Wumi used to push my VW Beetle –Tunde Obe
By SAMUEL OLUWATOBI
Sunday, March 16, 2008

•Tunde and Wumi Obe Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Tunde Obe cuts the picture of a man who has always had a perfect life. He is a son of an ambassador who married the daughter of publisher and founder of Punch newspaper.
Expectedly, when his father died, Obe’s family faced an unpleasant turn of events.

With the assistance of Providence he was able to overcome the difficulties. As a matter of fact he has beeen mesmerising people with his singing prowess since his university days and he lives in an exclusive estate with three top range brand new cars. His chubby frame speaks wealth but Obe who co-presents Zoom Time with Charly Boy says life has not always been rosy. He spoke with SAMUEL OLUWATOBI on his life, money and music.

What happened after his death?
We all had to come back home. You know my mother being the wife of an ambassador was not working, she suddenly had to star working it was tough for he. She had to pick a job at a bank.

Did you do any odd job?
No, not really. My mother tried and my grandfather also helped out. And later I started work at Niteshift as an artiste and was earning some money too. And as you know I’m not a frivolous person, I keep my money well.

Can you remember any difficult moment?
Yes, there were so many times my wife and I would go out and would have to trek back home because there was no transport fare. That was suffering. And there were many things one would have done that could not be done because there was no money. There was also time that my beetle (IJAPA) would stop in the rain, and rain would beat us in the car. My wife would have to get down to push the car in the rain.

What do you feel now when you drive your automobile and sit comfortable in your estate?
I give glory to God.

What lesson did you learn from that experience?
It taught me that aside from God, and if you are lucky to have a good wife like mine, you are on your own.

Some people are of the opinion that since you married the daughter of the founder of Punch, you ought not to suffer that way?
That is the opinion of people who are ill-informed. The bottomline is my wife is not a director at Punch, she doesn’t work there. As a matter of fact she was still jumping buses until 1995 when she bought her first car. Her father died in 1984, look at the difference. Is her father still responsible for her till now? Look I don’t want to join issues with some people.

What lesson did your father’s death teach you?
It taught me a vital lesson that we are only useful when we are dead. After his death we were left on our own. We started jumping molues, imagine the kind of transition it was, from Rolls Royce to molue. Most of the people my father helped left us on our own, and
that is why we are planning seriously for our own children.

What role will you say your wife played on your rise to the top?
For me, marriage made me put my life in perspective. When you are a single man and you are making certain amount of money you might think you are making a lot but when you get into marriage you will find out that there are many responsibilities - school fees and other expenses to tackle. You will also find out that some things are more important than your own needs. For the first time, you find that only about 10 per cent come to you as direct spending on yourself. Yes, it makes you work harder because your children come home with demands. They may compare the car that comes to pick them with that of their friends’ parents. That is the reality that people don’t seem to understand.

Even if you laugh about it initially, it becomes a thing of shame later. You wouldn’t want your children not to be proud of you. Between the periods my first daughter turned five and now, I’ve changed practically all the cars in the family. Whatever happens, they are happy and proud of us and we want to keep it that way. For me, my perspective of life has changed. It is now about making them happy and successful.

Can marriage have any impact on the amount of money you make?
If you believe that God is part of your marriage, then you have to challenge Him to bless your marriage. I think apart from that most men that get married just got more serious. It is not as if there is a magic about it; it is just that they now know that they have responsibilities. If things get bad for a single man and they throw him out of the house, he can pack into a room with a friend; but as a married man where are you going to put the kids and your wife? It is a shameful thing and it is the pursuit of the avoidance of that shame that will make you work harder. So, marriage will help you focus more on the state of your finance. Maybe you used to earn N10,000 and you go to a beer parlour with your friend to drink till late in the night, but as a married man, you can’t do that any more. The next thing with marriage would be ‘how can I make N10,000? I think men become more rational and aggressive when married.

People usually say it is not easy to make it in Nigeria; do you agree with them?
It is not easy to make it anywhere in the world. If it was everybody would have made it. I even think it is easier to make it in Nigeria than anywhere else because we don’t have that class thing that makes it impossible for people with poor background to make it to the top. The thing we need to do is sit down and think of something. We should ask, ‘what do I have that people want to buy?’ Or, ‘what do I have that people want to pay for?’ Any rational thinking person can make it in Nigeria, may be not as much as the late M. K. O. Abiola.

There is also this belief that it is not easy to save. Do you agree?
Maybe it is because they are not thinking of saving. I started saving at a very young age. It was then that I started denying myself of things. You just have to make conscious effort to save. The truth is that when you have N100,000, you can spend it just like that; but there are other things you can do with it. But you need to have the idea of saving at the back of your mind. Don’t go and buy a N50,000 shirt or things that can easily make the money disappear. There has never been a time when anybody had enough money.

There are so many things I could use money to do, but it is just rational thinking that I save. I buy only things that are very important and things that I need. Don’t wait until you get millions. Start, at least, from the thousands. What you should always be thinking is what are the things that I need most. So, when you get N100,000, what you should think of is how that money can get you another N100,000, and not how to blow it away. Don’t forget that if you finish spending that money, you will be back at level zero. So, it is possible to save. You need to budget your expenditure.

As a person, how do you practise budgeting?
Well, I always do one thing, anytime I make some money: 50 per cent of it goes for saving.

Did you say 50 per cent?
Yes, there is no other way, or how do you think that one buys new cars? You’ve seen the cars in the compound; there is no tokunbo (fairly-used) car in this house again. It is not as if one makes the money in one day. I made up my mind that I’ll not labour for mechanics again. I told myself I needed brand new cars, because people who are driving new cars don’t have two heads. So, it starts from saving. If I make N100,000, I put N50 000 apart, and you keep putting it aside religiously; every other thing must fall within that budget.

You see money is meant to work for you when you have it. It is not the other way round. If you look back every month after doing that, your bank account would make you happy. I know my banker is always very happy, because he knows I do it religiously. I know the things that make me happy and one of them is having a brand new car and I challenge myself, not because I want anybody to be impressed, but because it is more convenient. Don’t try to impress anybody. The only persons I’m trying to impress are my children, wife and my God. And everything starts with saving.

Why 50 per cent?
I have a lot of things to do and you can’t do a major project with N10. You need money to finance projects. You don’t have to wake up everyday going about begging people to finance your project. How did those people get the money? You should be interested in that. Not everybody that is rich did so via criminal activities.

How do you think they became rich?
It is by saving, and re-investing and denying themselves of many things. You can’t stop investing; that is why you’ll see that most rich people in Nigeria, rather than cash, they pursue assets and it is those assets that make them to be richer. That is where I am now.
The temptation for most people is how they can put 50 per cent of their income somewhere when there is a big need to be met. There is always this temptation to touch it. That is why they will continue to look at us when we drive past in our brand new cars, and they will ask how we did it. We started from somewhere.

There are people who have known me over the past few years, when we were driving the Beetle car. They will tell you how we grew. When I was driving a Beetle I could afford the Mercedes Benz 200 but I didn’t need a flashy car then. All I needed was a car that could get me from point A to point B. I had my programme in place, and I needed cash to do things I needed to do. When the time for flashy cars came, I got them. But I can tell you that car is not a priority. At that time anybody assessing me based on the car I drove, I tried to avoid; and God kept pushing me in the right direction. I avoided them and started associating with anybody who makes me grow as a person and as a business man.

So, there is a connection between having a plan for your life and the kind of money you make?
Yes, you have to have a plan for your life. You can envisage that in the next five years you’ll make so and so amount of money. It takes a plan and hardwork to become a rich man. People don’t become rich overnight.

What do you do with the money you save?
You can give yourself a treat; you can re-invest and finance your projects yourself. You can buy some juicy shares that will probably change your life. So you never know. Opportunity might come for you to buy a house because the landlord is running into a problem and wants to sell. You might have opportunity to buy land; you just never can tell. But if you haven’t been saving, when the opportunity comes where do you go?

What kind of investments do you do?
We have property, shares and we invested in human beings.

Where do you draw a line between giving and making money?
Before, when people come to me with their problems, it becomes my problem but I’ve realised that a lot of people want to take advantage of the fact that you are generous. So, I stopped. And, before, I used to lend people money but I stopped since about 15 years ago when I found out that they were not paying back. Their belief was that, if he could lend me, he could as well give me. Those who borrowed rarely paid back. If you come to me with a problem, I’ll only assist with what I have, no matter how small. I don’t give what I don’t have. I’ve given huge amounts of money out to people you believe you trust but they never looked back.

What is your motivation?
The fear of poverty drove me to save like mad. I hate to be poor and my kind of person is too shy to look at anybody in the face and ask for money. So, if I don’t want to go begging, the best thing is to save.

What is your view on borrowing?
I usually encourage people not to borrow. As for me, I have never borrowed any kobo from anybody. You can cross-check from my wife, and again that is why I save 50 per cent of all income. And as for those who have turned begging into profession, it is time to have a rethink because the person you are begging is just as equipped as you. He has one head; same goes for you. All you need do is to think of what product you can sell and people will be willing to buy, and the person you are begging will one day get tired.