Reve Insiders is an exclusive network of global leaders, businesses, brands, professionals and creatives. Our 10 Questions Series is all about exploring what makes them tick. We find out how they are making a difference in the world we live in, or how they are making changes in their own lives to impact the lives of others. This week, we’re excited to share our interview with Razaq Obe, a distinguished business leader and the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources in Ondo State, Nigeria.
REVE INSIDERS: Razaq, we’d love to hear about the key moments that have shaped your journey in the energy sector and led you to where you are today.
RAZAQ OBE: Thank you very much. The first spur or first inspiration for change in any society is the pressing need of its people. Nigeria currently has less than 5 gigawatts of power supplied to over 200 million people. That’s an acute energy poverty. Electricity is primarily the fuel of civilization. Anywhere you don’t have access to electricity can be termed a third world. Because from the charging of a mobile phone to enabling businesses and education, you need electricity and without it, life becomes really bleak.
That is the major fountain of inspiration for me to want to do something. I had my stint in the oil and gas sector. I served in ExxonMobil Nigeria for about 13 years before I became Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources in Ondo State, Nigeria, in the fall of 2021. Since I became a commissioner, I’ve dramatically shifted this narrative. First, by letting the people know the truth about their energy situation and also apprising the State Executive Council about the actions we must take to bring people out of energy poverty by extending access to those peri-urban and rural communities that need the energy more. That has really showed some promise. Even though we are not there yet, a lot has changed.
In my time, we’ve been able to extend power to the Southern part of the State that had no power for about 14 years. We were able to do this within 3 years and that has meant a lot to the millions who live in that senatorial district of my state. But I still want to do more, I’m really turbo-charged and fired up to do more because every effort we make in the energy space yields results that we can relate with.
REVE INSIDERS: That’s incredible. Thank you for sharing that. Your passion for energy is truly evident. So, has your initial vision as Commissioner evolved as you’ve faced new challenges and opportunities?
RAZAQ OBE: From what I’ve seen. Initially, you deal with a lot of theories, but until you actually get that courage to “get into the kitchen to smell the coffee for yourself”, you don’t realize that quantification, judging, passing comments, criticizing out there won’t change anything. To move to dial you have to be involved, roll your own sleeves. When I came onboard, I realized that our energy story is a story of nonchalance from so many people. A story of abdication of responsibilities. A challenge from people who weren’t thinking long-term in their planning, so they just offer tokenism for the day and become satisfied with their outcome however mediocre that is. What I’ve done differently as an evolution to my approach is deciding to partner with as many people as possible. A single individual running in an office for a single term cannot shift anything. You have to let others contact your passion and to see the helicopter view of how every effort leads to the outcome we want to see in the life of other people.
I’ve been able to get many people to become passionate about it. So, even when I’m not longer in office, I’ve tried to build a system that can sustain itself, so that many years later, something continues to be done about it. Even if it’s just one kilowatt of power we’re able to add to the energy possibility per month, it doesn’t matter how small, but there should be progress. Of course, beyond electricity, you must have seen the news about Nigeria’s removed fuel subsidy. That changed a lot, it put the entire economy in panic mode. Inflation skyrocketed, the country is dealing with all the complications around it. Now, where there is a crisis, one should consider the possibilities. So, Nigeria is currently exploring the possibility of deploying CNG (compressed natural gas) in vehicles, instead of Petrol. A few weeks ago, we commenced that. We have our first CNG station. This conversion has been going on, and even as we speak, two of my vehicles are undergoing this conversion. The cost of fueling is going to go down significantly and its impact will be multi-faceted in the sense that the average person will be paying less for transportation juxtaposed with what they are currently paying, directly impacting the poverty situation in the country.
So, energy solution goes around all parts of our lives. If we get it right, it means we’ve gotten so many things right.
REVE INSIDERS: Absolutely, Razaq. There’s something you mentioned earlier that really resonates— and that’s your decision to partner with a lot of people and involving others in your mission, because in any sector, your greatest success lies within the people that you partner with. The key takeaway from that would be to partner with the right people. So, throughout this journey in the energy sector, what have been some of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make as a leader? And what lessons have those decisions taught you?
RAZAQ OBE: That’s a great question. You know, in any society or environment, Razaq Obe: whenever you bring forth the issue of change. The natural approach or natural response of the majority is protection of status quo. They want to just see as much as they can make things look like they fall inside it, because they’ve been used to such a pattern for so long. That’s become part of them. So, in my journey I realized at a point when I started bringing thoughts and ideas on how things could be done differently. We had individuals who just wouldn’t listen. They didn’t believe in what we wanted to do, they were not ready to join us. So, taking people out of the team is not a decision anyone would like to take easily. I tried to delay that, until I realized if some individuals are not allowed to go do other things, you continue to make them create a clog in the wheel of progress. So at a point, I had to just take the audacious decision to let some people go. Immediately we let them go, a dramatic change commenced because the rest of the team were much more positive and much more willing to do what we had to do, and we are seeing the results.
Remember that in Nigeria we have these energy transition ongoing. The law governing especially the electricity space changed in 2023, when the Nigerian electricity at 2023 got assented by the President, that has now devolved the control of electricity regulation in all areas within a subnational system. Before, the law said: “Anywhere, we had the national grid you could not regulate as a State,” but now you have the power to regulate anything. We are governing the entire electricity space, be it from generation to transmission down to distribution. So the entire space, we now have that powering the new change.
It wasn’t that easy. A lot of people didn’t believe we could do it. But my State (Ondo State) was the very 1st state that applied to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. To issue an order per that law, to let us regulate our own electricity market, and sometime around May or thereabouts, we got that order. So Ondo is among the 1st three states in Nigeria who received the order to govern our space, and since that took place so many things have taken place. And for instance, one of the issues we had was a metering of consumers. In the past 3, 4 months, we’ve put more than 3,000 of those meters in in homes. And that’s a new bill for people. People used to be billed on estimated billing system. Now, they actually pay for exactly what they consume. This is gonna reduce the ATC & C losses. That’s especially in the area of collection from customer, because the collection model is now true, no longer based on assumptions, and people are more willing to pay for exactly what they have consumed. And you do ask “Peter to pay for what Paul has consumed.” That has made that space better.
For us to achieve all of this, new people had to be brought on board. Some had to be let go and some had to be trained and retrained. And what I’m doing now, talking to people. I’ve seen that as potent tool to get people to align with my dream as a leader. You realize that some of the people who are kicking, who are resistant to change, they are resistant because they don’t really understand what you’re trying to accomplish. The moment they have that understanding, you will be shocked how much enthusiasm they’ll bring into their work.
So far so good, I must say that people are willing to support change when they know the truth about the change, and that underscores the Peter Drucker theory management objective. “Let people know what you want to accomplish. They are willing to follow you all the way.”
REVE INSIDERS: That actually goes into our next question because when you manage a very large team, there’s high expectations. So, apart from sharing this vision with your team, how do you inspire them to work towards shared goals. When things get tough, how do you step in as a leader and keep things on track?
RAZAQ OBE: I have a word that somehow explains the entire thing about getting people to keep moving on despite challenges, to have them inspired. And that word is empathy. People want to look at the mechanics of the world. They want to see how their contribution is valued. They want to see how their personal experience is understood. They want someone who can attempt to wear their shoes to see where it pinches. So when empathy is expressed, I do part of my management theories is doing management. I walk around, I knock on doors. I go to rooms, I hear from people who have no organizational route to talk to me, but I go there myself to hear from them. It’s there you realize that a simple ladder that is bad is affecting the distribution process somewhere. Like they should have brought a bottle 2 or 3 weeks ago because of Xyz bottlenecks, they couldn’t do that. So when you hear that directly from the last man, the tech, who actually climbs an electricity pole, you understand exactly what their story is and why you have to act differently.
Simple things like PPEs (Personnel Protection Equipment). Do they have PPEs? How quickly are their PPEs changed? If you don’t have the personal protective equipment fitting for your job, that’s already a demotivation. But when you have a leader who is sensitive to that, I remember the other time I saw them move a crane by physical inspection. I saw that the crane was old. that we needed to get something new. I immediately commenced a process to get a new crane for that team. Maybe in another 1 or 2 months they will have a brand new crane, that’s gonna make their job better. So when they see that you have empathy, you see the people who are willing to go the extra mile, they want to do more, and above to please the system they know has been very clement to their personal stories.
But if you are just, unduly robotic, very, very mechanical in your approach to working with people, wherever their level in the organization. What you get back from them is nuanced resentment. You see them kick. They don’t want to put in anything more than the minimum and wherever that’s happening, you can’t expect a super outcomes from the people who are either overtly dissatisfied or overtly disgruntled. So, it is my duty as a leader to listen to even what people are not saying. Put words into their mouth, extract my truth, and the feedback helps to design a system that works for everyone.
REVE INSIDERS: That is an incredible answer, Razaq. You’ve said it all in that question, and we hope that everyone that’s reading this, and belongs in a leadership position understands that empathy is the key. So, another key which we talk about a lot is creativity. Can you give us just a quick example of how you have used creative thinking to solve a complex issue in your sector — The energy sector.
RAZAQ OBE: Thank you for that question. Part of what has challenged our energy space since time is actually “compartmentalizing.” That is, what people’s specific or disparate needs are with a view to providing them a kind of tailor-made solution. What I’ve done since I came on board is to look past providing energy for everyone. In fact, what we came up with and, what the nation itself did, is banding. We now have band A consumers, band B consumers and band C consumers. So, people who have high demand for energy and what they do directly affects the economy, they have to be prioritized. People need energy much more at night in residential areas. Since we still have to juggle what we have, energy sufficiency is now attained. We’ve been able to now do what we call cluster of units where delimited and documented. Now when I sit in my office, I know who gets what at what time, and that helps to make the power need delivered when it’s needed, and for the purposes is required. So that has changed a lot of things for businesses for people. You see, comments from people who run hotel, people who have companies, manufacturers coming to say that
they’ve been able to save significantly from their Diesel consumption, because they don’t need to power those generators. So we brought that on board. Part of what we have done about safety, which is important. I came to a space where safety you know everything we do, especially the energy sector. You can’t do anything without putting safety at the back of your mind. People get electrocuted, homes get all manner of issues because of simple safety issue.
What we’ve done and one of our creative thinking that we put to bear, is to create what we call the State’s Safety and Standards Law. As we speak now, that’s getting ready to be passed by the State Executive Council. Then it will go to the House of Assembly. It will be the first time my State is going to be having a law that governs that space. And what would that do? No one will be called an electrician. For instance, if you have not gone through a training process. After you’ve gone through it, you’re going to be certified. Once in a year you are going to get your certification renewed. With that, the State will have its tabs on anyone working, and we are sure of the kind of training they have, and we’ll also be sure that they are using quality materials to do their job. So that’s the 1st time that will be happening in our state, and that’s really creative. The central idea, of course, the thought came when we saw the general safety concern. I pulled a team together to go think through what we could do. It was a team that came back with the thoughts around having a law and the extent we could go. So far, so good. It hasn’t become a law. The bill is in the works, but I can assure you we are getting commendations already for that initiative.
REVE INSIDERS: Amazing, So let’s talk a little bit more about how you handle all of this. You have a lot on your plate, lots of high stakes. You’re trying to protect people by focusing on safety and managing your team. As a professional, what strategies have you developed over the years to manage your stress and actually be that beacon of resilience?
RAZAQ OBE: Awesome. If you can’t manage complex issues, you actually have no business being in leadership, because that’s all about it. If you are in a leadership position, the higher you climb, the more complex things become. So there are things I just know that you must do better than the average person. Number one is delegation. I don’t need to have all the thoughts and the ideas. If I have the faintest idea, I should have someone I tag to go atomize the issues and come forth with with ideas. And before you know it, you see that some subordinates will do much more research because they have all the time to do the research and they are going to come back with something much more robust than you are thinking. So delegation is number one, number 2 is a life of continuous learning. Never assuming one has attained that level of intellectual superiority. Reading, now that one might not have the time to sit down to flip those pages, all those micro learning platforms. I wouldn’t like to mention them for advertisement reasons. I get on those all those 15-min books when I fly, when at my leisure. I put my airpods, and I just listen. So I keep getting new ideas, new thoughts, then reading, not just reading for fun at all times. Articles that if I have an inquiry or puzzle in any area, I actually delve into it. Read a paper, some time an intellectual paper, a real research paper to just read through and understand, because in the literature review of every paper, you basically get the entire story in that space so far. So that helps one to understand what is going on, and areas where focus will also be if a change that will affect you possibly positively is going to be achieved.
So just underscore the two keywords delegation and continuous learning. These 2 things have helped me.
REVE INSIDERS: Love it. And in addition to that, what are some of the core values that guide your actions as a role model and also contributes to your reputation as a respected leader in your community?
RAZAQ OBE: Thank you. I started building my values from childhood. I also understand that leaders can be made. The key ingredients of leadership that are just actually inborn, or those who pick from childhood. For instance, telling a lie can actually bring a whole city down. It can bring a country down. The energy you dissipate in trying to preserve a lie will be channeled into something more useful. Instead of trying to remember the lie you told in 2020, and you have to repeat in 2022, 2024, and you’re planning to tell the same lie the next 5 years. As an individual, it’s caustic. But for a government or an organization it’s even worse, because you begin to create a domino effect of lies. You set it in motion. You now get so many people to join you in the line. You see how that has brought so many companies down. One classical example is a company called Aron in the United States many years ago in the energy space. The company went down when they started rising they were lying, they were cooking their books. But when the bubble burst they crumbled completely, and many of the directors are in prison, as we speak. So, the culture of honesty means everything. Just say the truth, sometimes stating the truth might not be convenient. Sometimes you get punished for saying the truth. But the truth always prevails. so that truth, integrity. If you have made a statement, people should go to
bed. They know that you have said it. Not that they seem to go crosscheck or second guess. Because they know consistently that you’re true. Then you also have to build a character, your choices being
consistently in favor of the majority. The common good. When you’re in the private, you think about common good. In the public — common good.
When you constantly doing that, and you are building even commoner wealth, not just about you. When you put others first and you keep thinking about your community, your country. You realize that everything will go well for you yourself, because you always think about the good of everyone, and the society can only be built on the solid foundation when everything works for everyone, not when everything works for just a select number of people in that community. Another thing I would like to mention is resilience in itself. Grit to continue. Nations back off easily and we’re suffering a lot of that in Africa. You don’t just attempt, and you try, and you’re satisfied with that. You try, just insisting you must get it right at all costs. That’s one big thing for me. When I’ve begun a thing I tell everyone I’m optimistic to start with, and I go all the way and let me not forget that optimism, expecting a good outcome come through it. So resilience is doing it consistently. If it’s pleasant, or not, if people criticize or approve, you don’t care. If you are persuaded it’s right, just keep going. One day you’re going to get to that destination you desired. That has been proved since the beginning of the world. And is it true.
So another value of mine is optimism. That’s, not just letting yourself sink into cynicism. A lot of people will just criticize. They will explain things away, and they will say, leave it, let it be what it is. That’s not the best for anyone as well. So I believe people must be optimistic, if you have some cynical people in the room, it is the duty of the leader to flip that way of thinking to make everyone know that if we stay focused on what we have desired that we can actually win together. Our winning is never served “à la carte.” You have to reach out and serve yourself. Winning is never an accident. It must be intentional. You must be willing to pay the price as well to win. So, these are some of the core values that govern my thoughts, and they form my actions in government and in my private life.
REVE INSIDERS: Love it. So as you look to the future now, what are some of the significant accomplishments that you’re aiming for, that you can share with us that could bring lasting impact to Nigeria’s energy sector and possibly beyond?
RAZAQ OBE: Okay. A lot of people create their own geography of influence, and leaders would define their own greatness by the size of the geography they’ve been able to influence. For me, my geography of influence is truly global. I worry about climate change. Part of why I’m in energy space is to help to reduce our carbon footprint dramatically. Yes, Africa contributes less than 4% of the global carbon dioxide emissions, however, or let’s say greenhouse gases, emissions generally. However, we can bring that to 0%. So why not begin the journey? And I’m helping my State to achieve that, and we are doing that on multiple fronts. I mentioned CNG deployment a while ago. Once that is deployed, you see that coming into everything, because we’ve got trillions of cubic feet of gas. Proven gas reserves in Nigeria. So why not?
Everyone will have to make the planet better. That’s on the on one front. So, coming to my government, my nation, Africa, the world. Energy is just one of the issues to resolve. But it’s a big one for Africa. It’s a big one for Nigeria. My dream is to work with everyone to end Nigeria’s energy poverty within the next one or two decades and not longer, because we’ve been in this for years. We have to bring an end to that, and that energy must be clean, must be sensitive to the global drive towards green energy and renewable energy, not just doing the dirty things that have brought the planet to where it is right now. So I have that commitment. And in the journey Political levels are important. You don’t just have the time, ideas and thoughts, and just think you can make them happen by thinking them. You have to roll your sleeves and be part of the political process. That’s why I’ve come to government. I would have loved to be the corporate world where things were much more structured and outcomes are much more predictable. But coming to politics means you are dealing with a larger geography of influence, and it’s within that bigger geography you can influence a nation from energy to health, care to education, which is another key area for me and other spheres of human endeavors, where we need leadership. Decisive, committed empathetic leadership that can actually move the people to where they ought to be and not turning our backs on the same people who are yearning for help, who are yearning for release, who need people who can help them. I’ve always defined leadership as doing for others what they find too difficult to do for
themselves, or what they find impossible to do for themselves. A good leader is that man or that woman who does that for them. To accomplish that, it’s your duty to create the labor to be able to do it. That’s why I’ll continue to climb the ladder of leadership through politics to be where I’ll be able to do more for more number of people in my country, maybe someday globally.
REVE INSIDERS: So thank you for sharing that. Finally, what advice would you give to young, ambitious leaders across Africa who are passionate about making a difference.
RAZAQ OBE: I want to entreat any person rising out of Africa who aspire to lead others to first of all, love themselves, loving themselves, loving their continent and loving their people, because love seems to be the driving force. When you want things to go well for others you can go the extra mile to make that happen. Then, not to give up easily. A lot of leaders have emerged. They’ve been distracted by all manner of mundane things, including corruption. They want to give themselves the best of enjoyment and comfort, and perks not remembering millions who can’t afford 3-square meals a day, so leadership should come with responsibility, it should come with empathy, it should come with commitment to do right at all times. So if you get that right, you’re gonna get it right and carry yourself. A leader must be knowledgeable. A leader should know more than a path. There is an African proverb that says, “a tree that is not taller than you can’t provide you a shade.” So anyone who is supposed to be a leader must be ahead in education must be ahead in large heartedness, must be ahead in generosity, must be ahead on so many fronts that standing as their leader will mean inspiration to people. So if you don’t give up, you keep doing the right thing, then that person stands a chance to become a chance to become an iconic leader of our time. We’ve got so many of them, including our late sage Nelson Mandela and some other leaders who lead for holders. So in Nigeria we have Obafemi Awolowo. These are people who gave themselves they saw beyond the immediate. They thought long term. They gave their time, they gave everything they had to birth the kind of outcomes that we celebrate today. So we need more of such people in Africa and I know they are coming.
REVE INSIDERS: Thank you so much, Razak. It’s been such a pleasure talking to you, and for that piece of advice to all the leaders coming up, especially in Africa. Also, thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions and be a part of our series. We really do appreciate and honor your work and your dedication, and we wish you all the best for your future endeavors, and we’re looking forward to seeing the progress being made in the next 2 decades.
RAZAQ OBE: Thank you very much for those amazing words. They are really encouraging words to me.
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