Category: Saturday Interview

MAZI Okechukwu Unegbu, lawyer, arbitrator and stockbroker, is currently Managing Director/Chief Executive, Maxifund Investments and Securities Plc. Unegbu, who boasts of over 30 years career in banking and finance, has worked in prominent financial institutions including First Bank, defunct African Merchant Bank, Progress Bank (rose to become Chairman/Chief Executive), Broad Bank and Citizens Bank (as Chief Executive in 2005) and equally served as former president/chairman of the Council of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF, the Imo state-born technocrat fondly called OCKU and who turns 70 in August shares his experience managing men and resources. Excerpts:

When does your typical day begin?

For me, my typical day starts at 5.am in the morning. Once I’m up from bed, I say my prayers and take my morning exercise for about 45minutes and thereafter start getting ready to go out by 7-7:30am. By 8:30am, I start attending to my clients. I follow this regimen every day except on Saturdays because I sleep a bit late at past midnight to 1:00am and I wake up at 7:30am. On weekends, I spend one hour for my morning exercise.

What’s your management philosophy?

My management philosophy is what I call a combination of ideas. I like to engage people to do the job. I allow them to come up with their own ideas because some of these young chaps are smart people really. What I do is to use people around me to achieve results. The best you can do as a good manager is to leave the space open in such a way that there is freedom for everyone to operate and achieve their potentials.

What’s your management style?

Just like my management philosophy, I allow people to make their own inputs into any decision to be taken. What I do most times is that if I have an idea about any matter, I just throw it open to the floor for people to make their suggestions, and then I will sum up what they have done and take final decision.

Do you delegate responsibility or you micromanage?

Yes, indeed I delegate. I don’t micromanage at all. I delegate a lot. Like I mentioned earlier, my own idea of management is that once you give people the right tools to work with they can actually excel. That’s one thing I have seen in managing people.

How do you motivate your staff?

There is often a misconception out there that the only way to motivate people is by giving them salaries and bonuses alone. No that certainly is not true to a large extent. Fine, you can pay them fat cheques and salaries but there are far better ways to motivate your staff. In my own case, I give my staff the opportunity to excel in their chosen careers through creating the enabling environment and opportunities for growth.

How do you reprimand your staff? Do you apply the stick?

For me, the best you can do is to allow room for mistakes to be made so that they can learn from it. My own attitude is that if you get angry at your staff for making a mistake next time, they may as well sit down and do nothing. That way, you have ended up creating zombies.  However, if someone makes mistakes consistently, move such a person to another section and have him or her watched closely instead of asking that person to go outright. If you just fire such a person that would be tantamount to throwing away the baby with the bathe water. It’s not the right thing to do. Once you move the person to another department, you have already sent a signal to that person, and most times such people usually have something to prove about their competence. Most times, they excel in their new role. As a manager with over three decades experience that is what I have seen in management across different cadres. Even as a lawyer I have applied the same methods and it has worked for me as well. Currently, as a member of the Executive Council of the Nigerian Bar Association I can also testify that this method has worked for me.

What motivates you?

Motivation for me on a personal note is working with people. I like going out of my way to help people solve their problems. I tend to derive personal satisfaction in that. For me, the moment I can ensure that the next person to me or even someone I don’t know is able to achieve something through my efforts that gives me a level of indescribable joy.

What is the best decision you have taken?

I remember quite a few of them. I remember I took a decision to take Citizen Bank to the capital make at the time. I was able to negotiate everything and it went well. That to me was one of the best decisions I ever took as the CEO at the time. I also remember some of the roles and actions I took in ensuring that majority of my staff then were better place career-wise by taking them under my wings. Today, thankfully, I have many of my staff who are excelling in the banking sector and they still try to remind me of the part I played in building their careers. Such recollection is a thing of joy to me.

What’s the worst decision you have taken?

I remember as CEO how the action I took cost investors their money after we invested the funds in a bad business and we lost billions of naira as a result. It is one sad episode of my career I usually do not like to recall ever.

What are your other areas of interest besides business?

I love reading a lot. I play lawn tennis as well as table tennis. I also do photography too. I have all kinds of camera. Photography is one pastime I love so much. I just love taking shots of memory events around me. These days with a mobile phone, this is even a lot easier.

What’s your choice holiday destination?

I also travel a lot both within and outside the country most times. I can say for a fact that I have been to nearly every part of Nigeria today. But these days, travelling within the country is not safe as it used to be because of the problem of insecurity everywhere now. These days, if I travel I go by air and am conscious of myself wherever I go. I have been to Iseyin, Shaki, after Oyo state to see how local people live. In my state in Imo, I have travelled round all the 24 local government areas as well. When I travelled round I was able to appreciate each of the peculiar needs and challenges of these people and that sort of gave me a lot of ideas when I decided to go into the governorship race of Imo state few years later. I have also been to the UK and the USA too many times. Such trips abroad usually afford me the opportunity to learn new things and new trends that I can apply to my career and life in general. So travelling is more than an adventure for me.

Do you read?

Sure I do read a lot. I try as much as possible to read a book every month.

What was the last book you read and when?

Yes I had to read the book by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. I also read management books as a matter of routine. What I do is I just get the books of leading management authors and I read them up for ideas. I’m also now following every bit about digital currency. I packed myself in it. The whole world is now using digital currency. That is why I’m amazed that the CBN had to place a ban on crypto currency. From what I have found out through digital currency, a lot of youths who hitherto were idle and jobless are now fully engaged. The world has gone digital but it seems the apex bank is not yet in tune with such global development.

What’s your favourite Nigerian meal?

I don’t like egusi or rice at all. I like my eba with ogbono. I like amala with gbegiri and ewedu soup. I also like iyan or what is generally called pounded yam. I enjoy local foods a lot.

Do you cook?

Oh yes I do. My mother had all four us boys, there was no girl in our midst, so she taught us all how to cook. But I have reduced my activities in the kitchen because I have a dutiful wife who is ever ready to do the cooking for me.

So you do the dishes as well?

Oh sure, I do sometimes. I also do a lot of household chores too in order to relief my wife of stress. If there is nobody in the house and I happen to go to the kitchen and see the place unkempt, I take it upon myself to clean up the place. I think my wife appreciates that a lot.

How do you unwind?

I’m an outdoor person alright. I like to go to the club, Ikoyi Club to be precise, where I’m a life member now. At the club, I play lawn tennis, table tennis. I meet with my friends to network, socialise generally and relief stress. I also try to encourage my family to join me at the club too because it is such a place you can feel relax over a cup of tea or coffee. My wife is not the outgoing type but I try to encourage her to get out of the house once in a while. You see when you go out of the house; you’re refreshed and renewed in so many ways. I have followed that regimen for many years and I know it’s beneficial to me.

You’re turning 70 years in a few months. How did your upbringing impacted who you’re today?

My father was a customary court judge and was also into farming, trading and he made sure he excelled in all these areas as well. For me, that background sort of prepared me for life. I was a war commander during the Biafra war. I was just 17 years old then. During the war a lot happened. I remember during the war lizards and rats were the choice delicacies then. In fact, if you kill lizards or rats you made hot steaming pepper soup with it. It was so funny that you could also get sanctioned if you didn’t tell your superiors you were preparing such pepper soup. That is one nasty experience that has stayed with me. I can’t seem to obliterate it from my memory. I’m already compiling this experience and memories of the war in my memoir due for launch at my forthcoming 70th birthday in August 17th to be precise. I remember when I visited former president Olusegun Obasanjo at his Ota Farms when I was his Relationship Manager at the First Bank. He told me, are you not afraid coming to see a General. I told him I was not afraid that as his Relationship Manager I was even more powerful than he is because it is whatever I tell him that he would do. Then I said even as a War Commander in the Biafra Army, if I came across him during the war, I would have shot at him. He said, “yeeparipa!”

I also remembered when I visited OBJ at the Aso Villa in Abuja as President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers with other executives. When we got there, Baba said he was president with a big P, while I was president with a small P. He also said bankers are thieves. He said so many times. But I never responded to him. So I told him, Baba I want to tell you a story. He said, ok go ahead. I said my father was a customary court judge. Anytime he came home, he would gather us all his children and say, ‘please don’t misbehave outside because if you do they will say you lack home training.’ When I said that, Baba OBJ looked at me and said, ‘so you’re calling me the head of thieves ba?” (laughs). I have been friends with OBJ for some time now.

VICTOR Ndukauba is Deputy Managing Director at Afrinvest West Africa, a leading independent investment banking firm with a focus on West Africa. Fondly called Viktor Kubowski by friends, he graduated in 2003 with a B.Sc. honours degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from the University of Lagos and holds an MBA (Executive) from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain (2016). After a brief stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2005, he subsequently moved to Afrinvest where he joined the Financial Advisory practice in the Investment Banking Division in 2008. He served as the head of Afrinvest Investment Research between 2009 and 2011, and led the asset management division as the pioneer Managing Director, following its spin off as a wholly owned subsidiary. In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF, the native of Imo state in southeastern Nigeria, shares his perspectives on work life balance. Excerpts:

When does your typical day begin?

I’m not conventional. My day doesn’t starts and ends the same way because I’m naturally a nocturnal person. For example, last night I slept at 4.am and was up by 7.30am. I sleep late and tend to wake up early. I prefer working at night. Generally, I hate having 8am meetings. My day starts around 10.00am.

What’s your management style?

If by management style you’re looking at how I like to get work done, then for me, I would say it starts with making the hiring decision. I prefer to work with people I trust around me, who may be replica of myself. I’m a naturally lazy person; as such I look for the easiest or quickest way to get things done. As a rule, I don’t like being micromanaged and I don’t micromanage people either. I would rather we discuss the deliverables and targets. Once we agree on those targets, then we’re fine. For me, if you can beat deadlines and deliver a task meant for one week’s work in just two days, I don’t care. I’m not one to go snooping around and breathe down on people’s neck just to get them to work. No. I believe it’s a feeling being insecure if you have to do that as a manager. I believe that once you have taken time to choose the right staff then you necessarily don’t need to worry how they do the work. All you need to do is to show direction.

What’s your management philosophy?

I don’t have any. (laughs)

Do you delegate responsibility?

Of course, that is part of what is required in our line of business. In my second year at work, I learnt the 4Ds of decision-making and that helped me in understanding the nature of the workplace. When I draw out my to-do-list for the day, I look at what is practical and can be delivered within a particular timeframe. Sometimes, if I have to draft a letter for instance, and I know someone else can do it for me, I pass it on and subsequently look through it for correction. That way, I’m able to do other things. The thing about delegating roles and responsibilities is that you can only succeed to the extent that you are able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of people with you.

Are you a team player?

That’s intrinsic. It’s impossible to succeed or get anything done in the kind of industry I operate to get anything done without team work. If you’re going to succeed as a manager you obviously have to lean on the team to be able to achieve the desired objectives.

What are your other areas of interest besides business?

Because I have a background in engineering, I tend to follow technology. I enjoy space travel, molecular biology, advance materials, synthetic arts, knowledge-skill science and all. I also like music. In fact, I grew up in a music family so to speak. My father was a choirmaster while my mum was a musician. My sister, (Ada Ogochukwu Ehi) is a recording gospel artist. I play the guitar and piano as well. I love football. I grew up at a time when my parents didn’t believe any serious young man could make a living out of football; as such my parents whipped me into line in order not to allow the ambition to play active football get into my head. But since I couldn’t play football, I follow football quite actively. I watch the English Premier League, Spanish football league system or La Liga. At some point in time, I have had the opportunity of watching live matches of Real Madrid in Spain since I also schooled in Madrid.  I follow Tennis. I’m a great fan of Serena Williams, I also watch Formula One.

What’s your choice holiday destination?

To be honest, it was only in the last three years that I have had to deliberately plan my holiday. For me, my idea of a holiday is not to travel. I don’t usually like the inconvenience that comes with travels. I think it was during my honeymoon over 10 years ago that I travelled a few places for a holiday per se. I have been to Dubai, Ghana. But I prefer Europe as a holiday destination because it is very difficult connecting Africa. But I have been to Nairobi. I plan to go to Mombasa. I have been to the UK a couple of times but not for holidays but mainly on official assignments. For me, generally speaking, a holiday doesn’t have to be about travelling out of the country. A holiday for me is not going abroad but staying anywhere close to nature.

What motivates you?

It varies. I think you’re your own intrinsic motivator. For me, it’s what you’re able to do for your family by virtue of the work you do and creating a future for them. What you enjoy doing. At a certain level, it may mean been able to achieve the desired objectives for your organisation or even been able to close a deal for a client. That makes you feel good about yourself. Of course, sometimes life happens and you look at the world around you and may not feel the urge to carry on. I lost my younger brother last year and lost my mum around this time three years ago.

How do you motivate your staff?

For me, staff motivation may sometimes be just paying attention and just been able to strike a balance at the workplace. The form of motivation you provide may vary depending on the stage of the employee in their career. For those in the early stage of their development cycle, it may be to try out new things. Sometimes, it could just be been able to play the role of a role model to them. You can give them responsibility but if they don’t believe you have the capacity to do the same work you have thrust upon their shoulders. They may assume of course that you’re just trying to use them or present them a difficult task just for the fun of it. Sometimes, it’s just providing coaching session and checking on them beyond the work. You can ask about their career development and have them tell you their goals. Sometimes, it could just sharing your personal experiences or just giving them verbal acknowledgement. Such recognition, I believe reinforces the culture of excellence and enables you to be able to benchmark remuneration and place the right value on staff. Ultimately, this is how to make the most of people’s career to get them to be productive. It’s a mix of several things. I believe it’s possible to work with people and be friends with them. When you’re friends, it helps. Of course, if friendship is not possible, there must be mutual cooperation at least.

How do you reprimand your staff? Do you apply the stick?

I believe in striking a balance. You see we work in an industry where emphasis is about meeting targets and all; it’s easier to apply the carrot. Some people will misbehave alright and try to co-create a culture of bad behaviour in the workplace. The sensible to do would be to address those guilty of such misdemeanor.

What is the best decision you have taken as the DMD?

As the Deputy Managing Director, I work largely as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). In addition to the role I play with regards to investment research, capital raising, financial advisory and asset management, I also provide oversight on the Group’s Information Technology (IT), as well as the Finance, Risk and Control functions. I remember some few years ago, the IT team came up with a proposal on disaster recovery and stuff. We invested in a system that allowed to easily transiting the business to the digital space using cloud computing and all. At the second week of March last year we also experimented with remote working from home trial. So by the time COVID-19 happened we were more than prepared. Even with our four locations shutdown, we were still able to service our clients and deliver optimally. When we sat back to reflect, wit turned out that four years of work paid off at the end. As I recall, that was one of the best decisions we took at the time.

 What’s the worst decision you have taken?

I remember some years ago, an uncle of mine did ask me to join him in one of these Scandinavian countries, Norway to be precise. I didn’t go at the time. But if I look back in retrospect, I think it wasn’t a good decision at the time because sadly, nothing has changed for good about Nigeria.

What was the last book you read and when?

I bought many books during the COVID-19 period but sadly couldn’t read any of them because one practically had to work almost 24 hours. But thankfully, during the Christmas and new year break in January I tried to read a few of these books. The last one I read was A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon. It’s a fictional story about espionage and spies. It was written in four different perspectives. It had a part about Israeli commanders, another one on French police, yet another one on the Chinese. The different stories ran parallel but were connected at the end. For me, the takeaway from the book just about reinforced another book I read, Startup Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer. The story is a chronology of how Israel was able to remake its world and what it takes to build a nation. Upon reflection, I just said to myself, if Israel can do this, I believe Nigeria as a country can turn the tide in many areas. Let’s hope this dream is achieved anytime soon.

What’s your favourite Nigerian meal?

Food is one thing I don’t sweat. So I’m not a foodie. But I tend to like soup and swallows. If I have to eat bitter leave soup, I prefer it with pounded yam or eba. I love Afang, Amala. I also like some of the local cuisine like boli (roasted plantain) eaten with fish or goat meat pepper soup. Some days, I could just settle for akara (bean cake) and bread or just pour garri in a cup and I’m munching away.

Do you cook?

I can cook but I haven’t done that in a long while. For me, I believe food is fuel for my body to survive. I remember one certain time; I met my wife in the kitchen trying hard to joggle her time in-between cooking two meals at the same time. She was already trying to prepare a pot of stew and was struggling with making the egusi soup. So I told her, look, since we have extra two burners here, why not I cook the egusi? I asked her to move to one side minding her own soup while I prepare the egusi soup.  She was just staring at me. She actually watched me prepare the soup and shortly after I heard speaking with her mum on phone saying, I thought this guy was joking when he said he can cook. (laughs). I’m not ordinarily a fan of cooking but I grew up under a mother who said, look you’ll not kill my girl with work. She had three boys and one girl. She ensured that she prepared a roster for all of us and taught us all how to cook different kinds of food whether egusi, ogbono, onugbu, etc.

So that means growing up must have been a lot of fun?

It wasn’t a lot of fun but it was a close-knit family alright. My mum had more time for us because she was a teacher.

How do you unwind?

I like to watch movies or simply relax with a cool music.

With the untimely death of their husbands, they were left with no shoulders to cry on. Yet they were determined not to constitute a burden on the society. Consequently, they took to farming to ensure that they put food on the table and see their children through school. But their woes have been compounded lately with the setbacks suffered by their investments, which have made it difficult for them to cater for their needs and those of their children. INNOCENT DURU wonders where the hapless widows would go from here.

• Lose investments in farming

• Robbed single mother laments ugly experience with police investigators

I have three children and it has not been easy paying their school fees. They are often sent away from school for not paying their fees, and each time that happens, I cry and cry because that was never my build for the family suffered a setback last year. Like the biblical Job, Blessing soon began to witness the collapse of one business after the other.

She said: “I farm on 20 acres of land in Edo State. The 10 acres of cassava I had were burnt when some people set the bush on fire because they were searching for rabbit. About seven of the 10 acres were affected, so I couldn’t realise the sum of money I had projected. Rather, I recorded losses.

“I could not make money from the maize I planted on the other 10 acres too because customers could not travel to buy them during the lockdown period. Everything I harvested rotted away. We only ate the little we could,” she said.

With that experience, it is expected that people would empathise with her and even move to assist her.  That, however, has not been the case. Rather than help her, some criminal elements saw it as an opportunity to further plunder what she had left.

She added: “During the first wave of COVID-19, my business suffered a massive setback. The shop with which I augmented what I needed to take care of the family was robbed. The case is still with the police. I don’t want to think about it now because it is like it is driving me insane. Let me not lie to you. I hardly sleep these days.”

From the circumstantial evidence she had, Blessing suspected that it was the agent that helped her to get the shop that masterminded the robbery. She had gone to report the incident to the police with the hope of getting justice, but she was shocked at the events that followed.

She said: “The police are just after the money they would get. I have given them some money already. The first time they said I had to mobilize their van, so I gave them N7,000.  The second time they said for them to go and get the landlady for questioning, should give them some money; I gave them N5,000. On another occasion, they said they wanted to go and arrest the suspect and I had to give them N2,000 for transportation.

“I lost close to N1 million in 2020. I am living in a rented apartment. My landlord and I are having issues as I speak to you because I owe him. Business is not so good now because prices of many things like fertilizer, chemicals, feeds and cost of hiring labour have gone up.

“Life was rosy before I lost my husband. I had to go into farming because a single stream of income was not enough. I started with dealing in perishable goods. When I bought food items in the bush, before I got to the market, they would have perished.

“During the first wave of the (Coronavirus) pandemic, there was no way I could get things from the bush to the market, so I had to think of investing more in farming. Friends and family members have been helping in taking care of my children because right now, I don’t think I can boast of anything to take care of them. As a widow, it is not easy to manage the family all alone.”

Investment in agriculture, especially during the lockdown period last year, was also not a cheering experience for Pastor (Mrs) Mojisola Ajulo, a sexagenarian and a widow. Like every business person, she had undertaken some massive investments and was waiting to reap the fruits of her labour. Her expectations did not come through.

She said: “I am into fish farming, poultry and vegetable. The farm was doing well before the coronavirus pandemic started. The ugwu (a species of vegetable) that I planted was eaten up by insects. It had never been like that. I was surprised.

“The whole vegetable farm was like a mere ground. I used to have seeds from the farm but this time, the insects also ate the seeds together with the leaves. I had to go to the market to buy seeds. The seeds we were buying for N4,000 became N13,000 immediately after the first wave of COVID-19.

“I am supposed to be harvesting now but, unfortunately, there is no see d to plant. I have to go and buy another one.  That is for vegetable.

“What affected vegetables also affected poultry. I stocked 300 layers and also broilers and noilers. My brother, when it was December 23, I had to go and buy chicken to sell. The ones I stocked died. It was very unusual. Because of the need to satisfy my customers, I had to go and buy, but it wasn’t a good story.

“Only about 120 of my 300 layers are remaining. In monetary terms, I lost about N500,000 when you combine the losses from the vegetables, fish farm and the poultry in particular, because I kept  buying feeds for all the chickens and turkeys.

“I bought 15 foreign turkeys but I was able to sell only one. The foreign turkeys were very costly but they died before I could sell them.  The same fate befell many poultry farmers last year in the manner pig farmers suffered massive loss. I kept burying the chickens I had planned to sell and recoup my investment.

“For the fish farm, I stocked some fish, but after the first wave of the pandemic, there were no more feeds.  The little that was available was very costly.  The feeds we were buying for N5,000 jumped to N8, 000.  The ones we were buying for N6,000 rose to between N10,000 and  N11,000. That is the trouble we have found ourselves in as regards the prices of feeds.”

As a business person, she said, “I took a loan to enhance my business. It is not easy to repay such loans, especially when what I invested it on did not yield any profit. As a child of God, I am paying back the loan because I don’t want to bring the name of the Lord into reproach.”

With the myriad of challenges bedeviling the sector, another sexagenarian, Madam Christiana Akoro, lamented that life has not been easy for farmers, especially widows like her who have no support from anywhere.

She said: “We have not been able to feed well not to talk of feeding the fish.  We have been struggling all along but things are not working out fine.

“I started fish farming in 2015 after I lost my husband. I have four children. There was a time I was going to Oko-Oba, where they are killing cows to buy some cow blood to feed my fish. We usually boil it, and after boiling it, it will become like liver. I was feeding the fish with it because I didn’t have sufficient money to buy feeds, but that experiment resulted in serious loss and I stopped doing it.

“Subsequently, the World Bank subsidised the cost of the plastics we use for our association. We paid 40 per cent while they paid 60 per cent.  That was in 2012. No assistance has come from anywhere since then. “

Asked how she would pay back if she was on loan, she said: “I don’t take loans because we don’t sell fish monthly. I don’t even sell four months old fish. I always sell my fish when they are six months and above so that whoever buys them can come back to buy next time. The cost of feeds is too much and it is seriously affecting the business.

“To make matters worse, the traders are the ones that determine the price at which we sell. The business environment in the country is not friendly. If care is not taken, one would eat up the capital being used to do the business. I lost 500 pieces of fish to the incident I told you about earlier.  Each of them was weighing about 700 grammes. I lost about N350,000 in monetary terms.

“Power supply has been a great challenge too. I have bought several generators that parked up. At a point, I dug a well, and when that didn’t work out well, I dug a bore hole. Along the line, they brought pre-paid meters to our area and we started by paying N1,000 for 43.6 units. And now it has seriously gone up. We now buy 17.2 units for N1,000.

When I heard recently that they wanted to increase the unit cost, I quickly ran to buy the one of N21,000.

Tackling poverty, idleness with small scale farming in communities

In spite of the numerous challenges they have been facing, the widows also told good stories of how their venture into agriculture helped them to take care of their families in the absence of their breadwinners.

Madam Ajulo said: “My husband died when I was 40 years old and he left five children behind. The eldest was in Junior Secondary School 2 and the youngest was in Primary 1. But by the grace of God, they all graduated with this farming and the support of God.

“Before my husband passed on, I was laid off from the Nigerian Ports Authority. I went into agriculture thereafter in 1996, using an empty government acquired land very close to a river around us. I started planting ugwu there and the proceeds were part of the money I used to train my five children.  All of them are married. Some of them are master’s degree holders.”

Checks also revealed that the small scale farmers have in their little way been using agriculture to tackle poverty and discourage idleness at the grassroots. A visit to Madam Ajulo’s farm and several others revealed that many idle women and youths are being encouraged to take to farming following  the activities of the small scale farmers in the neighbourhoods.

“We train youths and women on fish farming and vegetable planting.  If you go over there, you will see a lady with two boys preparing the fishes. On Monday we will be having five women coming here to train on how to process fish.

“I don’t take anything from some of them. When I see that some of them don’t have any means of livelihood, especially the youths who have gone to school but have nothing doing, I call them to come and acquire skills in agriculture.

“Like the lady there, I called her when I saw her hawking slippers. She is an undergraduate and had been at home since January last year. She heeded my call and today, she can do many things without assistance.

“There are some women who have nothing doing. They like asking for assistance all the time. I used to tell them that since they have hands, they can work and earn a living. Some of them would always give the excuse that they don’t have money. But I always tell them that it is not always about money.

“This is why I am always advising people to be productive instead of sitting down and waiting for manna to fall from heaven.

“Then, government had not come in to offer any assistance. But now they have come in. They bought machines for us and saved us the stress of carrying water up and down to wet the farm.

“The Lagos State Government also supported us by buying pumping machines for us. I was farming on many acres of land then, but the government has taken over the land.”

One of her apprentices, Mercy, who is an undergraduate, said she was happy acquiring the skills.

Mercy said: “I have acquired skills on how to rear fish from juvenile up to table size and how to process it. I can go and buy fish from farmers and then process and sell as dry fish. I have also acquired skills in poultry here too. I can rear from a day old till when I will sell.

“I am studying Microbiology in the university. If I have the means, I will go into agriculture in future. Some of my friends have been telling me that they cannot do what I am doing. But from the experience I have now, I can say that agriculture is good and rewarding. “

Government officials visiting without helping

Laudable as the activities of the small scale farmers in the communities are, findings revealed that many of them are not getting the basic assistance that would enable them to do better.

Checks with some of the farmers revealed that their farms are often visited by different government officials from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, who take their pictures and promise to assist but never lived up to their words.

“Some government officials came to my farm. They took the picture but nothing has come out of it. I don’t have any means of following up on that visit. What power does a poor widow have to follow up the government on any issue?” Madam Ajulo asked.

Madam Christiana, also lamented the fruitlessness of similar visits to her farm.

She said: “On February 21, 2019, there was a programme called Appeal on radio. A delegation of the Federal Ministry of Fishery came to my farm. They took the picture of the farm and mine but nothing came out of it. Thereafter, another group came from Abuja but nothing also came out of the visit.”

Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo grew up on the backstreet of Akala neighbourhood in Mushin, the infamous haven for notorious street urchins. But thanks to providence, he was able to follow a less-troubled path and literally remake his world. Today, he is a multi-disciplinarian with degrees in Economics, Business Administration, Marketing, Accountancy, Legal Studies which he capped with a PhD in Marketing Communications from Babcock University, Ilisan, Ogun State. In this interview with IBRAHIM APEKHADE YUSUF, Fadolapo who is the current Registrar/CEO at the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), the umbrella body for the regulation of advertising practice and affiliate businesses in the country, speaks on his management style. Excerpts:

When does your typical day begins?

Sometimes, my day starts as early as 4am. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I want to do is my to-do list and I keep improving on the list as the day moves. Immediately after the family prayer, my day starts. In this era of COVID-19, I work 24hours. That’s the new reality imposed by the global pandemic. For people who know me, I don’t I don’t joke with my work. If you give me an assignment, I’ll not even eat until I’m able to get the assignment off my desk. If you ask me, I just want to do my work. That’s my nature.

As the Registrar/CEO of APCON, what is your management style?

Well, my management style is participatory. Participatory in the sense that I believe that there is nobody that is an island of knowledge. I believe that a leader should be ready to learn. So for me, I’m not a boss. I see myself as a team leader and I’m blessed with the people that I have had the privilege of working with before I became the Registrar. So for me, it’s been more like let us come together. How do we take this industry to the next level both for the stakeholders, for staff and for everybody? It’s more like an engagement approach per se. All of us will come together and get things done. And we can’t be autocratic; it’s not going to take you far. Most especially, you should understand that you’re regulating an informal sector that moves and is in sympathy with the economy. So because of that we also need to understand that there are some variables along the line we need to plug into.

What’s your management philosophy?

I believe together we will win. That’s why I can’t say I. What we have achieved so far is as a result of our collective efforts; it’s not about me. It’s about having an industry that we will all be proud of. You see the statement that we’re not regulating to strangulate speaks volume and shows that it’s a new era. Nobody can sit down and say I’ll get it done. But we look onto God and we look up to the support of everybody and the stakeholders. Nobody is a junior person in this whole conversation; everybody is on the same page.

Do you delegate?

One of the things we did when we came on board was to review our operations. We created a regional structure and kept a zonal structure outside the current liaison office. Let me take you down the biblical times. In the Bible, Moses left Egypt and was going to Canaan. There is the spiritual level to this. God called Moses and God told Moses you’ll take my people to Canaan, which is the Promised Land. However, Moses who was the team leader will sit down from morning all through judging people. So his in-law came and told him that look if you continue judging people like this, you’ll just die. So he advised him (Moses) that why not set up a village or family or community and put somebody to man such places? If you do this, it’ll afford you the opportunity to tackle serious issues and not bother about housekeeping issues, his in-law advised. So what we also did was to review our total operations along that line. We have Liaison Offices that are reporting to Zonal Heads, just as we have Regional Heads reporting to Regional Director. So I just have the Regional Directors and the Directorate to liaise with and it makes things easy. I don’t get involved in operational issues. We operate on three levels: the Strategic, the Tactical and the Operational. If the Operational level does their job and issues emerge and it’s bigger than them they escalate it out and get to the Tactical team and if it’s something that is bigger than the Tactical team, they can escalate it to the Strategic team. So, I concentrate on strategic matters focused on the industry as such, I don’t want to get myself involved in the day-to-day running of the operations. For instance, issues like finding out if there is diesel in the generating plant for Abuja or who is the cleaner coming in from Abia and stuff? I don’t get myself involved in such trivialities. With that, we ensured that we embraced the strategic management approach where everybody gets his hands on the deck at their own level and that gives us a better opportunity to look at other things.

I’m sure that coming from the industry background and the private sector where emphasis is on key performance index and deliverables may have impacted your work ethics?

I absolutely agree.

So how do you motivate your staff?

There is a perception before I came and which is that for every industry, the regulator is supposed to be a step ahead of the regulated. But in this case, we had that deficiency and we’re still working on it. Now, we’re still working on some, improving on some and we have improved on so many things as well. For example, several years ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not what a CBN should be. The bankers were always a step ahead of the regulator. But it took one governor of the CBN to say, no, we will not allow the regulated to outshine the regulator. So, they (CBN) developed a new system, a new culture, a new structure, a new brand identity that placed CBN ahead of the regulated. So that’s the model we’re following. We’re looking at the industry where a staff of APCON would be seen in terms of knowledge, in terms of position, in terms of look and feel, in terms of presentation where people will be able to stand up and say, yes, this is my regulator. This is what we’re targeting as our takeoff point. Looking at our current structure, within our budget, we’re trying to motivate staff and decide what can we do in the immediate? The ideal factor is to look at what we can provide in the immediate within our structure as the law permits us to, and also add innovations. For now, what we try to do is to ensure that our allowances are paid as and when due. We’re giving people target, setting key result areas (KPAs) for them, setting key performance index (KPIs) as well as improving the morale. We’re looking at new areas in terms of capacity building. We’re bringing people from the industry to come speak to us and we also ensure that we improve the attitude of people. Besides, we’re also looking at what to do in terms of non-monetary that can entrench motivation inside these people and can make them feel motivated and feel proud of their job and wake up every morning happy to go to APCON. We had a management meeting recently and we’re taking these issues one at a time to see how we can improve in so many areas.

For staff whose performance falls below par, how do you reprimand them?

There is a principle in management which is the theory of X and Y. Theory X will tell you the staff will not work except you apply force, while theory Y tells you that staff wants to work but they need motivation.  So you will find those two elements in the workplace. So what we have been trying to do is to identify everybody and see what the skills requirements are and the knowledge gap that exist. As at today, I’m not sure if we have used any stick. Don’t forget that the latter part of last year and so far has been played down by COVID-19 so we have not really been able to have a full force operation, as such, most people have been asked to work out of office. So we have not really done much in terms of what we’re expected to do. Most of these templates are being put together believing that we will come out of this COVID-19 in the first quarter of this year and when we go into the second quarter everybody will be able to put in their best.

I’m sure in this midst of this work tight schedules you’ll experience some burnout at some point. So how do you unwind?

My job requires a lot of travelling, especially at short notices, as such, any little time I have I want to spend it with my family. I’m not a party person per se. You see some of us, who wrote the exam of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) to become Chartered Accountants; we had our destiny altered in some way. Our social life was really hampered. When we were writing ICAN the only thing we wanted to do was to sit and pass the exam and nothing else. Luckily, some people were able to escape and some were unable to do so. Unfortunately, I belong to the people that were unable to escape it. (laughs). So when I leave the office, I just go straight home and once I get home, there is always something to work on. And you know, these days, telephones have made it so bad that even if you sit down, you’ll have something you can be checking up on your phones like trying to find out what is the practice of advertising in other climes and stuffs like that and doing one form of research or the other.

Talking about research, you should be a bookworm naturally?

Ha no, I no know book o. (laughs).

Ok, what was the last book you read and when?

I can’t remember. (laughs). I’m not a bookworm. You see some us are dull; we just managed to struggle through school. Olohun gbogo fun ole (God just assisted the unexpected winner).

So what are your hobbies really?

I do cartoon with my kids watching orente. I also follow the social media to see what’s trending and see if there’s anything I can take away in terms of ideas and new innovations. I actually stopped reading when I finished my postdoctoral presentation; I decided that I don’t want to do any serious academic work anymore. Although most of these things are good for the body because for instance, playing golf is good for both your health as well as for networking too. But my current schedule like having to travel at short notices may not afford me such luxuries right now. Maybe if I’m able to put APCON on autopilot, things can change along that line. For now, it’s all about putting so many things in place in APCON.

What’s your choice holiday destination whether locally or internationally?

Well, in fact, I have travelled more since I became APCON Registrar than I ever travelled in my life. For me, even when I travel, instead of me sleeping in the hotel I’ll leave for my home no matter how late it is. If I have option not to travel, I won’t travel. I’m really not your average owambe person that loves to party. But funny enough, I grew up in Mushin. I was at the Talent Hunt for Mushin Odi-Olowo few days ago. I was there with Hon. Yemi Alli, who was the former Chairman of Odiolowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area and now a member House of Representatives, Mushin Constituency 1. So Mushin remains my hood.

Tell us about your days in Mushin.

I grew up at Adeyemi Street along with the Alado’s children. I was still at Mushin when the present Oba Fatai was still at Agan before he became king. I was there when Fatai Dudu, Olowo osi was in town. I was on the tarmac (euphemism for street-smart kids in Lagos). Those were the days when boys were boys. I can recall the days of Fatai Irawo, even during those days of wetie; we were all at the tarmac. That was when the Zone D was Zone D, and the police need to move boys around. But I’m a changed person now. (Laughs). I’m always very proud of Mushin.

Looking back to your days in Mushin, how do you feel now?

It’s really funny how I left Mushin. I was involved in a street fight then an uncle came and saw me and said, ha, the way this guy is going, he is going to spoil our family name. The uncle now said I should leave Mushin. Fortunately shortly after that, I got sick. When I recovered from my illness, the uncle said, no, you’re not going back to Mushin again. So that’s how I left Mushin. Ordinarily, maybe I should be one of the gangsters there now. (laughs). I remember I was arrested by a LASTMA official way back. I looked at the fellow and I said, ‘Look, I grew up in Mushin o, if not that I went to school I would have been putting on this uniform around your neck so you can’t just come and harass me because I knew when Dr. Muiz Banire came to Mushin and was recruiting people into LASTMA and naturally, I would have been on the list.’ He just laughed and I moved on.

Kiki Okewale is a designer, entrepreneur, philantropist and the CEO of Kiki Okewale Empire. In this interview with Yetunde Oladeinde, she opens up on her passion for designing, inspiration, grooming younger designers through her academy and garment factory, representing Nigeria in Thailand for a Fashion show, touching lives and discovering new opportunities during COVID-19 lockdown last year.

Tell us about life as a designer. How did you start and what are the things that inspire you?

The Kiki Okewale Empire comprises of Hope by Kiki Okewale which is where we sell our exclusive beautiful fabrics and do aso ebi. Then we have our arm of shoe and bag brand. Basically, we cater for every woman from head to toe. It includes jewelry and we have Brazilian jewelry. IT is a one stop store for everyone. Then we have our K O Couture brand where we do party owambe styles and we do evening wears, ready to do dresses. So, you can come into our building and get everything you want for fashion and about fashion.

I have always loved fashion, even as a child. I have always loved to style people and make them beautiful. When we have family gatherings, I would make sure I match colours. So, growing up I have always loved fashion and I have always done fashion. But starting the fashion business itself started when I was planning my wedding and everything was so hard and difficult. We didn’t have Instagram and social media like we have now. I had to go somewhere else for fabrics, go somewhere else to make it. I had to go and look for someone to do my aso-oke. Then now start looking for shoes, purses and jewelry and it was such an overwhelming experience. It was exhausting and I said to myself, I am planning a wedding I should enjoy the process. I should enjoy everything up to the day but it wasn’t like that, it was exhausting for me. So, I told myself that I was going to fill in the gap and help the bride or any other events like birthdays. Whatever it is that you are planning; the process has to be smooth and enjoyable. That was how we started. I started by selling fabrics, then we started making the fabrics for them and of course, we match it with shoes, purses and aso oke. We made the process very seamless where you can enter into our store and get everything you need for your big day. That was where the inspiration started from.

How did you survive COVID-19 and its impact last year?

This are unprecedented times and COVID -19 taught me to look inwards and then be very proactive , think of things that I can do at this time. For me to be honest our business was on lockdown and I looked at ways to proffer solutions because there is always going to be problems. So, I went back to my drawing board and I looked at ways to help people in the fashion industry. I also realized that during this period a lot of people who would travel to places like China or Turkey were stuck. So, the idea came that why am I not producing for this people. So, even in the problem, I found a solution. The truth of the matter is that people would always pay you for solutions. That gave birth to the idea of having a garment factory. It is about time people stop taking our money outside the country. Let us help Nigerian brands, let us support each other. If the government supports Nigerian businesses we would really go far. Nigerians are hard working, we are not lazy.

That was how we started with the Garment factory. It’s been really amazing and this period opened my eyes to better ways of doing things. Most important is being ahead in your field. be proactive and finding solutions to people’s problem. We thank God that things are getting better and we have been able to carve a niche for ourselves.

What are some of the memorable moments in the sector?

For me, it was the moment I met with Jimmy Chill. It was such humbling and fulfilling period. Also when I went to represent Nigeria in Thailand in 2019 for a fashion show. They had one person from each country and I represented Nigeria. We showcased our adire, African print and Ankara too. Jimmy Chill was there at the final stage, meeting him and he said that my designs were phenomenal, beautiful and that Nigeria was going places, if only our government give us the support that we really need. Meeting the owner of Fashion TV, being covered by Fashion TV and meeting Jimmy Chill. I believe that the sky is just the starting point for us. We would keep pushing and doing our best. Showing that there is more to Nigeria part from all the negativity that is shown out there.

Tell us about grooming young designers through the academy and the factory?

Grooming the younger ones is a very important part of my business. I am doing empowerment classes and even before we started the Kiki Okewale Fashion Academy, we have had regular empowerment programs on how to start their own business making fabric bags, slippers. Some teaching them how to embellish, some teaching them how to sew. We have always done that and then we started our dash ion school. It’s been really good, there is nothing as fulfilling as seeing people you groom doing great and mighty things. We have had students who have started and grown big. After the school, we mentor them, put them on internship before going into the world to make sure they excel. I also take it upon myself to train them personally.

What are the challenges?

There are lots of challenges; there is no business that doesn’t go through different phases of challenges and setbacks. We are in a country where there are so many bills that is killing businesses. A lot of businesses have closed down because of overheads, exorbitant electricity bills. Getting committed good staff is also a challenge in this industry. Some come in and just want to reap from everything, not knowing that it has to do with hard work. A lot of people look down on Nigerian designers, brands but the truth is we do phenomenal work. We hope that government would help put us on the platform, make people see what we can do.

How has working in the sector influenced your personality?

I want people to know that in every problem there is a goldmine. I have heard people who started business during the pandemic and they are really thriving. Think of things that can be solutions to people. People would pay anything to live a comfortable life.

There is a lot of confusion in the economy at the moment. What advice do you have for Nigerian Youths?

My advice to Nigerian youths is to encourage them to be focused. They should be committed to whatever they want to do. I see a lot of young people who want me to mentor them but they get easily distracted by social media and all the negative trends going on in the world. I encourage them to stay firm, stay strong. Be committed to what you are doing. There is no purpose without pain. So, you are going to go through hard times. Nobody got to where they are today by finding it easy. Every successful, rich person has had to go through different phases of setbacks or challenges. So, the most important thing is to be focused and determined. Be proactive, take steps ahead.

What are some of the other things that occupy your time?

I have a fashion mall where we cater for outfits. The garment factory where we do ready to wear, tee-shirts, uniforms and the fashion school. Asides from all this my family is one thing that I do not joke with. I make sure that I create time for family. My weekends are strictly for my family. I play with my kids, impacting knowledge, sharing ideas and spending time with my husband. Creating family time is important because in the long run that is what really matters. When the children grow up what would they remember? I love to travel a lot. I am also very religious, prayerful and take time out to be in tune with God and have proper communication with HIM. I also create a ME time for ME.

You are a philanthropist. What inspired this?

I have had to go through tough times in my life. It is not like I have plenty but I know what it feels like to have nothing. I have been in situations where I have absolutely nothing. That is why I made it a point to give as much as I can give. We have empowerment with children. We teach them how to start business. We support schools, children with uniform, schoolbooks and it brings us so much joy to bring smiles to the faces of children. Encouraging them to go to school, helping them with shoes, clothes and schoolbags and every way we can. We go to orphanage homes, take food to people on the streets. We just try to do the little that we can; the truth of the matter is that there is so much to be done. I encourage everyone to touch the lives of people around them.

What are you looking forward to in the next few years?

I want to own the biggest garment company in Nigeria. To have the equipment, machines which are not cheap? So, we want to have a factory where people do not have to travel out to get the things that we can do here. I want my fashion brand to be known and recognized all over the world. I want to style the who is who in the world. I also want to take Nigeria as a Nation to international and global frontiers. We have a lot of amazing designers in Nigeria.

Two years ago we had people come from America to take classes with us. We want people to come from all over the world to take classes with us. Then there is my fashion brand and I would like to be the biggest fabric merchant in Nigeria.

Who or what do you consider as the greatest influence in your life?

First, I want to thank God almighty. HE deserves all the glory because no one would come to you except God makes it possible .I want to acknowledge my mum, her hard work, commitment, selflessness. My mum would give her eye to anyone. This is one of the things that have helped me to be who I am now. My dad was known as a philanthropist before he died. I learnt a lot from him and then there is my Godmother who helped me fulfill my potentials, growing up in my formative years. Also there is my brother who became my father, because I am an only child. My brothers became my father and they made sure that they gave me the best that they could. They were struggling with surviving with themselves but they took care of me and protected me. There is my husband who has been my best support system. He has influenced me in more ways than I can ever mention. He has taught me about sympathy and empathy. Dealing with people, understanding people and where they are coming from. He is my number one cheerleader and supporter. My children, they always encouraged me. God has placed so many amazing people in my path.