The President/CEO of MFP Global Services and Board Member of Oyo State Anti-Corruption Agency (OYACA), Dr Oyebade Oyedepo, FCA, has opined that public acceptance and commendation are good measures of greatness of an individual, office holder or corporate organization.
He made this assertion as the Guest Speaker at the Investiture of Mrs Funmi Omisore, FCA as the 25th Chairman of Ibadan & District Society on Thursday, 17th July, 2025 on the topic titled, Achieving Greatness as a District: The Power of Passion, Perseverance and Productivity.
In his paper, he mentioned that achieving greatness in any endeavour is the fulfillment of aspiration. It is a state of progress and development beneficial to all stakeholders. This is the dream of leadership and also followership. However, achieving greatness is not by chance. It is not a matter of wishful thinking culminating into reality.
It follows some core elements or principles which have stood the test of time over the years irrespective of the endeavour being pursued. The elements represent guidelines and principles to be followed in achieving greatness. The more compliant or adherent to the elements, the more greatness is attained.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo stated that some of these elements or guidelines are passion, perseverance, and productivity. When these core elements are understood, applied, and aligned with, attainment of greatness becomes seamless.
This guest speaker defined greatness as state of enlargement in population, income base, ability to fulfill obligations seamlessly, net worth, network, capacity, positive impact on stakeholders and continuous visibility.
This level of greatness needs to be serviced and sustained to remain relevant in any endeavour.
He defined district as a unit or subset of an entity delineated for the purpose of service delivery and administrative convenience. Passion was defined by him as an intense enthusiasm or drive toward an idea or objective. It goes beyond simple interest to become an emotional commitment that motivates every action.
Passion originates from within, driving individuals to pursue goals because they truly believe in them. Passion leads to creativity and productivity. It energizes people to perform at their best.
Passion is intrinsic in nature, it is inbuilt. However, it can also be developed with interest and continuous learning. He defined perseverance as endurance capacity to withstand unpleasant situations for long.
It is a sustained effort and determination to overcome obstacles over a prolonged period. Perseverance also means continuing the pursuit of a goal despite failures, setbacks, or delays. Angela Duckworth’s book Grit emphasizes that persistence often outweighs talent in the journey to success (Duckworth, 2016).
Perseverance is driven by long term vision, incremental progress and resilience. He finally defined productivity as the outputs (results, achievements) obtained from an activity by the people compared to the inputs (time, energy, resources) committed to it.
In other words, productivity represents efficiency of the people involved in any activity. If greater outputs are derived from little inputs, the people are deemed efficient. Conversely, if the inputs are greater than the outputs, the people are regarded as in-efficient.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo mentioned that greatness can be achieved by deploying the 3 Ps in the following ways;
i. Passion
•Give people with passion the opportunity to perform task and continue to encourage them. People with passion are sometimes hyperactive as a result of zeal to excel, so they can easily be misconstrued.
Members’ should not use this against them. They should not engage in backbiting to demotivate and demoralize them.
•Identify more people with passion particularly the reserved ones to perform task.
There is no one born without a talent; it only requires self-discovery or other people to discover it.
•Do not give up on people without inherent talents; rather invest in them to cultivate it or deploy them to other areas where talents may not be required to perform task(s) such as character, honesty, and humility.
This is how best to make use of everyone.
•Invest in continuous training of people with passion, the newly discovered talents and other people to enhance service delivery. The training will assist them to discover new better ways of doing things to improve efficiency and delivery.
•Motivate people with passion by giving them awards or issuance of commendation letters. When opportunity comes, do not hesitate to recommend them to appreciate their contributions.
He stated that perseverance is required to overcome obstacles.
Challenges or obstacles comes in different forms such as; funding crises, business setbacks, employment issues, marital disharmony, rift amongst members and policy changes affecting wellbeing or social status negatively.
Challenges can also happen if set targets and public expectations are excessively high. These challenges can affect the contributions of people adversely without perseverance. Members and society should deploy the following strategies to embrace perseverance as way out of the challenges;
•Members should cultivate habit of not giving up when faced with personal or corporate daunting challenges; rather they should beef up capacity particularly emotional intelligence to withstand challenges. The society can organize periodic seminars on how to handle challenges of life.
•The society should encourage members to take small steps per time instead of huge steps which can result into unrealistic targets to trigger frustration. Monitor the implementation of the short steps to ensure fulfilment of target to prevent frustration.
The accumulation of small steps can result to large achievements within a short period of time.
•It is imperative to constantly monitor the output and reactions of members particularly the passionate ones that are no longer productive or active.
The welfare committee and membership committee should be strengthened to assist distressed members to come out of challenges. Members should be encouraged to remain resolute rather than accepting defeat.
•The society should strengthen the mechanism for conflict resolutions amongst members not to degenerate to a crisis affecting passion and productivity.
The guest speaker also mentioned that productivity is optimized by improved processes to undertake tasks. Members can adopt data-driven system devices and software to conduct operations and interpret it seamlessly.
•The society can assist them through cooperative efforts to acquire modern devices to enhance service delivery.
•Capacity building of members should be ensured by regular training to beef up their skills and knowledge in how to deploy modern devices to perform tasks.
•Encourage members to set clear key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor their efficiency or otherwise. There should be process of evaluating the KPIs and getting feedbacks from others.
If members can adopt and practice the 3 Ps, the society will witness greatness.
Dr Oyebade Oyedepo mentioned the first indicator of greatness as measurable metrics – These are visible and quantifiable yardsticks
strategies. They come in form of;
•Performance Indicators – That is, measuring the achievement of pre-set KPIs such as students’ enrollment, budget performance, extent of service delivery to stakeholders etc.
The more positive the KPIs, the more greatness have been achieved.
•Recognition and Awards – External validation through awards, media recognition, or positive community feedback serves as an indicator of excellence.
•Appointments to Offices – The more appointments of members are made to public offices based on recommendations of the district, the more greatness they have achieved.
•A high level of trust and satisfaction among residents, students, and other stakeholders signals that the district’s strategies are working effectively.
•Continuous positive evaluation of the district by the institute validates the extent of greatness achieved.
The second indicator is
sustainable impact – This measures viability and continuity to render service without strain.
•Consistent contributions to the economic development of the State, helping to raise educational standard, performing corporate social responsibility or public services over multiple years indicates sustained success.
iii. Innovation and adaptation – This represents creativity and dynamism. It can arise in the following ways;
•Ongoing Innovation – The ability to continuously introduce innovative practices that drive further progress is a hallmark of true greatness.
•Resilience to Change – When a district successfully adapts to market, technological, or societal changes without losing momentum, it is a strong sign of having achieved greatness.
The guest speaker concluded that greatness at the district level is achievable through the synergistic force of passion, perseverance, and productivity. Passion fuels the commitment of people, perseverance ensures that challenges are subdued and productivity boost performance.
The 3 Ps turns ideas into measurable success.
By embracing these core principles, any district can achieve greatness for the benefits of members, district and the society at large.
The investiture was witnessed by topnotch professionals and captains of industry within and outside Oyo State. The Royal Father of the Day at the event was His Royal Majesty, Oba Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja represented by his wife Queen Bukola Ladoja, the 61st President of ICAN Mallam Haruna Yahaya, FCA who was represented by the District Coordinator, Mrs Funmi Olaniyi, ACA, the Special Guest of Honour Mr Johnson Falope, FCA, Past President of ICAN Deacon Titus Alao Soetan, FCA, the Chairman of Body of Past Chairmen of Ibadan & District Society of ICAN Mr Timothy Oyelami, FCA, Deacon Solomon Adeleke, FCA a Patron, Former Council Member & Past Chairman of Ibadan & District Society, Alhaji Lukman Dauda, FCA Past Chairman of the District, Managing Director of Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) Limited and President of Nigeria Publishers Association, Mr Abiodun Adedeji, FCA Past Chairman of the District & Member of ICAN Governing Council, Mrs Laitan Babatunde FCA Member of ICAN Governing Council, Dr Wale Adebayo FCA Past Chairman of the District, Deacon Samson Ayansina, FCA Past Chairman of the District, Dr (Mrs) Tope Babajide, FCA Past Chairman of the District and Alhaji Tunde Kilani FCA Immediate Past Chairman of the District
The Guest Speaker Dr Prince Oyebade Oyedepo, FCA is a Past Chairman of Ibadan & District Society of ICAN & CITN, Patron of Ibadan & District Society of ICAN, Past Zonal Chairman of ICAN & Former Member of ICAN National Governing Council. He is a Former Vice Chairman of Association of Nigerian Authors, Oyo State Chapter. He is presently serving Oyo State Government as a Board Member of Oyo State Anti-Corruption Agency (OYACA). He is an Author and a Public Affairs Analyst. He is the President/CEO of MFP Global Services and Leader of MFP Group, a Group of Multidisciplinary Finance Professionals .◊
