Leadership Beyond Title: Union Bank CEO Yetunde B. Oni Imparts Thrive Principles To Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy Fellows
By Rashidat O. Okunlade, ROTAMediaNews
In a room where 30 of Nigeria’s most promising young leaders gathered, selected from a staggering pool of 25,000 applicants, Yetunde B. Oni, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Union Bank of Nigeria, delivered a masterclass in authentic leadership that transcended corporate platitudes.
The occasion was a private engagement with the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy, a Lagos State Government initiative honouring the legacy of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, the state’s first civilian governor. The fellowship, facilitated by the Africa Leadership Initiative, West Africa (ALI WA), has quietly become one of the country’s most rigorous incubators for ethical, values-driven leadership.
What unfolded was not a typical corporate address, but a candid, deeply personal conversation spanning three decades of navigating Nigeria’s banking sector, overcoming setbacks, and discovering that leadership is less about titles and more about the people who sustain you along the way.
THE THRIVE FRAMEWORK
Mrs. Oni, who has led Union Bank through a transformative period following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention, distilled her life’s lessons into six principles she calls THRIVE, a framework she urged the fellows to adopt as their personal operating system:
T — Take Ownership of Your Relationships
Leadership, she argued, begins with the deliberate stewardship of the people around you. Relationships are not incidental to a career; they are infrastructure. “You need people,” she insisted, urging the fellows to nurture their networks with the same seriousness they bring to any professional discipline.
H — Honour God
Speaking openly about her faith, Mrs. Oni described it as an anchor, a steadying force that keeps ambition tethered to something larger than oneself.
R — Recharge and Refresh
Mental and physical health, she stressed, are not luxuries to be deferred. “Leaders who neglect their own wellbeing eventually have less to give,” she warned.
I — Invest in Your Growth
Continuous and heavy investment in personal development, she explained, is the price of staying relevant in any field. “The learning never ends.”
V — Value Your Work
She pressed the fellows on identity and personal brand: What do you stand for? Do you create value? Who, in truth, are you? The questions were not rhetorical.
E — Embrace Setbacks
Failure, she said, is not the opposite of progress but a part of it. “The leaders who endure are the ones who learn to metabolise disappointment rather than be defeated by it.”
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE LEADER
Perhaps the most striking thread throughout the conversation was Mrs. Oni’s admission that she did not arrive at the top of Nigerian banking alone. She credited her parents, her husband, mentors, coaches, and sponsors, the quiet army of supporters who shaped her journey at different stages.
She drew a sharp distinction between mentors and coaches, roles often conflated and rarely understood, while tracing much of her success back to foundational Nigerian cultural values: hard work, honesty, integrity, courtesy, and respect.
“These are not relics,” she told the fellows. “They are the very qualities that have earned me trust and opened doors throughout my journey.”
BELIEVING, AND RISKING
The most resonant moment came when Mrs. Oni spoke about self-belief or rather, the lack of it that nearly held her back.
She admitted that becoming MD/CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Sierra Leone, never crossed her mind, not because she was unqualified, but because she simply didn’t think she would get it. Encouraged by her husband, she applied anyway.
She got it.
That appointment made history: she became the first woman to lead a Standard Chartered Bank operation in her market.
The Union Bank appointment told a similar story. She had not even known the position existed following the CBN’s intervention. It came to her through relationships, the quiet networks of people who knew her work and recommended her name while she was unaware, thousands of miles away in Sierra Leone.
Her parting message was unambiguous: Believe in yourself. Take the risk. Put in for the thing you are not yet certain you deserve, because the opportunity you are waiting for may be one you cannot see, reaching you through someone you have not yet met.
A LEGACY BEYOND BALANCE SHEETS
Engagements of this kind rarely make headlines. They produce no quarterly returns, no immediate line on a financial statement. Yet they speak to something Union Bank has long understood: that institutions endure when they invest in people, and that leadership is built one honest conversation at a time.
Credit is due to the Africa Leadership Initiative, West Africa, whose facilitation of the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy continues to shape young Nigerians of genuine promise. And to the Academy itself, whose rigorous selection process turns 25,000 hopefuls into 30 fellows ready to lead with integrity.
For Yetunde B. Oni, the afternoon was less about what she has achieved than about what she was willing to give: her time, her story, and her counsel, offered freely to those coming after her.
It is, in the end, what the best leaders do. They light the path for the next generation.
And they THRIVE.
About the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy: Established by the Lagos State Government, the Academy honours the legacy of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, Lagos State’s first civilian governor, by developing ethical and capable young leaders through a fellowship facilitated by the Africa Leadership Initiative, West Africa.
About Union Bank of Nigeria: One of Nigeria’s oldest and most respected financial institutions, Union Bank has remained committed to fostering leadership development and investing in the next generation of Nigerian talent.
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