal Drafting in Whitehall and the City of London with particular specialisation in financial legislation, instruments and agreements. He served as a Crown Counsel in the Ministry of Justice of the then Western Nigeria and subsequently as Assistant Parliamentary Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice in Lagos.
For nine years, between 1966 and 1975, he was the first Principal Counsel and Company Secretary to the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (‘NIDB’). During this period, he received extensive training at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the World Bank, and its private sector affiliate, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), both in Washington DC. He also received extensive training from leading stockbrokers, investment banks and merchant banks in London and New York.
In 1973, he was appointed the Director in charge of the operations of Icon Securities Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIDB. During his tenure, he spearheaded with other colleagues, under the direction of the then Managing Director of the NIDB, the conversion of Icon Securities into a Merchant Bank. He was instrumental to the establishment of Icon Stockbrokers Limited, a foremost stockbroking firm, which he subsequently headed.
Following the establishment of Icon Limited (Merchant Bankers), Otunba was seconded to the bank as an Executive Director. During this time, he represented Icon on the Council of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and he distinguished himself in the handling of many capital issues on the Exchange.
He resigned in December 1977 to set up his own company, City Securities Limited, which was
the first institution in Nigeria to combine Issuing House and Stockbroking businesses under one roof.
At the end of the then Indigenisation Programme of the Federal Government of Nigeria, he had put against his name and that of his company, City Securities Limited, the public sale of shares of about 11 international companies, including Mobil, Texaco, Total, Nigeria Bottling Company and the private sale of shares of over 20 foreign companies. In less than two years of the establishment of City Securities Limited, he bestrode the Nigerian Capital Market like a colossus so much so that a leading and reputable financial and business journal, in a citation, described him as “a most distinguished and a leading Baron of the Nigerian Capital
Market”.
During this period, he was a Member of the Council of the Stock Exchange, and served on the Council, representing ICON and City Securities Limited from 1973 until early 1988. In 1979, as a natural sequence to his outstanding performance in the Nigerian Financial Markets, he decided to set up the first wholly Nigerian owned merchant bank, entirely conceived and promoted by him, First City Merchant Bank Limited (FCMB).
Under his leadership as Chairman & Chief Executive, FCMB in its first twenty years of existence, experienced steady and uninterrupted growth,· and earned national and international recognition as market leaders in investment banking and capital market services. The bank’s paid-up share capital grew from N2 million at inception to N1.5 billion, while total shareholders’ fund rose to N2.65 billion as at December 2002.
He was a constructive philanthropist. Apart from his well-known commitment to the welfare of the less privileged and physically handicapped, in 1987, he was the first in Nigeria, through FCMB Limited, to endow a Professorial Chair in a University when at the University of Ibadan, he set up a Chair for Capital Market Studies in the Department of Economics and Finance.
He also endowed a Research Fellowship in the Legal Department of the University of Lagos.
He has equally donated to several causes in a number of institutions such as the Olabisi Onabanjo University (formerly Ogun State University), Yaba College of Technology, Kola Daisi University, African Leadership Forum, etc.
He took over, reconstructed, refurbished and perpetually endowed the maintenance of The Children’s Emergency Unit in the University Teaching Hospital, Ibadan which was named after him, the “Otunbo Tunwase Children’s Emergency Unit” and is responsible for the perpetual maintenance and upkeep of this unit.
In 1989, he donated to the Ijebu-Ode General Hospital a newly built and fully equipped air-conditioned 40-bed Children’s Centre which was named after his mother, “Iye Subomi’s Child Care Centre” and he made provision for the perpetual maintenance of the Children’s Centre.
He has also actively supported and provided financial assistance to various local institutions, individuals and other charitable organisations. He donated a Police Post at Imoru in Ijebu-Ode and he also built a Civic Centre named “Otunba Tunwase Civic Centre” for the Ijebu-Ode Club. He also provided street lighting for the street named after his ancestor, Oba Adesimbo, Tunwase I, known as “Tunwase Drive”.
He awarded several hundred scholarships to many Nigerians at secondary and tertiary levels and about ten years ago, he endowed perpetually an annual award of scholarships to the best students in Muslim College, Ijebu-Ode in honour of his late father; and also set up another scholarship endowment in honour of his mother known as “Iye Subomi Scholarship”.
He set up endowments for the Nigerian School for the Blind at Oshodi, and also instituted, through FCMB, an Annual National Marathon Championship for Disabled Athletes.
He was known to have supported many religious organisations, both Christian and Muslim, in their development programmes and had endowed churches or even the establishment of dioceses in some Christian denominations in Nigeria.
Several years ago, he established an umbrella organisation known as “Otunba Tunwase Foundation” to cater for all his philanthropic endeavours and services to the community.
Under this Foundation, and on his 60th birthday, he commenced the construction of a special gift to the nation the “Otunbo Tunwase National Paediatric Centre”. This is a referral institution to cater for the health care, survival and welfare of the Nigerian Child and to provide an avenue for speciolised studies and academic researchers into all manners of children diseases and ailments.
He had expended over N3.7 billion from personal resources and this was commissioned to commemorate his 60th : birthday on 9th March 2004. In August 2000 when he presented his Memoirs ‘The Cross, The Triumph and The Crown”, he directed that all proceeds from the sale of the book should be channeled to the Project.
In August 1988, he was elected a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) in recognition of his contribution to the development of Corporate Management & Leadership.
In 1988, he was appointed Chairman of the newly formed U.I. Ventures Limited by the University of Ibadan. This company was set up to commercialise and improve the efficiency of services provided by the university to its local and the general business communities. He held this position for five years before he voluntarily relinquished it, having turned U.I Ventures into a very profitable enterprise paying regular dividend to the University.
In January 1989, the American Biographical Institute Inc honoured him with a Distinguished Leadership Award for his outstanding contributions to the development of Banking.
In November 1989, Nigeria’s premier University, the University of Ibadan, awarded him the Degree of Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his outstanding achievements both in the field of Law and his contributions to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
In February 1990, the Business Concord newspaper (Nigeria’s leading Business Weekly at the time) named him the “Business Person of the Decade” in recognition of his outstanding achievements as an accomplished entrepreneur, having outpolled other prominent businessmen in a national poll conducted by a professional panel set up by the weekly newspaper.
Also in 1990, the Ogun State Government gave him a Merit Award for his philanthropic services to the state in particular and the country as a whole. Later that year, the Ijebu Development Association added another Merit Award on the Obanta Day Celebration. In the same year, he was installed the Patron of the Ijebu Chamber of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture. He was a Council Member of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce.
In 1991, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) made him a Fellow of the Institute for his pioneering and outstanding contribution of the Banking Industry.
In January 1994, the President of the Republic of Italy conferred on him the prestigious honour of “Cavaliere” dell’Ordine “AI Merito delia Repubblica Italiana,” which means “Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy”.
In October 1995, he was installed The Olori Omo-Oba Akile Ijebu by His Royal Majesty, the Awujale of Ijebuland. In 1996, he was conferred with the title of Baba Oba of Ijebu Ife by the Ajalorun of Ijebu Ife. Later that year, the Oloko of Ijebu-Mushin made him the Asalu-Oba of ljebu Mushin. On the 9th of March 1997, he was installed the Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians by the entire Christian Community in Ijebuland.
On the 17th of October 1998, the Obanta Day, he was made the Patron of the Ijebu Development Association for his outstanding contributions to the development of Banking and Financial Industry in the country as well as his various philanthropic contributions in Ijebuland.
In January 1999, the Ogun State University, now Olabisi Onabanjo University, awarded him another honourary degree of the Doctor of Science in Management Sciences, (Honoris Causa). This is in recognition of his contributions to the development and application of Management Sciences in the banking industry in particular and the business economy generally in Nigeria, as well as his philanthropic gestures, which cut across the nooks and corners of the country.
In November 2000, he was conferred with the National Honour of “Commander of the Order of the Niger” by the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In March 2001, the Governing Council of the Yaba College of Technology conferred on him the Fellowship of the institution.
In October 2022, he was elevated to the position of Group Chairman, First City Group Limited – the financial services group comprising of First City Monument Bank Limited, FCMB Capital Markets limited, First City Asset Management Limited, CSL Stockbrokers Limited and City Securities (Registrars) Limited.
Otunba Balogun was an author, a prolific writer and a distinguished opinion leader. In these capacities, he contributed remarkably to the formulation of Nigeria’s economic policies. In recognition of his distinction in this area, he was appointed at the inception of the new democratic dispensation, a member of the National Presidential Advisory Committee on the Recovery of the Nigerian economy.
He was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers; Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management; Fellow Chartered Institute of Bankers; former Deputy President, now life Vice President, of the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce; Council Member of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Chairman, Primrose Investments Limited; Chairman, Bluechip Holdings Limited; Chairman, Swiftdrill (Nigeria) Limited; Chairman, Primrose Properties Investments Limited and Director of a number of other companies.
He is survived by Olori Abimbola Balogun (nee Ayoola), who is the Yeye Olofin of Ijebu-Ife, Yeye Tunwase of ljebu and Yeye Oba of Ode Remo and their sons, Bolaji, Jide, Ladi and Gboyega and their wives and 16 grandchildren.
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