Tag: Nigerian Newspapers

A memoir by Chief Oladele Fajemirokun, a first-rate entrepreneur, reveals how he made his fortune, and lays to rest the widely-held belief that he is an inheritor. FEMI MACAULAY, a member of the Editorial Board, reviews the autobiography.

How can the son of a prosperous man claim to be self-made? Chief Oladele Fajemirokun, 69, provides an answer to the paradoxical poser in his memoir, unveiled at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. It is easy to jump to the conclusion that the memoirist inherited the wealth of his father, Chief Henry Fajemirokun, who died in 1978 at  51, and was a reference point for prosperity in his lifetime. But the junior Fajemirokun’s story about how he became prosperous is clarifying. Indeed, the autobiography, titled: The Making of Me – My Odyssey in Business, is a portrait of a self-made man.

Interestingly, the senior Fajemirokun was a self-made man too. His son’s memoir is, therefore, the story of a self-made man whose father was also self-made. The memoirist was born in Lagos, “in a rented, one-room apartment of a tenement building, at No. 6 Eletu-Iwase Street, in Isale Eko.”

According to the autobiographer, “Here was an area without water, except for the public tap; no toilets, except the pit and bucket latrine, which was emptied at night by ‘night soil men’ or agbepo; a most demeaning occupation and an unhealthy system of human waste disposal. This system was brought to an end by the administration of Governor Lateef Jakande in 1979 when he decreed the abolition of pit and bucket latrines throughout the city of Lagos.”  He was born “on the bare floor (because there was no one to take my mother to the hospital for my delivery).”

But Chief Henry Fajemirokun later became rich. He was a high-flying entrepreneur who established his business wizardry through his running of the Henry Stephens Group of Companies.  He was president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce from 1971 to 1975, and also president of the West African Chamber of Commerce from 1972 until he died in his hotel room “while on chamber duty as head of a trade mission to Ivory Coast” in 1978. He was vice-president of the Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce and president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).

“At the peak of his success in business,” says his son, “he bought a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Mercedes Benz 450S as his official cars. If he had lived longer, I guess he probably would have been the first Nigerian to own a private jet.”

However, the memoirist says: “… until my father died, 27 years into my earthly life, I never tasted the silver spoon nor the special privileges associated with children of a wealthy father.”

“I never travelled abroad, never went on summer holidays nor attended elite schools … Most holidays, I was sweeping the floor in my father’s warehouse or working as a tally clerk in his clearing and forwarding company, and later, during secondary school and as a university undergraduate, as a clerk in the bank. My dad never believed in giving me pocket money. It was a concept that was alien to him, but only as far as it concerned me. He believed that I had to earn my keep. He made me open a passbook account, which he kept, and occasionally made me withdraw money for my siblings. This action of my father created the working hunger for money and survival all my life.”

Following his father’s sudden death, the memoirist became Group Executive Director (GED) of the Henry Stephens Group. He said: “There was no money or liquidity, apart from bank facilities granted to him and his companies. The Fajemirokun ship was sitting on dry dock … In 1988, all the debts owed to the banks were fully repaid. However, the companies by this time had suffered untold hardship and pain. Many went under and the ones that remained were mere shells.”

Fajemirokun said he “never used any of the documents to secure facilities from any bank.”

The autobiographer admits that he benefited from his father’s “image and influence in society, including his very wide business and social network.” But, he says: “The story ends there.” He didn’t inherit riches.

He asserts: “I have earned everything I own in life. My houses in prestigious locations in Nigeria, the UK, the USA and South Africa were all built or bought by me from my own labours. They were not inherited; neither were they in anyway proceeds from my late father’s estate.”

How did the memoirist become so rich? A year and four months after his father’s death, “one sunny Wednesday afternoon, in  June 1979,” three Americans visited him in his office while he was GED of the Group. “It would be the turning point in my life,” he says. “The opportunity transformed me from a young man struggling to wrest my late father’s empire from the jaws of predators waiting in the wings, into a rich young man with lots of money to play with.”

His transformation was magical.  Hear the memoirist: “They owned a telecommunications company – T-CAS Inc. (Telecommunications Consultancy and Services) – that had been engaged in some contracts with the Nigerian Ministry of Communications and its parastatal, Nigeria External Telecommunications (NET). They told me that they urgently needed a bridging loan of N50, 000. They had their money, running into millions of naira and dollars, tied up with NET and the ministry.

I knew that this was my chance…  Without thinking of where and how I would raise the money, I looked at them and told them that I would give them the money with some conditions. Desperate men would do desperate things. They agreed.

‘’I told them the N50, 000 would represent my 51 per cent equity in their company and that I would be made Executive Chairman, to which they also agreed. I told them that we would also need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). And they agreed. They were being owed millions of dollars and naira by NET and I knew that this was a big break that was coming to me.

‘’I now had to source the money. I went to Barclays Bank (now Union Bank Nigeria Plc) head office branch, Marina, Lagos, where I had my personal account… The manager was agreeable to my proposal for a facility of N50, 000. I took along the title of my undeveloped plot on Toyin Close through Opebi, Ikeja (which would later become Allen Avenue), which I intended to use as collateral … I did not have any other means of collateralisation because I owned no house or stock in any blue-chip company.  But, behold, two weeks later, the account was boasting $11m!  …I latched on to the hook line of T-CAS and became a ‘made’ man. Suddenly, I became rich beyond my wildest dreams and imagination and I was just 29 years old.”

Fajemirokun’s entrepreneurial energy has taken him beyond his big breakthrough. He is a major player in key sectors of the economy, including insurance, telecommunications, oil & gas, agriculture, supply food chain and manufacturing. He has nurtured and invested in “best-in-class companies,” notably, American International Insurance Company (AIICO Plc.), Food Concepts & Entertainment Plc. (Owners of Chicken Republic), Xerox Nigeria, now XHS, Johnson Wax (A Johnsons & Johnsons company, makers of Baygon & Raid Insecticides), Kings Guards Securities Group Limited, which has more than 25,000 employees across the country, Logic Science Limited, FSS Gases Limited and Bluechip Communication Limited.  While writing the book, he was serving as Chairman or Director on the Board of “43 companies overall.”

A first degree in Business Economics from the University of Ife equipped him for his “odyssey in business.”  “It was to Ife that I resumed in the summer of 1971. It was to be a momentous four years, because I had to repeat a class as a result of my behaviour and lackadaisical attitude to my studies,” he writes, adding: “In the course of my business life, I have had recourse to drawing on the education I received at Ife.”

About five years ago, his “oldest childhood friend and confidant,” Tunde Jose, had prompted him to tell his own story in his own words. Other friends, associates and business partners also encouraged him to “put some of the ideas I have into writing because they say that many of my takes on business are not taught at the ‘Harvard Business School’ and that they would be of immense benefit to younger people who choose to go into my line of business, which is venture capital and ‘angel’ investment.”

The memoir unveils the memoirist: His roots, his “positive deviance,” his early struggles, his friends and foes, his successes and failures, his strengths and weaknesses, his business and social involvements, his interactions with people in power, his family life and philosophy of life. With arresting forthrightness, Fajemirokun presents his life story as a testimony to the power of possibilities.

Beyond characterising the author, the autobiography also has the character of a business textbook. It offers case studies of businesses that benefited from the memoirist’s Midas touch.  It can be described as the businessman’s companion, a useful reference book for business success.

The memoir’s quality of believability helps the memoirist to achieve his main objective of clarifying how he made money. Ultimately,  Fajemirokun succeeds in illuminating the narrative of his prosperity.

I rarely write book reviews because that is not the focus of this column. Nevertheless, aside from inspiring people to live a limitless life, I also advocate that effective communication is essential for a successful life and career. Hence, it is always a delight to encourage people who are making their marks in communication. Today, I am pleased to introduce to you a fiction titled “Where the Lotus Grows”, the work of one of my promising students, Oyinkansola A. Ogunyinka.

Among the most desirable elements of a good fiction are a good story, clear theme, vivid description and suspense. The book, “Where the Lotus Grows” is no doubt an example of a good book. The author’s fluid and conversational writing style makes it a natural page-turner. Considering how engaging the narrative is, it is not surprising that an intended cursory look will end up as a dedicated focus until the reader sees the story to its conclusion.

In this captivating piece, the author introduced us to life-like characters that were not idealistic but realistic. Readers will not meet untouchable heroes but people who faced challenges that they will be able to relate with and who reacted in ways they probably would. The characters were not without super abilities, however, as they found strength in their humanity to rise above their challenges.

Where the Lotus Grows is a story of what comes next when life deals unexpected blows. What more can precipitate a rude awakening than to lose the valuable elements of life and yet be forced to live through it, as in the cases of Taiwo and Karen in the novel? What more can make life take on a whole new meaning than to experience what can be likened to a nightmare, yet there is no waking up from it, because it is reality? The novel depicts how we tend to self-destruct when we pass through moments of pain and we push people away instead of drawing strength from fellowship with loved ones.

The novel is also a story of the search for meaning, when suddenly one of the protagonists, Karen, discovered that the life she had always valued and revered was actually not what she thought it was. The realisation sent her on an adventure that would bring her in contact with another destiny that was in a search of his own. While one would have expected the collusion to be the resolution of the search by the characters, it only opened up another dimension of intrigue in the story.

One of the most significant attributes of the story was how the author, like an expert story-teller, followed the experience of each character until there was a resolution that could make the reader emotional. The book Where the Lotus Grows is full of life lessons that I would love to recommend to everyone. Despite its intense moments, it is written with a unique light-heartedness and humour that makes it very entertaining.

One of the greatest lessons we can learn is that life is made up of choices. While we face circumstances that are beyond our control, we can determine our reaction to them. A very simple reaction would be to give up or run away. Simple but costly; because the effect will always come back to hunt us. The more difficult but wise decision would be to wait and face them. Never run from problems because if you look over your shoulder, you will realise they are right behind you. The only way to have lasting peace is to deal with them.

Thanks for reading my article today. I would really love to hear from you. So, do share your views with me by sending SMS to 07034737394, visiting www.olanreamodu.com and following me on twitter @lanreamodu. Remember, you are currently nothing compared to what you can become. This can be your year if you want it to be!

Director, Jesuits Historical Institute in Africa (JHIA), Nairobi, Rev. Fr. John Okoria, has said that partnering major players in the African art and culture sector is one sure way the institute can provide researchers with publications that are not available in libraries and historical institutes in Europe and America.

He stated that through such partnership, the institute was helping researchers from across the globe to access African records, especially publications that are not available in libraries or historical institutes outside Africa.

Rev Fr. Okoria spoke on the forthcoming group art exhibition tagged African art, to be curated by Paris-based Nigerian curator Bose Fagbemi.

The exhibition, which will run from November 9 to 30, at the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, is a follow-up to Fagbemi’s first group exhibition, Art and Spirituality, held at St Ignatius House, Lagos in March 2017.

According to the cleric, JHIA will include African arts in its goal and vision of collecting and preserving vital records on Africa.

He noted that the exhibition fits well into the mission of the institute, adding that the vision of JHIA is to provide a cost-effective environment for the world to see and experience religious histories, cultures and traditions of the people of Africa and Madagascar.

“Thus far, JHIA has managed to create an excellent environment capable of putting scholars in Africa on a par with others in the world. We are helping researchers from across the globe access African records, especially publications that are otherwise only available in libraries/historical institutes in Europe and America.

“JHIA now wants to include African arts in the above goal and vision of collecting and preserving vital records on Africa.”

Though this is the first time the institute is holding an exhibition of this magnitude, Fr. Okoria said the exhibition will help contribute to JHIA’s short-term goal of pursuing activities that will ground its vision. He stated that it would create more visibility for the work of JHIA and help build strong partnerships.

“This exhibition is key, among our other activities, geared towards a sustained effort in the collection and preservation of African works,” he added.

The exhibiting artists are Prof Moyo Okediji, Emmanuel Ekefrey, Tola Wewe, Abraham Uyovbisere, Duke Asidere, Zinno Orara, Sam Ebohon, Emmanuel Dudu and Ofuobuike Okudoh. Others are Moses Oghagbon, Achike Anayo, Pius Owolabi, Sophia Omons Igbinovia, Taye Oseiza Erewele, Adebimpe Owoyemi and Augustina Chinelo Obi. The exhibition is also a platform to promote a young up-coming Kenyan artist Victor Binge.

For Fagbemi, there is no history without art because art defines how ancestors put down their stories and the way they lived. “So, given another opportunity to tell an African story, one of the best places is where history is being documented, which is Kenya,” she said.

She disclosed that the participating artists were drawn from various movements and styles in Nigeria linked to ancient art, the Benin Kingdom, Ife (Yoruba), Igbo, Ibibio and the Niger Delta.

“Though the works are all contemporary, but they are all statements, historical works that capture the history of art and time. Also, they are from the perspective of the influence of art studies from different institutions,” Fagbemi added.

She recalled that Fr. Okoria had wanted her to promote African Art as part of their on-going programme at the institute. ‘For me, Kenya is also known for its diversity in art and culture, wildlife as well as politics with its role in history for producing the first African American president, Barack Obama,” she noted.