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–Vicky Ekhomu, Transworld Security boss
By Agatha Emeadi
Dr (Mrs) Victoria Omonigho Ekhomu is the Chairman of Transworld Security Systems Limited, a foremost asset protection company. She presides over several security associations within and across the border especially the Association of Security & Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON). With an honorary doctorate, she is the widow of Dr. Ona Ekhomu, a well respected security expert. Since the demise of her husband, she has remained strong and victorious just as her name implies, resolutely refusing to allow the death of her husband destroy the successful business they started and nurtured together. In the period following the death of her husband, she has been able to make it wax stronger. In this interview, she talks about coping with widowhood, winning awards for the firm and much more.
You have been quiet since the demise of Dr. Ona Ekhomu, your beloved husband. What have you being doing?
I have been holding up and trying to focus on ensuring that the company, which my husband left behind is still in full operation. Losing my husband has been quite emotional for me. It has not been easy at all, but God is great. I have been trying to cope with it because we weren’t just a married couple, we worked together as best of friends. So, I am trying to manage different things now; from the office to the home front, my children and to keep the family front together. Though for the business aspect, since he was the chairman, while I was the Managing Director, I had to marry the two, put some structures together to ensure we keep on going. Again, with the competition in the industry, I also looked into re-branding the company, instead of just-there surviving. I tried to make it more profitable. I have opened some other branches to ensure that the company survives the economic changes that have taken place. We also thank God that we were able to retain all our locations. I had two cardinal goals when I resumed work which were retention and growth because I saw people within our profession who passed unto glory, other people started going into their accounts, be they family members or business associates. So, when mine happened, I got intelligence of attempts of incursion into our training arm knowing we are the African representative of International Foundation for Protection Officers. When I got the information, that became a wake-up call for me because if my husband was alive, that would not happen. So, as soon as I got a little strength and coming out of mourning period, I stood my grounds that nobody would take our locations because we will grow and retain. It is a different ballgame if I don’t want it again, but nobody should forcefully take it from me. My husband was a colossus, even workers were scared that the company would collapse with the demise of their chairman, boss and brother. I had to quickly come and salvage the situation and put their minds at rest. With my two cardinal goals, I was able to retain all our facilities, not that anyone could take it from me. Then growth-wise, I was able to achieve growing the business in addition to retaining the business as well.
You said earlier that you considered re-branding the company. Does the company still bear the Transworld Security name or has the name changed?
We have Transworld Security and School of Management which we just re-branded, not just retaining and remain at the same level because things are changing fast and quite dynamic. We also came up with new logo and a new brochure for the company. We did structures, got some other field positions, opened up Kano and Edo branches and got a new office for Abuja with a training centre in the same building. We usually do our training in hotels, so we decided to open an office that had a training centre in the same building and renovated them together just like our Lagos office where we have the same facilities though it might get some renovation too. We are moving gradually by His grace.
Was there any premonition before his death?
Well, COVID-19 came after we had a kidnap experience. I was the target who was being taking away by the kidnappers on our way to Edo State for a function. He was the chairman for the cultural aspect of Esan Professionals and I was just escorting him. He was shot in the process before they took me away, but I was just lucky that I was rescued by the Navy and Air Force Taskforce on the way. Even as a security expert, the kidnappers shot him at a close range on his forehead, he was able to use his hand and muscle to push away the gun because he had a black belt in karate at a time. Over 10 bullets were released after that. It was the grace of God that saved us. He survived such because he was a personal security teacher. He wrote a book titled, ‘Face to Face With Death’ after the incident. We came into Lagos and he was flown overseas immediately for a hand surgery. While he went for the hand, he suffered deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on his leg in the process. So, he had a pre-existing condition which was not good for him. The leg became his problem which he struggled with – a little scratch would not heal any longer. There were complications and bad situation which made him take medications and became a regular hospital case, and was even in the intensive care unit most of the time. Again, pneumonia also came and affected his lungs seriously. We struggled with all that until God called him home on August 9, 2021. In our almost 40 years of marriage, my husband was not a hospital case, he did not like to go to the hospital.
Where were you when the news of his death was broken?
He did not like to go to the hospital at all. But my first daughter, who is a medical doctor called and pleaded with him that his situation was not for management at home, but for the hospital. When he was convinced to go to the hospital, my last daughter, the doctor, nurse and I were in the ambulance taking him back to the hospital when it happened. His last words were ambulance, thank you. That was the second death I saw after my mother’s own.
In the course of the time you have been running the firm, what awards have been won so far?
We have won so many awards, especially the latest Bill Zaud Memorial Award for Professional Excellence by the International Foundation for Protection Officers, IFPO 2023. What I have been doing is to ensure that we survive. And I think the environment does not make it easy for companies to survive if it is a one-man business because even the financial sector would not make it easy to sign anything if you are not a signatory. Even some accounts I was signing initially, till now, they are held unto. The luck we had was that I was working with him from the onset. If I was not working with him, I do not know what could have happened.
What about the presentation of death certificate?
Even if you present a death certificate, they would require other documents. It is even easier in foreign countries to access a late person’s estate because the moment they sight the death certificate, they will oblige other things. Being an American citizen, the moment some documents were presented, they referred us to the Embassy to do the records and that was quite easy. In Nigeria, it is made so difficult and looks like the banks would hold unto the money and if one does not know where the money is, the banks would keep it and the family would be suffering. Even during his burial, we could not access funds from the bank, but the faithful God did it. The procedures are so difficult to deal with here in Nigeria. Again, my husband was alive and made me the Managing Director of the company and the business is well known to me, therefore, I got my children to be part of business and we could do zoom meetings to put things in order. If my husband did not do it for me to continue in his absence, it would have been difficult. So, the same way he did for me to continue is the same way I am putting structure for the children to continue probably when I am retired or no longer here because we all are on a journey. Instead of being scared, it is better to prepare a successful plan like my husband did.
Did you experience widowhood challenge like it is very common in the society?
It is not a good story for the women, especially during that painful mourning period. Women are not meant to go through stress again. The death of a loved one is killing, it takes the grace of God to survive it. There are women who gave in to mental health, psychological trauma after losing their husbands. My husband made life easy for me. At least, he was the one that said we will give birth to our children in United States and that gave them the opportunity to excel. During the burial, his children were at the forefront and took charge of the burial ceremony.
How did you people meet and what was the attraction?
Like I will always say, my husband was a colossus. I had different suitors, but he stood out among all of them. He was very intelligent and when he enters a room, he illuminates it, then he was also sensitive and truly loved me. When we met, I was living with my uncle just across his parent’s home. His positivity was strong when placed on a scale of preference. We took it off as friends initially who understood ourselves, could talk freely before we became lovers. Our friendship helped our relationship before we got married. My husband truly loved and cared for me, with a lot of respect for women, not all men respect women. For him to have given me the position of Managing Director is out of respect. He used to say women are smarter than men and could multi-task. With many things in the office, he would leave them for me knowing I was there to take care of them. We confided in each other, followed ourselves to everywhere, it was even in the later years that we were not seen together always again. Because we were friends, I didn’t keep friends like most women. If you know him, you will know me. I prayed for a man I could look up to, not the one I could look down for, I found that in my late husband, Ona Ekhomu. He was my role model and I respected him for that.
Going down memory lane, what do you miss about him?
My husband was my role model and I miss him a lot. It is not every man you see that you respect. He met everything that I needed in a man and in marriage and for years, he was there nurturing the love. It is not that there were no issues, but marriage is a two-way thing, especially when both are committed to make it work, not minding the pulls from different areas. I feel privileged that I was able to share my life with him for almost 40 years. Though they say till death do us path, but even now, I still carry him so much. When I am doing things, I would think of what and how he would have liked it if he was around. So, wherever he is, he would be proud of what I am doing. If its difficult, I would call him to help me like I used to call him when he was alive.
In all this profession of love, how have you been coping without him?
Well, I thank God for his mercies. I also think my children have been the rock that I have. They have been so supportive from wherever they are knowing we were best of friends. They made it easier for me. With my experience, I ask mothers to invest in their children educationally, character-wise, bond, religiously and otherwise. I also thank God that I have been able to retain the workers too, who are also happy. The ones I do not need, I let go. I still have my staff and added a few because, a job that two people were doing, now being left for one-person, other hands are required to make sure there is no major vacuum left behind. Finally, one cannot cope without prayers because that is all I know. If not for God, I would have gone before my husband; but HE is with me.
Apart from the kidnap saga, have you had a close shave with death?
The kidnap incident happened around Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. I was being taken away towards Abraka before God used the Navy and Air Force task force to rescue me and I was taken to Navy Base in Warri Area. They were also getting me a ticket back to Lagos. But I refused and said that my husband must be rescued; he was still at Irua because we had made contact. Though he was taken to a hospital, we got there, flew back to Lagos and straight into the hospital.
Another close shave with death was when my husband got me an SUV car. Three months with it, I was in the car when we had an accident and it somersaulted three times. My head was almost broken and God saved me. In April 2021, just before my daughter got married, I had a mysterious cut in my head and do not know how I came about that. I found myself on the floor, close to the bath-tub, not on my bed any more; I do not know how I got there. If it was a fall, I would have had pains, but I was on the floor with an unexplainable huge cut on my head; I got up with a smile even though blood was rushing out from my head. But I was able to get my daughter because my husband was in Port Harcourt for a training. My husband directed and he gave instructions on where to go. Again, I had a strange fall from the staircase one morning while I was going to join the car to catch a 7:00am flight. I saw myself flying down from the staircase, but God took perfect control. I do not know how it happened. I stayed for some time, got up and walked into the car. I have been having other challenges, but Jesus has been seeing me through. I tell women hold unto God, He is still performing miracles.
What advice do you have for young widows?
At times, I see women who have all the education and talents, yet they sit down at home to become housewives. In the event the husband passes, especially when some relatives who are like hawks and vultures would hop in to claim what they do not know about, probably with children who have not been trained, the woman could be thrown under the bus which could be quite devastating. Even if the children are trained, and the widow is thrown away, she descends from being wealthy into penury because no one cares for her, no matter your contribution in the marriage and business. Again, such relatives care for the child born outside the wedlock, not the legal ones. Widows, be able to stand on your own and be very close to God. With Him all things are possibles.
