Jerome Udoji

Chief Jerome Oputa Udoji (1912–2010) was a Nigerian administrator, lawyer and businessman who was head of service in the former Eastern Region of Nigeria. He later served as president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. In 1972, he headed a civil service commission to review standards of service and compensation within the civil service. But the commission's report was portrayed in subsequent years as a salary review commission though the original intent was to study and make sweeping recommendations on the public service including the recommendation of an objective or goal oriented management style. Between 1968 and 1972, Udoji was a Ford Foundation consultant in East Africa.

Early life and education

Udoji was born in 1912 to the Ezemba-Dogbu Udoji family in Ozubulu, Ekusigo LGA of Anambra State. He held the title of Igwe in Ozubulu. He was educated St Michael's Catholic School, Ozubulu and St Charles Teachers Training Institute, Onitsha. Udoji also has two post graduate degrees from Cambridge. Prior to attending King's College in Cambridge, he worked as a teacher in schools in the Eastern and Western region including Ibadan Grammar School and Abeokuta Grammar School. He also served as a personal assistant to the secretary in charge of the Western Nigerian provinces.

Public service

After completing his studies abroad, he applied and got employment with the colonial administrative service and was made an assistant district officer in Ado Ekiti before being posted as district officer for Egbado. In 1954, he was transferred to the Eastern region and made the permanent secretary in the ministries of Health, Commerce, Finance and Establishments. In 1960, the year of Nigeria's independence, Udoji became the Head of Service and secretary to the government of the Eastern region and also acted as secretary to the cabinet and premier.

In 1972, during Nigeria's oil boom period, he was assigned by the Yakubu Gowon administration to head a review commission of the nature of the civil service in the country. The commission made recommendations such as an increase in the salaries of public servants, civil servants training, a unified and integrated administrative structure, elimination of waste and removal of inefficient departments and introduction of an efficient civil service on the basis of management by objective. The commission also recommended the establishment of an Ombudsman in the country. However, the review commission was most known for the pay increases in its recommendations.

Business Career and Family

In the Nigerian first republic, Udoji represented the regional governments in some of the latter's financial concerns such as Hotel Presidential, Enugu and Port Harcourt and Independence Breweries, Umuahia. However, following disagreements between him and the new military authorities in 1966, he left the regional civil service to practice law briefly before joining Ford foundation.

Udoji has served on various boards as chairman including the board of directors of R.T. Briscoe, Motor Tyre Service Company, Wiggins Teape, and the Nigerian Tobacco Company.

Referring to his memoirs, Under Three Masters: Memoirs of an African Administrator, written by Jerome Udoji himself and published by Spectrum, Ibadan in 1995 and so far the most authentic story of his life and times, Jerome married his loving wife, Marcellina Uzoamaka Udoji (née Onuchukwu) who passed on in October, 1992. He is blessed with three children - Mrs. Scholastica Onwubuya, a guidance councillor, teacher and civil servant in the Federal Ministry of Education; Owelle Oscar Paul Udoji, Managing director, Solgas, Superior Motors and Udoji United; and Pete Ebelechukwu Udoji, Managing Director, Belsun Holdings Ltd..

Death

Udoji died in April 2010. The elder of his sons Oscar Udoji who confirmed this in a statement said that he passed on at age 98. Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State described Udoji's death as a great loss the nation. "He was an exemplary man. He did the nation proud in every area of his life. The state government will be fully involved in the burial," he said.

References

• Under Three Masters: Memoirs of an African Administrator by Jerome Oputa Udoji, 1995, Spectrum, Ibadan, Nigeria

• Celebrating Jerome Udoji, the social reformer/http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/arts/2008/aug/26/arts-26-08-2008-002.htm

• Jerome, the Man Behind Udoji Award, is Dead/http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=170782/

• Jerome Udoji: An administrator par excellence /http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10146:jerome-udoji-an-administrator-par-excellence&catid=98:editorial&Itemid=351

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Name	Udoji, Jerome
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Date of birth	1912
Place of birth
Date of death	2010
Place of death