The Chief Executive Officer of Caades Group, Dr Chimaobi Desmond Anyaso, has identified the appointment and election of those without prior business management knowledge as bane of Nigeria and Africa leadership problem.
Delivering the maiden Ebonyi State University Alumni Association lecture series, Dr. Anyaso said that when a fresher found himself in public office and public funds became his first major business experience, many things are bound to go wrong.
He said that governance is a corollation of how funds are raised, spent, and accounted for the collective wealth and progress of all.
He insisted that the country could not continue to afford this costly apprenticeship and that only those who have learnt and built themselves in the management of successful private enterprises and are prepared should be entrusted with public service leadership.
Dr Anyaso maintained that entrepreneurship is not just a career path but leadership school where one find his rhythm, refine his principles, and build the kind of legacy that will someday give him the moral authority and economic wisdom to influence policies, shift paradigms, and rewrite the history of the nation.
He challenged Africans to redefine leadership age, which today hovers near retirement instead of the meridian age of 19, insisting that leadership must not be a reward for loyalty but a continuation of service.
Taking a perspective look of his journey from classroom to boardroom, he stated that he wore the degrees certificate not as a badge of shame but determination by not allowing one grade to define him but formed an attitude of greatness by choosing growth, reading books and sought mentor’s and kept going by rising up after each fell.
Dr. Anyaso said that this led to his founding of Caades Group, with stakes in oil and gas, healthcare, real estate construction, and hospitality industry, has created numerous jobs and generated over $1b from oil
” I was born and raised in the lively and ever bustling city of Aba. I am proudly from Abia State and, even more proudly, an alumnus of Ebonyi State University.
I walked the same paths many of you walk now. I sat in those lecture halls. I faced academic pressure. I wrestled with self-doubt. I even questioned whether my dreams would survive outside these gates.
When I graduated in 2003 in English and Literature, with a degree that didn’t reflect my potential, many people quietly wrote me off. Some thought my story had ended before it truly began, ” he said.
He maintained that education should not be seen as ornamental achievement but personal growth and societal change and that his going back St John’s University New York was not for prestige but for perspective and that this equally led to his establishment of Ahuoma Anyaso Education Foundation for tuition free nursery and primary school for underprivileged children as child’s educational dream should be buried by poverty.
The Caades Group Chief executive challenged students not to study to pass but to understand, build, and lead, reminding them that they cannot make an unless they overcome fear and collaborate beyond their department.
Sharing the six nuggets that took him from classroom to boardroom, Dr. Anyaso said
“Start Where You Are – Don’t wait for ideal conditions. Add value from where you stand.
Turn Knowledge into Value – Solve problems. That’s how I launched Ceecon Energy.
Never Stop Learning – Formally or informally, keep growing.
Build People, Not Just Profits – Your team is your real asset.
Give Back as You Grow – If your success doesn’t lift others, it’s incomplete.
Lead With Purpose, Not Just Position – I joined politics to serve—not to be served. ”
Dr Anyaso therefore reminded them that they can attain the level he is, insisting that they must be a story of courage, creativity, and conviction.
He urged the students to own their stories as their future would not be written on grades but grit and to use their setbacks as stepping stones and turn their delays into discoveries by starting that blog, learn trade, volunteer stay consistent.
The EBSU alumni called on alumnus to give back to the society by ways of scholarship, infrastructure upgrade and opening doors for others stating that they must return as rainmakers to water the dreams of next generations as the University has sown the seeds in them.
