BY JULIUS ADESEGUN
I was recently amazed to read in one of the national dailies that the Igbotako, Ondo State-born Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim is aspiring to become the governor of the state.
For those who know Jimoh Ibrahim very well, they are quick to explain off his personality as a great teacher of the letters. However, his genre in the realm of tutelage, they can swear by Jove, falls within the inglorious category of those who believe in ‘Do what I say but don’t do what I do.’ When simplified, it translates to mean that Jimoh Ibrahim does not lead by example.
To justify this assertion, a cursory look at one of the fantastic books Jimoh uses to lecture his members of staff in the early hours of every Monday at the Marina, Lagos corporate head-office of his Globafleet conglomerate, is needful. That book is ‘Loyalty Rules!’ written by world-acclaimed expert on management, Frederick Reichheld.
That book elucidates on the seamless relationship between the employer and his employees, stressing that, while the worker is expected to display loyalty and commitment towards the growth of the company, the employer is also expected to meet his obligation to the staff in terms of salary payment and other welfare package.
Alas, Jimoh, the indefatigable teacher of this great book, who is the owner of the Globafleet Conglomerate, is the same person observing the tenet of this book in the breech. Globafleet, the oil servicing company which is the flagship of his business empire, actually saw good days before it was finally run aground by its very founder. He employed a battalion of young graduates of the first and second degree and PhD categories, with promises of career progression and many other perks of office as they also show commitment.
But upon assumption of duty, these innocuous, new workers were informed that they would forfeit N50, 000 from their salary, as the deduction would represent their installmental payment for a new Picanto car valued at N900, 000. A deal that was forced down their throats! Surprisingly however, Jimoh failed to give them the car and while their individual contributions were about to meet up to the price of the car, they were booted out of service. The case remains a legal matter till date.
Besides, Jimoh’s Energy Petrol Stations spread across major cities in Nigeria have either been closed down or sold off as he could not manage them.
While Jimoh prides himself as a turn-around surgeon, that is, someone who purchases dying companies to breathe life into them, indubitable facts have only displayed him as the eventual undertakers of such companies.
Other examples suffice. A once bubbly NICON Insurance company, owned by the Federal Government, was sold to Jimoh in the era of the privatization policy of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. The company was actually designed to insure government agencies and corporations in the event of any downturn or disaster. But once the N6billon-worth insurance edifice was sold to Jimoh under befuddling circumstances, along with its hotel subsidiaries, things began to go topsy-turvy for what used to be a national pride.
The self-acclaimed turn-around surgeon also ruffled feathers in the aviation sector, as his take-over of the once fledgling Air Nigeria airline ended up an unmitigated disaster. In the first place, he started his queer habit by delaying the` salaries of pilots and other crew members which was later worsened as he began to owe them salaries. The situation got out of hand when the airline’s staff declared an industrial action, which forced the Federal Government to wade in by closing down the airline, to prevent what could possibly result in air crash.
Also, Jimoh’s furniture company in the Victoria Garden City, VGC, in Lagos is now no more than a private monument as it has been overtaken by weed, with dangerous reptiles taking refuge in the yard.
Jimoh, as all can attest, is a newspaper publisher but one with the grotesque personality of a salve master on a perpetual ego trip. Apart from buying up National Mirror from Emeka Obasi, he also later purchased Newswatch magazine from renowned Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Muhammed.
While National Mirror has managed to survive the odds of truculent passes from an impossible entrepreneur, its sister publication, Newswatch (which Jimoh changed to Newswatch Times as a court judgment voided his style of take-over of Newswatch), is far from being fortunate. Newswatch was diversified to be publishing a daily newspaper, but the paper’s workers were no better than conventional scavengers in social status. At a time, they ‘marked’ one-year ‘anniversary’ of non-payment of salary and over time, their case got worse. They were owed 17-month salary before the newspaper finally went under.
In the same vein, Jimoh set up a university in the Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, but like the legendary Alice’s Wonderland of which a castle is built in the air, our turn-around expert’s university has not admitted a single student, six years after it was set up. An unconfirmed source said authorities of that country are yet to grant him enrolment authority because of various unsavoury stories they’ve been hearing about this investor from Nigeria.
Again, Jimoh’s Energy Bank in Ghana, according to feelers, is passing through a harrowing period, owing to shrinking liquidity arising from poor financial policies that are making it to head towards insolvency.
Curiously, however, the Globafleet Company, which is the conglomerate under which all these failing or failed companies are incorporated, has always presented a balance sheet of a profit-making outfit, yet its companies are dying while its workers are suffering or leaving the unsavoury encampment in droves.
It is, therefore, left for the people of Ondo State to decide if they want this turn-around expert that has ended up as an undertaker of virtually all his companies, or not.
*Adesegun lives in Ilupeju Estate, Lagos