IYALODE ALABA LAWSON, the proprietor of Alaba Lawson Royal College.. and the current national vice president of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) is a woman that believes in the entrepreneurship acumen of African women and she does not pretend about it.
She sits in the front row in the ECOWAS Federation of Business Women and Entrepreneurs (ECOWAS-FEBWE), an organisation that has been at the vanguard of promoting and facilitating trade for groups and individual women entrepreneurs in the sub-region.
She was baptised into business by her mother at the age of nine. “Doing business has been my passion since I was a youth. My mother introduced me into real business when I was nine years. She was first into materials and later made herself comfortable with pap (ogi) business.
“She made sure that I would see the maize or corn that was suitable for ogi because there are different grades of maize and corn. My mother would say, ‘go and sort it out because you have to be somebody in life’. That was how I started,” she said.
So, when she started her own business, the tutelage she got from her mother became useful. Little wonder, the business she started 36 years ago is still growing.
Many know her for her activities in the chambers, but her first major breakthrough was through a distributorship from West African Breweries owned by her in-law, an act which gave birth to other things.
“But when you are talking about the chambers , it was my late in-law that introduced me into the chambers. That was the late Chief Adeyemi Olusola Lawson. That man was great. I really adore him for his prowess in entrepreneurship,” she said with a feeling of satisfaction.
Though hard work is a sine qua non to success in business, the Iyalode of Yorubaland believes that beyond this, you must have a passion for something you want to do.
Her growth in the association has been astronomical.
She said: “I started from the Abeokuta Chambers of Commerce in 1982 and, from there, we started going to meetings together. We have a state chamber as well. I was the President of the Abeokuta Chambers of Commerce form 1995-2000 . Ogun State Council has five different city chambers, that is Abeokuta, Ijebu, Remo, Yewa and Ota/Agbara chambers of commerce.
“From there, they noticed me at the national level. I was elevated and co-opted into the national level in 1992 as a member of the executive. But thank God today I have risen up to the post of second National Deputy President of the NACCIMA. By the grace of God, I will be the first female President of the NACCIMA in the next four years.”
At the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) building, Ikeja, Lagos on a Tuesday afternoon, she was vivacious throughout. Nobody would have imagined that she had passed through challenges, some were even life threatening.
The challenges she had faced are numerous, from the one that was life threatening to the one that had to do with politics in the place of work.
One of the numerous terrible experiences was when she walked through the valley of death and came out unscathed when unknown gunmen broke into her home on Quarry Road, Abeokuta at 2am and attempted to gain entry into her bedroom after killing her guard, Mr. Yusuf.
The gunmen, she said, struck on the day she finished her two-day prayer and fasting to seek God’s protection, stressing that about a week or two before the gunmen visited, she had been “having goose pimples” and became afraid because of a strange visitor that kept calling on her guard.
“Because of the strange feelings I was having then, I collected all my keys from my guard and started locking my doors by myself. When they came, they tried the door; they opened it, but couldn’t enter. I don’t know what they did to the four Alsatian dogs. They were not barking.
“In the morning I discovered that the dogs which were earlier released had been herded into the cages and locked. My guard was gruesomely murdered. Only God knows what they would have done if they had seen me,” she said.
She attributed her escape to divine intervention and telephone calls made to eminent Nigerians, including former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, which made the police to mobilise to the scene and caused the gunmen to flee after hours of siege.
“I’m alive today, a living soul, but it is one incident I will never forget throughout my life. Though I walked through the shadows of death, I feared no evil. The staff of Jehovah comforted me. All those things are by-gone because it pleases Jehovah that I should live,” she said.
She is a woman of many parts, and in recognition of her contributions to the development of Yorubaland, the Alaafin of Oyo made her the Iyalode of Yorubaland.
She said:“I’m an educationist apart from other businesses I do. I’m into water bottling as well, but my main focus is my school. My school is 36 years old. That is a service-rendering organisation which trains the mind, including you the journalists.”
The NACCIMA National Vice President will keep investing in her business, though she would not tell you how much she has invested so far. “On how much I invested in the school, I cannot say that. Leave that to God because I’m still investing. I’m still ploughing money back into the business because to keep you in business, you must make sure you keep the environment clean and keep maintaining your environment. I can not say definitely how much I have invested. Are you talking about money you’re paying to teachers which runs into millions every month or you are talking about keeping the environment and keeping the building clean?” she asked.
Many complain of hostile business environment in the country, but Iyalode still has firm belief in the Nigerian nation. “I have never been discouraged by the business climate in Nigeria because I have passion for it. One thing about me is that I’m always positive and I don’t take no for an answer. I believe that I can surmount any challenge. I believe that there is no mountain that is insurmountable. I don’t believe that I have to sit down and regret. Any problem that might have come, I take it and look at how I’m going to find a solution. That is the way I’m built up and I thank God for it,” Iyalode said.
One of the secrets of Iyalode’s success has been her faith in Jehovah God. While many business executives keep diaries of their itineraries, the Iyalode does not have one because she waits for God’s direction.
“My sustaining power is my faith in my God. I don’t keep any diary. Anywhere He wants me to go,He will direct me. As I’m here having a Nigerian export promotion interactive session, if He directs me anywhere, I will go. If you live your life the way your creator has made you, definitely you will have no problem. It is when you are trying to put so many things together, and he has not given you any directive then you are making mistakes. But when you live by what he has given you, you will not have any problem,” she said.
Iyalode would not overstretch herself. When she is tired she sleeps. “I relax with my cooking; it may amaze you that I still find time to do a little bit of my cooking. I tend my garden; I love gardening so much. When I see things grow in my garden, I love them so much. From the bud, then it opens up. I love it so much. I love listening to Christian music, gospel music, but sometimes I do sports, but time is no more there for me again. I love to go to the aged; I can’t stop listening to them, listening to their stories of success, listening to their stories of challenges. It is only after the church on Sunday that I have time to relax properly,” said.
So when you see Iyalode hopping from place to place, don’t feel for her. She is living her passion because she sees travelling as part of leisure. “I love travelling, not just travelling, I love travelling to historical places, historical places of importance. Travelling is the way to relax because you are in a new environment. It depends on the way you handle it. To some, it is boring. To me, it is a welcome gesture.”
