What motivates me in business is people,people,
people.Not profit- Dr Orji Uzor Kalu
By EMEKA OKOROANYANWU
Monday, February 25, 2008
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•Dr
Orji Uzor Kalu
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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The FIB Group recently held a three-day retreat in Igbere,
Abia State. The retreat was aimed at positioning member companies
of the Group which comprise 17 limited liability entities
on the task of becoming market leaders in their different
sectors in the African continent.
The Founder of the FIB Group and former Governor of Abia State,
Dr Orji Uzor Kalu, in this interview held at his palatial
home at Igbere he speaks of his dreams, the FIB Group, the
Nigerian economy, politics and his next business plans.
Let us start from why we are here. The issue of your re-launching
into business, going back in full into business after your
sojourn in politics.
What will be your new areas of investment. What parts of the
world are you going to, what part of Africa are you re-launching
and reopening new offices, probably new companies?
Well, I’m not even back fully in business, I’m
still looking at politics. I’ll be back fully in business
sometime in September this year and I’m making every
effort to come back, but it has not been easy to reposition
myself into coming back to the corporate world. I think, with
God on our side, I’ve given myself a deadline of September
and if God permits, I’ll re-launch to sit in the Slok
House in Lagos .
Are you looking at any new areas of investment?
Ah…. We will continue to acquire new issues, we will
continue to acquire new businesses, and we will continue to
expand our horizon across Africa because this has been my
vision to see that Africa grows and Nigeria should follow.
So, when we were doing all these businesses across Africa,
Nigerian companies were not in Africa . We were the first
indigenous company about 1996-1997, to be in the Gambia and
to open bank and insurance companies all over Africa. So,
this is why we are here and will continue to do something
new because as I told you people in my paper this morning,
when I think about Africa, Nigeria also, I think about poverty,
I think about deprivation, I think about unemployment, I think
about disease, I think about uncommon things for common purposes,
so I decided to do many things more about other people than
myself.
So are you thinking of bringing back Slok Airlines?
I’ve not thought about that. What about businesses that
were politically killed? I’ve not talked about any one.
God is my witness, I never discussed any of them with President
Yar’Adua. He can testify to that. I’ve never discussed
any of our private businesses with President Yar’Adua
and I think that we will be a dominant figure, if the government
makes us to come back or if the government wants us to come
back. We didn’t commit any offence, but we thank God,
we give God the glory and we will continue to give him the
glory.
Your Excellency, you appear to have a very good relationship
with the current President, Umaru Yar’Adua. I mean you
visited him the other time.
Oh! President Yar’Adua has been my friend, the Emir
of Katsina gave me a traditional title, the Mai Yaki of Katsina.
Abiola was the last Southerner who held that title and I was
the first non-muslim who was given that title since the 16th
century of Katsina Emirate. So, he’s like a brother
to me and we are very close, although he has his own mind,
his own opinion.
Back to business again, earlier in the day, you told us the
history of your life and the Slok business, for the purpose
of this interview, what keeps you going, what drives you?
Let me be honest with you, profit is not the motivation, the
motivation is people, people, people. Ability to create opportunities
for all of us to be in business, ability to create opportunities
for all of us to be employed. This is what drives me. In the
process of doing that, of seeking human well being, I would
create a centre of profit which also goes back to service
the human being who created that profit, that’s what
drives me.
It’s like most of your businesses are doing very well,
how do you manage them? Is it the people you employed? Or
you have a personal touch with some of them?
Well, you can see the relationship. I drive everybody, what
drives me and those people and what gets us doing well and
creates profits is our ability to come together, our ability
to build strong partnership among ourselves, this is what
drives me.
Last night, you were trying to give us an insight into the
relationship between getting into business and getting into
politics and that you kind of lost what you would have gained
if you had remained in business, how much did you lose?
What I have lost? I have lost money, but money is not everything,
I can never be buried with money. I lost money on one hand
and I got honour on the other hand. This is why when people
discuss the issue of character, people question who is who.
I laugh at them because all my life, history has shown, the
day-to- day living has shown that I have a very strong character.
I was the student union leader, I never budged to the school
authorities. I was a member of the House of Representatives,
I never budged to the Assembly members and even when they
were saying we should allow the military to continue. And
I was Governor of Abia State, I never budged to Obasanjo succeeding
in his third term tenure bid. And history has vindicated me
and if I am a questionable person with questionable character,
I would have gone along with Obasanjo because I know all the
businesses I would like to have in Nigeria would be given
to me by the Federal government of Nigeria. The issue that
drives me now is not money, it is passion for ordinary man
to come up, passion for equality. Even in this building, there
is no boss, everybody here is a boss. Even the cleaners, I
have a good relationship with them and that is how it should
be.
When you grow your business to a certain level, you want to
sit back, retire and think of some other things. Do you have
that kind of vision?
We will take you to the place, Orji Kalu Centre of Excellence
and Social Justice, Orji Kalu Foundation is there and we are
building a strong foundation. And very soon, Nigerians will
hear of this foundation because I have also willed most of
the things I have to go to charity when I am no longer here.
What is your projection for the Slok and the FIB Group in
the next 10 years?
Well you know that President Obasanjo dragged us back so much,
he cancelled arbitrarily our banking licence which was owned
by Slok Nigeria, he took our bank, the Hallmark Bank where
we had substantial interest, he took our oil blocs, cancelled
our airline. So many governors gained, many ministers gained
too, in coming into politics but we lost a lot of money in
being in office, but I don’t regret it. I thank God
because these are the processes of strengthening democracy.
If there was no Orji Kalu, it means Obasanjo would have succeeded
in being a life president and in the process Democratic Republic
of Congo would have been better than Nigeria. Nothing is happening
there now. Time limit is an essential ingredient in a constitutional
democracy. So, anybody waiting to tamper with time limit must
be senile.
We heard that you have substantial investment in the Stock
Exchange and surprisingly none of your companies is listed
on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Are you thinking towards it?
Why should I list my companies in Nigerian Stock Exchange
when people are killing businesses, killing private grown
businesses? When people are dealing with people politically
because of politically motivated issues? Well, we were considering
it before I became governor, Professor Ndi Okereke Onyiuke
used to be a board member when I was Chairman of Co-operative
and Commerce Bank and we discussed at length, she lured me,
even the Slok Vegetable Factory, she lured me for all our
companies to come and be quoted on the Stock Exchange. This
was in 1996/1997. She begged me, I mean she is alive, she
can repeat what I am saying today and I said let me think
about it. In thinking about it, Abdulsalami Abubakar took
over and politics consumed me from then onwards till today
and so I have never really thought about going to Stock Exchange
but we will go to Stock Exchange. It is the right thing to
do, it is the right approach, it is the right place to be,
it is a place of honour and it is also a place that we will
be able to play. Very soon, we will go to the Stock Exchange
FIB International Bank is not in Nigeria, so are you
thinking of acquiring a bank to be named FIB Nigeria?
The issue is not acquiring, if we have the ability to come,
we will come, we will think about it. But in the next few
months, we will start a process of regaining our licences
that were cancelled with the regulatory authorities, it is
the right thing to do, we will do it, if the regulators allow
us, we will like to come back and revisit the issue of our
cancelled licences because that is injustice.
In the area of your investment, you are going offshore, and
many people are saying that this is the place. I agree that
you have been hurt, no doubt about that. Are you thinking
of coming back to do more? It’s an era of joint partnership
with foreign organizations. Are you discussing with other
people to bring in more funds to establish new industries,
create more jobs in new areas of human endeavours?
As long as there is rule of law, as long as there is respect
for human dignity, as long as there is respect for constitutional
authorities, as long as there is respect for orders of courts
of competent jurisdiction. This place was lawless for eight
years. Obasanjo never obeyed any court order from Supreme
Court to the last court in Nigeria . Now, people have started
obeying the order, the Inspector- General will now order his
policemen to go and execute the order of Supreme Court, of
Federal Court of Appeal, of Federal High Court, why not? The
issue of not being discussed here is about arbitration, if
there is no quarrel between you and I, who is going to be
the arbiter? It is a question, so how do we know that the
courts have assumed their rightful position, one can be able
to do business because if I quarreled with somebody another
person would settle it for us. And as long as there is nobody
to settle quarrel, it will be a lawless society and there
is no need of putting money in such a place. Now that the
rule of law has returned, the courts are doing their jobs,
we will be able to come back, because the name of the game
is the rule of law.
Take a wide view of the current administration of
Yar’Adua, without asking you to pass judgement, what
will be your assessment?
Well, let me tell you, you journalists are not being fair
to Yar’Adua. You were here for four years, Obasanjo
was gallivanting all over the world. He didn’t do anything,
he never said anything in four years and nobody talked about
it. Now, possibly because Yar’Adua is not an Igbo man
or is not a Yoruba man, you people that own the Press have
seen faults in less than six months. People are saying that
he is ‘Baba go slow’, he’s ‘Baba come
slow’, but what of the president that was busy flying
our aircraft, wasting our money offshore and nobody said anything.
You know my opinion is always very clear, the election was
not fair and the election had flaws. And we as governors,
we agreed that anybody that becomes the president, we should
not go to court arbitrarily and I didn’t go to court.
I am not saying association with Yar’Adua makes him
a saint, that’s not what I‘m saying, I’m
saying that Yar’Adua should be given an opportunity,
I’m not even saying Buhari should not go to court. Buhari
and Atiku have the right to be in court but it is only through
arbitration that they can have justice, it is only through
arbitration that there will be no problems, chaos inside the
system. It is only through arbitration that we will be able
to have stability because it is an arbiter that would say,
Buhari wait, Yar’Adua wait, Atiku wait. So this is why
we still have peace so long as the people stand by the process
of court of competent jurisdiction, there is no problem. I
cannot say much about Yar’Adua’s government until
when it is one year in office. Come back after 29th of May,
if God gives us life. I’ll tell you my honest opinion
because Yar’Adua has inherited a lot of problems because
this system was set to collapse by President Obasanjo, but
God loves this country, the system is not collapsing. So Yar’Adua
has a lot of knots to untie before he can move forward. He
has the most difficult job to do than when Obasanjo came to
power, because Obasanjo never wanted to leave, people are
blaming Iwu, I didn’t say what he has done is good,
but in the situation, Iwu did his best, because Obasanjo never
wanted the elections. I know what Iwu went through to be able
to execute the elections. I know what we went through to persuade
Iwu that he must hold those elections, whether there were
cards or not that the elections must hold. We agreed that
Obasanjo must exit properly before any other thing could take
place. But if they repeated what they did in 2007 in 2011,they
will question the unity of the country, because I’m
not going to take it. I might possibly be a candidate, so
we are not going to take it. We allowed Obasanjo to go and
go for good and that is where to start.
At the state level, you were governor for eight years and
by extension, you also worked with the Federal Government.
Now, in those years, what actually went wrong in the power
sector, that we were told we spent 16 billion dollars and
nothing is working?
We didn’t spend 16 billion, Bankole is wrong, we spent
23 billion dollars in the power sector. Bankole is Speaker
of the House Representatives and he’s wrong. It’s
only Obasanjo that knows what he did with the money with his
people, so Nigerians should come on the streets and ask for
that money, it’s our money. There’ ll be no peace
in this country until a thorough investigation of that money,
not what they are doing in the House of Representatives and
Senate. No, I don’t want anybody to be compromised,
President Yar’Adua should set up a judicial panel of
enquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge.
Back to the West Coast, Nigerian banks are flooding the market.
What are the gains and challenges?
What advice do you have?
Well the gains are there, they are expanding. The challenges
are there also, the market is very small, there is shortage
of manpower in Nigeria to supervise banks here. There is lot
of manpower out there to supervise banks, you must do the
right things, you don’t have anybody to bribe or cook
your books. I know that the Nigerian banks we have now are
very dominant and credible, so the era of book cooking is
over. I’m sure they will make a lot of difference, and
these are the things I was preaching about, we cannot fight
in a country like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Namibia, South Africa,
and Angola and after fighting we allow other people to eat
the fruits of our labour. What is the essence of spending
tax payers’ money to defend a nation. If I’m the
president of Nigeria, if I’ll fight for the redemption
of any country, I’ll take over the economy. The moment
I’m going there for a visit for liberation, it means
that the next aircraft will be fully loaded with our businessmen
to take over, that is the policy of the United States (US),
that is the policy of China, that is the policy of UK and
that should be Nigeria’s policy, if we want to move
forward. We spent over 12 billion dollars in Liberia and the
people treated us as if we were their houseboys, the policies
should be strong, we should be able to know that business
is business. Apart from playing a humanitarian game, we should
play a business game for putting in 12 billion dollars which
can give the entire Nigeria light today, so that is where
we stand.
Assess the economy, the Nigerian economy?
The economy is in a shambles now, I’m not buying shares.
I’m not doing all those kinds of things here because
the institution that is supposed to point to growth is not
there. Is any water company in Nigeria selling their shares
in Nigeria Stock Exchange? No, if there are no companies selling
their shares that generate electricity and generate water
and pump water, the economy is still in elementary stage.
How many food companies or agricultural companies are quoted
on the Nigerian Stock Exchange? What we are still fuelling
is the services aspect of our economy. If you want to check
the economy very well and want to build a prospering economy,
we must go back to production of agricultural materials and
production of goods and services, so unless we go back to
generate our own light, pump our own clean water, then come
back to small scale industries, we’ve not started. So,
it is after one bank or the other finishes going to the Stock
Exchange, after three months, they come back, next year, the
same bank would go again to raise capital. At a time when
you are raising this capital, the stimulation of the economy
is not there, because you ought to put the indices that stimulate
the economy, like production of agricultural products and
canning of goods, and all the rest of them, they are not there,
so where will this money be coming from. In the right sense,
the oil money they share every month is not supposed to be
shared, oil money is supposed to be totally for special investment.
Every state, every local government and the Federal Government
are supposed to generate their own money and oil money should
be special investment fund for key industrial projects. It’s
a shameful thing for a country like Nigeria that we can’t
even manufacture a car. A country of 250 million people, it’s
criminal and I think attention needs to be paid to a lot of
things for us to move forward, we need to take drastic decisions,
we need to make efforts to make sure that we rebuild the economy.
As far as I’m concerned, people are saying the economy
is growing, it is not growing. In my own opinion, it’s
shrinking and I believe that unless we rebuild this economy,
it will not be able to move forward in a couple of years.
How do you see the recent move by the House of Representative
to stop banks from going to market?
It is beyond the powers of the House.
Nobody can stop any company as long as there are people who
want to buy and they do not go against the law of Nigeria
Stock Exchange or the law of Exchange Commission, then nobody
can tell us not to go, nobody can tell any of the banks not
to go to the market, if they like to go to the market every
morning, as long as they fulfill the laws of Nigerian Stock
Exchange and there are buyers to buy it. How can a House of
Representatives ask her country’s companies not to go
to the capital market. I mean are we living in the past or
present? I’m sure they were just joking, they were trying
to be funny but I’m not sure it’s a serious business
to ask banks not to go to Stock Exchange. |
