By now, the name Otunba Michael Balogun has passed from the page of business headlines into the gloss of legacy. But two years since his passing, one still feels the echo of his voice—in finely cut pinstripe suits, hands clasped in prayer, eyes twinkling with a mix of commerce and conviction.
To call him a banker is to say the Eiffel Tower is tall. It is the truth, but a truth that misses the poetry.
Balogun did not merely find First City Merchant Bank (now FCMB). He reimagined what banking could mean in Nigeria: owner-managed, private-sector driven, unapologetically excellent. Long before fintech made suits look slow, Balogun insisted that dignity and discipline were cornerstones of finance. His bank had a private dining room before most had corporate plans. Staff wore dark suits, not as an affectation, but as an assertion.
Born in Ijebu-Ode in 1934, his life tracked the arc of Nigeria’s transformation. He read law at the London School of Economics, worked as a Crown Counsel, and then pivoted into finance at the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank. But his grand leap came in 1983, when he opened the doors to FCMB—styled not just as a bank, but as a personal expression of entrepreneurial faith.
A devout Christian with a Muslim heritage, he embodied the gentler paradoxes of Nigeria’s plural identity. His philanthropy, anchored in the Otunba Tunwase Foundation, flowed toward children’s health, education, and community care. He built a pediatric centre in Ijebu-Ode and gifted it to the University College Hospital, Ibadan without fanfare.
He held titles as rich as his legacy: Otunba Tunwase of Ijebuland, Olori Omoba, and Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians. Yet none of these ever outshone his quiet credo: that wealth meant little unless it served others.
Otunba Balogun died in London on May 18, 2023. He was 89.
Today, bankers still quote his standards, communities still benefit from his kindness, and history continues to nod approvingly at the man who dared to build a monument—first in finance, then in hearts.
Leave a comment