Sir Steve Omojafor is a renowned advertising practitioner and Executive Chairman, STB-Mc Cann, Lagos. The former chairman, Zenith Bank Plc, reminisced with Adetutu Audu on his life at 70 and his 40th wedding anniversary which he celebrated a few weeks ago.
What does being 70 mean to you?
Well, it is a number counting one to 70; it’s what it means to be 70.Beyond that is the fact you have lived different stages of your life. Being born, which you knew nothing about; you grew up two, three, four, five years old and you can now see around you that you are in some place, whether in the world or in a community, neigbhourhood. They tell you, you have to go to school not because you wanted to, whatever they ask you to do, you do at that point.
That was in Obalende for me. I did everything little boys could do, and from there you finish your primary school and they say you have to go to secondary school. What you don’t know and where it is leading you to, you have no idea. You do entrance exam and you get into the secondary school, at that point you get to discover who you really are, meet friends and it just goes on. You compare notes depending on what level of life you are with your family but accepting things the way they are. The good about that time was that we were satisfied with things the way they were. Some came from very rich home, some not very rich, some very poor, but as far as we were concerned we were just living a simple good life. Nobody looked down on anyone; we did things together it was like a community of friends.
And secondary school was over, in those days, there was higher school. It’s either you do it where you have your secondary school or you go somewhere else, which was what I did. Having been in Gregory’s College and schooled in Lagos, I just said let me go out. I wanted to go to Comprehensive College, Aiyetoro, but I had a friend who wanted to go to Warri and for no reason, I said I would join him to see what life was outside Lagos.
For the first time, for me, I was literarily returning to my own state. People had taken me as pure and simple Yoruba boy, no apologies, and my mum didn’t allow me use my name Bamidele, because she thought I should just stick to my Christian name Steven. We were in Warri for two years, the war broke out and I had to find my way back to Lagos and completed the HSC in St. Gregory’s.
Then University of Lagos and after graduation it was work, then life was more straight. Civil Service Commission would come and interview those who wanted to work in the civil service, I was lucky to be interviewed and was employed with the Ministry of Information and I did resume. For three months, there was no work and at the end of the third month I said I could not start my life with this one.
I went back to Daily Times where I had freelanced before I went to the university. Henry Odukomaiya, former Governor Segun Osoba, Areoye Oyebola were there then. I worked as a reporter; I was later moved to the features and eventually chief sub editor. After my third year, the urge to go on was still strong. I joined Lintas Advertising, got married and the children started coming. I left Lintas after four years to set up Rosabel, and STB McCann also came out of Rosabel. My partners were Akin Odunsi and Tunde Adelaja
I retired at age 60 from day to day operations, now I come in once or twice in a week, if they need me and to keep mentally alert.
It has been advertising for you for 40 years. How did you survive doing the same thing all those years?
When you identify where you belong, in everything in this life you have a lot of options ahead of you and somewhere along the line. One of them strikes you as being part of you and what you will like to do. Once you stick to it, nothing gets you out of it anymore, you just get stuck, whether it is raining, or fire is burning you just say ‘I am going to stick.’ It was very adventurous by the time we wanted to start Rosabel. We were all young between the ages of 28 and 31. We had no money to set up. It was like you go to your dad, you go to your uncle, you go to your mum, tell him we want to set up a company.
There was no bank to go to. That was how it all started. It was three of us and two more people. It was a big challenge, but we said were going to succeed. We were lucky also that none among us has greed for money which breaks up partnership. And that was the only partnership that existed in the whole of UNILAG in those days. Today; we still live together as partners.
So staying for 40 years means it is something I love doing and enjoy and it is not something you can crash into if you need money. You could see the work of your hand and the work of your brain. You were in that marketing sector in which you could see result as you go on. I said to young people back then, ‘if you are looking for big money you go elsewhere.’
Being relatively young then, how were you able to convince people to believe in you?
By the time we were going to break out, a lot of companies were run by expatriates, and that was why we knew it was going to be very tough. We knew it was not going to be a tea party. We knew we had to do something extraordinary to make them to believe in us. In any case, we drew up a list of about 10 prospects, maybe only one will open their doors for you. After a while, they would say what are these young boys doing because the big men were making money? But gradually they saw consistency, fresh and a bit of creativity in what we were doing and then speed. By the time I was leaving Lintas, the type of campaign that would take three months then, we were ready to get it done in one month, in fact that was the unique selling point. A bit of creativity and speed in working. We didn’t have huge departments; if we finished one job we moved to the next. When we could not afford a Volkswagen car, we didn’t plan to buy a Mercedes Benz. That is part of what kills our entrepreneurs. They aim too high and try to live their dreams even before they get there. Today, we are all satisfied people; not because of what we built up, but because of who we are as human beings. We just had to work morning, day and night and we just got to succeed. And it became almost like our DNA. It was fun. At some point, Rosabel was getting big and we set up a second line agency, and that was how STB came into existence. I took on STB and A as we were known. I ran it till 2006, when I bowed out.
How did you feel when you got your first cheque?
We feIt good. What was killing the industry in our own era was that the first cheque they got was like ‘let’s share it.’ But in our own, we didn’t do that. There were things we needed to do to make the office into a proper office. In those days, you needed equipment to do your typesetting; now of course it has been digitalised. We told our wives that in the next six month, they needed to take care of the house. We were young, with no children and they took over the challenge. The first six months, whatever came was to build up an institution and it worked. There was not what we even called a salary, but we sat down to define what each person was entitled to. There was no argument about it. We made it clear nobody comes to the office and borrow money. So we had to fall back on family members and that helped us a great deal. People that joined us later also knew that we were for serious business.
Who would you say is your mentor?
For me, my boss at Lintas, Olu Falomo, who is still very much alive. He gave me so much confidence. The assignment I should not handle at that level, he was just handing them to me. Olu was not a friend to anybody, at a point people thought we were related. But Olu is Ijesha and me I am Igbo. But on a general level, we looked up to a lot of people in the industry and even back in Akoka, a few people popped in to see what we were doing and we can always call on them when the need arose. But all in all, we believed in ourselves.
You are one of the successful people in Nigeria. What would you say is your success secret?
I don’t think I am one of the successful people in Nigeria. No. I will probably disagree with you. I just know that I’m like you. We all are struggling. You know when you are growing up, you don’t know what you are going to become. You just go to school because your parents say you must go to school. When after school you start asking what am I going to do? You look at your course of study and see where it’s going to lead you to. I studied Mass Communication, so I knew that I was either going to be a journalist, broadcaster or a PR person. I started with print journalism, with Daily Times. I worked with Daily Times for a number of years, but I didn’t get satisfaction. I moved into advertising. But you have to understand that none of this was planned. After four to five years in Lintas, me and some colleagues of mine decided to set up Rosabel Advertising. From there, we set up a second agency called STB McCann, which I ran until I retired. So, when you talk about planning, there are certain things you really don’t know ahead, what it’s going to be. Every successful person you talk to would never say to you ‘I knew I was going to be a wealthy man, I knew I was going to be a big success.’ You just to take one step at a time. Sometimes you make mistakes, you come back again to take stock of what you have done and see where you made mistakes and forge ahead. So, when all these things are put together with success and failure at some point, they strike to make you great and that is where you stay and that is where you remain.
Apart from advertising, we woke up to read in the papers that you were Chairman, Zenith Bank. Can you share your experience in the banking world with us?
Before the Chairmanship of Zenith came, I had become Chairman of STB McCann along the line. I had set up a subsidiary in Ghana and ran it as chairman of the board. I had set up in Sierra Leone subsidiary to STB McCann. In Sierra Leone, I saw the topography and the resources that were available. I said I won’t be the chairman. I wanted a local person and we got one. I believe that somebody in Zenith must have taken note of me and a phone call came that the managing director of Zenith wanted to talk to me.
I didn’t have account in Zenith and I couldn’t be owing, so what was the problem? They put him on and he said he is Jim Ovia and said, ‘can we meet?’ Initially, I thought he wanted to give me an advertising job to do. He told me the company was going to go public and they needed to bring me two directors and he asked me if I could join. I said I didn’t study finance and I never worked in a bank. He said it did not matter.
As it is usual with me, the first three meetings I was just listening and later got books on finance and I was able to fit in. I was director for the Ghana and the Sierra Leone branches. A time came and the position of the chairman was vacant and I was put in. I ran that for about four years.
Did you find the terrain strange, coming from your own background?
It was strange because we who were outside the banking system are more of banking people than people who are in there. People who are in there are only looking at what customers wanted, what can we do to improve our processes and our profit level? You coming from outside have a different perspective; you know all the things those inside may not know. Those are all the experience and having been a chairman to a lot of companies before then, I didn’t have a problem and it was surprising to a lot of people that I was able to settle in fast.
Why do you think some people attain success and are unable to sustain it?
It is because they didn’t work hard to sustain it or they were looking for too much money right from the beginning. When you start a business, money should be one of your least worries in terms of what you get out of the business. The major thing is to put in as much as you have and start working on that; get a right partner, get the right and best business tutors to shape your temperament and also take a look at your environment. Now, people get greedy. That is when business begins to fail because if you make one million naira today and all the partners sit down to share the money and wait until the next one comes, the business will fail. In fact, in the first three years of starting a business, don’t think of getting anything out of it. You’ve got to plough back; you have got to re-invest until you get to that comfort zone where you can start sharing. When we started Rosabel, for six months, we said nobody was going to get a salary. So, we had to fall back on our families, our wives and all that to be able to keep the business going and you also have to cut down on your consumption pattern because you have a business to grow. You cannot grow 10 things at the same time. You cannot be growing your business and grow your lifestyle at the same time. It is not going to work and if it works, it’s not going to last. So, that is how it is. There is no magic about it. It is you as a person agreeing and telling yourself how you want to run it to be able to make it a success.
At 70, what would you want to change?
I started changing a lot of things from 50. I was a party freak. No weekend passed without partying and it had to do with growing up in Lagos. In Lagos Island, Lafiaji, you are either following the Fanti, I was part of street dancing in Lagos. I enjoyed parties a lot and I was a night club person. We went out a lot. When I got married, my wife knew what my life had been. She said she was not going to stop me. But by the time I was 60, I had to cut it down. And you know the normal alcohol thing from beer to cognac, champagne had to be reduced. There are still a lot to be reduced. It is a gradual process.
You got married at age 30 and you have been married for 40 years. What keeps the union going in the era where divorce rate is alarming?
It has not been easy, but you are lucky if you get married to a woman who knows you enough. No secret, and you have not been hiding anything. She knows I enjoyed my parties. She knew that on Fridays the boys must go together. She attended a couple with me, she got tired and would not go again, but she was confident enough to let me go. When a woman gives you that confidence, it puts you in check. She gave me a lot of room and I made sure I didn’t abuse it. I did a lot of travelling on the job, so that confidence helped me to keep as much as possible. Nobody is claiming to be a saint. On the other hand, women will be women. You are bound to disagree and if you are not careful, you will disagree on virtually everything, but maturity comes in, respect for each other comes in and understanding for each other’s mood.
Being able to accept fault from both sides. Crisis comes when somebody say no,no,no. There is nothing like no,no for a human being. He or she is not your houseboy or house girl. Both of you are going through the same thing either at work or in the society and you should be able to tolerate each other. Tolerance level in Nigeria is low. As you get older in marriage, everybody starts to mellow because the understanding is already there and you want the marriage to work. No matter what a partner is doing outside, if all you are imagining is what one person is doing outside, you will get your happiness go on decreasing. In fact, you will be depressed. You have your life to live, you have got work to do, children to take care of, make those ones your priority.
Tell us how you feel about being honoured and recognised by your country
I listed only three awards in the brochure for my birthday. The Papal awards from the Pope in Rome. The Pope does not know you, but based on the recommendation of your parish or Bishop. I cherish it a lot. The next one is the national award. How it came, I don’t know. But I remember the secretary of our organisation said they needed names in our industry and asked for my CV. Initially, I was not too keen about it. I was in England when someone called that they saw my name in the papers for the national honours. I went online and when I saw the calibre of the people in the OON category, I said that makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate it and thank God for it because it was a good recognition. There is another one from our industry organised by the Marketing Edge magazine. Out of my spare time, I have also been able to reach out to the less privileged. I wish I could do more because a lot of people need assistance in the country, government cannot do it alone.
What lessons has life taught you at 70?
You cannot be an Island. In which ever community or group you find yourself, try to leave a little positive mark as to what you have done to help somebody else. Anytime I do something for somebody and I see the smile and contentment on their faces, that is one very happy day for me. For me, the happiness of others give me a lot of added happiness. Life is all about yes, you worked hard, yes God has blessed you, but at the same time bless others.
Success attracts women, how do you manage this?
Firstly it is all about yourself; what you are looking for in your life? How do you want to end up? It is very easy to pick up one woman after the other. You know the questions I ask myself: after that, what next? You now run yourself into more problems. When you accept advances from a woman, at the end of the day, she will tell you I have one problem or the other. And if you pick another one at the end of the day, it becomes messy and you ask yourself what I am getting there. I prefer the little bit I can to assist you. I am bold to say that 70percent of people who want to get attached to you may tell you it is love, but at the end it is ‘what is in there for me?’ I learnt the lesson long ago even as a student in the university. It is either you want to play the game and waste the money for your allowance or pocket money or you want to keep to yourself. My upbringing in the mission compound helped. Even my mum thought I would become a priest while growing up. I saw women as partners at work, because you needed a lot of them as you are growing up. There is nothing so good when you meet them later in life with open mind and it helps you to concentrate, that is the discipline I carried on it till today and that is what I preach.
So why did you deviate from being a priest?
The calling probably was not strong and of course becoming a catholic priest is not something you can just get up and be as it is with pentecostal pastors. Honestly, if you are a catholic, there is so much involved in becoming a priest. The major one is that you must be called. If you get there for another reason, it won’t work, so I knew that it was not my calling.
Was your mum disappointed?
No. it has to come from you first. She took me to the mission compound because she felt I needed more whipping in those early days and I spent three years.
What about your father?
He was there. He was a quiet man. He left my mum to do the work. A lot of people have always asked me you talk much about your mum and little about your dad. That was how it was with us. He was happy we all turned out very well. Both of them are late now. But I remember them with fond memories.
