Ahmed Joda: They don’t come in such packs anymore

When Ahmed Joda was a super Permanent Secretary in the Gen. Yakubu Gown administration, I was still in the primary school in the years that Nigeria lost its innocence to the Civil War. Years later, when I had the rare opportunity to work at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), after graduating from the University and working in two media houses, Joda was the Chairman of the Board, still dashing around the place like an old man with the heart of a child but fully replenished with the wisdom of the sage. 

One day, at the ITU Telecom Africa which held in Cairo, Egypt, from May 4 – 8, 2004, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, then Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), was making a presentation in one of the halls at the conference centre. At one end of the centre, I met Joda who requested I escort him to the hall if I knew the place. 

I didn’t need to be asked twice. I had lots of respect for Joda who was compact as my grandfather who died at the age of 115. Until the very end my grandfather saw clearly except for the last few days when his earthly journey was on its final leg. 

On this very day I found myself running to catch up with Joda even when I was the one pointing the way. I was in the media world then working with Vanguard; I thought I had energy and some momentum within me, but here I was losing out on a short walk, to an old man who was already a Perm Sec at a time all my clothing, including rags, couldn’t fill a small box.  

I had heard of his failing health a couple of days to his final moments and I said a quiet prayer for him. God really should have a special place for those who have impacted our world meaningfully with their passionate commitment and a determined resilience to register impossible developmental feats in very challenging times. 

Joining the NCC in 2008 availed me with the opportunity to work closely with him and to observe the very special relationship between him and Engr. Ndukwe, which prized open the telecommunications industry and democratized telecom products that were once  upon a time associated only with the rich. 

Contacted to comment on the death of the former Chairman of the NCC Board, Engr. Ndukwe sent this statement, which is here reproduced:

A short Eulogy to Ahmed Joda, OFR, CON

Friday afternoon around 2pm, a distinguished patriot, departed this mortal world to the great beyond at the age of 91years. Ahmed Joda or Baba, as we all fondly called him, was a great, fair minded, energetic, detribalised, disciplined, humane, urbane and intellectually astute Nigerian. It was a privilege and a pleasure to have worked with him as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission when I served as EVC/CEO for 10 years. He was very professional in chairing meetings and never allowed emotions to becloud his judgment. He was a man of great intellect and integrity which earned him the respect of the board, management and staff of the Commission. I join all his family, friends and associates to celebrate this colossus and there’s no doubt that he will be sorely missed. May his noble and illustrious soul Rest in Peace. 

Ernest C Ndukwe,

Engr. Ndukwe only tried to be restrained in words in order to constrain his emotions. There was a special relationship between the two, midwifed by talent hunter, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. When he became President in 1999, telecommunications was one industry that occupied a special place in his determination to open up the country to modern development. The economy had been left in tatters by previous governments and there was the need for structured rebuilding in order to convince the rest of the world, that we are still a nation with more potentials than can be debated. 

Obasanjo reached out to his old friend, Ahmed Joda and also got Engr Ndukwe from the private sector to interpret his dream. Backed by a new Telecoms Policy and a Communications Act that previous governments had never really allowed to operate, the duo breathed life into the NCC and that raised the pillars of a new industry. 

The journalists who covered the Digital Mobile License (DML) Auctions in January 2001 would readily confess that but for the shrewdness of Ahmed Joda and the technical competence of Engr. Ndukwe, fully backed by a President who wanted to make a difference, what became popularly known as the GSM auctions would have gone the Nigerian way where a few businessmen and those with varied connections would have been awarded the licenses.  

But not under Ahmed Joda. Those who came with an entitlement mentality waiting to be announced as winners within hours soon found out that the gentlemen in charge were as dispassionate and impersonal as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) that would be introduced two decades later into the game of football, to help the Centre Referee and his Linesmen make the right or near accurate decisions. The Management of NCC whose Board was chaired by Joda, made the right decisions.

That was a glorious moment for Nigeria and a huge publicity masterstroke for Obasanjo who clearly needed every good moment to validate the rebirthing of a new nation. At $285m per license to three winners and a reserved one for Nitel, it was one of the largest investments coming into the country, and this amount did not include the large sums that would be ploughed into service and network rollout. 

It wasn’t all about the industry. Under Joda, the NCC also paid detailed attention to building a human capital base which was insulated to poaching by the operators with their deep pockets. The story was often told that, faced with very dire situation of staff exodus from the regulatory agency, Joda and Ndukwe went to the President to complain of the clear and present danger threatening the nascent industry. Without prevarications, Obasanjo resolved that problem.

For the sake of the industry, Joda could march to Obasanjo and look at him in the face to make his presentation or remonstration. He got results. 

Nobody can square up with death forever. August 13, 2021 was his appointment with eternity. Like John Dryden put it in the Poem, Mac Flecknoe, “When fate summons, monarchs must obey.”

Joda has responded to that inevitable summon but he leaves a transcendental personality and performance that even the ephemerality of time cannot attenuate. You may not see that distant, disguised smile on the face of the old man any more but the industry should not forget the tiny voice from a smallish man that changed our world. His is a journey and a rest well deserved. 

Aihe writes from Abuja.