Joseph Ogundu: I Have the Capacity to Turn Nigeria’s Automobile Industry Around

Versatile, vivacious and vision-driven, Joseph Ogundu, is an extraordinary man in terms of goals and missions. Success-driven and development-oriented, he is a Nigerian who is passionate about moving his country forward. A leader of men and motivator for many years, Ogundu smacks of readiness and desire to support a crumbling economy and society he left in 1982 for the United States of America. Leading and making things happen for him is a natural inclination. Rising above the odds of racism, at the age of 24, he became United States’ Ford Motor production supervisor. From there he moved on to General Motors Corporation, and later to Chrysler Corporation where he developed and launched a $1.3bn new vehicle-manufacturing facility in Toledo, Ohio – which led to his being promoted to senior operations specialist responsible for new process and product integration and was eventually appointed a senior manager. Always passionate and seeking new grounds to break, Ogundu left Chrysler for Country Coach Inc., to become a director. He was later made the company’s vice president of manufacturing. After 34 years in the US, Ogundu is back home to help his fatherland to develop and in this interview with Adedayo Adejobi talks about how Nigeria’s government spurned an opportunity to buy a part of General Motors. He also talks about how he’s working to improve the efficiency of the Nigeria Air Force

For how long have you lived in the United States of America?
I have lived in the United States for 34 years. I left Nigeria in April of 1982, approximately one year and 10 months after graduating from Government Comprehensive Secondary School, Port-Harcourt in Rivers State.

Having lived in the US for many years, how will you describe the experience and what lessons have shaped your sojourn there?
United States as a nation has its bad and good, but for me, the good outweighs the bad. For the most part, my experiences in the US have been positive. Some of the key lessons that shaped my experiences that I learned living in the US are that: if you work hard and keep your nose clean, your chances of success will be high. The society may not treat everybody equally, but people are treated more fairly than in any nation. United States is a society where the playing field between the rich and the poor are more balanced than in any nation I have experienced. It is a society where leaders actually care about their subjects for the most part. To succeed in anything in the society, you must be assertive and direct with both leaders and peers. The educational system is open and opportunities to succeed are easier if you are educated and work hard in your chosen field of endeavour. It is a society that epitomises patriotism. The leaders are patriotic to the nation which engenders patriotism on part ot the citizens. Read more at: thehttp://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/10/15/joseph-ogundu-i-have-the-capacity-to-turn-nigerias-automobile-industry-around/