I changed the dynamics of my family through God’s grace, hard work – Ade-Ojo

The highly successful Michael Ade-Ojo, founder of Elizade Nigeria Limited, a company which has today become a conglomerate, in this interview with ZEBULON AGOMUO, Deputy Editor, said he changed the dynamics of his family through hard work, as he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Ade-Ojo, who is a key player in the automotive sector of the nation’s economy, advises the Federal Government to give operators time to study the situation before implementing the new automotive policy to avoid any regrettable mistakes. He also urged the Nigerian youths to be industrious and shun the allure of easy money, which according to him destroys in the long run. Excerpts:

 As a big player in the auto industry, how do you see the new automotive policy by the Federal Government?

My own view is that, look, if this policy must come, and the only premise on which we are building this thing is our population, that is not all. Where there is market, there must be the ability to buy those vehicles. With the vehicles that are available on the road today- the Japanese, the Korean, the Chinese, the German and all the rest- if I ask you if you want to buy a vehicle today, which one do you want to buy? I am not going to answer that question. And then now when you put a Nigerian one there… You see, we need to build confidence, and to build confidence, we must be sure of what we are really doing. This is because I don’t know what we are manufacturing here as far as parts of vehicles are concerned. Most of the manufacturers who came expecting to make good business, all of them faded away. There must be some reasons. Those reasons must be dug into and addressed, with that we can now plan how to go about the auto policy. We are not saying there should not be such thing here, but there must be proper planning to avoid making a huge mistake which we will regret later. There are some factors that drive such things; those factors are the factors we want government to take into consideration.

As a person operating in the private sector, how do you rate the Nigerian economy?

There are lots of opportunities in Nigeria; very many opportunities. The only problem is that we are not strong on research. We need to do research; we need to put the figures we realize from our researches into proper use. We should get them right to direct us on the proper things to do. We cannot make any progress without proper planning and for proper planning to be done, you must gather your facts very well, not imagination. You don’t start any business by just imagining and think you will be successful. So, you have to be fed with the right facts and with those facts you plan your strategy. As I have said, you cannot just implement the policy just like that, you must dig into it. What we are saying to them is that they should give us time, let us study the terrain and let us convince our partners that it is a journey worth embarking upon before you do it. This is because if I put money and the money flies away, it is gone forever; I cannot get it again. So, before I put my money into something I must think deep and make sure that there’s a likelihood of success.

The level of insecurity in the country is hampering businesses; if you were the President, what should have been your approach to solving the problem?

Insecurity…insecurity… Ah, well, that is not my area, but again, it needs serious study to know exactly what is the cause of this thing, find out why it is happening and then use all the forces of government to fight it.

 What is your advice to the youth in relation to the place of labour in human development as against the craze for easy money?

 It takes determination and the will to do things that are right. If you are determined to be good and you know that through this goodness your life will become better, you must pursue it, but my problem is that people think money is everything. There are so many people who are rich, but their wealth does not count anything because it did not come the right way. I asked a Japanese what class of people they rate highly in Japan- whether it is those that are rich (wealthy people), politician and all that; I was shocked to hear that they do not put wealthy people first. I was thinking that the rich man should be the person they place first, looking back at home. I was greatly surprised that the artists, the teacher, the engineer, all those people who invent, these are the people that are respected. Not just somebody that just come in contact with money. You know that there are different ways of making money- through hard efforts and through stealing. If we are not careful, people who steal money and are being worshipped, they become like people who actually work for their money. I am very much afraid for the young ones. I come from a very, very poor family; there’s nothing like being born with silver spoon in my mouth, but by the grace of God and dint of hard work I was able to change the dynamics of my family. There’s no reason why you cannot change the dynamics of your own family. The young people must follow the truth, and must say the truth always; this is how to succeed in life. This is my charge to the youth.

 Nowadays many people in society cut corners to make gains, what is your take on this?

The craze for money is a misnomer. We’re running a rat race in Nigeria. People receive bribe to give what they are supposed to give out. People are deceiving one another for one gain or another. So, you don’t even know what to do. This is killing businesses. I don’t know where we are going. There’s too much wrong in the society.

 What is your take on the call for state police and resource control?

 I presented a paper sometime in Abuja where I advocated that the best thing for this country is to have a weak centre and strong units. I also said that there should be state police. I said so because police from a particular area will best catch the thieves in that particular locality because they know the terrain. If the South West states are being policed by Yoruba policemen, they will be able to easily catch Yoruba thieves; let’s use Yoruba police to catch Yoruba thief; let’s us use Igbo police to catch Igbo thieves, and let’s use Hausa police to capture Hausa. This is because the local police know the families of thieves in their communities. The same argument also applies to controlling the resources in various geo-political zones. Each area will be able to develop in the area it has comparative advantage over others. For instance, the South South people have oil but they don’t produce food in abundance. They won’t drink their oil, they need food items from other parts of the country, so another zone that produces yam for instance will sell to them and make money. If it is applied this way, every zone will be doing its best to develop well. You must use what you have to get what you don’t have. I believe that by the time we work to get our money, we would know how best to use it. Again, I believe that it only takes a few people to change a society, not the majority. Most people tend to take the easy way, but those who follow the hard way are few, but they make lasting impact. In this part of the world, people tell a lot of lies. It is a pity that we deceive ourselves a lot. When people are talking over the TV and they are telling lies and they’re emphasizing that it is true, it draws tears from my eyes. May God help us to help ourselves. The worst thing in life is for you to deceive yourself. Until you tell yourself the truth, and do accordingly, there’s no hope. When you deceive yourself, the consequences will come; they will come and they will meet you when you don’t expect it.