Cautionary tale of Tinuade Sanda… How administrative recklessness, egotism, quickened her fall

Everyone has a thousand wishes before a tragedy, but just one afterward. Ask Dr. Tinuade Sanda, if she could turn back the hands of time, she would heed the voice of caution.

Every passing second, she rues how an appointment that she never really understood and was ill-prepared for, eventually manifested as her curse.

The embattled boardroom lioness, who recently faced removal as the MD/CEO of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko Disco), has now been dismissed from her position at the holding company, West Power & Gas (WPG).

At her dismissal, she came by the sudden realisation that tragedy is hardly glamorous. Now, she knows it doesn’t play out in real life as it does on a stage or between the pages of a book. It is neither a punishment meted out nor a lesson conferred without an underlying cause or mortal trigger. Its horrors are never solely attributable to the proverbial odds. Tragedy is tangled and nasty, injudicious and confusing. And quite avoidable too at the appropriate deployment of caution.

At her sack, Sanda spent each day ruing her disregard for caution. Eventually, she came to accept that a milligram of caution is always worth a double quintal of remorse. Had she understood this early enough, she might have avoided her current tragedy.

Her journey into infamy started with a step, and her fall with a stumble.

As she crashed and burned, her whole world went completely black covered in the soot of her searing. The air looked black. The sun looked black. She laid up in bed and stared at the black walls of her house, wishing that some miracle would happen and she would receive a sudden recall to her esteemed and former position as EKEDC head honcho. She was, however, surprised to see the world didn’t stop. It was at this point that she understood the depth of her naivete all along.

Sanda’s tragedy may be attributed to her arrogance. Now that it has cost her, her job, she understands that superciliousness is a devious trait, ridding the conceited of wisdom and native intelligence. All it left her with was a sharp tongue, a rancid repute and a pointing finger. The arrogant leader never really learns much from hearing herself speak but it took her unceremonious sack for Tinuade Sanda to not know that.

Losing her job with Eko Disco was a great tragedy. More tragic in the sense, that, even after she was booted out of her high office, she hoped against reason that somehow, she would be reinstated.

She fought to be reinstated but contrary to her expectation, she wasn’t restored to her position, instead, she was given the boot from West Power & Gas (WPG), the parent company of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), weeks after she was asked to return to the firm (WPG).

Until she was posted to the EKEDC as a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), Sanda served as the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) of WPG, a consortium of local businesses owning a 60 per cent stake and controlling interest in Eko Disco.

Sanda, who has been in the eye of the storm, following a boardroom crisis at the distribution company, was relieved of her duties at WPG via a letter dated April 17, 2024, and signed by the company’s Chair, Charles Momoh.

Sanda could eventually signal the restoration of peace and stability to the company which mainly supplies electricity to Lekki, Ibeju, Lagos Island, Orile, Ijora, Apapa, Mushin, Festac, Ojo, Ajah and Agbara.

Sanda’s sack from WPG concludes a series of high-profile shifts in leadership within the organization, driven by directives from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Until her removal as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the EKEDC, Sanda carried on like a lioness who deemed the boardroom as her jungle. Thus she roared at will, threatening the peace of both the old and young in her orbit.

However, unlike the feral cat, Sanda neither lived nor worked in a jungle. She wasn’t a lioness either. She was simply a parlour pet of the powers that be, who mistook herself to be a wild cat.

Women, like Sanda, have served all these centuries, in various capacities. But only a handful of them eventually flourish by their genius, humility, and delicious power interred in their femininity. Sanda enjoyed a perfect opportunity to prove her prowess, puncture the anti-female boardroom stereotype, and tower twice her natural size, above her male and female peers but she blew it.

She was booted out of her high offices at EKEDC and WPG as a consequence of high-wired politics and power play that took place over several months.

Although there was initially some vigorous pushback by her supporters, Sanda, who openly challenged her removal and dismissed it as unacceptable lost in the acrimonious battle to reclaim her spot.

If Tinuade has learned any lesson now, it must be that conceit is the ugliest armour a woman could wear. While the world saw her as a tiresome magpie, she looked down on the world, her husband included, thinking how ugly and despicable they all were.

The scariest aspect of being sacked from her exalted positions EKEDC and WPG, is her lack of moral and emotional support at the homefront.

But she has herself to blame. Tinuade deserted her home and ended her marriage at the cusp of the ascent of her career ladder. Insiders revealed that she brazenly called it quits with her husband, Sola Sanda, and moved out of their matrimonial home with the kids, into a posh residence in Ikoyi.

Thus as her ordeal persists, she has no shoulders to cry on and no one to wipe her tears. And this revealed sources very close to her, has aggravated the emotional strain that she has been experiencing since she became embroiled in the high-wired powerplay that cost her, her job.

Tinuade’s vanity is unprecedented, according to very close sources to her. She simply chose to live for herself and spared no expense in giving herself a treat. Now that her love for selfish treats has led to a searing trial, she has only herself to blame.

The Capital findings revealed that she would have avoided her sad fate if she had displayed the necessary tact, brilliance and humility required to run the EKEDC.

For a woman who allegedly drew a N20 million monthly salary aside from other hefty but undisclosed allowances, she undoubtedly shot herself in the foot with her crass display of insolence and disdain for both senior and junior colleagues, argued insiders.

So disgusted was the company’s board with her perceived misconduct that all the members allegedly voted for her immediate dismissal as the company’s MD/CEO.

At her sack by EKEDC, she thought she would enjoy a reprieve from WPG, its parent company, but the latter deemed it wiser to disengage with her in a bid to avoid complications arising from the high-wired boardroom politics triggered by her leadership at the EKEDC.

Why Sanda’s appointment was terminated by WPG

The official reasons why West Power & Gas Limited, the parent company of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (EKEDP) sacked the immediate former MD/CEO of the electricity distribution company, Ms Tinuade Sanda has emerged.

Meanwhile, the firm did not give reasons for sacking Sanda in the termination letter.

But in an internal document obtained by SaharaReporters on Monday, the company accused Ms Sanda of running EkoDisco at an economic loss of 25 per cent way above the 20 per cent target of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

In the document dated April 1, 2024 and titled: “Management changes at Eko Disco executive summary,” the firm said she lost the confidence of her Directors and shareholders. The company also accused Ms Sanda of causing division in the company, despite failing to perform to the expectations of the shareholders.

The document partly read: “Eko Disco is operating at a loss level of 25% compared to the NERC target of 20%. Meanwhile, Ikeja Disco outperforms their NERC set target of 19% with a loss level of 17%.

“This is poor compared to our 25% loss level. Customer quality dictates that Eko Disco should naturally outperform Ikeja Disco if it is run properly.

“The past MD has recently been publishing misleading information in online and print media falsely claiming to be MD of the Disco. Such actions, and the suspicion that she was behind the highly defamatory campaigns and false petitions against the board on this matter have severely soured her relationship with the Board.

“The Company must move past this unfortunate period with unity both in management and The Board with a new MD. The MD instigates division among her management colleagues and amongst the board members.

“She has misled the Board regarding information provided by the Board on the activities and indebtedness of the company and has lost the confidence of the majority of the Board and shareholders who hold at least 70% of the core investor company. Under this scenario, the MD has no place anymore with the company.

“The past MD shows a lack of respect for individual directors. She was at one time suspended for being extremely rude to the former BPE DG who was on Eko Disco Board.”

“In conclusion, the past MD has failed to perform to the expectations of the shareholders, has sowed division in the company, has disrespected her Directors, has misled her Directors and the public, and has lost the confidence of her Directors and shareholders,” it also read.

Sources: TheCapital