Dr. Lance Musa Elakama, a lawyer, stockbroker and chartered accountant by training was a Deputy Director-General, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Elakama who currently sits atop as Chairman, Oak Group of Companies, in this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf speaks on his foray in the corporate world, management style and philosophy, among others. Excerpts:
You’re different things to different people. Can you give us a snapshot of your career path thus far?
I have worked in several places all my life; I have been working since 1977. I’m a Chartered Secretary and a Chartered Accountant fellow, a Chartered Stock broker and banker, Chartered Arbitrator and a lawyer. I have a PhD in Law. I was called to bar in Nigeria and England respectively. I’m also a Solicitor in England and Wales. That means I’m a lawyer in Nigeria and England, and I practice in both countries. My last place of work was at the Nigerian Stock Exchange, where I worked for 16years as the Deputy Director-General of the Exchange under Ndi Okereke Onyuike.
It was first under Apostle Alile before Ndi Okereke took over, I rose to the pinnacle of Deputy DG, but somehow I didn’t become the DG and God knows why so I said let me find something to do for myself so I came here and acquired a land and said let me do water, and today the water is the story you are seeing. I’m a Muslim and I don’t think religion has anything to do with my business because all my friends and associates are mostly Christians, so I believe what is in your heart matters.
Your company is involved in bottling of mineral water which is said to have multiple health benefits. What informed or inspired you to venture into water making business?
When I retired from the Stock Exchange, I had a law firm, but I have also worked in the industry, so I cut my teeth in the industry actually. The Stock Exchange was just the last port of call for me. I have worked in the industry for several years before I joined the Stock Exchange, so I have always liked the manufacturing industry all my life. When I retired, I said let me do water because water is the easiest thing anybody can do, but I was wrong because I sank three bore holes and there was no water found. I got frustrated so I ventured into plastic making. And after about nine months I made the fourth attempt which gave rise to this artesian aquifer which now happens to be the best water in the whole world and there is no doubt about that. Its healing water, but we don’t say that because NAFDAC wouldn’t agree, they say it is not drug. We know it is healing water because of the properties, it is natural alkaline water. You know the contents of our bodies are mainly acidic, and all sickness are caused by acids; and if you drink alkaline, it will neutralise the acid. It is a simple natural process. It’s not a miracle but the natural way of life, because most of our bodies are acidic because of our life styles, the food we eat and the acids forming and if you now begin to drink acidic water, you are compounding the problem. So you need to drink alkaline water to neutralise all the excesses in the body.
Well because of NAFDAC we don’t say its healing water, you can say it but I cannot say that it is healing water because they don’t want us to say its healing water. Water is water as far as they are concerned. But they know too that water is different. This is mineral water, no chlorine, no treatment, no preservative no additive, it’s simply natural. So that is what brought me here because God gave me as a gift, I see it as a gift of nature. And I’m also praying hard to make it affordable to all Nigerians so they can benefit from its health efficacy, which is my dream and prayer.
How long have you been in this business?
Well we started operations in 2013, this is about the fourth year now that we are doing it and you know water is everywhere and the water business is very competitive. If I was doing the water everybody is doing, by now this place would have been under lock and key. But because it is a different water people are now beginning to realise the benefits of alkaline water. So alkaline water is the best water, and that is a fact because our bodies that are acidic needs to be alkalised to neutralise them and with that you will feel very well. I also used to have arthritis about seven years ago, but it is all gone now. My wife too had ulcer but it is also gone due to the alkaline water. All the medication that was recommended by the doctor didn’t work, the water did it. And it is not a miracle but a simple natural process of alkaline neutralising acids. You know our bodies are overly acidic. There is a report on the internet which says that no disease can survive in any alkaline environment; and because of that realisation many scientists are now manufacturing alkaline disc, alkaline flask, because this water is not common. But to mimic or imitate it they now produce alkaline supplements and all kinds of alkaline stuff to alkaline the water to heal the body. But this is what they are trying to imitate. Because the water is still wasting, and like I said I want to increase production so that it will be affordable for everybody, and because the finance is not there at the moment. We’re now using the essence to create a sauna which has now come to stay, because the water is wasting. So we felt instead of the water wasting, let us create something that would be working for the meantime. So that people that are sick can come here, have sauna steam bath, sweat and detox all the toxins from their body and regain back their health. That is my dream. I want this place to be bubbling and busy 24 hours so that most Nigerians will have access at affordable price.
What is your appraisal of the water manufacturing industry in Nigeria?
Water has no enemy and there is no substitute, no matter how you drink minerals, either coke and fanta, it can’t serve the purpose of water. So it is not even enough yet for Nigerians. But I think those people that are producing water should try to produce good quality water, because if you give people bad water to drink which is not good, you will give them more sickness because the human body is made up of water. So those who are into water business should try as much as possible to de-emphasise the additives they put in their water, they should de-emphasise the chlorine they put in their water, although they are not like my water, because the water is not good and they will want to purify it and I don’t blame them for doing that because they want to remove all the impurities but in the process they will remove even the good minerals in the water. Once you treat water, you have removed all the minerals there and it will now be flat. And we are very lucky in Africa because Africa has the best water in the world. Other nations like America have what is called arsenic acid which is underground water but it is not in Africa. Africa is very lucky in terms of arsenic acid, our underground water is good even though they are not of the same quality, but it is better than what you find in Europe, America and Asia. Those people are suffering from arsenic acid in their underground water which is not in Africa, because we have very good underground water and that is why our water is the best because it is deep down in the earth crust. It is untreated and untouched by man and direct from the aquifer, so it is only tank to the bottle; that’s why we say it is direct from nature to you because there is no intervention, no human touch in between, we don’t add anything and nothing removed at all. People have been coming to give testimonies of how they have been well and you also saw one yourself today.
Do you think the policies and programmes of the current administration encourage business? I’m very happy the government is taking the step they are taking, it may be difficult now initially but if we can be consuming what we produce in Nigeria, china did it. When Mao Setong was chairman of China, he closed all the borders and today China is happier for it, they are better for it. If we can consume what we produce locally, we won’t be longing t o go and buy things from America, Japan and London. Let’s consume what we have at home. That is why I support President Muhammadu Buhari, because if you devalue your naira, you are not encouraging business to grow, you can devalue your naira when you want to export because it will be cheaper for those whom are importing. What do we export, nothing? Then why devalue your naira. People should stay at home to develop and invest in their economy. If you are sick you fly to London; we are enhancing their economy there. We have qualified doctors here who are very good, we have engineers who are very good but they are not encouraged. The policy of the government to me are for the future, I know we may have pains now initially but in the long run Nigerians will thank Buhari for what he is doing; if they are patient they will thank him, and it is a fact because these policies are long term policy. The problem we have in Nigeria is that we are too shortsighted. For me, I will encourage the government to go on with it, but if they truly want to help us; power must be steady because that is the only problem we are having now. And for power to be steady, people should be given meters because this exploited billing is not helping Nigerians; people should be given meters first and even when they increase the tariff, people won’t complain because it is still cheaper than diesel and generator and that is the fact let’s call a spade a spade. It is by far cheaper; everybody has meter and no cheating of exploited billing. This country has just started and there would be a lot of development in this country I can assure you of that.
Do you subscribe to any particular management style, what management style works for you?
Well I am a very pragmatic person; I practice management by wandering around, I like my employees to key in to what I am doing, I don’t believe in pushing orders down, let them see your vision; if your staffs sees your vision, it will be easy for them to key into it.
How do you motivate your staff to be productive?
Well we don’t have money at the moment to pay them well. But attitude of the chairman matters a lot. I make sure I go round the factory every day, play with the workers, joke with them and even when they are eating their groundnuts I take from it, it’s not that I am hungry, but just to make them feel that we are one because we are all humans. I like to encourage my workers, and any day I don’t pay them at the end of the month, like a week or two I feel very sad. But they understand that things are difficult. They also sympathise with me but I feel very hurt when I don’t pay them when the month has ended. And luckily for us my workers have never gone on strike they understand that I feel their pains. There was a time they waited for three months without pay but they didn’t complain, they were still working because they knew that things were difficult and it is because of the way I relate with them.
How do you reprimand erring staff?
There is always a red line even though I am free with them, they know their limit. And when it comes to issue of integrity I don’t joke with it. They know when the line is drawn, they are adult they know that. They know that when they go against the company policy, they know that the sanction is very stiff. Mostly on issue of integrity they know it is very strict o they behave themselves.
As a manager with a large workforce, how would you describe yourself?
Let people describe me. I’m not a mirror because a mirror cannot see itself. But by and large, I feel happy when people like my staff come to me directly they are not afraid, they have access to me directly. I see myself as a liberal kind of person, open-minded and I also feel for the poor a lot, I mean the less privileged. I wish I had the means to improve their lot, I would have been very happy, but wishes are not horses.
