What Joseph Edgar Really Wants?

Personality

Love him or hate him, Joseph Edgar is one of those individuals who care less about what you think of him unless of course, you are bringing value to his visions. The investment banker wears many hats that sometimes make it difficult to box him. Vanessa Obioha in a recent encounter with Edgar tries to find out what his ultimate desire is.

Whatever impression you have on Joseph Edgar, the popular THISDAY columnist, it quickly dissipates on encountering him. Depending on your perception of him, you may love him or hate him more. Of course, one can easily deduce that he is voluble, restive, blunt and a show-off. If you read his Loud Whispers column or his unending WhatsApp messages, you may have rolled your eyes several times each time he bombards you with his numerous updates on his projects. Sometimes, reading his WhatsApp messages gives one the impression that he types as fast as he talks.

Edgar also has a great sense of humour which is often seen in his narratives. The way he describes his encounters often leaves one in stitches; be it his fear of contracting HIV due to an eye infection or his eternal love for Afang soup, you are likely to laugh out loud. The bluntness of his write-up has equally fetched him popularity among the corporate elites and politicians and in his usual manner, he ensures that you know he is chilling with the ‘big boys’. But Edgar’s show-off tendencies are not really for bragging rights, rather a subtle way of educating his followers on the importance of networking with the right people.

This was recently glimpsed when he convinced over 50 professionals who cut across finance, agriculture, oil and gas, information technology, media and communications to go on a weekend retreat with the former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
“It was my friend Osa Umweni who birthed the idea,” he tells me as we sit in the reception area of Green Legacy Hotel in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

“He kept saying it in the WhatsApp group. He got the vision but one day it dawned on me that what he was suggesting was possible. It took me an hour to get the approval to bring the team here.”
Even though the retreat revolved around the revered former president and his contributions to the nation, Edgar who goes by the moniker Duke of Shomolu points out that it was more of a networking opportunity.

“It wasn’t really about Obasanjo. He provided the infrastructure that we needed, that is, the Presidential Library which comes with the hotel and the tour, and captures 60 years of Nigerian history. The delegates will take in all of that but the most powerful impact of the trip is the networking session where concrete steps were taken towards achieving what we set out to do which is to take back the country.”

At the networking session, the delegates shared their thoughts on the strategic meeting with Obasanjo where the latter talked about leadership, polity and the economy. They also set up subcommittees to tackle issues on education, youth development and grassroots mobilisation.
His vision for the retreat, he says, is for the emerging leaders to file out into the senate.

“We may not be able to take the executive offices. They can put themselves or their children there but when it comes to the National House of Assembly — the Senate and House of Representatives, we will have professionals there. Accountants, lawyers and others who know their mettle very well. That way we will ensure transparency. We will be able to monitor the budget because we will call you after six months to give an account of how you spent the budget allocated to you. Hopefully, from there we will get to the presidency.”

He continues: “So the vision is to take about 20 percent of state assemblies of states like Lagos, Kano, Rivers and other strategic states that have huge voter concentration. And then take 40 per cent of state assemblies nationwide.”
He calls the retreat a movement that will soon spread into different corners of the country.
As our conversation progresses, Edgar’s optimistic aura about Nigeria becomes infectious.

“I’m extremely optimistic about Nigeria. The problems we have in Nigeria are not fundamental. It is about leadership and once that is sorted, we will sort it. Because it’s all about natural selection. There is a way nature deals with these things. People get old and die. So, the people who are ruling us, they took over from some people but the bad luck that we seem to have is that our leaders now took over very early in life. Those that took over from the Civil War were in their thirties so they have a long tenure. That will end in the next five years. So now, the new emerging leaders have about 20 years to perform their duties so there will be that sense of urgency. I believe 100 per cent in the sanity of this economy.

Further, he adds that some sectors of the economy such as entertainment, technology and agriculture are employing many as well as the surge in diaspora receipts. He also lauds the entrepreneurial spirit of youths today.

“What we need now are visionary leaders just like Obasanjo pointed out the need for us to understand and manage our diversity in such a way that private initiatives will be able to come out and create opportunities.”

Like Obasanjo, he dismissed the logic that there is a saviour somewhere that will rescue Nigeria from the myriads of problems.

“Advanced societies became what they became by the vision of individuals. Martin Luther King woke up and said he wanted racial inequality to end and did the work. Mahatma Gandhi said he wanted to end the caste system in India and he did the work. Nelson Mandela said he wanted to end apartheid in South Africa and he did the work. So, in Nigeria, let the visionary leaders stand up and start the work. If it makes sense, we will support him. It’s not going to be easy or served on a platter of gold. We should stop waiting for somebody to do something. Let’s start with ourselves. We have to make things happen,” he argues.

An investment banker, Edgar has forayed into other fields such as media and theatre productions. Some of his stage plays last year included ‘Awo’ and ‘Ufok Ibaan’. This year, he has rolled out a long list of stage plays which include ‘Emir Sanusi’, ‘Sardauna’ and ‘Baba Kekere’. Each of these plays is deliberately based on historical figures according to Edgar.
“With theatre, we are telling stories of past great people to remind ourselves of where we are coming from.”

With his head donning many hats, combined with his vigour, it is difficult to decipher what Edgar really wants. He puts it this way:
“It pains me to my bone marrow that we have a country like this and I believe that I cannot sit down and do nothing. I want to wake up Nigerians to the possibilities that are around us. I want to move as many people as possible from the onlookers’ side to the decision-makers.”