What We Need in This Country Are Leaders That Can See Tomorrow
Post COVID- people must travel although it is not going to be the same. Here we put together all the protocols that are required by NCDC. It won’t be like before but COVID will cease and things will normalise. This is the time to plan post COVID-19, even for the government, because things can’t always be rosy. But we have learnt to base and rebase because we maintain certain standards. We are very frugal in the management of funds. As a business man, you should know that things will not always be buoyant. At a time when the resources are decreasing that is when to plan and bring in funds that you have saved. All organisations must save for the rainy days and you must not live above your means.
In this country, we have not learnt to save for the raining days. Even in the states, the number of retinue of aides does not help us to manage our finances. You don’t need all the people that you will employ in the states, you have to trim down when things are not working well and you do workable budget. We work by budget here. You don’t just come and say your budget is N100 million. How much are you going to bring and how you are going to earn the money to fund the budget? Every year, you repeat the same thing like we do here. These are the things that have helped us to keep going as an organisation.
What are some of the major projects handled by Cosmo Base Consortium?
You can see we have done the refurbishment of CBN property in Owerri. We did it. We are into hospital design, we have done a couple of hospitals for states and we did the master plan for Federal Polytechnic Offa and some of the major buildings were done by the organisation and are still there today. You also talk about some projects like the Federal Polytechnic, Katsina done by my organisation, In this organisation, we have trained a lot of architects. Up till this moment some are on their own while some are still with us.
What are the lessons life has taught you through the past decades?
At the age of 10, my desire was to please my parents, to be a good boy and pass my school. At the teen age, my desire then was to come out tops in my school which I did. I was 16 then. And in the university too, I made a second class upper and did one of the best projects in my Masters degree at Ahmadu Bello University. I wanted to change the narrative of what happened that is why I got into business through the mentorship of my mother, who always tells me that I have to look for the black goat when it is day because at night you won’t be able to find it. She told me to make haste when the sun shines. She mentored me that by 5. 30 a.m. this woman is waking me up to go with her because she was into distributorship business; to go with her to meet her debtors.
I often wondered why always early in the morning. She always says it is good to wake them up in the morning because at that time, the man will not be able to dodge you and it was working. She developed the tenacity, the hard-work and the consistency in pursuit. That is what has helped me. She helped me to know that I must place value on people; l must place value on relationship. That is why some of the people I met in my early years are still my friends today. I still reach out to them. Some that I met in
Katsina, like one Alhaji Mohammed Gologolodi, gave me an inroad into Katsina. He was a commissioner then and I was a nobody. He gave me my first job in government, with Alhaji Abu Gidado, a former minister, who still comes around here from Katsina.
I want to tell you that if there is anywhere I know, it is Katsina and Kano states. Those were in the early days. These people encouraged people, not minding where you come from.
I am from the East, but they encouraged me, but nowadays, it is not like that.
Things are changing; it’s no longer like that. The Nigeria I grew up to know was a Nigeria that we did not know whether you were a Christian, Muslim or Hindu, whatever. I went to Federal Government College and we knew ourselves as brothers and sisters. We never asked where he’s coming from. It’s like we were in the same school with Abdulsamad Isyaku, BUA. He was about two years our junior, but then we didn’t know. We were just in school and just met there. And we were friends in school.
Somebody from Auchi, Oseni Ahmed, a Quantity Surviyor, Sam Ochai from Kogi, Adebowale Taiwo from Ogun, but we became friends. We moulded. What was on our minds then was to make good results, which stood us out. We made friends all over. That is why these unity school, what they are today are not what they were then. Now they begin to admit people from one geo-political zone. That is wrong. It’s supposed to be from all the zones, all the tribes, so they mix together - that is one Nigeria.
If this country must go forward, we must place value on Federal Character and see it right. What is happening today where there is so much cry on restructuring is because people are feeling cheated. If not nobody will talk about restructuring. So they want to be like the others. Nobody in this country is a servant to the other. We are all equal partners. The Igbo is not higher than the Hausa, Yoruba not higher than Ijaw. We have to begin to look for those things that unite us if we have to move this country forward.
Nigeria recently celebrated its 60th Independence anniversary. How do you feel to be born about the time Nigeria became independent?
I always consider time in anything I am doing. I can tell you, considering the years I have lived, that Nigeria should not be where we are right now as a country. There are mistakes we have made, for you to move forward, you have to reflect on those mistakes you have made and make moves to correct them in the future. For me too, there are mistakes I have made, which I wish to correct and need to strategise. This is the time for everybody in this country and the leaders to strategise. Where are we? Where do we want to be in the next five years? Where do we want to be in the next 10 years? Where do we want to be in the next 20 years and tell ourselves the truth? Do we want this country to still be Nigeria? What is it that will help this Nigeria to make us stronger? This is the task that is before us if we want to still be a country. We need to sit down and tell ourselves the truth.
Everything in this world is not money because we are going nowhere with this money. In the states, the leadership must sit down and tell themselves that oil is drying up; how do we generate revenue? Where are we going from here? Like an architect would do, there must be an economic master plan of how to confront the future.
For this country, for the states and for the tribes, what relationship do we want that would strengthen Nigeria as a country and those relations we should not shy away from it? Decisions are to be taken. Yes, some decisions may hurt, but at the end of the day, let it be to the greater interest of the people. We have to begin to learn to sacrifice as a people. We must be patient for the greater tomorrow. If we don’t sacrifice today, there won’t be a greater tomorrow.
I see ourselves in this group as a family and as family, if you truly love the people you are working with, you will want the people to be happy and to achieve what you have achieved. You will want the people to be like you. In our organisation, we work for the same purpose
Would you say you are fulfilled at 60? Do you have any regrets?
To say that Im fulfilled at 60 is an understatement because at 60, I have three grandchildren. I have my children. My first son with his Masters made a First Class in Engineering. He is working with me here now, managing one of the concerns. It is not easy to have your son respect your vision, especially sons of nowadays; a son who wants to grow the vision. I have a daughter, who is an accountant, who is equally married and all of them are graduates. The third is a writer, who has a Masters in Pharmacy and is doing well. And my last boy that is 21 years. God made him to take after me. He is an architect in Boston, USA. I am expecting that one day he will come in and face what we are facing here. God has been very faithful, giving me a very intelligent wife, who has helped me in no small measures. My celebration is part of thanksgiving and to let everyone knows that in every situation you find yourself, that situation is very surmountable. I want to encourage the young people not to give up. They should take up challenges, they should not shy away from challenges because challenge is what makes you and changes you. It helps to reposition you.
For this country, for the states and for the tribes, what relationship do we want that would strengthen Nigeria as a country and those relations we should not shy away from it?
Decisions are to be taken. Yes, some decisions may hurt, but at the end of the day, let it be to the greater interest of the people. We have to begin to learn to sacrifice as a people. We must be patient for the greater tomorrow. If we don’t sacrifice today, there won’t be a greater tomorrow.