Nigeria’s Opayinka set to grow E/Guinea economy through golf
A Nigerian, from Ibadan, Oyo State, Wale Opayinka, is all set to grow the economy of Equatorial Guinea by 50% before 2020. And interestingly, this young entrepreneur who quotes sufficiently from God to Winston Churchill is using the game of golf as a weapon to achieve his aim. He claimed that God loves a cheerful giver and equally mentioned that Churchill once admonished Britons to do their duties for Britain. Opayinka said those phrases eased him out of poverty and placed him on a pedestal where he sees only freedom.
Opayinka sits atop 3e Actuaries, an Equatorial Guinea based company that works around financial engineering and legal advisory and this outfit specializes in developing and financing large real estate and infrastructure projects in West and Central Africa. Interestingly, this same company, 3e Actuaries, organizes the annual the Monguno Open in Equatorial Guinea, a tourney that could be the fifth world major tourney.
A fortnight ago, a qualifying round involving golfers from Africa on the road to Monguno held in Ibadan, the home town of Opayinka. This one tourney alone proved that Nigeria has one man in Opayinka who could turn Tourism around in Nigeria by using the game of golf as a sort of substitute to the so used ‘petro-dollar’.
Reason? Sometime in 1993, Opayinka witnessed two golf international tourneys, the Ryder Cup and the President Cup. When those games were over, there came a clear pointer that only the Olympics could surpass those tourneys. He fell for golf at that point. He wanted to do a tourney that would bring people from several countries together. This is how the Monguna tourney came alive.
Come December 13-16, 60 top male golfers and 40 females will feature in a 250,000 dollars event in Monguno and this is courtesy Opayinka’s 3e Acturies.
‘I love building for the people”, he told Golf Digest in an exclusive interview in Ibadan. “Especially, I love building for the African people and this is why 40 percent of the field in Monguna would be Africans.
“Africa is blessed with great golfers. They could show up in a journey but they don’t know where they are going. Reason is they don’t have freedom. Poverty has ensured this. But I will use the game of golf to change all that. Think of this, the Professional Golfers of America last year gave $172 million dollars to charity alone. You can see the power in this game”.
No doubt, Opayinka is enjoying some collateral benefits in what he is doing. Last year, he was heavily honored in Brazil for opening a fresh chapter in golf just to empower black Africans. But the one thing that readily brings tears to his eyes at at all times is what Equatorial Guinea President, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, once told him. Hear what the President told him… ‘I want to apologize for making your life difficult. But keep doing what you are doing”. Need we say more?
But let’s throw you a freebie. Opayinka said he would create a world golf major tourney in Africa in 2020. Then, come December in the tourney in Monguno, the longest lady ball driver in the world, Sandra Carlbourg, will appear live in Monguna. Now, blink your eyes, Carlbourg belts the ball some 300 metres. Even John Daly will wince with envy.