Yemie Adeoye
16 August 2008
interview
Wole Madariola Olumide ventured into business at 12. Through the odds, Olumide did all the odds and grew through the rudiments.
Today at 40, he is sitting atop a business empire. Olumide has delved into professional security, winning academic awards and certificates in fire arms tactics, counter-terrorism, surveillance from Israel, Germany and the UK. He also delved into properties and automobiles.
Still, Mide, as he is founldy referred, wants to achieve more. Hence, he has started building a multi-million dollar ultra-modern leather factory in the heart of Lagos, the nation's commercial hub. According to him, this is aimed at reducing the obsession of Nigerians for foreign made products. He also wants to see people empowered.
Olumide will also get foreign expatriates to train Nigerians in shoe, bags and belt manufacturing, thereby giving a hot chase to household leather designers like Sergio Cerrutti, Emenigildo Zegne, Gucci, Gergio Bruttini, Dolce & Gabbana, among others. In this interview with Saturday Vanguard he opened up on his very humble beginning as well as his passion for helping other people while also assuring Nigerians that with his leather Factory the days of shopping abroad for leather is over.
Enjoy it:
What drove you into business?
I have been a trader all my life. You can call me a business man, though some may want to refer to me as a 'Jack of all Trade' which I tell people I'm not. I had my primary and secondary education in Lagos, and then to the University of Calabar for my tertiary education.
Along the line, though, I've had a lot of opportunities. People say travelling is another form of education, and I have had the opportunity of finding myself in a lot of places.
Basically, I started business very early. I had a father who was in the military, retired in 1970 and went into business immediately. He practically brought BMW into Nigeria and actually pioneered the sales. He was the distributor for almost 25 years.
He also brought Hyundai into Nigeria and pioneered Ford into the country. He was actually the 99th person that listed into the Nigerian Navy; one of the first set of marine engineers produced by the Nigerian Navy. I'm so proud of him and can't help talking about him. I have a mother who is a retired banker and is now into pharmaceutical products.
And your childhood?
All my life, I had wanted to be three things: either a police officer, a comedian or a teacher. I love to make people laugh. I also love to teach. Fortunately, I tried to get admission into the defence academy and my dad said he could not allow his child to go into the military he had just come out from. So that stalled that.
I had a grandfather who was in business, and was a politician.
He was a very close friend of the late Chief Ladoke Akintola, and he lost over 20 houses for being a friend to Chief Akintola during the operation wetie (wet it). And that was one of the few experiences that made me decide never to be a politician in my life.
Sounds quite ironical as my grandfather was a frontline politician, especially in Ondo state. And aside from this, my father also happened to be the first private secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo. So, it can be a little bit contradictory as if I try at times to talk about Chief Awolowo my Dad would say watch it, young man! That man is like a god to me. And if I try saying positive things about him, my mother's people would say, "Hold it! That man made us lose."
Your parents are not from same place?
My Dad is from Ikorodu here in Lagos, and my mother is from Ondo state. And my father, being an ex-military officer, is very strict. If you come to look for a job from him and you say you are from a particular state or you are a Christian or a Moslem, then you have automatically lost the job because as far as he is concerned, you don't walk up to him on the basis of Christianity or religion or ethnicity. He doesn't want to hear things like that, and his friends are mostly outside his own ethnic group.
Grandad's influence
My grandfather was into business. At the age of 12, I was already writing receipts for automobiles like Volkswagen, Peugeot 504 because he was a distributor to PAN, and I had already started working with him. He was also a distributor to Lennards. I started selling roofing sheets and even now I can tell you how many sheets are in a bundle of roofing sheets. We were the ones doing the loading and we were still the ones writing a receipt.
The defender, and giver
Another thing is that I love to defend people. I see myself as a defender and a lot of my friends can attest to that. People that have known me will tell you that non of all the fights I've had to fight in my life has ever been my fight.
That's what it is basically. I love God so much, even when I was not a Christian. I've always been afraid of God. I've always seen God as a personality that can do anything at anytime. So, if you know you love your life, just keep far away.
I also read a lot. I love driving and travelling too, and one of the greatest passions I have in my life is helping people. I love to share. That's what I mean by helping people. The day I don't give out money or give out something, I don't feel happy. It's my nature.
Security operative
I'm a security operative. As I couldn't achieve my childhood ambition of becoming a police officer, that's why I have to go for my detective training.
I went to the Detective Training Institute in Sacramento, United States. That wasn't where I started. I started with firearms tactics. I wanted to know what it is to feel a gun. I did weapon handling and fire arm tactics in Germany. I did my Surveillance Courses in Israel. I did my Advanced Surveillance Courses in the UK. I did my Advanced Detective Training also, in the UK Academy of Investigation. I have another certificate in Executive Protection.
I'm a shooting instructor, that's fire arms tactics instructor. I can boastfully say that I pioneered the training of executive protection in this country. I revolutionised that in this country. I pioneered the best security in this country and when eyes were blind into surveillance equipment. Ten years ago, when I started marketing and shouting about surveillance products, everybody was laughing at me. And today, I can proudly say that with security, I'm fulfilled.
I wanted a bit of everything and I've had it and I'm so satisfied. That's why I decided that the little I have upstairs, let me also give back to the society and that is why I've also set up my Academy.
What's the name of the academy?
It's called Fortifiers Protection Services (FPS) Academy.That's a subsidiary of the Fortifiers group
It's not a subsidiary, per se, because it had to be registered differently. And that's what we've done. It's not an everyday academy. It's an academy where we have to do everything we need to do on short term courses and long term courses; where you can actually pick up a detective course as a career.
You want to be detective, fine. Or you prefer to be surveillance person, or even counter terrorism and many more like that. We also intend to tackle internal security issues within the country, especially, as it affects other sectors of the economy, like aviation and financial sectors, even maritime.
But you are into manufacturing. What informed this diversification from security which seems to be your first love?
Well I realised something. When I was into security (though I'm still into it) it took me four years of operation before I could venture into guards operations. If somebody wants to talk in Nigeria, they can say that they I've been into security before that guy dreamt of coming into it. But that's all crap because somebody is just talking about one aspect of security which is guards operations.
And even the guards operations, they are not even talking about it in full because in guards operation they have normal facility guards and the facility guards is what has always been on ground in this country. We never did that! This is because we believe in properly equipping the guards with the requisite professional training a guard deserves to have, so that they can function properly when they're out in the field.
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