Category: Sunday magazine

Mrs. Beatrice Mogbonjubola is the Managing Director of Mogbonju Nigeria Limited, suppliers of hospital equipments, which turned 30. In this interview with NNEKA NWANERI, the United Kingdom-trained nurse shares some of her experiences beginning the business and how being born and bred in Lagos has helped her business.

HOW did it all begin? you ask. “I worked with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos and left there for a pharmaceutical company that deals with hospital equipments where I was a medical representative, which was where I gained my experience from.”

She later joined Julius Berger in Lagos and went on to Sapele in Delta State. After that, she began dealing with her company, Mogbonju Nigeria Enterprises, and became incorporated in 1984 and began sales in Warri. “It was my husband who encouraged me to go into a business I was in love with and something relating to my profession. I also had a family background of business; my siblings and I were all business-inclined despite our courses of study.”

At first, Mogbonjubola borrowed N3, 700 from a national bank and started the business from a shop and began visiting hospitals with samples of her products. Soon afterwards, she began supplies. At that point, some expatiates in the UK were also looking for people who will distribute for them in Nigeria and Mogbonju became their major distributor. “We began display until I got my first contract which was N9000. It was a very big contract but I didn’t have the funds.”

You want to know what drives the business and she replies this way: “Over the years, we have been able to differentiate between fake and original equipments because here at Mogbonju, we cannot afford to toy with human lives. We deal with good quality equipment and that is why we are celebrating 30 years in business. Many of our equipments have saved lives and for that, we give God glory.”

Mogbonjubola goes on to compare the health sector with the situation in different parts of the world. “We are improving in some area. The eradication of Ebola is a testimony that the health sector is improving. If Nigeria can eradicate a disease that is even worse than HIV, it is a testimony that we are really doing well. It is capital intensive with a large number of patients. That is why we at Mogbonju come out to where they are lacking. The budget should be increased to cater for maintenance of the instruments. We encourage our customers to allow us do periodic maintenance checks so that with the equipments in the country, we can curtail the cost of travelling to outside countries for treatment.”

She adds: “With good equipment, we will see that we have perfect doctors and physicians. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that eight out of 10 doctors above are Nigerians. It is evident that they are not willing to work for lack of equipment. So a credit facility can help them get those expensive facilities for hospitals and the doctors residing abroad will have something to come back home to. These doctors are well trained and knowledgeable but have no equipments. Our hospitals lack maintenance culture on machines. Their bio-medics don’t help matters because when the equipments get spoilt, they push it out. That era should stop. There should be no dumping of equipment. There should be maintenance culture, and it is the responsibility of the supplier to maintain it. An agreement should be signed to this effect and that will make the supplier buy spare parts for such equipment.”

Next, she talks about the need for good corporate social responsibility. “In terms of CSR, we usually partner with the rotary club and donate equipments to hospitals, motherless babies’ homes around here and the physically challenged homes. We also give talks in schools. Our philanthropy also stretches to the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), and other states. In Nigeria, we are blessed to be able to plant vegetables at our backyards. So why can’t we eat right rather than junk foods? As cheap as vegetable cooked with fish is, it is much healthier than a meal laced with many expensive commodities. Big amount of carbohydrates are not advisable and if so, the vegetable should be more than any other food so that they won’t become obese.

Regular exercises, she emphasised, is very important, at least three quarter to one hour daily. “Even if not rigorous, it should be exercised. Good sleep is also very important. We also fall victim of getting in the rave of parties by drinking several alcoholic drinks, which gives pot-bellies. We should try to curtail ourselves and stop the habit of over drinking which does not help the body. Lack of exercises causes heart attack because as we grow old, the blood vessels is not elastic as it used to be, so by doing regular exercises, we are keeping the blood flowing, and drinking a lot of water, less salt to the diet and good sleep helps.”

The Amazon adds: “If tired, take rest and don’t overdo. If you don’t take it easy, the body will either rest in stroke or rest in heaven. For men, as we grow old, their body frails in the area of sexual intercourse. At a certain age, not that it should be dropped, but should be curtailed. Don’t try to please anyone else; it could lead to heart attack. The younger ones should also eat complete balanced diet instead of only pap. An egg and bananas and pineapples also help.”

Amina Ekpo, the 44th Miss Nigeria is charting a new course away from the runway by focusing on the environment and the way we live. She is the founder of Touching Tender Hearts (TTH)Foundation and this cute queen-the first from Akwa Ibom State is hoping to bring Uyo to a standstill this coming week on the occasion of the maiden edition of the  WNAM Nature Festival . What has a beauty queen got to do with the environment? The graduate of applied chemistry, in this interview with Morakinyo Abodunrin, speaks about few things appealing to her heart

LET us start from the known to the unknown, how do you feel being the 44th girl to be crowned Miss Nigeria?

It is just a title but which I appreciate so much because it is also a privilege; and I hope it turns out to be something meaningful and beneficial not only to me but to the larger society. It is an interesting thing for the singular fact that I’m the first from Akwa Ibom State to be so honoured as Miss Nigeria.  But be that as it may, I’m just an ordinary girl; a person that is simply doing her thing to connect with her environment.

So, how can you make it meaningful as you connect with the environment?

One of the ways to make it meaningful is to do things that can benefit people and you are happy and determined to do it because it would add value to my life and the lives of others. That is just about it.

How are you going about that?

I’m trying as much as possible to do projects that can impact on the lives of the people and make the society much better. Right now, my focus is on the environment and the way we live because the earth is the only place we have; and we must make sure it is habitable. The problem is that a lot of people don’t realise that the earth is our home and we need to put the earth in good shape so that it would be sustainable. As at now, the earth is not really looking good and we cannot afford to sit down without doing anything about it. This is the reality we face and we must therefore do things that will make the earth more fascinating and appealing to live on.

What are the things you don’t like about the way some people use the earth that has made you focus on the environment?

I think I like the fact that all of us are trying to survive and happy despite obvious challenges wherever we are living. But in the middle of all these, there are so many things we are not paying proper attention to just because in the quest for survival and living. These days, we do so many things that damage the environment and sometimes economic considerations override environmental considerations.

What is all about the event you are putting up this December; is it centred on the environment and the way we live?

Yes! We have been working on this for some time, and between December 21 and 28, we are having a wonderful show in Uyo in Akwa Ibom State and one of the issues in the forefront is the environment. We tagged it WNAM Nature Festival and it is going to be a total package because apart from delivering lectures on how to improve the environment and eco system, it is going to be entertaining since there would be fashion shows, beauty pageant and many more.  The event is going to be held at the Le Meridien Ibom Hotel & Golf Resort and Golf Hotels in Uyo. It is our own contribution in the efforts to make the society much better.

Great. But why the environment at a time we have hundreds of school girls trapped in Chibok?

You mean why can’t we do an event around them? Of course, we can.  But part of what we are focusing on has to do with the environment and the way we live.  Unlike before, we no longer care about what happens in our immediate community and the larger society is actually driving itself to its own ruin. The event in Uyo would be reminders of what we are supposed to be doing as a people in order to make our environment peaceful and sustainable. We already have a lot of right-minded Nigerians behind this project.

Has your background as someone who read applied chemistry in the tertiary institution informed your foray into environmental issues?

Oh! Chemistry is actually the study of nature but apart from that, something deep inside of me has shown that I’m a natural person. I think right from the beginning, I think I have some natural inclinations which I was not even aware of when I was very young. I believe that we can live in a better environment if we all can just give a thought about the way we live and how we use the environment. These are some of the issues we will look at in Uyo and hopefully, we can start on a good course from there.