Two Years Already!

Okie Johnson Ndoh: A Silent Achiever at CSPH
-Workers of CSPH hail their GM as a forward-looking, open-minded listener and team-manager, whose leadership style affords an accommodating working environment and makes their work easy and interesting.
By Ayukogem Steven Ojong in Yaounde

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How time flies! It is two years already since Okie Jonson Ndoh was appointed as General Manager, GM, of the Hydrocarbons Prices Stabilization Fund, abbreviated in French as CSPH. The State Inspector and Super-Scale Civil Administrator, was appointed to the helm of the state-owned petroleum company, on 11 December 2017 and was installed into his functions on 15 December 2017.
    Two years down the road, many informed observers have scored Okie Johnson in blue, crediting him with a well-suited management style, and for the remarkable achievements of CSPH in just two years of his stewardship.
    For their part, workers of CSPH hailed Okie Ndoh for what they described as his forward-looking and open-minded management approach.
    “I must say I am having a wonderful experience working under Mr. Okie as my GM… He is such a team player who gives a listening ear to all his collaborators… He is open to new ideas; he accepts suggestions from just everybody. He tells us on a daily basis that the future of CSPH depends on us and that the suggestions we make count a lot for the decisions that he takes,” said a worker at CSPH, who asked not to be named in this report.
    Another worker responded: “Our GM is such an exemplary leader who is so open-minded as to put the staff at the helm of all major managerial decisions. The important place he gives the staff in decision making has instilled a general atmosphere of confidence, loyalty and commitment among the workers. In fact, it accounts for the positive things you see happening at the company since Mr. Okie was put at the helm.”
    For a GM who in barely months of taking office, saved Cameroon an embarrassment from the IMF, and under whose stewardship the government finally saw the need to upgrade CSPH from the Directorate that it was, to the full General Directorate that it now is, Okie’s achievements so far at CSPH can only be described as largely positive.
    It should be recalled that Okie’s bold and life-saving decision that spared Cameroon an embarrassment from the IMF, just one year after taking office, merited for him the Oscar Award for Excellence in December 2018. The Award was offered by the Paris-based International Council of African Managers, CIMA, whose President, Sidi Abd Allah Sy, travelled to Yaounde in January 2019 just to hand Okie Ndoh the prestigious Award.
    While handing the Award, Sidi Abd Allah described Okie Ndoh as an “exceptional and astute manager”, who has shown “exemplary patriotism, high-level performance and an exceptional commitment to nation building, apart from making a huge contribution towards the emergence of Cameroon.”
    He exhorted Okie Ndoh to remain assiduous and committed to his duties, reminding him that the Cameroonian people, and President Paul Biya, are watching him.
For many observers, Okie Ndoh’s remarkable achievements at CSPH come as no surprise. They are the result of his penchant for team work and results-oriented management, factors which are helped by his modest and God-fearing persona.

    Taking over the CSPH in 2017, Okie Ndoh admitted that the challenges ahead were enormous, but said they were not insurmountable, God being his guide and mentor.  
    “I see the hand of God in this appointment. I hope that with the force of God; with the hand of God and with the blessing of God I will be able to stand up to the challenges that await me at CSPH. I seize this opportunity to thank the head of state, President Paul Biya, and promise that for the good student that I am, I will go back to my books and read and understand the tasks that await me so as to be able to deliver the expected results,” Okie Ndoh said to reporters at his installation two years ago.
    Needless to note that despite his enviable report card as GM of CSPH, Okie Ndoh has not developed a big head. He has remained true to himself – humble and discreet.
    “You don’t hear or see him anywhere,” said a keen observer, who feared that Okie Ndoh might over play his discreteness to his own disadvantage.
    Yet, commentators say that Okie Ndoh has reason enough to celebrate his second anniversary at the helm of CSPH. They observe that unlike in some years past when acute scarcity of cooking gas was the lot of Cameroonians ahead of and during the festive period (Christmas and New Year), this has hardly been witnessed throughout Okie’s two years in office.
    We are told that the CSPH GM has since taken all necessary dispositions to ensure that there is an inexhaustible stock of cooking gas for supply to households throughout the feasting period. 
    Commentators have hailed the clairvoyance of Okie Ndoh, contending that it is thanks to his surpassing experience as a public affairs manager.
    Perhaps, we should recall that before his appointment as the GM of CSPH, Okie Johnson Ndoh was the Technical Adviser No 1 at the Supreme State Audit Department (CONSUPE) of the Presidency of the Republic, where he had earlier served as Director of General Affairs, DAG, and as Sub Director of Budget, Materials and Maintenance.
    Earlier in his public service career, he also served as Finance Controller in the Ministry of Higher Education, and as DAG in the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms MINFOPRA.
    It behooves us at The Median, to wish GM Okie good luck and God’s continues guidance and protection this, so that he continues to steer CSPH towards safe waters. Go, Okie, go, the sky is your stepping stone!