At a defining moment for a new generation of graduates, where he was recently conferred with an honourary doctorate degree by the University of Lagos, energy executive Wale Tinubu chose to challenge the mythology of seamless success. Drawing on a career shaped by risk, reversals and reinvention, he made the case that failure is not a mark of disgrace but a necessary discipline, the raw material from which resilience, innovation and even national progress are forged. Uzoma Mba writes
The University of Lagos auditorium was recently alive with a quiet electricity, the kind that only surfaces when a room senses that it is about to witness something more than ceremonial ritual.
On that humid January morning in Akoka, convocation had all the familiar pageantry: the measured sweep of academic gowns, proud families balancing cameras and toddlers, and the murmur of ambition threading through the crowd. Yet what happened next shifted the morning into the extraordinary.
A name rang out -- more familiar to oil trading floors, boardrooms and global investment forums than to lecture halls: Dr Jubril Adewale "Wale" Tinubu (CON), Group Chief Executive of Oando Plc.
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As he rose, adjusted his gown and stepped across the stage to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Business (Honoris Causa), the air seemed to pulse with recognition. Decades of enterprise, risk, reinvention, controversy and nation-building condensed into a single walk. It was not just a ceremony; it was a symbol.
For UNILAG, founded in 1962 on the premise that intellectual capital could anchor a newly independent nation, the honour was a deliberate signal. Tinubu's life, with its bold gambles and occasional turbulence, reflected Nigeria itself: a country negotiating ambition, adversity and possibility.
For Tinubu, the recognition carried personal weight. "It is not merely a celebration of past achievements," he told the audience, "but a renewed call to service." And service, he would argue, demands embracing failure.
Failure as Fuel for Success
If there was a single idea Tinubu wanted graduates to carry into an uncertain world, it was this: failure is not an indictment, it is instruction. Standing before a hall filled with academic gowns and anxious ambition, he did not offer the usual script of effortless success. Instead, he delivered a harder, more durable truth.
Progress, whether personal or national, is built on missteps properly studied, not shamefully buried. Societies that move forward are not those that avoid falling; they are those that learn how to rise with better balance each time.
In a country where public discourse often swings between brittle optimism and weary cynicism, his message struck a different note, pragmatic hope. Not the kind that denies difficulty, but the kind that insists difficulty can be used.
"We learn from our failures, and we get it right," he told the audience. The statement was not rhetorical flourish. It was a summary of a life spent operating in industries where the margin for error is thin and the consequences of hesitation are steep.
From Law to Oil: Opportunity in Disorder
Flo Tinubu's early path appeared conventional. Trained as a lawyer in the United Kingdom and called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990, he could have settled into a respectable legal career. But careers, like nations, often pivot on inconvenient encounters. For him, that encounter came in the form of stranded oil tankers, logistical headaches tangled in bureaucracy, finance and risk. Most professionals saw complexity and stayed away. He saw a gap in the system that someone bold -- or naïve -- enough might turn into opportunity.
At the time, he had no imposing office, no corporate pedigree and little capital. What he had was a willingness to step into a problem others preferred to avoid.
Negotiation by negotiation, deal by deal, he began building relationships in a sector that rewards nerve as much as knowledge. That episode became foundational to his worldview: perfect conditions are a myth. Waiting for them is a luxury few successful people ever had.
Building Oando: High-Stakes Growth
In 1993, that early instinct for opportunity coalesced into something larger: the founding of Ocean and Oil Group. It began modestly, trading and shipping petroleum products in a market dominated by established global players. But Tinubu's strategy was never about staying small and comfortable. It was about leverage, using each foothold to reach for a higher ledge.
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The turning point came at the dawn of a new millennium. Ocean and Oil acquired a controlling stake in UniPetrol Plc, a publicly quoted Nigerian company. Two years later came an even more audacious move: UniPetrol's acquisition of Agip Nigeria Plc, at the time one of the largest takeovers of a listed Nigerian firm. The combined entity would later be rebranded as Oando Plc.
These were not incremental expansions. They were high-stakes bets made in an environment where capital was expensive, regulation complex and market shocks frequent. Deals of that magnitude rarely proceed without turbulence, and Oando's journey proved
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For Tinubu, the recognition carried personal weight. "It is not merely a celebration of past achievements," he told the audience, "but a renewed call to service." And service, he would argue, demands embracing failure...If there was a single idea Tinubu wanted graduates to carry into an uncertain world, it was this: failure is not an indictment, it is instruction...."We learn from our failures, and we get it right"
