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From Christy Anyanwu, London
Abiodun Ojo-Ajayi is the founder and managing director of Optimum Care UK, an outfit he founded in 2018 after working for over a decade in the care industry in the United Kingdom.
Abiodun was raised in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital. He had his education at Emmanuel Primary School, Ado-Ekiti, and the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, for his secondary education. Ajayi was also trained at the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, and Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti. When he moved to London, he attended the East London University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Community and Social Work.
In this interview with Saturday Sun in his London office, suave, urbane and highly cosmopolitan Abiodun Ojo-Ajayi speaks about the care and welfare system in the United Kingdom, why he left Nigeria, reason he set up his company in the UK and how Nigerian leaders should work harder to make the country a better place to live in for everyone.
With your educational background in finance, why did you move into the health/social work field in the UK?
I graduated with a BSc in Accounting. I worked for Magnum Trust Bank in Lagos for several years before I decided to proceed to the United Kingdom.
After getting to the United Kingdom, I worked for a few years with different local authorities as a care supervisor and care deputy manager, rising to the position of a manager. Then, after some time, I thought, if I can do this for people, for local authorities, I can do this for myself. So, I started my own business, precisely in December 2018.
The name of my organisation is Optimum Care UK. We have been in business and we’ve been waxing stronger and stronger since then.
Being a banker then was a big deal in Nigeria…
That’s right. As of that time, it was a big deal.
So why did you decide to leave the bank job and come to the UK?
It was a big deal, being a banker and everything. But I looked beyond what was happening to me then. I’ve always had this zeal and a passion, as I didn’t want to do what everybody else was doing. I wanted to do something different.
I come from a very humble background and I want to really, really do well. And I have this determination that nothing will stop me. As a banker, I was doing very well as a young man.Banking, at some point became challenging, as you can tell. I think after our generation, after I left, a lot of my bosses in the bank, they eventually relocated. But I saw what they could not see at that point in time.
They were all living in Victoria Island, Ikoyi and everything. I was living in Ikeja, off Allen, then. But I knew that the way banking was going then, things were going to be hard with time. There was going to be a burst, which eventually happened in 2008.
Lucky enough, I left Nigeria in 2004. The whole industry and a lot of families were disorganised as a result of that global downturn. I knew the way people were doing, the way funds were being managed, it was not going to last long.
I looked at that and I said, Oh, no, I need to have a Plan B. I decided to leave and, before then, before I eventually travelled, I had been coming to Europe. After my first degree, I tried to come and have a Western education but, because of lack of funds, I couldn’t make it materialise then. I eventually did it when I got here.
When I came here, I wanted to do more. I wanted to excel in whatever I did. I didn’t just want to be a business owner, a registered manager and enter social care.
I wanted to have additional qualifications in social work. So, I still went to East London University to study social work for four years. And that’s another degree added to my portfolio
I didn’t want to settle down and probably get married and everything that usually follows in the kind of environment then. It was a risk I took, actually, coming from the known to the unknown. It was a big risk. But I thank God that the risk really, really paid off.
Today, all I can say to you is that it’s a success story, impacting people’s lives. In my business, I have up to 61 staff working for me, from different nationalities, British, white people, Africans and Americans. The turnover of Optimum Care is about £1.5 million every year.
We will keep on waxing stronger because the target is, by the end of the year, we will be talking about £2 million or £3 million yearly turnover. So, that was the reason why I said, let me seek an alternative, Plan B, and come and develop myself.
Imagine, if I decide to go back to Nigeria today to set up a care home there, the way I will do it will be different because of the experience I have had.
You were doing well in Nigeria and came to London to start all over. What was it like? How was London then?
If I told you it was easy, then I would be lying to you. It was rough. When I came in, I actually wanted to pursue my former job, my career in banking in this country, but I was rejected.
I was told, no, you need to do this and that, you need to go back to school and have additional qualifications. I said, I am coming from Nigeria, after all that education, to start schooling again, when I have a lot of responsibilities over there with people I left at home, my mother and everybody? I said, you know what, that can wait, I want to work now.
So, it was rough because I started as a carer. You can imagine somebody leaving a banking job to come and be a carer, looking after old people.
Having that in mind, doing it, I knew I could not do the job for very long. I knew I would have to go to school and qualify as a social worker. That was also in the pipeline.
But, first of all, you had to settle down before you could achieve those other things. That was a stepping stone for me, being a carer. I found my way out there.
I rose from the position of deputy to manager within a few years.
How many years did you spend as a carer?
I spent like six years as a carer before I was called to the office, because my manager and the supervisor saw the difference in what I was doing in the community.
They said, you come and be leading. So, that was the story. That’s how I developed myself.
After being a registered manager and everything for several years, I moved from one local authority to another. Then I said, okay, I can do this for myself. And I started my own company.
Before I created my business, I had moved around in the sector in London. I had made contacts there already. When I started, it was practically easy for me to go back to those local authorities and tell them, I’ve started my own show now. Please, send some contracts, give me some contracts. Both private, NHS, all of them.
They started giving us contracts. Like I said, the workforce is increasing. We keep recruiting every day.
We’re helping people. We’re making a lot of difference in the community. Making sure people are independent and they can still live their lives, irrespective of their background, age or medical condition.
We still try to support them to make sure that they live a high quality life
As a Nigerian, you’re doing well here in care, and you have your own business. Do you intend to do this in Nigeria, to have a care home there?
That is in the pipeline.
In which area are you looking out for in Nigeria?
If we are to move to Nigeria to have a branch, it’s going to be in Lagos Island, it’s going to be on the Island, maybe Lekki, or Victoria Island or Ikoyi. Because care is not cheap.
Looking after people’s parents is not easy and it’s not cheap. Affordability will be a challenge there. It’s not everybody that can afford it. Even in this country, if not because the government took over this sector from everyone, some clients, they struggle to pay for their care privately. We have a few private clients and that is for people that are really well-to-do. For just normal people that cannot afford it, if not because the government really registered them, it would be hard. And another challenge we’re going to have setting up in Nigeria is that, here in the UK, or abroad generally, they have this culture that, once parents are getting older and becoming seniors, they tend to just say, You’ve had your time. It’s either they decide to take them to a care home, or for the government to start looking after them. The children, they are not really there because they believe that old people have had their time, and is the time for the younger ones. But back home in Nigeria, that’s not the case. We look after our old people, even to the last day. That is one of the biggest challenges this kind of business will have there, unless the government is willing to adopt that policy, to say, okay, there is money allocated for social care. We call it social care, whereby the people that have worked all their life, they have contributed to the economy, now that they cannot do anything, we still want to give them dignity and a better way of life. If they can adopt that as a policy and start encouraging people to come forward and take care packages for their loved ones, it will be good because, these people, at the end of the day, one way or the other, they still have years to live. They are not gone yet. They are still part of us. They still have one or two things they can contribute to society, directly or indirectly. There’s what they call experience, you cannot buy it. A lot of them have experience such that, if care is taken, if we look after them very well, they can still be in that advisory role, where they’re telling people what to do, bringing their experience to the table.
Back home in Africa, we allow all those things to die with our parents. We don’t know what they think. The moment they are retired, we think they cannot contribute anything anymore.
But in Europe, no, it’s not like that. They believe they can still contribute to society, one way or the other. So, we’re looking towards that.
We frequent Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria like four times a year, looking for the opportunity, talking to friends in the government. If they can do something for us, I will be willing to come back there and help the community, help society.
Are you thinking about going into politics?
My late mum and my late father were influential politicians in Ekiti. They were leaders. They were chairman and chairwoman for UPN, NPN and other parties. Politics runs in my blood but, unfortunately, the way it’s being done in Nigeria and Africa today is scary.
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It’s a system where nothing is free. It’s a matter of whom you know. I know a lot of people, some of my friends, my schoolmates, they are into politics and everything, which is okay.
I think what I would do at the end of the day is, if someone needs my wealth of experience, being in Europe for the last 22 years, I can really come on board in an advisory role, but I will not go there and contest. Because, first of all, the politics in the UK is about serving people but, over there, in Nigeria, it’s about serving themselves first. So, there’s going to be a conflict of interest.
They will see me as a threat, if I really want to intervene or tell them this is the way things are done. I think, if they allow it to happen, our country would be a better place. But will they allow it to flourish? That is the question.
You will be watching your back every day. I’ve seen it all. People here sometimes become the Prime Minister when they retire. They are not that wealthy.
Not like a rep or a senator that will just be there for four years and the story is gone. They’ve taken all the money.
The former Prime Minister of this country, Tony Blair, and everybody after him, they’re still working after being Prime Minister. Can you imagine? They go back to whatever they were being, whether as a lawyer or a teacher, before they became PM. They still go back and carry their chalk and lecture.
They are there to serve the people. That’s why you see their country is doing so well that we all want to come and live here. But it’s the opposite over there.
Maybe, one day, someday, if the mindset changes and we see ourselves differently, if we put ourselves forward to contest to be leaders, we should be leading by example. We should be thinking of making a difference in people’s lives.
You come to Nigeria often, like you said, and you see the kind of things people are passing through in the country. What do you think of Nigerian leaders?
Let’s be honest, because they all come here from time to time for holidays and everything and, if they are not feeling well, they tend to come to Europe to have very good health care, benefit from the good system here. So, the answer is not far to find.
We can easily emulate or transfer whatever is being done here into our country. We can do that. They just need very good advisors.
It’s the mentality of thinking, Okay, this money, this is public fund. For example, if there is N1 million. A President or a leader will be thinking of how N700,000 or N800,000 out of that million will go to his family, leaving the general populace with the remaining N200,000. It’s not going to work. But in a situation whereby money is allocated for this project, N100 million, and that N100 million is expended on that particular project, before you know it, Nigeria will be a better place to live in.
We just have to have the mentality that we need to serve people. Because, if we do it very well, everybody will benefit from it. And someone like me and other people that are planning to travel out, because everybody wants to leave Nigeria, they wouldn’t even want to leave.
It’s just like an armed robber. If an armed robber has basic amenities of life, he’s got food, he’s got a job and everything, probably they wouldn’t even think of going to rob other people. But when they don’t have a home, when they don’t have anything, that’s when they go to that extent and do that kind of nonsense.
Or people kidnapping one another. In the UK, I can walk on the streets at 4am. Nobody kidnaps anybody, because people that are not able to work, people that are struggling, there’s a benefit system that assists them to get by every day.
They may not have much, but it will not be a question of, what am I going to eat today? No, that will not be there. And they will still be able to do basic things.
That is why criminality is low. The mindset is not there, to go and burgle someone’s house. I could leave my house and leave my door open. You’ll be surprised, I will meet everything there intact whenever I return.
But you cannot do that in Nigeria. So, it’s the hardship. It shows that we, actually, we are the problem ourselves. Our problem is fundamental, and we need fundamental solutions to solve these problems.
By the time we see ourselves as brothers and sisters, there’s no discrimination, when we start doing the right things, things will improve. And that’s why I like all these people agitating, the activists, all these movements, like that guy they call Very Dark Man. If you look at what the guy is doing, I really like it. The guy has put himself in a lot of risk with his activism.
He is making a lot of difference. If we have 10 more people like that, Nigeria will be a better place, trust me.
I think, before too long, something will happen, the new generation will rise up to the task and the mindset will change. Even people in the university, tertiary institutions, the students there today, for many of them, all their aim is to come out and become Yahoo boys and be scamming people. What kind of tomorrow will the society produce? It’s a challenge.
Sometimes we see those things in the UK, being in Nigeria too, it’s a challenge for us. Because the moment you see Nigerian news, or any news, and the Nigerian name comes up, it will come up on the bad side. Before you see one good thing coming up on the news about Nigeria, you would have read 10 things wrong with Nigeria.
It doesn’t make us happy that we are here. And if people see you and think of you as a Nigerian, oh, maybe he is one of them, maybe he’s a fraudster or something. Until they get to know you very well, then they think, Oh, yes, this one has got a business, this one is doing the right thing.
So, all hope is not lost. I still believe we can do better and something good will happen.
It’s going to be a collective responsibility because, as you can tell, I’m not growing younger, I’m growing older, too. One day, I want to go back to my country, because there’s no place like home. I also have a few projects going on there.
So, one day, I want to go back home. But I want to go back to a better Nigeria. I want to go there and I’m not watching my back all the time. Wondering, am I going to be kidnapped tomorrow, or am I going to be robbed now? So, that is our prayer. And God will do it. Amen.
Next year, 2027, is election year in Nigeria. For people like you in the UK, what advice would you give the people in Nigeria concerning the election?
Like I said, I love politics a lot, and I’m going to perform my civic duty. I’m going to get there.
The advice I would give to all Nigerians is, whatever is happening all over the world, especially in Europe, it does not just happen overnight. The electorate here, they know that they have a weapon. They know they have rights. The weapon they have is their vote and they always use it wisely. There is nobody that will come and induce you with money to go and vote for any party. No. They allow people to present their manifestos. They go through their manifestos. They scrutinise them very well. They ask them questions like, how are you going to do this? How are you going to achieve this programme? The money you say you’re going to spend, how are you going to get the money? How are you going to spend the money? They go through a lot of scrutiny in the process. And whoever comes out on top that sounds convincing is the person the electorate in this country will vote for.
They don’t vote based on the money you give them. No. They are well informed about what they are doing. And they know what they are expecting you to deliver for them in the next four years. They are well educated, well engaged in the process. And they know what they want.
They know the type of person, the character they want to lead them. And that is why they always deliver. And if, for any reason, if anybody is elected in this country and does not follow the manifesto that it presented to people, there’s a process to call them back.
There’s a process to even impeach them. Because they did not take money from them when they were soliciting their support. Nigerians too will need to learn that, look, the money they give you, you have to think between taking N50,000 or N100,000 that will not last you for one or two months. And you need to think of what will happen to you and your family for the next four years. This is the area where people need to be more enlightened and know that the only weapon they have is their vote and use it wisely.
Don’t just use it because of stipends that they give you that will not last you for 12 weeks. I think, if we are aware of this, if we question the process very well, if we follow the process very well, when you are going to vote, make sure that you are very vigilant, guard your vote, make sure you stay there and let them count the votes before you leave the place. Otherwise, you know, between me and you, we know that election rigging is prevalent in Nigeria.
You can even vote and your vote may not even count because they broke the ballot box. So, it’s the system. Everybody, the youth, we need to be energised and proactive and monitor the process. First of all is, do not take money from anybody because that money does not solve any problem.
It can solve your immediate problem for a few hours or a few days and that’s it. Think about the next four years. Think about your generations to come.
Think about the kind of policy these people are going to impose on you guys. If we do this, if we have this at the back of our mind, Nigeria will be better. And I pray the electorate will listen.
We can adopt this and make sure that, when the money comes to buy our votes, we say, no, we don’t need this money. We don’t need it.
You travel a lot. Where would you rate as your best vacation destination?
I wouldn’t say Nigeria, because when you go to Nigeria, some people say there is no way they are going on holiday in Nigeria. But in Nigeria, basically, you can never be on holiday.
That is where you have a lot of people, you carry a lot of people, a lot of problems. So, I would say my destination, funnily enough, is Africa. It’s not even America. South Africa. When I go to South Africa, the culture is different.
By the way, I married in South Africa. Yes. We go there.
It’s so quiet where we are. Nobody bothers you. Nobody knows you. It’s so quiet. If you want to spend one week, two weeks, you enjoy it. I’ll come back here.
But in Nigeria, you go there. It’s another tug of war with all the people. Everybody just wants to grab. Yes, grab whatever they can grab, which is okay as well. I do it too.
But I would say the destination would be where they don’t know you too much, where you can have a quiet time with your family.
Today in the UK, there is a lot going on about people not getting COS, the COS scam and stuff like that. What’s your own perception about the COS scheme?
Optimum Care as a provider, I knew from the beginning that it was a policy that eould bring a lot of issues.
Because, first of all, the government rushed through it. They did not really consult and think through it properly. And that is the reason, from time to time, they keep changing their policies around the COS .
And I know a lot of people got into trouble because of this particular policy. We in Optimum Care, we did what we could do to make sure that whenever we sre bringing people in, hiring, when the need arises, we make sure that we do all our due diligence. And that is why, up till today, we still manage out sponsorship programme very well after having it done over four years. A lot of people have lost their licences because of this. So, I tell people that they should not go into what they don’t really understand.
Because of the immediate gain that may really backfire on them. So, that’s what I would say about the COS. The COS is there, it is okay, if you manage the system well.
You cannot just bring people in. No, far from it. You bring people in only when your business really, really needs them. That is what we have followed. And that’s why we’ve been rated as one of the best.
