AfriPulse
In July, 2025, Sam Ohuabunwa, the always immaculately attired Pharmacist who cut his teeth with the international pharma behemoth Pfizer and was the driving force of Neimeth, its local successor, wrote a book with a rather long and intriguing title – DRIVEN BY REVELATION AND INSPIRATION – My Aspiration Journey In Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential Election and Matters Arising’.
A public presentation of the book was done as part of the celebration of the author’s landmark 75th birthday.
What had some people scratching their heads was that the healthcare industrialist and boardroom guru who was known to be grounded on the realities of economics, industrial production and the mechanics of naira and dollar market forces as they played out in the vagaries of the Nigerian industrial space, was taking a different tack, talking of issues and motivations outside the familiar remit of a public life assembled over half a century of diligent labour in the material world.
The book is a ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ of sorts. It provides details of a journey at once physical and spiritual, undertaken by the author over the course of a few years leading up to the 2023 Presidential election in Nigeria.
The decision of the author to embark on such a journey on a terrain outside his usual comfort zone was based on logic that would ordinarily be taken askance if uttered in one of the boardrooms where he held sway, or within the deliberations of the national Economic Summit Group which he had previously headed. To put it simply, according to the author, God called him.
Even now, long after it has become clear that the mission has not gone quite as foretold, in a situation where others might have experienced despair or anger, Ohuabunwa’s book is dedicated ‘to God Almighty, who revealed the mission to me and granted me the grace to run through…’.
That the author had not previously engaged himself in partisan politics was not to imply that he had not reflected or written about his country. As a patriotic Nigerian who saw the great potential of the nation, his organised corporate-leadership mind had focussed at various times on analysing Nigeria’s problems and recommending solutions. In 2010, he published ‘Nigeria at 50: Time for the Evolution of a New Nation’ . It was a critically acclaimed work which showed profound insight into the nation’s complex problems and proposed strategies that could get the nation to rise to a state where it would be prosperous, and the people would be safe, healthy and happy.
In ‘Driven by Inspiration and Revelation…’ , the author sees the events surrounding his initially reluctant ascendancy to Presidency of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in November 2018, as the ‘Precursor Call’ to a larger assignment. At a meeting in Sokoto, and later at the pointed receiving end of a ‘prophecy’ from an invited preacher at a convention of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Group in Yola, he began to develop an uncanny certainty that he was personally being impelled towards the political fray. During a Board meeting back in Lagos, a fellow Board member asked him out of the blue ‘Why don’t you put together a few men like you and come and deliver this nation?’
A journalist badgered him about a newspaper write-up on the timeliness of an Igbo Presidency and how his name was at the top of the list of eligible leaders. His wife had a dream in which he was being inaugurated. In a session of intercessory prayer at his Anglican Church in Ikeja GRA, the intercessor announced that ‘God will send a deliverer…He will not be a known politician…’, Every finger seemed to point at him.
There would be other ‘prophetic’ encounters – in Atlanta, in Abu Dhabi, and back home in Nigeria.
At length, the author resigned himself to what appeared to be an inexorable assignment and began to work at the practicalities.
He reached for a ‘New Nigeria Vision’, drawing from nuggets of his previous writings. Then he formed a ‘ New Nigeria Group’ – crystallised from friends, associates, and several people who believed in his mission.
Chapters would be established across the nation. The group would journey across the length and breadth of the nation to spread their message.
Even a man working on a divine mission needed the vehicle of an established political party, the book reveals. The author chose PDP, making a declaration of his intention to run for the ultimate office in November 2021, a few days after the completion of his tenure as President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.
For an outsider getting into the hurly burly of party politics and preparations for primaries, it would be a journey with a steep learning curve and harsh reality testing. There would be horse trading, double-speak and the rampant aroma of lucre. Denouement would come at the Velodrome of the National Stadium in Abuja at the party’s national convention.
The author would see his address to the convention as an idealistic high ground, and the book carries the speech in full.
Beyond the speech, idealism would take a tumble as ‘delegates’ began to vote, and the fickleness of human nature was revealed afresh as pledged ‘delegates’ turned coat.
The author would view with sadness the monetised political culture around him and the debacle of his chosen party.
There would be a grudging but nuanced acknowledgement of the ascendancy of the enigma of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria.
‘ Driven By Revelation…’ is an engaging read, even for readers who are sceptical about ‘divine’ missions. In many ways, it is a labour of love.
Cynics would say the end was eminently predictable from the beginning.
But at the book’s conclusion, there is no despair, no self-pity, and no turning against the Higher Force who the author believes sent him on this journey.
‘Driven By Revelation and Inspiration…’ is published by Real Value Publishers.
It is available in bookshops.
Source: Businessday.ng | Read the Full Story…
