High Chief Modupe Oluwole, 60, is an accomplished business woman. The Jomulobun of Ondo Kingdom shares her life experiences in this interview with
ADEOLA BALOGUN
You don’t look sixty, how have you managed that?
It is all by the special grace of God. When one has the grace, even if she is 70 or 80, she would still look great. In my own case, it has been God that has been assisting me. I don’t allow anything to bother me unnecessarily and because of this, I have been lucky; I don’t have any ailment. I don’t have high blood preasure (hypertension) or diabetes. My health is excellent and I thank almighty God for this. There is no drug that I take and there is no food that I don’t eat. I have taken pounded yam this morning and I am okay. As a business person, the present business environment is not rosy, but I don’t allow that to affect me negatively because thinking about the downturn of the economy generally could depress someone. I always shrug things off. My philosophy is that anything that happens to my business is because God allows it. My experience in business over the years is that sometimes, everything would be rosy and sometimes, things could take a dip. But what I do is that I am always smiling; I have recommended this to fellow business people that worrying over things does not change anything.
As an accomplished business tycoon, did you come from a rich home?
How I wish! I had a very humble background but I respect the memory of my parents. They tried their best for me as a child. They wanted good things of life for their children but they were incapacitated financially. I lived with my grandmother who was doing some petty trading and interestingly, that was where I picked interest in business. Then I used to hawk things for my grandmother after school. I realised that the only time that I derived joy was when I was hawking things for my grandmother and everything I went out with was always sold. My granny was very impressed and was always praying for me that I would grow up as a prosperous woman. Then, she kept a kolo (clay safe) for me where she encouraged me to save something which she used to buy me new clothes and shoes at the end of every year or during any festival. We were many living with her but if she didn’t buy anything for others, she would buy for me because she would tell others that she had to be fair to me for always willing to hawk things for her with cheerfulness. I attended schools up to a stage but I had always known that I would not want to do any other thing than business. I was always telling people then that even if I had the opportunity of university education, I would still come out and do business. This is because there was nothing that I sold that I did not make something for myself.
When you decided to go into business, what help did you receive and from who?
I had even married but when couples are still young, there is a lot they can still do to better their lot. When I got married to my husband, there was barely anything to live on; there was no money to start anything but I told my husband that I would like to start doing something to help our young family. But when there was nothing, I started selling ‘ice water.’ How much was nylon then? I would buy nylon and ice block; I would put the water in nylon, put the ice blocks in a container and off I went to Oshodi to hawk my ware. When I started, I had this joy that at last, I had gone back to my old vocation. I was never ashamed and I was always happy hawking the water around in Oshodi. Then everybody wanted to buy from me calling me Omo Pupa (light complexioned girl) even though I was married but because I was very young, they thought I was still a girl. The way I was going about it made everyone like me because I put everything into my job and I was making little returns that I was using to support the family. I did this for a fairly long time until a friend suggested that I could add soft drinks to my ware.
So by then, had you been able to save enough to start selling soft drinks?
Ah, where would I get that? I think a crate of minerals then was about a hundred naira or something less, I can’t remember the actual amount now but it was a big amount to me then. I travelled home to Ondo and I remember discussing the issue with my mother who graciously gave me the money. Incidentally that turned out to be the seed money for my business. I used the money to buy a crate of soft drinks. Just as I was using ice blocks to sell water, I put the bottles in a container and put the blocks to make them cool. That was how I graduated from selling ice water to selling drinks. Don’t forget that I was also raising my family at this time but I would put my baby with a very kind woman in the market while I hawked my wares around. As I was selling the minerals, I increased it to two, three, four crates. My joy was so much that as a hawker of ‘ice water’, I could have about four crates of soft drinks. Throughout that period, I was never downcast that I turned into a hawker in a place like Oshodi; I was never ashamed that even as a married woman, I could be running after people to buy ice water from me, no. Till today whenever I am in traffic and I get besieged by hawkers of different kinds, I always tell my driver to treat them kindly. I don’t underrate any one of them because it is only God that knows what they can become tomorrow. The hawkers, especially those who sell pure water, remind me of my beginning every day.
Did you have to take in more people to help hawk your drinks since it is impossible for a single person to hawk all the bottles of soft drinks daily?
What happened was that along the railway beside the army barracks in Bolade, Oshodi, there were some empty spaces available to traders to sell their wares. So I went to the railway office in Alagomeji to pay a token to obtain a permit to get a space there where I put my wares for sale. When I gathered some money, I was able to put up a kiosk where I put my wares. I would display the drinks and still hawk around. At that time also, there was a Guinness distributor in Oshodi then called Omotosho. I went to her to start giving me cartons of beer to add to my wares. I was lucky then because soldiers were coming to buy from me and the distributor took interest in me because I was paying her promptly. She used to call me Omo Pupa Ehin Irin (my kiosk was just about the iron wall of the barracks). The business was expanding every day until 1984 when the regime of Buhari/Idiagbon demolished everywhere near the barracks, including my kiosk. I was stuck, not knowing what to do again.
Were you not allowed to remove your wares before your kiosk was demolished?
I lost everything I had inside the place but I had about N2,500 with me. Then one day, my brother, Adewole, came to see me at home and saw how unhappy I was. He was alarmed to meet me in that state. I told him that I was just confused because I lost my place of business in Oshodi. I told him that I had about N2,500 with me but did not know what to do. He then said there was someone who wanted to sell a pick-up van which I could use in selling drinks. He encouraged me to borrow money to be able to buy the vehicle which I got at N5,000. I learnt how to drive it and with the little money and goodwill I had with Omotosho, the distributor, I started hawking drinks with the vehicle and my life came back once again.
But that could be very stressful for a woman, how did you do it?
Well, you call it stressful but to me then, it was fun because I was selling faster and I kept expanding. There was another woman distributor in Challenge in Ibadan then, I would go to her and take stock on credit and before you knew it, I had sold everything. The beauty of it was that I was paying back without defaulting and the distributors were happy to give me more on credit. Later I relocated to Somolu where I got a shop at 23 Market Street and Guinness was supplying me some stock which was called syndicate. Then, a syndicate was a mini distributor. All what one needed to get supply from Guinness then as a syndicate was about N3,000. Then, one of the sons of the present Oba of Badagry, who was also a big distributor, helped me by supplying me drinks. I would sell and pay pack promptly to get restocked. I was saving as I was selling the drinks. Later, Guinness announced that they were looking for distributors and I applied to be a small scale distributor and they were supplying me steadily. In 1982, the Nigerian Breweries asked if I would be interested in getting stocks from them and I had to acquire another shop, 31 Market Street, Somolu, to be able to accommodate the various supplies that I was getting then. That was how I became a distributor with Guinness and NBL. By the grace of God, even though I am not the number one distributor with Guinness, the award I always get from the company is Integrity Award. I guess this is so because I will never withhold or fail to remit my obligation to them at when due even up till today. I don’t do any underhand dealings in my business.
Apart from the positive attitude that you said you always have, what other things would you say helped you in graduating into a big distributor of the major giants in the liquor industry in Nigeria?
The number one helper is my husband. Help is not always about money. He may not have been able to assist me with money but he allowed me to have a space to do my business. He is always positive; he is not a typical Nigerian man that begins to doubt his wife immediately she is out of his sight, no. My husband is always ready to vouch for my integrity and you can see that we are in perfect harmony. If he wanted to stop me, he didn’t have to say it directly but they say action speaks louder than words. But he has been a gentleman and because of this, I don’t joke with him. We have cooks and stewards but I cook his meals. Though I didn’t attend a university, my first two children are graduates while my last baby is an undergraduate in England.
Did you grow up in Ondo?
Of course, I grew up in Ondo but I followed one of my uncles who was a teacher, to Sokoto. I went to school there but I came back home to Ondo where I got married. It was after I got married that I came to Lagos around 1975.
How did you begin to gain recognition from Ondo where you were made a high chief?
I think it was because of the love I have for my hometown. In 1984, I joined a club called Ondo Youths Association which comprised everybody irrespective of their level of education. We were the first club that built a library for Ondo Town. Then I was the social secretary and because of this, I was always present in the town whenever there was any festival. Even till today, I have never missed any Ekimogun Day since they started the annual celebration. I was in the club for 19 years and I became its first female president; that was after 24 years that it was formed. That was when I made the present Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the patron of the club and it was a prosperous period in the history of the club. As I told you, the club is a mix of different personalities from all professions.
How did you become a high chief?
The Oba that first made me a chief is the traditional ruler of Osu, my husband’s hometown. He made me the Yeye Bobajiro of Osu. Then the present Osemawe of Ondo first made me the Yeye Oge of Ondo Kingdom and about two years later, he elevated me and made me the High Chief Jomulobun of Ondo Kingdom. As we have male high chiefs, we also have female high chiefs; we are in charge of women and commerce; this is where we assist the Oba. In 2004, I was made the chief launcher of Ekimogun Night which was a great honour done to me. I was made a member of the Ondo Development Association and we meet every month all for the development of the town. So, that is why I told you that I always have a positive attitude towards life. You can imagine that someone like myself who used to hawk ice water in Oshodi a few years ago rose to become president of a club that comprised the who is who in Ondo. I always tell people especially the young ones that with determination and positive attitude, the sky is not only the limit.
You are always sponsoring the yearly obituary of the late Professor Ifedayo Oladapo, the first vice chancellor of Ondo State University, Ado- Ekiti, what was the relationship?
The late professor played a very big role in my life. Of course, people have this erroneous notion that it is only your sibling or someone in the family that can or should assist you in life. I don’t agree with that. Whoever it is that God sent to assist you is that one that would do so, no matter where he comes from. The late professor, God bless his soul, rose as a pillar and was there for me through the years. You know I didn’t go to the university; he was very much interested in my progress, especially in my business. He was ready to help me with any paper work or proposal; he would say just tell me what you want me to write and how to go about any proposal, consider it done.’ Anytime I did not show up at any meeting and other members were complaining, he would just tell them, ‘Her first love is her business’. Since I started business, I never had anyone that gave me money, but the only luck I always have is goodwill from people. There is someone that still comes to me till tomorrow. I used to put my crates of soft drinks in his wife’s shop in Oshodi. I can never forget such people and whatever God gives me, I also assist people like that. When the late professor passed away, I decided to keep his memory alive every year in appreciation of what God used him to do in my life.
Have you shared the story of your days as a hawker of ‘ice water’ in Oshodi with your children?
Of course they are aware. I told you that I was married when I started it. I raised them along and when they were growing up, they joined me to distribute drinks with my pick up. They were all involved before they gained admission to the university.
When would you say was your happiest day?
I am happy every day. Anytime I think about my journey through life, I go down on my knees to thank God. But the day I was happiest was the day I had my last baby and today, he is an undergraduate in England. People may not believe me but my attitude towards life is always positive. I don’t get downcast over anything that I don’t have. I remember when we wanted to travel abroad during the Abacha days. People said we would not be granted visas but the day I went with my children to the embassy, all of us were granted visas without any stress. There are so many instances like that and that is why I am always contented with what I have. Maybe that is why I don’t have hypertension or any debilitating ailment despite my busy schedule.
There is this notion that successful career or business women often feel uncomfortable to be under the control of their husband, how have you managed your own?
You know that I told you that my husband allowed me to pursue my dream and I have remained forever grateful to him for that. If a man could do that for me, I would be an ingrate not to show appreciation and respect for such person. We have cooks and stewards but I cook his meals despite my busy schedule and we spend quality time together. Where I come from, the husband is the crown of his wife. I don’t joke with my home and I thank God that we are one.
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