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Let me say this very quickly: I am very interested in succession planning in our large businesses, and once organised a session on it where I flew in an international expert to lead a class.

The late Otunba Subomi Balogun sent in a brilliant speech.

Alhaji Okoya’s Eleganza Group did not attend nor send a representative, hence the impending succession implosion analysts have begun to envisage in the huge enterprise.

Alhaji Okoya has always been a person of interest to me.

From selling buttons inside Isale Eko, he was able to build a massive business that expanded into manufacturing, real estate, and other major sectors.

At its peak, Eleganza plastics and biros were a mainstay of the Nigerian economy.

This brought tremendous wealth and influence.

His foresight saw him building the huge sprawling fortress on Ikoyi Crescent at a time when other investors were not even looking at that zone.

Just when the market was catching up with him, he moved to the sprawling lot on the Lekki–Epe Expressway, also at a time when that entire stretch was virgin land.

Such was his acumen that he became a legend, an entrepreneur who studied in major international business schools despite his humble educational background.

The Okoya wealth is firmly rooted in the old economy of rent and manufacturing, with no real visible sign of leveraging technology to leapfrog into the quantum shifts of the modern economy.

As the huge conglomerate continues to choke under the ever-present challenges facing the brick-and-mortar economy — energy costs, dwindling markets, obsolete machinery, etc. — the patriarch now appears to worsen the situation.

He introduces a succession lacuna guaranteed to drive a life-threatening wedge into the already dwindling fortunes of the Eleganza Group.

He recently announced that his younger children would take over leadership upon his demise.

This statement landed with a thud, and it took all of his goodwill to prevent public turbulence.

It merely amplified what has already been clear in the market.

His lovely and obviously brilliant wife, Shade, is the Group Managing Director of the Eleganza Group.

The older children have not been seen anywhere near the sprawling businesses within the group, except perhaps one who was pulled out of a bank to serve as Group CFO, whose main task appears to be running a family-office-like structure involving logistics, payments, and collections on behalf of the patriarch, rather than focusing on the core business.

Now, whether Shade is running the group in a visionary or performance-driven manner remains to be seen, as analysts wonder how feasible that may be, judging by her hectic social calendar.

What the Eleganza Group appears to be lacking is next-level initiative at the level of the founder and management.