Need for NIA Helmsman to Be Press-friendly
Recently, NIA elected Mr. Oye Hassan-Odukale to run its affairs for the next two years. Nnamdi Duru wonders if he can afford to remain press-shy
Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), the umbrella body of underwriting firms in the country recently clocked 33 years and in recent times it has succeeded in holding together an average of 100 member companies.
The association at its 33rd Annual General Meeting in Lagos last week elected Mr. Oye Hassan-Odukale as its chairman. He is to lead the organisation for the next two years.
NIA was established in 1971. Its responsibilities include protection, promotion and advancement of the common interest of insurers transacting any class of insurance business in the country. It is also to create a better understanding of insurance by all sections of the community including furtherance of knowledge and researches on the industry.
The association is also to guide and assist member companies to comply with statutory regulations while laying down minimum standards of ethics for them. It is charged with the onerous task of challenging obnoxious government actions and proposed ones on behalf of member companies.
On the shop floor level, NIA performs key industrial relations functions on behalf of member companies who belong to the finance sector employers' body, Nigerian Employers' Association of Banks, Insurance and Allied Institutions (NEABIAI).
In line with the above, the association enters into negotiations and agreements relating to wages, hours of work and other conditions of employment. It adjusts any differences arising from the operations of such agreements while preventing industrial actions, even if it means dragging workers and their representatives to courts of competent jurisdiction pending such adjustments. The association has been carrying out these duties satisfactorily to a reasonable extent before now.
At the same 33rd Annual General Meeting, the association unveiled its books of account which painted a picture of an organisation in financial decline. Its numerical strength fell from 106 member companies in 2002 to 98 by the end of last year partially due to the suspension of 11 member companies.
The fallout of this was that the revenue which accrued to the organisation last year fell significantly to the extent that it recorded an income shortfall from its activities in 2003. Its income fell from N52.06 million in 2002 to N51.04 million in 2003 while its expenditure rose from N41.81 million in 2002 to N58.28 million in 2003. The sum total of this left the association with a N7.23 million income deficit within the period.
Earlier this year also, the just concluded recapitalisation exercise in the insurance industry further depleted NIA's membership with 15 insurance firms still battling to salvage their operating license with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
At the same Annual General Meeting, the association elected the Managing Director of Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Mr. The new Chairman to steer its ship for the next two years.
Hassan-Odukale who succeeds Mr. Godwin Alegieuno, Managing Director of Lion of Africa Insurance Company Limited, was until now unheard of outside the insurance sub-sector where he operates diligently.
Prior to his election as chairman, he served the association as Vice-chairman between 2002 and 2004. He was appointed member of the Governing Council of Nigerian Insurers' Association in 1995. The new Chairman is said to be a product of Mayflower School, Ikenne in Ogun State and a graduate of the University of Houston, Texas, USA, from where he obtained a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Business Administration, specialising in Finance.
He is also said to be a Munich-Re scholar, being the First West African recipient of Munich-Re and Georgia State University International Visiting Fellows Insurance Program in addition to having done extensive research on computerisation of insurance companies.
His career in insurance was said to have started with SCIB & Company Insurance Brokers in 1980 before he joined Leadway Assurance in 1981. He rose to the position of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company in 1994.
Hassan-Odukale is also on the board of a number of reputable companies including Prestige Assurance Plc and was said to have served on the Federal Government's Committee for the review of insurance laws.
In his acceptance speech, Hassan-Odukale promised to "do his best to uphold the image, ideals and visions of the association towards creating a virile insurance industry in Nigeria".
He also set hurdles for himself in the areas of cordiality and mutual respect between operators, upholding ethical standards in the industry, ensuring customer satisfaction and upgrading information technology at the association's secretariat in Lagos.
He also hoped to encourage and assist members of the organisation to improve upon existing information technology, to put in place an investment committee for the association, to boost the statistics and research department of the association while improving on the secretariat's ability to disseminate useful information to members through its website.
Hassan-Odukale again lived up to his pre-election rating as a man who does not want anything to do with the press at his investiture ceremony in Lagos last week. At the Prestige Assurance Completion Board Meeting in Lagos recently he said, "I don't talk to press".
Approached by newsmen shortly after he was decorated with the paraphernalia of office, Hassan-Odukale directed them to "meet the Director-General for any information".
A press-unfriendly Chairman is what is least needed at this time. Hassan-Odukale's personal records and curriculum vitae were not made public, so were his antecedents in and outside the insurance industry which remains a closely guarded secret. There is minimum information about this man in circulation neither could one easily point to published newspaper reports on him.
What tends to worry industry watchers greatly is how this press-shy Chairman intends to run this organisation which is in need of image-laundering without the active involvement of the press.
His predecessor, Alegieuno put to good use the media. The association came close to disintegration last year when it axed some of its members for breaching the industry agreement on rating of insurance premium.
Alegieuno matched the dissidents propaganda for propaganda and made use of the press to counter every argument put forward by insurance brokers and their regulatory body, Nigeria Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) on why a hike in premium should not be universally enforced in the economy. At the end of the day and with media assistance, NIA came out victorious and the suspended members were left with no option but to retrace their steps.
If not for the association's leadership cordial relationship with the fourth estate spearheaded by Alegieuno and the body's image-maker then, Mr. Tope Adaramola, maybe we would be celebrating a second insurers' body in the country today to nobody's benefit.
In addition to the challenges of reviewing his perception of media men, redemption of his image as being unrepentantly unfriendly to the press and opening up to public scrutiny, the new Chairman inherited an organisation in crisis of a sort. Its finances as presented at the meeting are in the red, its membership is dwindling and its relationship with its employees is yet to be ascertained.
No matter how good and professionally qualified Hassan-Odukale is to hold that position, he cannot run the organisation successfully without engaging the press in dissemination of vital information. Computerisation, which is one of his cardinal programmes would not solve the image problems facing the industry, only a grassroots campaign would, the press being a good vessel for this.
The new chairman cannot afford to continue to overlook the need for him to open up for public scrutiny. He is hereby reminded that he is now occupying a public office, and not just the Chief Executive Officer of a Lagos based private company. he is accountable to not only the industry as a whole but also to other stakeholders generally, including the insuring public, government and Nigerians in general.
Hassan-Oyekale cannot eat his cake and still keep it. he cannot aspire to such a hot seat and still wallow in the illusion that he can shy away from the press and other interests that would pry into his privacy. He could be woken up from sleep to answer questions bordering on the activities of insurers in the country.
The earlier he realises this the better for not only him and the association but also for the industry in the next two years. He has a choice now, change his negative attitudes to the public whose interests the fourth estate represents and move the industry forward. Alternatively, he can choose to reverse the gains of the Alegieuno, led executive in which he featured prominently as Vice-chairman. A stitch in time saves nine.
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