YOUNG AND SUCCESSFUL : From toilet cleaner to oil company CEO, the story of YOMI AWOBOKUN, Oando Marketing’s CEO

Left, right and center, everywhere you turn (Total?), you see their filling stations. But I’m almost sure you don’t know the man that manages the over 600 stations of Oando is 34 years old! That is not even the most surprising, just a little over 10 years ago, he was a toilet cleaner in United Kingdom. Enter the amazing story of Abayomi Awobokun, the young Chief Executive Officer of Oando Marketing Plc, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil retailing major.

EARLY LIFE
Yomi was an Ibadan boy. He grew up in Ibadan, Nigeria’s largest city (some say “Nigeria’s biggest village”, is more like it, asking, how can a city’s aerial view show a sea of brown, rusty roofs? lol) . He was born into a modest family in 1978. He attended University of Ibadan to study mathematics and graduated with a lower second class degree. Do you think you must have First class or 2.1 before you make it? No, but it is always advisable to pursue those two, if not for anything, to secure invitation for job tests. However, like Yomi and few others have proved, even if you didn’t come out with the best of grades, you can still go ahead to become ‘oga at the top’, with a dint of diligence.

YOMI IN LAGOS AND LATER UK
After his first degree, Yomi worked briefly at the Lagos Business School as an administrative staff. Determined to get more qualifications to further develop himself and boost his career advancement chance, he meandered his way into United Kingdom with savings from his LBS admin job. He studied international business at Master’s level in the UK.

THE TOILET CLEANER
By now, you must have known that, sojourn abroad, whether for academic or other purposes, is not usually as rosy as people here used to believe. I have a friend, a First Class computer engineering graduate, who had to swallow pride and took up the job of lawn mowing (romanticized term, but, is that much different from the Fashola’s street-sweeping women in Lagos?) in United states to sustain his studies when the funding deal that took him out of Nigeria wasn’t flowing again (we shall tell his story too here, one day). Yomi needed to sustain in the Queen’s land. And for him, no job, in as much as legitimate, was beyond giving a trial. The only offer that came was toilet cleaning. He took it, cleaning public toilets in the United Kingdom and earning a token.

ALWAYS A CHILD OF CIRCUMSTANCES….
One day as he stood aloof in the toilet, reclining on his cleaning mop, waiting for the occupant of the ladies to come out so he could enter and do the cleaning, a woman came in and she could perceive the ‘Naija blood’ of Yomi. She engaged Yomi on why he was doing the job. Story narrated. One thing led to the other and Yomi landed a job with a bank in the UK. He had no prior banking experience, but within a short period of time, with dint of smartness, Yomi became a regional manager with the bank.

RETURN TO NIGERIA……STILL A CHILD OF DESTINY
Yomi has always been an IT guru. He had acquired certifications in information technology. Unsure of what his country held for him, he came back to Nigeria in mid-2000s to take up an appointment with Oando Plc as a contract staff. Yes, you heard it well, he joined Oando as contract staff. So you refuse to take that contract offer because you feel you are above it? If Yomi had thought that way, he would have not become CEO of an oil company today. Lesson what?

Yomi, armed with his IT qualifications and knowledge, had been recruited just to be part of the team that would implement Oando’s transition to Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in 2006/2007. He was only to be a team member. But like a child of circumstances, what happened? Next paragraph please….

An abroad-based Nigerian world class IT consultant had been practically begged by Oando’s group leadership to oversee the transition – you know Oando leadership don’t joke with quality assurance. Despite the mouth-watering hard currency offer, the Oando management were not able to reach agreement with the returnee IT guru. Here was Yomi, who was slated to work with her. That was how the management decided to give Yomi a trial. And the lot to spearhead the transition fell on the 28 years old Yomi.

……AND A STAR WAS BORN
His getting a banking job in UK was, in a manner of speaking, by accident. His rise was dramatic. He returned to Nigeria to take a contract offer. And with everything occurring in quick succession, Yomi was handed a career-defining task of implementing software change-over in Oando. He shone on the task. He oversaw the task seamlessly. Project ended. Contract ended?

TOO GOOD TO BE DISCHARGED
Like any fixed contract job, Yomi ended his assignment to implement system transition for Oando. But Oando’s Wale Tinubu-led management felt this boy was a gold fish they could not afford to let go. At the expiration of the Oracle assignment, Wale, realizing the talent of the IT prodigy, personally persuaded him to come work for him. Pronto, he became Executive Assistant to Mr. Tinubu, Group Chief Executive of the Oando Group, a role he combined with being the Head of Investors Relation for the Group. Now working very closely with the Oando big boss, his brilliance and soundness were even more visible to the GCEO.

AGAIN, A CHILD OF CIRCUMSTANCES…..
In mid-2009, there was a major tsunami in Oando Marketing Plc, the downstream division of Oando Group. The tsunami consumed virtually all the senior management of that Oando subsidiary. Next task for the Group leadership was finding a capable hand to take over the leadership of the company. After a no-hold-barred interview, Yomi, Tinubu’s EA, was handed the task. He was first appointed Acting Deputy Chief Operating Officer (Ag. DCOO) to understudy Mr. Ajose Adeogun, a former COO of the entity who was temporarily brought to assume that position again and stabilize the entity. Within couple of months, Yomi was confirmed, and by the end of six months, he was made the Chief Operating Officer. He was 31. In 2011, the Deputy GCEO and CEO of Oando Marketing, Mr. Omamofe Boyo, relinquished the position for him and Yomi became the CEO of Oando Marketing Plc at 33 years.

YOMI AS A CRISIS MANAGER
Yomi, within few years of stewardship has not only been able to stabilize the company but has also positioned the company as a top oil marketer. Their recent gas distribution drive also attests to Yomi’s leadership skills.

YOMI AS A HUMBLE MANAGER
Quite humble, Yomi is not your typical inaccessible CEO. He did not allow his success get into his head. He relates well with everyone that comes his way. Jarushub editor once sighted him trekking on the Adetokunboh Ademola road, close to 1004, in VI, probably to beat traffic on his way to an event at Civic Centre.
At 35 today, Yomi has yet again shown that you don’t have to be the son of the company founder before you make your marks within a short time. With diligence and smartness and making the best of every opportunity that comes your way, you can rise to become ‘oga-at-the-top’ in few years.

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