IbieneImagine a banker who moonlights as a musician, painter, and soap maker!
Meet Dr. Chibuzo Bath Akaba, a woman who defies categorisation. With a PhD in credit management and a passion for artistic expression, Dr. Akaba embodies the spirit of a modern-day renaissance woman. But her journey is more than just a collection of skills, it’s a testament to the power of embracing your passions, no matter how different they may seem.
What can you learn from Dr. Akaba? You’ll discover how she balances a demanding career with artistic pursuits, and how her unique perspective has shaped her success in both worlds.
Read on to unlock the secrets of her time management strategies, the life lessons she has learned from the world of banking, and her belief in the power of storytelling to spread positivity.
IBIENE: Let’s meet you, Dr. Chibuzor Bath Akaba.
Dr. Barth-Akaba: I’m a banker by profession. I’ve been a banker for the past 26 years.
My first degree is in electronic engineering, I have a postgraduate diploma in management and MBA in marketing, and I have a PhD in Credits Management. But outside work, I’m an art person. I love the art a whole lot. I also believe that it is my art life that supports my work as a banker, because as stressful as the bank job is. It’s the art part of me that relaxes me a great deal.
So what is it about me concerning the arts?
I’m a professional musician. I sing. It relaxes me a lot. I do a lot of gospel, contemporary and classical singing. A whole lot of it.
Then I also do pieces of art. I do a whole lot of painting.
I work with different media. Acrylic epoxy series.
And then I’m in love with nature. I do a whole lot of natural things. I use herbs to make bathing soaps.
IBIENE: What Drives Your Passion?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: What drives my passion is strange. But to be honest, what drives my passion is that I believe strongly in my heart that I’m going to give account to God for all the gifts that I have been given.
So I know that I’m already equipped to do it. So that makes me enjoy it. I’m also doing it as a form of duty. But the beautiful part about this duty is that it’s a joyful duty. Imagine doing something you love, and yet it is a duty. So, for me, what drives my passion about the things I do is that, first and foremost, it’s not alien, and I enjoy it, but it is for a greater cause. And when I remember that I need to give account for it, it makes me push harder. So it’s a joyful task.
IBIENE: What initially drew you to storytelling?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: Hmm. There is no impact without storytelling.
Storytelling is just a medium to transmit what it is you have. And like I said earlier, what you have is not really for you alone. I mean, it was a process you went through, and because of that process, you learned a couple of things.
The Bible tells me that he comforts us to comfort others. So what other medium do you have to pass on that comfort? What other medium do you have to push out that value, if not through storytelling?
What makes me so excited about storytelling is that most times, it has a direct impact for the people it is meant to affect. So you see that in initial boom, it hits directly.
So, for me, storytelling is one of the most important media I can use to pass the value I have been given.
Storytelling is everything.
Everything!
So because of the passion and the skills I have and the things I do, I see it as one of the most potent medium I will use to pass it on.
So that’s what drew me to storytelling.
And also, when I tell it and see the impact, I’m encouraged.
And I enjoy it for the value it brings.
Yes.
For the value it impacts.
IBIENE: From having a PhD to huge Social Media Following; What are the rules for growing on social media?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: For social media. I think I’m a bit very selective.
I stand for my core values, and I gravitate towards people that stand for those values.
Why?
I don’t necessarily discriminate anybody, but I choose what I put on my page. So for anything that comes to my page, it has to be something of value. Yes, it has to be something of value. Honestly, my goal is to use my social media pages to spread some good vibes. Something that will make your life better. I also believe that if you come around my social media page, you should be able to see something that gives you joy. Either some piece of music, some life lessons, or something that adds value.
IBIENE: How do you balance authenticity with empathy in storytelling, in such a polarised world?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: I think this calls for a lot of wisdom, because sometimes when even listening to people that are very polarized, if you read between what they are saying, they are reacting to something.
And I think that’s where my life coaching skills have helped me a great deal.
Sometimes when you see people very negative shouting about something, if you look deeper, they are releasing a pain that ordinarily you seeing it will just think they are bold and audacious, but you don’t know that there are some pain around it.
So what I’ve learned as a life coach and some other courses I’ve taken about psychology, and managing people, is you can see the truth in a nice way. You can tell somebody to go to hell nicely, and the person will be waiting for you at the gates of hell believing that they’re going to heaven. So it’s not about deceit, but it’s all about being able to connect with people emotionally.
And I’ll give you a very typical example, and this just happened recently. I was on a panel at a church function, a big church, where I was supposed to perform. It was father’s day, and there were panelists. I was the youngest in that panel. There were much older people, two men and two ladies. But the question was to just drop nuggets for the men. It’s easy to attack the men from the point of the things that they have not done as men. But for that event, I started by saying that I was going to be an advocate for the men and I was going to be on the side of the Men. But you wouldn’t believe that the things I was bringing to the table were not in support of any good behaviour of the men. But I needed to make the men understand that I was coming for them positively and with value, even though what I said could have been transmitted in a negative way and none of them will listen.
And what did I do?
I just told them that our men have been short-changed, which necessarily would drag, and help get their attention. And I was wondering, how did our men get short-changed? And I took them through. It was a religious setting. It was a church setting. And I took them through the scripture where the Bible says that “if you do not treat your wife well, your prayers will not be answered.” And I just asked the question.
Nobody is born to know how to marry a woman.
Women have been trained to get married. Who is training the men?
So we are short-changing the men by not teaching them how to be prosperous. So it means that their prosperity is dependent on how well they treat their wives, based on that scripture. So if we don’t teach a man that, we have shortchanged a man. And that’s our business.
So from that angle, it was easy for me to throw in light to many other principles that men would have used to navigate. Navigate through their homes to their wives.
Another example is, a man is a leader in the home.
Who is that, people?
A leader that wants to lead well, without understanding his subjects, how they behave, how best.
No two methods works for one staff or even a child. But rarely are men taught how the woman, the mind of a woman, how it operates and how to navigate through it. What happens to them, their hormonal activities in different times of the month. And yet men are supposed to be the managers of men, women of women in a marriage.
Who does that?
How can they allow somebody to manage what the person does not understand? So I went from the back door.
IBIENE: As a serial entrepreneur, what are some strategies you use to juggling all you do?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: You give Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Since I work while at work, definitely I cannot do those things as well.
So I focus at work, and then when I’m off work, I’m off work.
And also I employ hands that support me, like in the home front.
I will not wash my clothes. I have an arrangement for somebody to do that. And I will not ordinarily cook on a good, busy day. So I employ a professional cook.
So I try as much as possible to have hands that can help me while i do what i need to do.
For example, the time I will use to wash, I will use that and create exquisite things that will pay that cleaner salary for four months.
So it’s a waste of man hour. So I’m very, very strategic. And then my giftings are seasonal. I also need to be able to juggle and know what time it is for what and then focus there.
IBIENE: What life lessons is your experience in banking teaching you?
Dr. Barth-Akaba: I work for an international bank, and one of the very first shock I got while working where, when I joined, where I’m working, was that they were proud of their strategy. We didn’t look like what every other person was doing, and they stuck to their difference and they’re still making their mark.
So I’ve learned that it’s okay to be different.
So that’s why the things I even end up doing that might give things are not necessarily what everybody out there is doing. I’m comfortable being different.
And I’ve also learned from banking that once you solve a problem and create value, whatever you offer creates value and solves a problem, then you have the market there.
So for everything I do, it answers for a question.
I’ll give you a typical example. My diffuser bottles are painted. And once the question is answered, sometimes you see diffuser bottles blank than there. So when the diffuser finishes, it’s transparent. Once you see that, it’s empty, not transparent when it looks somehow. But the painted diffuser bottle is also a decorative piece. Regardless of whatever is there, you still brighten up your corner without having something blunt there.
Also, most of the things I do, I sell uniqueness. I sell something different.
Dr. Chibuzo Bath Akaba’s journey serves as a reminder that it’s never too late to explore new passions and make a difference in the world, no matter how little.
Do you have any comment or question? Do share with us in the comment section
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