JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA praises the work culture in a family business where people do their job, and are trusted to do it
Alberta’s booming oil industry attracted many professionals who soon realised that they needed a service that was at the time not readily available, housing. Ron D. Southern and his father S.D. Southern saw an opportunity. In 1947, they started the Alberta Trailer Hire, renting trailers at $2 a day. From renting to selling them, today ATCO is a global conglomerate with interests in utilities, energy, manufacturing, logistics and to my recent experience, modular structures. On the invitation of its iconic Chair and CEO, Nancy Southern, I took a tour of ATCO Structures and one of its Attainable Home Projects in downtown Calgary, Alberta.
After 14 years on the board, Nancy Southern was named as Chair and President of ATCO in 2003. Twenty-two years on, she has transformed it into a multi-billionaire dollar global force of enterprise. When Nancy spoke to me about the modular homes during one of our chats at the HFX Forum, I had a different expectation of what modular homes would look like. However, seeing the ATCO ones made me realise that we are very much in the future of housing for the vast majority of people in need of access to their own homes. There will be no ’housing for all’ without scaling its production.
The project I toured, located at Calgary’s downtown, is a six-storey, 84-unit affordable housing building, using permanent modular construction; projected to cost about 950 CAD/month in rent, all inclusive; about a third of the average cost. Adam Beattie, the President of ATCO Structures took me through the elements of the project; the efficiency of the building approach, AI helping to debug the process, minimal site disruption, cost, savings on time, etc. It was also inspiring to see the United Nations-esque collection of workers from all around the world at ATCO Structures. Seeing what could happen to mass housing with these modular homes was inspiring enough for a sight, but I could not ignore my culture shock amidst all that I was learning.
Here I was on a site with this Canadian billionaire. Her site. She drove, just us and her two cute dogs in the car, Jack being the more active one. When we got there, she asked for the President of the company. Then the guy we met took another look, called her by her first name, “Nancy right?” She answered yes. They shook hands. No drama, no special treatment, no commotion. We might as well have been job seekers. That experience, if I didn’t know who she was myself, showed nothing to suggest she ran the whole thing. One of multiple companies in the group.
Then we went to the factory where the homes had been fabricated, met Kevin and Rob. The latter asked me who I was, that he rarely sees his Chair, saying he sees her maybe twice a year. I said “oh she is my friend and mentor”. I didn’t think anything I’d say was going to matter more than those. Again, no fanfare on our arrival. Just two regular visitors, except that the other guest wasn’t a visitor, she runs the entire thing, over 20,000 staff across several countries. Yet nothing gave her away, save for if you already knew. Quite fascinating, especially for someone visiting from Nigeria.
As a Nigerian reading this, you already understand why this was refreshing to witness. I am certain there are lessons here, whether in the vision and tenacity it takes to build a company in its 8th decade, culturing a line of succession that builds on each generation’s progress or a work culture where people do their job, are trusted to do it and respect is the norm, not obeisance or eye-service.
The Nancy experience got me thinking of a similar one with Kaduna’s Governor Uba Sani. I have had friends and allies who became governor, but he is the first I can confidently refer to as a friend who happens to be a governor. A leader who looks out for his people and allies. I watched him reconnect with someone who was on his campaign who had lost access to him since being inaugurated. He immediately opened up access, noting that some aides somehow block access to their leaders and he’d never understand why. The young man was already working with the federal government, he opened up the door for him to take up a senior role in Kaduna.
In times past, friends who accessed power went from being available, friendly and happy to break bread and to engage one on different ideas to existing in a different world where even when you shared the same physical space with them, you could touch the barrier making it clear to you, this person is out of reach. If you are a self-respecting person like I am, you’d know to keep your distance. I used to think this came with public office, until Governor Uba Sani came along. Some people are just who they are, irrespective of their wealth, a la Nancy and their position, like Uba Sani.
These days, every major stakeholder in Kaduna can claim some form of contribution to its budget, having been part of these budget preparation processes over the two-year course of the Sani government. This has reflected in the 2026 budget proposal, as presented by the governor to the Kaduna State House of Assembly. The N985.9 billion proposal prioritises capital expenditure, allocating seventy-one percent to it; Education 25 percent, not to mention the 15 percent to Health, with Agriculture, Food Security, Infrastructure and Rural Transformation scoring 36 percent altogether. It’s a bold commitment toward consolidating on the progress made since May 2023, amidst the debt burden the administration inherited which has left it so fiscally thin, new borrowings are almost impossible.
Here, Governor Uba Sani is making a big bet on development without an unprecedented debt burden. In a world where Nancy Southern and her team are crashing the cost and time of accessing housing, one must believe that anything is possible.
Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing
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