Mohammed Indimi: Celebrating a Rare Gem at 72
In the annals of history, wealth and renown have been mostly an insider trade among families of nobility. Status, often transferred from father to son across multiple generations, hardly escapes the clutches of the privileged to land in the grateful hands of those born with lead, if any, spoons in their mouths. Yet, history remains fascinating for the inspiring accounts of those daredevils who grabbed fortune by the throat and shook it thoroughly until it favoured them.
In Nigeria, foremost magnate and oil and gas tycoon Mohammed Indimi unquestionably belongs in this category. Brought up in rustic circumstances, the local palm reader would have predicted for him a fate of following in his father’s sandy footsteps, sauntering from forest to village, hunting animals for their hides and skins, and trading the same.
But the venerable billionaire, endowed with a net worth of more than half a billion dollars by Forbes, knew from an early age that he would break the mould. And he did not just break it; he shattered it and brought a sustained era of prosperity to his family, community and state as a whole. As he turned 72 few days back, he must have reminisced fondly over some of the risks he took to land him in the current position where heads of state have to sit up and take notice at his mere presence.
Alhaji Mohammed Indimi made his name on taking risks and sniffing out opportunities before they become the flavour of the month, tasted by many but truly profited from by few. From venturing across the border to Cameroon to buy clothes for sale back home in a time of war, to buying flour from Sokoto to ameliorate scarcity of same in his native Borno, to cashing in on a chronic shortage of water pumps when the government needed it, Indimi made a virtue of taking his chances before others could, and he has reaped the rewards.
The founder and chairman of indigenous oil and gas giant Oriental Energy, which he founded in 1990, also makes sure he isn’t the only one reaping. From educational endowments to welfare schemes, the well-connected dude is one of the most popular philanthropists around. He regularly sponsors indigent students from his state to the university while providing employment opportunities in his company for the masses.