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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Chief Success Obioma Akagburuonye is the CEO/MD Praco International Ltd, a successful real estate company.
In this interview, the Ogbor, Uvuru, Aboh Mbaise, Imo State-born billionaire lets us into his world. He speaks on his ups and downs, his multiple philanthropic gestures as well his dream of succeeding Governor Hope Uzodimma
You bear the title Akaraugo and you attach most of your philanthropic projects to it. Tell us how you came about the title and why you’re fond of it
Akaraugo means honour bestowed by God. I like the name because I chose it. I was given an option to choose by the traditional ruler who’s of blessed memory, Eze Mbalewe and I chose it because I owe God all I am and all I have today. If God doesn’t honour me, human beings will not. So God has honoured me. I’m the Akaraugo of my family and Ogbor, so anywhere I go to or with people I associate with I use the name, it’s an extension of the honour as already bestowed on me and that’s why I’m fond of the name.
On February 22 you will turn 60. How do you feel attaining this age?
I feel great, accomplished and I feel I’m just 40, because of the grace of God upon my life. I thank God for good health I thank God for grace and for all He has enabled me to accomplish in life. I still believe the word of God in Philippians Chapter 4 Verse 13 “that I can do more through Christ who made me.”
When most people are getting old, they become afraid that they’re getting closer to their graves. Have you ever had such feelings?
I don’t have such feelings because even if it happens today, I’m going home accomplished. I’ve paid my dues. I’m a grandfather and anybody that has come in contact with me in one way or the other has good or bad stories to tell because I’m not perfect. Those who have bad stories to tell may have come to me with bad intentions. I wish you whatever you wish me. If you come to me as a good person you will see the goodness of God in me, and if you come with bad intentions, you know that I’m still mortal. So I’m not afraid of meeting my creator.
How’s your growing up like?
My growing up was still with the grace of God because I came from a humble home where having three square meals was a problem, and as a kid, I needed food to grow and since the food was not available as at when needed, God made whatever I ate to be nutritious to me. Because we ate some unimaginable things. There’s what’s called ‘Anambe,’ a type of cocoyam found in Igbo land. I don’t know if other tribes have it. It’s big and it’s pounded and eaten with soup. You can equally use oil to eat it. They christened it “help me feed my family” and we’re plenty. Any time my mother prepared it, we would have something to put in the stomach. Whether it’s nutritious or not, God has made it to be useful for us. It was the grace of God that made us to survive and not die prematurely or malnourished, even when we were looking malnourished to the extent that people were laughing at my mother. Because of our look, they called her “Nwa afo na umu” (referring to children with big stomach) sometimes they would even say plenty children makes plenty graves. It was that bad, but my mother remained focused. That was why they associated the Assemblies of God Church, Ogbor with her name “ Nwa Afor” because she brought it to the village here in 1970, and she has seen it grow ever since then. I’m happy today that she’s still alive to see the church transformed. It’s now the envy of many people now who come there to seek God. That’s why I changed the name to Centre of Divine Surprises In Life and Situation Changing. It’s a place where you see God’s surprise and changes both in your life and situation.
What would you say life taught you in particular?
Life has taught me that I’m alone, no matter my precariousness. In a family of ten, if nine are doing well and it’s only one that’s not doing well, story would have it that this one is a black sheep. If among the ten, only one is doing fine, people would still point out that out of ten, it’s only one that’s doing well. So life has taught me that in all I do, I should look up to God because man is alone no matter his precariousness. So I advise my friends and those who cares to listen: your father’s property is not your property. You can inherit it but you don’t depend on it. Help from your uncle or other relations are additional grace because you must stand on your feet. My own is my own and our own is our own.
I prefer to be addressed as the son of Nehemiah Akagburuonye Amuchie instead of saying this is the father of Success Obioma Akagburuonye Amuchie. Life experience has taught me that. So if you’re shining with family’s property or wealth, you’re standing on a rift. If you’re shining on your brother’s or relation’s wealth, you’re standing on a rift. Someday, somebody may wake up and say this cloth, this goat belongs to somebody. Again, you might have a brother who has been helping you, holding your hands. The moment he gets married, the story will change. So many things can make somebody be disappointed by human beings, but if your blessing is from God, He renews it. That’s why the Bible said in the Book of Isaiah Chapter 30 Verse 41 that those who wait upon the lord shall renew their strength. They shall run, even fly, without getting tired .
What makes you happy and what makes you sad?
What’s makes me happy is when I remember that all I have today I owe it to God. No human being can stand and say, if not me, Success wouldn’t have been what he is today. If it had happened like that, maybe by now I would have been having two Gods. So I’m my own boss. After consulting God, I do what he asks me to do. The enemies can only delay progress but they can’t stop it. So it gives me great joy that nobody can point and say if not me, Success wouldn’t have been what he is today. I have received help from people at one point or the other. These are people led by God, circumstances always bring them to help without them knowing.
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And what makes you sad?
What makes me sad is that when I remember that one day I will become helpless, lay straight in compliance with the word of God that death is the end of every man. When I remember it I feel bad because I feel like continuing to help people and merry and when I also remember that people I’ve known in this world that came, saw and conquered are gone and are no longer being celebrated as they were used to, it also pains me. But then, as a Bible scholar, as written in the book of Ecclesiastes that vanity upon vanity is vanity, there’s time for everything, that’s why I try to always make use of the opportunity I have, because most opportunities are coming your way you don’t have control over them. People that have known me will tell you if you present anything before me, if it’s something I can do I will not tell you to come back because I may not have that opportunity if you come back. Whatever I’m capable of doing, I don’t postpone it.
You’re a renowned philanthropist. What informed your act of giving?
I learnt that first of all from my mother. She told me that’s it’s biblical that givers never lack. From there, I discovered that some goodhearted people, if you give them something, they would be happy. I now started relating with God in the book of Malachi chapter 3 verses 6-10 where the bible says “bring in the whole tithe; let there be food in my house. Try me in this if I will not cause the window of heaven to open and pour blessings upon you. You will not suffer loss, no calamity will come your way.” So tithe is an art of giving but in compliance with God’s directives, in obedience with the word of God. Then I now look at kingdom investment. The more you do things in the house of God, the more he takes care of your challenges.
So you got your philanthropic inspiration from your mother? But you said she did not have much to give you those days?
There’s what we call first fruit. If my mother plants pumpkin leaves, immediately the first one is due for harvest, she harvests it and takes it to the church. If it’s corn, she does the same thing. Despite what she was going through raising her children, her arms were still open, welcoming people. So I discover that’s the thing to do. I’m happy she’s still alive. When she was introducing me to God, it was not funny. She made me know that I need to be prayerful and I didn’t want to hear that. She also introduced me to fasting and praying but if you want to quarrel with me, just talk about that then. In the family, if the food remains little, she will give it to me despite that I’m not the youngest because I can’t bear hunger. Then she used to tell me that there’s a situation a man will find himself only fasting and prayer will see you through. So when I started facing the challenges of life I discovered that all men of God that visited me would say, let us pray. And the prayers, when the answers started coming, it was like magic.
How do you choose your philanthropic programmes?
For instance, if it’s about church, extending my philanthropic gestures to them, I don’t choose any particular church. I can extend my gesture and tap my blessings from it because every church has its blessings. Anywhere the name of God is called upon, there’s blessing there. It depends on the people’s attitude to it. If I have an opportunity to invest in such opportunity, I will benefit from it. I do not discriminate because I’m keeping my promise to God.
Some years ago, you won a landmark case relating to bail conditions. Can you tell us about it?
I’m into real estate. In 2002, the Federal Government set up a ministerial committee on land records and allocations in Abuja. They invited me. The check list was academic qualifications, company name registration, every other thing that qualifies you to be a real estate developer, titles to the properties linked to you and every other thing. The letter of invite was dated 8th of April 2002 to appear on the 10th. I went ahead of time. I was surprised at the number of plots that they said was linked to me – over 200. Initially I laughed and said I’ve never been a minister, how can 200 plots be linked to me? Then I discovered that my traducers joined hands to make the thing larger than life to provoke the authority to say how can one man have all these, even when they know that I do not own all those properties. I acquire, develop, manage sell and lease for people and for myself but those who were not happy with my progress made it to look as if I own the whole properties they mentioned. The question now is, how did they come about it? And there was allegation of conspiracy and forgery. But later the committee discovered I never forged anything. The report came out clean exonerating me. But the next year, another minister came and said EFCC should update the work that the committee did. So the minister came to office 10th of July 2003, by 29th of August same 2003, they’ve written petitions to EFCC against me. I didn’t know. So I was arrested by the EFCC and everything – land, bank-related documents were taken away from my office where I was arrested at Jabi. I have the Relief Centre for Unemployed Graduates because I have passion for helping people. I built that centre for unemployed graduates under Global Support for Nigeria where we take 30 unemployed graduates from each of the geo-political zone every six months. We take 180 Nigerians, placed them in jobs or support for them to go and start their own business. We were doing it until it became an issue when El-Rufai criminalised my activities.
EFCC came in and seized everything that belonged to me, charged me to court. Initially they said we were about six. They took us to court, about 75 people arrested for the same allegations, but eventually only six of us were charged to court. The allegation first was conspiracy and forged documents with the intent that could be used as original. They couldn’t substantiate that. Meanwhile there was nobody complaining that they were defrauded. They now advised themselves, changed the EFCC Act to accommodate land disputes, because initially, the EFCC does not deal in land. It was just for economic and financial crimes. They amended it because of me. They threatened to continue with the case but to God be the glory, they did according to how they were instructed, and that helped my case.
How did that help my case? They presented to the court what they saw. They didn’t add or subtract. That was God in action because if they had wanted to make my case bad, maybe anything incriminating would have been added. The one they brought to court had nothing to do with economic and financial crimes. So after 12 years, the court said since you could not link his properties to crime, release them. That was the first order made on 31 April 2015. So they now released my vehicles that were under the sun and rain opposite the National Mosque. They released survey plans they made for purpose of investigation since allegations were conspiracy and forgery of documents with the intention that they could be used as original. So, thank God for the way EFCC was set up or empowered. They have the capacity to invite anybody from any part of the country to survey those lands to be sure that I did not create them; they did. And every other day they would be taking me to identify them. So when that order was made, meanwhile I had spent two years, two months in detention. The bail condition was so bad I could not meet it. I’m not a civil servant telling me to bring two federal directors from my village was not reasonable. I fought it to the court of Appeal. The Court of appeal said it was unreasonable. How can a federal director come to sign shorty for a man who the federal government had taken to court? So after one year of contesting the bail, the Court of Appeal agrees with me that I should be released to somebody of means. But because my case was of interest to those fighting me, they just said a person of interest. To their own understanding, it means somebody from the National Assembly because my accusers said my clients are of more National Assembly members, ministers and governors so they were looking for those senators in the National Assembly to mess them up. But I told them, God will see me through because if the committee on land records in FCT drilled me and could not indict me, I don’t see another magic any other person can perform to indict me. But because it was not an ordinary case, any favourable thing on my case they will say, bring another judge. They ended up presenting the case before six judges from the six geo-political zones of the country. The seventh one summoned up courage and looked at the truth, looked at the rulings and findings by other judges and acquitted me after 20 years. So for 20 years, 20years, I was on trial. When I came out, my business was already wearing a toga of crime. It was as if anybody dealing with land matters is dealing with a criminal. I decided to face the trial to defend my existence. While I was doing that, I went back to school to study law God help me, I qualified as a lawyer. I went into practice and discovered that it was law and the rest and now, I wish anybody who wants to go into business to at least get a diploma in law.
You’re being pressurized to contest governorship election in Imo. Looking at the charter of equity and other hurdles, are you confident going into the race?
I thank God for the sitting governor of Imo State. He’s there today because God designed it so that Owerri Zone can have their share. He’s a man God prepared for the seat. Immediately he got there, he saw the responsibilities. He became a changed person. What I mean by a changed person is that distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma I know before he became governor was very pugnacious. If you see him with N10, 000 and you have a need for the money, he will give it to you. That’s the easiest way I can describe him. He does not like people complaining. Then he was doing that with his money as a businessman. Now he came into power and discovered that the money under him is for Ndi Imo and not for gifts. He decided to develop Imo State to the extent that he’s now an infrastructure governor. Even the blind can see what he’s doing. Those who hate him can’t but acknowledge that he’s working. So, having said it in his house, office and in the presence of God that Owerri Zone will take their turn, I believe he would do it and that’s one of the reasons why God put him there. Secondly he’s a man that has seen it all. He didn’t come as a result of help by a godfather; it’s between him and his God to know what’s best for Ndi Imo, and our prayer is that God will help him to get a successor that will continue from where he stopped, because it was not funny for him to become governor. He beat two incumbents. He emancipated Imo people from a particular slavery that was being packaged for them by a former governor, a man who had plans to hand over to his son-in-law. From the son-in-law, it will now be his own son and his wife and it will become a family business. Before power would move out from that place, Imolites would have been picking food from the dustbin. God used Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma to nip that in the bud and they started attacking him from every angle but God kept him to enable him do what He wants him to do, which is to hand over to Owerri zone and me coming from Owerri zone, I’m presenting myself. If I’m the one chosen, I will be grateful to God because I would be following the footsteps of Senator Hope Uzodimma and if I’m not the one, I will support whoever God chooses, provided he’s from Owerri zone and I will keep praying for him for God to keep him to keep his promise.
What would you like to be remembered for?
I would like to be remembered for my pugnacious nature and relationship with God. People see me in different lights. If my enemies could say he’s a kingdom investor, he loves God, I think that’s the climax and knowing that all I have today is by God’s grace, I’m well relaxed with that.
