Dr Olufemi Lalude, the first Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) who rejected a $6 Million bribe has been honored by the Akinjide Adeosun Foundation (AAF).
He was honoured on Wednesday and was conferred with the 2020 Leadership Award, during the AAF 5th annual colloquium with the theme: “Integrity – A Sine Qua Non to Building a Prosperous Nation’’.
Speaking at the event which held virtually, Mr Akinjide Adeosun, AAF’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer of St. Rachael’s Pharmaceutical Nigeria Ltd., said the recognition of Lalude was is in line with the core mandate of the foundation.
The core mandate is based on the belief that life would be good for everyone if the nation gets leadership right in all spheres.
“Integrity is an essential building block to building a prosperous nation. Truthfulness, honesty, respect for people, hard work and humility are traits of Integrity.
“Many years ago, our awardee, Papa Olufemi Lalude, the first managing director of the Shell Nigeria Exploration & production Company SNEPCO was offered a bribe of 6 million dollars.
“The organisation that offered him the bribe moved against him. However, he refused to be cowed and stood his ground.
“He was sued with his employer but he triumphed. Lalude is a man of integrity, a rarity in our clime dwarfed by corruption and greed.
“Today, Papa at 81 is living a peaceful, joyous and fulfilled contented life.’’
He adds:
“We are celebrating him today. He began his career with integrity as his legacy in mind.
“ We have many good people in Nigeria. We must celebrate them to dwarf the bad publicity the few bad people is giving our nation.”
In his presentation, Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State said that Nigeria would continue to find it difficult to grow without putting structures in place to strengthen openness, truthfulness and transparency in leadership.
