How I Became Emergency Leader After My Husband, Son’s Deaths – Nwaeze

The managing director/chief executive officer of News Engineering Nigeria Limited, Lady Josephine Nwaeze, yesterday said she became an “emergency leader” after the death of her husband, Sir Ojimadu Nwaeze, in the 2006 ADC plane crash and her son, Ugo, who joined his father years later.

She said three things; consistency, resilience, hope and trust in God made her overcome the adversity and take leadership of the legacy company.

Nwaeze spoke at the closing of the National Leadership Conference organised by the GOTNI Leadership Centre in Abuja yesterday.

Going down memory learn, the fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineering (FNSE) said: “I call myself an emergency leader because the position I am occupying now I wasn’t prepared for it. I woke up one Sunday morning after my husband travel and he never came back. He died in a plane crash and I couldn’t understand it and I was still expecting him to come back. The leadership of the company was thrusted upon me.

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“My son (died) I started mentoring this boy from secondary school because he was more like the father. He relates with the people, I said Ugo, you are going to be an engineer. I gave him every support and then he died. I said it’s time for me to go now and sit down and then depression set in, anxiety, sadness, grief, fear of the unknown everything.

“But then as the leader, I had to weigh my options if give you what happens? I will be in a most difficult situation. Then I had to gather myself together. I started leaving a triangular life from my house to office, from my office to church everyday. God gave me a lot of comfort and strength, then I continue moving. So there are three things that have made me to overcome these times; consistency, resilience hope and trust in God.

“There are a lot I expect people to learn from me, number one is consistency. Whatever you do you need to be consistent on it. Secondly, don’t lose hope because the moment you lose hope, it is over. Always look forward to something better happening and then always develop a positive mindset. As a leader you need to be positive at all times irrespective of what you are going through.”

She hailed President Bola Tinubu for taking the bold decision of removing fuel subsidy, saying it was a hallmark of bold leadership which portends good for the country in the long run.

“He (Tinubu) said I am going to be your president, I will remove the subsidy and I will be your president and the first thing he did was to remove the subsidy. That’s why he earned my respect as a leader. He is a leader. A leader should be the one that is able to solve problems.”

Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the conference, the CEO, GOTNI Leadership Centre,

Dr Linus Okorie, said there was need for Nigeria to invest in multi-billion naira in leadership development.

He said: “The United States government as a country spends more than $160 billion every year for leadership development across the country. My thinking is that everybody in this country who runs a company, who runs an organisation must create budget for leadership development.”