Projecting Uncommon Values In Buhari’s Change Era, By Sufuyan Ojeifo
President BuhariNigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, was obviously happy to hear business mogul and Chairman of the Wells Carlton Hotel and Apartments, Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo, proclaim he is enjoying the era of change in Nigeria.
To be clear, the change era was brought about by the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari. As a reminder, change was the catchphrase on which the APC and its presidential candidate drove their campaigns for a new Nigeria.
They garnished their promises with the possibilities that change comes with. It was a strategic mantra that enjoyed the buy-in and support of a vast majority of Nigerians.
The countrywide support at that intersection was not in any way misplaced. Validation: change is the only permanent thing in life as it unfurls in perpetuity. In the penumbra of the 2019 presidential election, the APC administration has tweaked the change agenda to announce its next level agenda to Nigerians.
The vice president’s smile when he mounted the dais to respond to the opening remarks by Okunbo at the inauguration of his Wells Carlton Hotel and Apartments on Saturday, December 15, 2018, in Abuja, was understandably big.
The administration’s change agenda had just received a significant third-party endorsement amid the litany of woes about how things have retrogressed in Nigeria, especially in the economic sphere.
Okunbo’s endorsement was from the heart. He was not out to massage the ego of the vice president or the Federal Government nor was he playing to the gallery to appeal to the sensibilities of guests who had converged on the premises of the five-star hotel and hospitality icon for its inauguration.
Indeed, Okunbo contextualized the contending issues that he had to grapple with at the outset of the Buhari administration and explicated how, in pragmatic terms, he had deployed his business savoir faire to survive in a climate that had suddenly become seemingly inclement for businesses to thrive.
He had gradually, in his speech, prepared the hearts of the people to receive the magnitude of his uncommon stories of how he overcame the pains and strains of his investment uncertainties, beginning with the cancellation of his Ocean Marine Solutions (OMS) Limited’s pipeline security contract for crude oil movement by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Being a major contract for the delivery of uncommon values in which his company enjoys a comparative advantage over others in terms of possession of the critical equipment such as over fifty marine vessels, he was concerned but not despondent. The contract was farmed out to a department of the NNPC and, interestingly, according to him, the Corporation became a charterer of his company’s vessels in that circumstance.
When he experienced the initial setback, he had decided to explore other businesses where he could provide uncommon values. The idea of the multi-billion naira Wells Hosa Greenhouse Farms Limited, according to him, popped up and he had to sell his aircraft to raise the money for the investment.
He told the vice president and the quality gathering that he had a fully-covered eight-hectare greenhouse farm that has been producing assorted vegetables of international standards and eight more hectares that have just been fully covered. In a change era in which many businesses have collapsed and many more cannot operate at optimum capacities, Well Hosa Greenhouse Farms Limited produces 4,200 metric tonnes of various vegetables annually that meet international standards.
Read this: he does not owe any bank a dime on the construction of the hotel and apartments as well as on the farm project. Both projects, according to him, are testimonies to his tenacity and commitment to provision of uncommon values.
As the vice president and other guests, including Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo Sate, focused their attention on the man and listened to his story, it was evident that no one doubted Okunbo’s professed audacity to seek and provide solutions to difficult problems in particularly difficult terrains as well as his binder to excellence.
Perhaps, what blew the minds of the distinguished gathering was the story of how, after the cancellation of his security surveillance for crude oil movement by vessel contract by the NNPC, the corporation had expressed the intention of building the Bonny-Port-Harcourt and Warri-Escravos crude evacuation pipelines. He had moved in to deliver the pipelines on the basis of a mere letter of intention by the Corporation. Significantly, this was without a dime from the national oil company.
The contract was negotiated after the pipelines were delivered. That was as audacious as it was ambitious. What model of business deal was that? It was out of this world and speaks to the tenacity of character of the titanic businessman with the Midas touch. How many Nigerian companies could do that? That remains a clear attestation to Okunbo’s patriotism, which is worthy of accolades and national honours.
He also spoke confidently on the occasion about integrity that has been his mainstay in business. How many businessmen and women can boast that they are above reproach like Caesar’s wife in matters of business transactions and/or deals in Nigeria? He said he had nothing to fear, boasting that he had never been indicted for any shady deals since he immersed himself in the business terrain. He said that at over 60 years of age, the only thing he was committed to was to speak the truth and bequeath a legacy of legitimacy to his children.
Certainly, it was a cool night for the shrewd, risk-taking investor as he announced that the NNPC, convinced beyond measures of his company’s capacity to deliver uncommon values in the security of pipelines and delivery of crude to the nation’s refineries in the Niger Delta, has just negotiated and awarded his company oil infrastructure surveillance contract for the protection of the 87-kilometre Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP), to curb losses on the pipeline.
Media reports credited to the NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Nghamadu, had said that “the decision to assign the TFP surveillance package to Ocean Marine Solutions was reached after consideration of huge losses on TFP and rigorous appraisal of the company’s impressive record of performance on the Bonny-Port-Harcourt and Warri-Escravos crude evacuation lines.”
In rounding off – and this is very instructive – Okunbo provided some insight into the intricate world of business when he said any business that was not geared towards offering goods or services was not business. He had gone further to reiterate that, in his own case, he always strives to deliver uncommon values, saying that was the reason government had continued to seek him in an era of change.
Okunbo’s summation, nay verdict, as it were, is that the current change is not merely a transfer of power from the PDP to the APC or a change in leadership guard from Jonathan to Buhari; but a way of life, a new culture of socio-political and economic interactions with a clear message to thieves that they can no longer steal. He declared that this change has created the enabling environment for his uncommon values to be appreciated and sought for.
He paused, looked at the audience and declared: “Your Excellency, I am enjoying this change era.” He then stepped down from the dais to appreciative applause. The takeaway: to be relevant in Buhari’s change era, one must deliver uncommon values in goods and services. That is the truth and the gospel, according to Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo.
- Ojeifo, journalist, contributed this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com
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Buhari At 76: Why We Love This President, By Femi Adesina
“That’s him, that’s him,” the two old women, wrinkled and bent with age, exclaimed.
You could see wonderment and fulfillment in their eyes. And as if on cue, they both began to cry.
It was in Bauchi earlier this year.
President Muhammadu Buhari was visiting to commiserate with the people on the ravages of windstorm, which had destroyed many homes and other property. As he waved at the tumultuous crowd, the two women saw him, perhaps for the first time in their lives. And so great was their satisfaction, their pure joy, that they began to cry.
That is the kind of emotion that courses through millions and millions of Nigerians when they behold their President, the honest man (mai gaskiya), the man of integrity, man of accountability, one whose word you can take to the bank. The man who loves them, and they love and trust in return.
Don’t misunderstand me. Not all estimated 196 million Nigerians share this sentiment. Not possible. There are those who are passionately opposed to the President. They are a very vocal minority, who abhor his integrity, hate his sense of accountability, and even want him dead. But we are not talking about those who Fela Anikulapo-Kuti called “opposite people.” On this day of his 76th birthday, we are talking of the teeming masses who love Buhari, and who can go to the ends of the earth for him.
Why do they love Buhari? Or better still, why do we love Buhari? The old, the young, men, women, boy, girl, the strong, the infirm. Why do we love the tall man from Daura? For many reasons.
I have said it before, and say it again. It will take a while before Nigeria will see another political leader with such ability to pull an unsolicited and uninduced crowd like Muhammadu Buhari. Anywhere he goes, he doesn’t have to procure the crowd. They turn out in their numbers to see and hear him. They will trek from Africa to China, walk from Cape Town to Cairo, all to see, hear and cheer the man they love.
Why?
Many reasons. He is an honest man. My father, that stern educationist, who ran the home and the schools he administered with an iron hand, used to tell us: “Honesty is the best policy.” That was true over 50 years ago when he drummed it into our ears, and it is still true today. And will remain true tomorrow, and forever. That is why we love Buhari. He is an honest man, who will tell the truth to his own hurt.
At a recent meeting with governors, while discussing the seemingly knotty issue of minimum wage, the President told them to level with him. He said he knew that general elections were by the corner, “but I don’t like to lie to anybody. I will still like to tell Nigerians the truth, and nothing but the truth, as to what we can truly afford to pay.” Consultations are still ongoing.
Some people will give you fibs, just because they want to hoodwink you, and get your votes. They will announce that they’ve increased the salaries of fictitious workers, even when truly they are owing many of their employees. But not President Buhari. Nothing for him is a matter of life and death. Truth is the best thing in a man’s keeping. Make yourself an honest man, and there is one rascal less in the world. That is why we love the man.
Accountability. I will never forget a promise Buhari made to the crowd at a campaign rally in Lagos in 2011, when he ran with Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly. Two honest men. “Every kobo that comes into the treasury will be used for the good of Nigerians.” That’s the accountable man, who would not dip his hands into the treasury for private gains, who will not line his pocket at the expense of the people. That is why we love him.
Just over a week ago, I met a man who was an accountant at the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), when the then Gen. Buhari was chairman. Executive Chairman, who could do anything he wanted, since the place was awash with billions of petrol money.
“I told him his salary would be N200,000 monthly,” the man recounted. “He said it was too much, since he still drew pension from public coffers as a retired General and former head of state. I don’t know how he calculated it, but he said he would rather be paid N84,000 monthly. And that was what he earned.”
Yet some people say don’t follow this honest man. Till he has one tooth left in his mouth, and is bent double over his walking stick, we will, no matter what they say. Honesty is still the best policy. Today, tomorrow, and forever.
See all the positions he has held in this country. Governor of North-east, then made up of what is now six states. Minister of Petroleum for over three years. Head of State for 20 months. Chairman of PTF for many years. Yet he remains a man of modest means. That is why we love him.
In the early days of this administration, when oil prices had crashed to as low as 39 dollars per barrel (from as high as 115 in preceding years, stabilizing at over $100 for a long time, yet we had no savings, no reserves), it was usually a spectacle to see the President and the then Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, seated and apportioning funds for the week. Depending on what was in the coffers, they prioritized spending, just like traders with low capital base.
Nigeria had been run into a hole. No reserve for the rainy day, and we were being badly beaten by the rain. Yet salaries must be paid as at when due. At least 27 states could not meet their obligations, till President Buhari gave them a lifeline. And then, one day, a counsel was given at a meeting: “This is the time to ideally cut the strength of the federal civil service by at least half, as we may not be able to carry the load for long.” It made a lot of fiscal sense. But to the President, it was nonsense. “If it lies within my powers, I will ensure that no single person loses his or her job. Yes, it may be the right thing to do, looking at the state of our finances, but I won’t do it,” President Buhari said.
And you say we shouldn’t love this President? We will love him till Africa and China meet.
A confederacy has arrayed itself against the honest man. A crooked confederacy. Anybody that is anybody in the pantheon of questionable character is there. Are Nigerians fools? After their eyes have been opened, will they willfully afflict themselves with blindness again? Not on their lives! The country will never go back to the slave market. Not after we have known prudence, experienced accountability, and we are are inching out of the morass in which we were soused and marooned.
For more than five decades, mere lip service was paid to diversification of the economy. But we remained a mono-product country. Oil. So, whenever the price of oil crashed in the international market, we simply crashed with it. Now gradually, and inexorably, we are on the road to a diversified economy. Wonders are being done in agriculture. Mining is flexing muscles. Manufacturing is showing prospects. All in less than four years.
What of infrastructure? The sum of N2.7 trillion spent in two years. The roads are roaring to life. The rail is snaking in. Power is powering back. Wonders are being unfolded in different parts of the country. And we shouldn’t love this President? We will, no matter what the naysayers say.
Hear pensioners rejoice: This is the best administration we’ve had since the advent of Contributory Pension Scheme 14 years ago.
Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State spoke at a meeting of governors with the President last Friday. He said since the creation of the state, this was the first time pensioners were being paid, adding that pension liabilities have been cleared by about 40%. Just because there is a President that cares.
Former Nigeria Airways workers. Railway workers. Former Biafran policemen. And many others, have had their pensions paid. And we shouldn’t love the ‘birthday man?’ They should tell it to the marines.
When you have a heart for men, it is God himself that keeps you alive. We have seen a practical demonstration in President Buhari. From the brink of death early 2017, there is now an unmistakable glow in him, evidence of good health from the inside. It is God at work. No wonder wicked people came with the idiocy of Jubril of Sudan. Otiose. Hollow. Products of addled minds. That was why we ignored them, till the President himself responded to a question from Nigerians in Poland two weeks ago.
And you know what? Our love for this President is at no cost. No charge. Whether we work for him, and for him, or we don’t, the real cost of our love is no charge.
Do you know that classic song, No Charge, made popular by Shirley Caesar and Sonia Spence? It told the story of a small boy who decided to charge his mum for all that he considered favours he had done her.
“For mowing the yard, five dollars
And for making my own room this week, one dollar
For going to the store, 50 cents
And playing with little brother while you went shopping, 25 cents
Taking out the trash, one dollar
And for getting a good report card, five dollars
For raking the yard, two dollars
Total owed, fourteen seventy-five.”
The woman looked at her son, standing there expectantly. Then she collected the paper from him, and wrote on it:
“For the nine months I carried you,
Growing inside me, no charge
For the nights I sat up with you
Doctored you, prayed for you, no charge
For the time and tears, and the cost through the years, no charge When you add it all up, the full cost of my love is no charge.”
For millions upon millions of Nigerians who love this President, it is an unconditional love. The full cost of our love is no charge. Happy birthday, Mr President.
-Adesina is Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity.