By Sufuyan Ojeifo
A series of salacious stories were recently published by several online
news portals about plots by a Lebanese engineer, Said Khalaf, to annex
Setraco Nigeria Limited (SNL). Khalaf’s alleged gambit was not only
to shortchange the progenies of the late Alhaji Inu Umoru, the principal
partner of the 41-year old business, who passed on in 2009, but also to
ensure, as alleged, the company goes under in the event the take-over
plot fails.
The allegations, supra, were some of the reinforcing themes of the media
narratives. While I will not rehash the mind-boggling and questionable
financial transactions that reportedly bore the imprimaturs of Khalaf
and his cohorts, which, as rumor has it, plunged the indigenous
construction company into N17 billion-debt, since he (Khalaf) has yet to
publicly debunk the media reports, I will, no more than, add some
positive dimensions to the complex narratives around certain contending
issues.
The first significant dimension is the decision by the new Chairman of
SNL and son of the legitimate principal partner, Chief Abu Inu Umoru, to
reposition the company and disentangle it from its orchestrated
indebtedness. His appointment of a Nigerian Finance Director, Mr. Zuberu
Lee Obomeghie, an accounting egghead, to halt the occupation of the
strategic office by a tribe of Lebanese, appointed by Khalaf, was a
circumspect move.
It was a measure of Chief Abu Inu Umoru’s administrative savoire faire
that produced magical results, thus leveraging the profile and fortunes
of the company. Deploying brilliance and experience honed in his many
years of engagements with international organisations such as the Arthur
Anderson & Co., United Nations and United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), Obomeghie succeeded in exposing
financial scams and plugging fiscal leakages such that the N17 billion
debts, orchestrated by Khalaf and co. through alleged manipulations of
overdrafts with the company’s bankers, was cleared within two years of
his finance directorship. Today, SNL has a clean balance sheet, charting
once again the trajectory of profitability and, in fact, owing no bank.
A new “chancellor of the ex chequer” is in the saddle, ensuring the
integrity of the company’s compte rendu is in pari materia with actual
incomes and expenditures. Now, that the position of Finance Director was
hitherto occupied by a Lebanese has cleared every doubt about the likely
conspiracy and complicity around Khalaf’s role. As I had indicated
earlier, I would like to err on the side of caution as not to “harm”
the reputation of the Lebanese octogenarian.
But certainly, this piece is not about Khalaf and his cohorts, but about
Inu Umoru and his progenies. So guided, I will voyage into the past, to
reconstruct the neighborhood identity of the late Inu Umoru. This would
align with what I knew while a student of Mass Communication at Auchi
Polytechnic, from 1985-87; and, to deconstruct his subsequent essences
of integrity in business in the national context and humaneness in his
socio-political interactions.
His persona resonated with the Auchi Polytechnic community before I got
into the institution and while I was there. I understand it continued
until his death in August 2009. Inu Umoru was a successful entrepreneur
with interest in Trading, Automobiles, Transportation, Hotels and Civil
Construction businesses: and he was legendry for his philanthropic
works. I recall how he occasionally became our talking-point in those
days among colleagues in the Mass Communication class, for two
significant reasons.
First, one of his children, Subedetu (we Anglicized it to Subedat) was
in my class. Her presence in the class constantly reminded us of her
father’s philanthropic acts towards the institution. Second, Inu
Umoru’s contributions to the development of Auchi Polytechnic were
indisputable facts. Therefore, it was something of interest to connect
with the charitable spirit of Inu Umoru through one of his offspring
within the walls of the same lecture room.
However, one thing remains instructive: whereas Inu Umoru had no formal
education, he loved education and ensured his children got the best of
it. A great family man and lover of children who was blessed with many
of them, he was compassionate, man-caring and God-loving.
He was trustworthy and trusting. Because of his quintessential
individuality and the magnitude of his eleemosynary acts, he was
conscripted to provide political leadership for Edo North Senatorial
District, on Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) platform. The late Chief
Anthony Akhakon Anenih was the project arrowhead. By that token, Inu
Umoru completed the tripod that then comprised the late Anenih as the
political leader of Edo Central and the late Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo
Ogbemudia as the political leader of Edo South Senatorial District.
What Inu Umoru lacked in Western education, he made up in native
intelligence. Wrapped in the profundity of his native intelligence was
an unusual self-restraint against taking undue advantage of others.
Coupled with that virtue was a generosity of spirit. He harboured and
exemplified the pristine nature that found anchorage in the divine. He
was thoroughly a good man. The late Chief Anthony Anenih, to whom I was
a media consultant at some intersection, attested to that aspect of Inu
Umoru’s persona.
In his business dealings with Khalaf, although, there were established
rules of the partnership, which he endorsed, from what I gleaned from
those close to him, he decided to operate outside the rules to the
advantage of Khalaf. For instance, notwithstanding he had 70 percent
shareholding to Khalaf’s 30 percent, from the outset, before Khalaf
made his moves and succeeded, allegedly by sleight of hand, in grabbing
60 percent, he had always insisted and ensured profits were shared
equally.
But today, Khalaf who was the “minority shareholder” had, over time,
become the “majority shareholder”. The 40 percent shares,
purportedly owned by Inu Umoru have spawned some complex narratives
bordering on the propriety of the procedure or otherwise of rejigging
the share distribution. Indeed, the process of undercutting Inu Umoru
had been on even while he was alive. I even learnt that when some
persons updated him on Khalaf’s alleged dodgy stratagem and continued
proclivity towards shortchanging him, his usual response was that
“Oyinbo no dey lie”, meaning “White men don’t lie”.
That encapsulates how trusting Inu Umoru was. But today, many would
describe his approach as naïve. Regardless, he was able to preside over
the SNL, sustaining it in business through the network of his national
contacts, especially in government, despite the shenanigans of his
Lebanese partner. It is to his eternal credit that Setraco did not
collapse under the weight of insider abuses. It is also to his eternal
credit that he left behind brilliant and industrious children who have
been able to keep the flag flying in the face of challenges.
This is the story of the Inu Umorus who have rallied together behind
Chief Abu Inu Umoru, the incumbent Chairman of SNL, to salvage the
indigenous brand and reposition it to become a stronger entity to
continue to take-off from the labour market 8,000 direct staff members
and 32,000 indirect employees.
Over time, I’ve met severally with some of the progenies of Inu Umoru.
I was Subedat’s (now Mrs. Obomeghie) course-mate at Auchi. I had a
chance meeting with Mr. Hafizu Inu Umoru, a director of SNL; and yet
another chance meeting with Chief Abu Inu Umoru, Chairman of SNL.
Indisputably, they are all chips off the old block – industrious,
humane, unassuming and sedate. Significantly, what their father lacked
in terms of education, they all made up with their scholarly and/or
pedagogical dispositions.
Through them, the legacies of their father are well appreciated and his
persona of generosity and goodness properly preserved. They mirror the
spirit of the man – a spirit that binds them in the battle to save
Setraco, which their father built on the foundations of integrity and
humanity. It was this fact that made him invite the partnership of
Khalaf, without the Lebanese contributing a kobo, save his so-called
expertise. Life is not always fair…
OJEIFO CONTRIBUTED THIS PIECE FROM ABUJA VIA
OJWONDERNGR@YAHOO.COM
