By Ropo Sekoni
While Nigeria waits for professional biographers of Chief Bode Akindele to explain his ease to remain a patriotic Nigerian without necessarily owing allegiance to any political party in power, it is proper as the world celebrates the life of this man of excellence in many aspects of life to examine his vision of business and society.
In his writings, speeches, and interviews, Chief Akindele defined himself as a patriot in Mark Twain’s sense of the word: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
Chief Akindele’s self-portrayal is best illustrated in his autobiography, I Did it God’s Way among other writings, speeches, and interviews he gave in the over 70 years of his life of work and eminent accomplishments.
He captured the essence of his contribution in his chapter on ethics, where he described his life as a combination of the ethic of business and ethic of care.
Not being a man that sought attention during his lifetime but worked and gave in a manner that attracted attention to him, Chief Akindele’s boundless energy for business and philanthropy provides an opportunity to look at his contributions to Nigeria’s development, without being a politician.
Today’s piece is a public tribute to a man with whom I interacted closely for the last 30 years of his of life of work and charity.
When Chief Akindele said in his autobiography: “The inspiration for writing this book came from two sources. First, it is intended to be a testimony to God’s grace in my life.
Second, it is my hope that my experience in life should have something positive to teach our young people and upcoming professionals and businessmen and women in particular, and all our youths in general,” he provided some rubrics with which to evaluate his contributions to various demographic groups in the country—women, the youth, and the Nigerian community—from the village to the national level.
Long before the word feminism, gender parity, gender balance, gender democracy became a part of defining modern democratic life in Nigeria in particular, Chief Akindele had been demonstrating commitment to women empowerment in the country.
Apart from using his Bode Akindele Foundation under the coordination of Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu to assist widows and orphans through donations of facilities and money to lessen the pains of this vulnerable group, the Parakoyi of Ibadan (the chieftaincy in charge of matters of business and industry in pre-colonial Yoruba society) also gave special consideration to women in many other ways.
His employment from the beginning of his business was a gender-sensitive one. Women always had the same opportunity for employment in all his ventures.
And Parakoyi promoted such opportunity in his hiring patterns. For example, when the chief had one of Africa’s largest fishing companies (Obelawo), he gave considerations to women that needed credit facilities to, in his own words, “prevent mothers who needed to care for children from losing their chosen means of livelihood as retailers of seafood.”
In the tradition of his philosophy that “Politics is not meant for everybody and as a matter of fact, you don’t have to be in politics before you contribute your quota,” Chief Akindele provided many higher education institutions—University of Ibadan, Federal University of Technology Akure, Redeemer’s University, and Wesley University with generous grants to improve each institution’s competitiveness in specific areas of training—computer science, business administration, technology, etc.
“Providing facilities that can improve the quality of education that our youths get is one way to prepare them for leadership positions in the nation and in the world”, he said many times at many of the annual June 2 birthday anniversary gatherings in his Apapa home.
For a person whose loyalty was for his country rather than for any particular government, it was not surprising that he was awarded the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) several decades ago for his meritorious services to the nation.
Any surprise that Chief Akindele received honorary degrees from several Nigerian universities for his contributions to business knowledge and promotion of knowledge in the country and the world?
In his capacity as a voracious traveler, Chief Akindele never failed to observe models of philanthropy in the various continents he had business and personal reasons to visit.
It was thus in character when in the last decade of his life, he added to the Bode Akindele Foundation’s programmes a new collaborative initiative with the Good Worker Ministries International, the University of Ibadan, and Federal University of Technology Akure, named Bode Akindele Yield Initiative (BAYI) under the coordination of retired Archbishop Kehinde Stephen.
This is Parakoyi’s second philanthropic intervention in the preparation of Nigerian youths for a life of work, service, and leadership: “The primary objective of BAYI is to develop millions of focused and well-oriented Nigerian youths as innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders.
My inspiration through God’s help is to be of benefit to mankind. This inspiration led to the establishment of the Bode Akindele Foundation (BAF) in 1985 which has been involved in several special projects. Some of which are dedicated to the development of our youths.”
In programmatic terms, BAYI’s activities include “Capacity Building, Skills Acquisition, Innovations, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Research and General Youth Development through provision of knowledge and skills in the following areas: Renewable Energy, Sustainable Living through informed attention to Climate Action and the Environment; Training in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for youths; Vocational and Entrepreneurial Skills Development through creation of cottage industries and other small and medium scale business initiatives; Innovative and Multiplier Agriculture; Leadership Skills Promotion; Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Care; and Sports Development.”
These activities for youth empowerment represent a bold and generous effort by Chief Akindele to relieve the government of some of its responsibilities, not as a paid government contractor but as a supporter of the cause of national development.
With the waves already being made by BAYI, Chief Akindele’s ideology that we do not need to be politicians to make contributions to national progress, is illustrate, like charity projects under Bode Akindele Foundation, Parakoyi’s other maxim that “when a businessman focuses on the country rather than on a particular government, he puts himself in a good position to plan for human progress in such country.”
Chief Akindele’s patriotism or love of Nigeria, given a symbolic expression in the naming of his personal seaside house in Vinaros in Spain Nigeria House, is one of many ways the global businessman has promoted the name of Nigeria on the global scene.
Long before globalization became an indispensable part of the new world order, Chief Akindele agreed with his internal business partners that investing in the economy of other countries should not be an exclusive economic activity of the Western world.
He took some of the profits he made from doing business in Nigeria to own business in over 60 countries in four continents to create more resources to invest more in the Nigerian economy.
He did this without abusing the culture of his foreign hosts, thus acting as a good and friendly ambassador of Nigeria in many countries with or without official Nigerian embassies.
In addition, Parakoyi was a generous donor to patriotic causes designed to improve the quality of life of citizens at home and in diaspora.
The young Ibadan man that started a trading business with his father’s large sitting room as a warehouse before going national and later going global also succeeded in doing something that biographers should explore, the fulfillment of his ambition to move what started as a pop and mom business to a global corporate business(s), Modandola Group in Nigeria and Fairgate Group in Europe that can self-sustain and self-re-generate after his life and not at the expense of his children’s right to choose their own way of life.
CBA, Rest in peace and long live your legacy and idea about love of one’s country: “A caring businessman, like a caring government leader, is more likely to generate trust and love from people than a business person or ruler that sees nothing beyond the bottom line in monetary or power terms.”
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