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Mike Ikoku - How Early Marriage Stabilised Me(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) He's more known as Obiron electronics for pioneering the importation of that brand of electronics into the country. But his business tentacles spead to every sector of the economy. He is into importation of medicines, property and tourism as well as production of confectionaries and pastries. Evangelist Mike Ikoku said he was able to make it big in business because of his choice to get married early in life (25) when most of his mates were walking the streets or having good times in clubs. He said that the singular decision helped stabilise him in life. He recently spoke with Roland Ogbonnaya on his life, marriage, education and his new found passion for politics, which he wants to use as a platform to empower young people in the country Many know you for your business exploits, philanthropy and your in-road into tourism. Tell us about yourself? My name is Evangelist Michael Obinna Ikemfunachi Chidi Ikoku. I was born in Port Harcourt, South-south Nigeria, but grew up in the South-east. I attended six primary schools because my father was a teacher, a headmaster to be precise; my father kept taking me from one school to the other whenever they transferred him. All my primary education was with South-east, but scattered in the old Imo State. I started my secondary education at Holy Ghost College, Owerri, but finished at Boys High School, Nkwerre, my village. I married quite young, when my mates were busy going to clubs. While my mates were walking the streets, I was busy raising children. I am 45 now, but got married at 24. I had my first son at 25; two of my sons are in the university. One will finish this year, the other next year and my daughters, three of them, are in high school (what we call A-level here). I studied sociology at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), and I am also a fellow of the National Institute of Local Government and Public Administration You may be wondering why evangelist as prefix to my name when I don't own a church. But I know that the Bible told us to go to the world and evangelise; so if you can obey the scripture and do that, you are an evangelist. I am not a worldly person due to my upbringing and while I was growing up my father advised me that I should not take any chieftaincy title and that if I want a title, I should go to the church. And since everybody wants worldly title, which in my case I don't like, I chose to be an evangelist because it is a title, I know and can defend. To what extent did your parents' influences on your life shape you into what you are today? To be honest with you, what I am today is as a result of my background because my father taught me how to identify seasons - there are planting and harvest seasons. As a teacher, he carried me along and made sure that I was deep-rooted in everything that was done in school. Because I am a son of a teacher, I had no option but to be educated. I must go to school, I must pass my exams; if I fail, my father will not spare the rod and my mother, a petty trader, and all these played a major role in shaping my life. As a young man, I told myself that if I want to be successful in life, I needed a woman who can check me, who can stop some of my excesses. A girlfriend cannot do that but a wife can stop me from being at the wrong places. When I tell people that I got married at 24, they will think I was forced into marriage; no. It was a decision I took by myself and was not forced on me by anybody. Maybe that was how God wanted it. These are what shaped my life-my family background, my decision to marry early. When my friends were busy chasing shadows, I was committed to a family and that programmed my life. You were popular as Obiron, how did you go into business? After my secondary education, my father could not send me to the university because there was no money. We are five in the family; my elder sisters were the ones that were taken care of before I finished my secondary education. And when I finished, my father was not financially buoyant and I did not want to put him under too much pressure so I said to myself 'go and learn trading'. That was how I went to Aba to acquire knowledge in buying and selling. I was into pharmaceuticals because we are known for that from the side of Imo State where I come from-Orlu/Nkwerre axis. After my apprenticeship in Aba I came to Lagos, Ajegunle to be precise. And because of destiny and God knew that there will be problem in the pharmaceutical business, He gradually shifted me from the pharmaceutical business to electronic. In one of my business trips to Hong Kong, I got into OEC (people that brand electronic product). That was how I ventured into electronic business. I now divested from the pharmaceutical business and into electronics because I found out that I was going to make more money, more profit and also create my own brand. That was the attraction and it became a success. That was how I started selling electronics like Obiron stabilisers, electric iron, ceiling fans amongst others. We were the first set of people that discovered China when they were manufacturing quality products and not now that they manufacture 'Nigerian standard'. I also later discovered that a lot of people have taken after me, and the Chinese had started reducing the quality of what they produced, and also reducing the price of the products I was dealing in. I then said 'it's time to move again' because it is my brand and I didn't want to ruin my name by selling sub-standard products. So I divested again and by divine guidance, I went into confectionary. In 1991 I built the biggest confectionery factory in Southeast-Obinocha Confectionary Industry in Oji, Imo State. We produce confectionaries like bread, biscuits and sweets. I have already left the business for my younger brother who is now running it. That was how I relocated my business to South-east where I started and what prompted that? I am an Igbo man from Imo State and I can never stop being an Igbo man, though I am a complete Nigeria because I was born in South-south, grew up in South-east, where I come from, live in Lagos in South-west. I have gone round the country but not withstanding my exposure, I was born an Igbo man, I am an Igbo man and I will continue to be an Igbo man. You have no choice? Yes; I have no choice because I didn't tell God where I should come from. I decided to relocate part of my business to Igbo land because my father lost his printing press in Port Harcourt after the war and the experience made me think home anytime I want to invest. That was why and how I took my business back home. By 1992, I employed 92 people and of the 92, two people were from Calabar 90 from Imo State. It was the success of the business that led me into hospitality business. I recall that in 2002, during a conference held in Imo State, then Governor Achike Udenwa, told sons and daughters of South-east to come home and invest. Of all of us that were invited to the conference, I was the only person that heeded his 'come home and invest call'. The conference was immediately after the Otokoto incident, which drove many people away from Owerri but I looked at the call and I said to myself 'if you are not a member of Otokoto, why will I be afraid of Otokoto?' Everybody's destiny is not the same; what killed Mr. A can save Mr. B. that was how I ventured into hospitality business. That was how I built my hotel, All Seasons Hotel, where I employ about 121 people. As a young man I was creating jobs for my people. At less than 30 years I was employing over 200 people. My aim was to eradicate poverty, stop our girls from going into prostitution, and remove crime from our streets by creating jobs. This is what I expect politicians to do but they are not doing it. And that is why I hate politicians; I don't like them. I see them as a bunch of wicked, ungrateful and demonic people who only believe in what they can grab. If somebody had told me now that I will venture into politics, I would have told the fellow 'you are joking'. But again, if all the good men shy away from politics, who will save us? God can never come down from heaven to save us; everyday they say we need prayer. No, we have prayed enough. What we need now in Nigeria is action. God has already answered our prayers but we just refused to act in accordance with God's injunction. I needed to expand my knowledge so that I can be more successful; that was the chief reason I decided to go to the university. But you made money before going to the university? No! No! I am still a learner; as I am talking to you I am learning and by the time we finish this interview, I will learn one or two things from you. I am open to education. I am open to learning. I am not a closed individual; I don't take decisions all alone. That is why I always work with professionals, What I don't know, I look for a professional that knows it. It will only cost me money to hire the professional but at the end, I make more money than I spent on the professional. These are what prompted me to go to the university because I do not want to be the regular Igbo trader and I am happy I took that decision. To be honest with you, it was not a part-time programme; it was a full-time. For three years I left my business in the hands of professionals to manage, and I was attending classes everyday. I did not study like a 'big man'; I passed through the school and the school passed through me. After that I went to do a course at the National Institute of Local Government and Public Administration. It was God that pushed me to do it, not knowing that He was preparing me for politics. Before now, I have supported politicians; the only thing is that I made sure they do not impose their ideas on me. That is why I have not benefited from politics because I have been consistent in my belief and thinking. And they find it difficult to accommodate people like me. Where would you want to start your political career? To be honest with you, if I am not a believer in equity, I would have gone for governorship because that is where I can add immediate value. But because of equity, I am from Orlu, Achike Udenwa, an Orlu man was there for eight years, then Ikedi Ohakim, from Okigwe, was there for four years, an Orlu man, Rochas Okorocha, is there now. Though I am not in the same party with Okorocha, but it will be unfair for me to say I want to run for the governorship election; it will seem as if there are no competent people from other areas. Since they have said it is the turn of Owerri zone that is why I settled for House of Representatives. I want to use this to prepare for high political post after all God says 'He brings down a king to raise another.' We don't know whom He is going to bring down and whom he is going to raise. It is not money, money doesn't give power. Most of the time, in Imo State, people that have money don't win election. Look at the history of Imo State; people that have money have never won. Well except Okorocha? Okorocha had no money when he came; I was an insider. People financed his election. People who believe that they are the front-runners in Imo State never made it and they don't make it. They go for whom they believe they can manage, that will not lord it over them, but at the end, they will not be able to manage that person. To answer your question on why I decided to go into the political arena? I have followed trend of events in my state; I am a stakeholder in Imo State, I know what we are suffering. Businesses are going down there because people are afraid of kidnappers. Who are those kidnappers? They call our places Sodom and Gomorrah, where people who want good time with women can go. Why? Because there are no jobs for the people. Now, if you are in the position of these young people: you finish secondary or university education and there is no job for you, your parents die out of sickness and hunger, if you see where somebody plant yam won't you go and take the yam to eat for you not to die? That is the major reason some of our young people have embraced crime of all kinds. I am lucky, I can train my children well but if they finish from university are they going to live in the sky? Their next-door neighbour is that uneducated, hungry and jobless guy. How comfortable is he going to be in the midst of angry and hungry people? My son will be at risk and all that investment I made on him, in terms of education and proper training will be zero because his neighbour is an angry man. This was all that I considered and said to myself, 'all the people that have been going into the executive and legislative arm of government are only interested in what they are able to get for themselves and family'. And I said 'why can't some of us that have played our roles in the private sector come in and transform the public sector to look like the private sector where we have recorded marginal successes?' That is my major attraction. That is the reason I decided to go into politics. And why House of Representatives? I think that age is still on my side; I want to have a good foundation first. I am not used to politics, I do not know what they do. All I know is that I have my idea of what I want to do if I get there. Though, I know it is going to be difficult, if I have one, two, three people who believe, like I do, that politics is service, not business, then I will have no problem. I am not going into politics to look for houses to buy. I have my own properties (on Allen Avenue, Lagos) since 1991. I got my first in Europe many years ago, my children are in the university; I built my house in the village as early as 1992, I have houses in Owerri, I built my first house in Lagos in 1989 in Akute; I bought the land then for N30,000. That Akute is now where people are rushing. I was successful because my father left no money for me; if he had, maybe I would have been busy squandering the money. All I think my children deserves from me is good education, don't keep property for them because if you do, before you are buried they start fighting over the property. I only want to leave a mark by enriching the people, how do I do that? By using their money because there is a limit to which my money can do that. And where I feel I can contribute now based on my age, is in the House of Representatives; I want to go and make laws, I want us to make politics unattractive, to make it service oriented, a part-time thing. And I am not desperate for it because if I lose, I have a home, I have what I am doing. So for me, it is not a 'do or die thing'. If it works fine, if it doesn't, there is still more time for me. From what you have said so far, it is obvious that you are concerned about the poverty level in Imo State where you come from. Don't you think that you will make more impact if you seek election into the state house of assembly where you can make laws that will touch the lives of the poor people of Imo State directly instead? My agenda is not only Imo State; my agenda is South-east. Yes, I am a Nigerian, but I am an Igbo man. What is happening in Imo is happening in Anambra, happening in Ebonyi, in Abia and Enugu states. Those are my constituency. I also want to influence my own people if I am able to get there, to see how we can better the lot of the people of the zone. I am not going there to make money; I started playing national politics since 1998. I played a major role. I played a major role in President Obasanjo's emergence as president in 1998. The first time Obasanjo came out of prison, myself, Kingsley Ononuju, Kenny Martins and Onyekachi Onyekwere, took him to where he had a haircut. The first time I ate Amala, it was Stella Obasanjo that fed me with it. When Brig. David Jemibewon, rtd, became a minister, I played a role. I sponsored Audu Ogbe to become national Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I was doing those things to see what tomorrow will be for my people and the youth. So my target, as of now, is how do we massively develop Igbo land. Anything apart from that, count me out. I am not interested in Lagos; Lagos is already developed and I am part of those that developed Lagos. Most of those that work for me are Yorubas. I have more than 10 properties in Lagos. I have done enough. Though, they may not like people like me, I am being honest. Let me create job for my own people too because that is why they are armed robbers, criminals because people like us do not go back there to invest for them. They come out from school the only thing that they do is how to steal because there is nothing else for them to do. My worry is how to create enabling environment for our people who are investing in the Diaspora, in the north, Lagos to bring at least 30 to 40 per cent of their investment to South East. That will help us to solve the issue of criminality in the area and by extension Nigeria. That is my agenda. What is your assessment our democracy since 1999? To be honest with you, I think our democracy since 1999 was built on a faulty foundation. In the first place, we were supposed to have negotiated our existence as a nation. Let us stop being selfish because of what we benefit. We do not want the system to crumble because of what we benefit but we have forgotten that it may crumble in the hands of our children. The present president of Nigeria is not the cause of our problems; he inherited them. The people that have presided over this country for more than 45 years and those that created force marriage among the tribes that make up Nigeria are to be blamed for the problems of this country not President Goodluck Jonathan who has presided over this country for less than five years. We need institutions that are strong, not individuals that are strong. You need to know where your right ends and where mine begins. Crime should be crime everywhere. It should not be that if I am arrested for crime, somebody would say I was arrested because I am an Igbo man. Every believes in my people, my people and nobody believes in Nigeria. It is an average Igbo man that believes in the Nigerian project. How many people from South West, from the north have investment in the east? If you claim to believe in the Nigerian project why don't you have property in Enugu? Why are you setting up all your property in Abuja and Lagos? So they don't believe in Nigeria like we, Igbo. And we are the same people they are killing in the same country. And until we re-visit this issue, Nigeria will continue to face this challenge of governance. If people like me who believe in the Nigerian project get there, that will be the genesis of solution to our problems. I want us to look at the politics of Imo State. I am sure you belong to PDP? No, I have gone out of PDP. Where are you now? I am now in APGA (All Progressives Grand Alliance). In the last three years, the fortunes of APGA has nose-dived... (Cuts in sharply), No, no. My brother, I told you here earlier that I am an Igbo man and that I would continue to be an Igbo man. Look at the trend of politics in Nigeria, Yorubas have their party, Hausas have their theirs same for the Igbo. The Igbo do not own PDP; PDP was purely northern party at the beginning. Major part of the north no longer romance PDP. Yoruba has their own style of politics, they don't joke with it. Most Yorubas do not join party that is not Yoruba party. Which one belongs to Igbo? APGA; it is an Igbo party. I will on APGA, we are going to win there. The important is the individual not the party; if I have my way I will run on a non party basis but that is not part of our constitution. A party must promote you and I think that the party that can promote me is the party of Igbos. But you were in PDP? I don't belong to PDP per se; I have only been romancing PDP and all my romance is as a result of my attempts to see if I can add value to my people. You were one of the influential figures in Imo State in the days of Ohakim and what will be your relationship with him now that he is seeking to re-contest? Let me tell you, everything is about interest and my interest now is not my pocket. God has done it in such a way that I may not, unless he decides to take away from me, which can happen but I pray He does not. Now, Ohakim was my friend. He was? Was. Not anymore? Let me use was. He was my friend before he became governor; we were very, very close. I won't say what we did together and what I did for him because I knew that he had no money when he went into the race for governorship. A lot of people played some role for him but at the end we benefitted nothing. What he did to accommodate me was to appoint me the chairman of Imo State Tourism Corporation; now there is appointment that is ceremonial, only for the press. It is on record that throughout my time as the chairman of the corporation, all my proposals to make Imo what it should be tourism wise, none saw the light of the day. They did all they did in hospitality without my knowledge; even when they talked about the development of Oguta Lake I was not carried along. You started off as a businessman, how much was your take off capital? To be honest with you, I cannot tell you how much I started with because in those days we were not keeping account. The practice was 'you sell, you plough back'. Your first capital, where did it come from? Who gave it to you? My major seed is from the business because I started as a trader in the sense that I learnt how to trade. And after learning, my master settled me. How much did he settle you with? My master gave me N1,500. Which year was that? That was in 1984/85; but how we do business then was that it was not only your money. People who don't have shop will bring their goods to your shop to display their goods and tell you to help sell them. If they tell you to sell item A for N10, I will sell it for N15 and the extra is my own. That is Apriko. I was a king of Apriko in Ariaria Market, Aba. I did it very, very well. And it paid out for me. It was when I started divesting into more corporate businesses that I started keeping formal account. That was when I started importing goods. That you must get an auditor/accounts person who will keep your books. What is the scope of your business now? I thank God, we are into real estate, we are still into our electronics business, into hospitality and tourism. We are into entertainment. Our fingers are in so many pies. What are those lessons you have learnt along the way? What I have learnt about business is that you should always be the original not the imitator. If you are the creator of an idea, it gives you room to expand. But when you borrow or steal idea from people, you won't drive it far. Again I also learnt to be dynamic; I don't stay in a line of business for too long because the law of gravity must set in if you do not constantly reinvent your business idea. So that before will catch up with you, you have re-branded and repositioned. It is difficult but it takes the grace of God to do all of these. Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |