ODU’A Investment Company Limited recently announced the retirement of Adewale Raji as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer and has since appointed Mr. Abdulrahman Yinusa as his successor effective June 1, 2024 after 10 years of dedicated service as GMD of the 47-year-old conglomerate.

Going back memory lane, on a dusty and cold morning of Tuesday, February 3rd 1976, the Western Region was broken into three new states, namely Oyo, Ondo and Ogun under the leadership of Brigadier David, Medaiyese Jemibewon appointed as the military Governor of Oyo State, Wing Commander David Ikpeme (as he then was) for Ondo State and Lt. Col. Ayodele Balogun (as he then was) appointed for Ogun State.

As at February 26, 1976, three weeks after the creation of the three states, the Implementation Committee saddled with responsibility of unbundling the asset of the old Western Region between the three beneficial states, established a holding company to take over the sundry investments of the former region which were hitherto under the control of the Western State Industrial Investment and Credit Corporation.

By March 24, 1976, Odu’a Investment Company Limited (OICL) was born and it commences business in full on the 1st of October, 1976. Upon the creation of Osun State from Oyo in August 1991 and Ekiti from Ondo in October of 1996 respectively, the ownership of the investment company rose to five from three at inception.

Since inception, OICL operates as a conglomerate with over 70 per cent of its business being investment/joint ventures businesses with reputable multinationals. Its investments tentacles ranges from integrated textile mills, breweries, commercial banking, insurance business, real estates, livestock rearing, fisheries services, carbonated drinks, food and beverages, manufacturing and mechanical and chemical industries.

Other sectors of interest include hotel and catering, vehicle distribution, bottling and marketing of liquefied petroleum gases including printing and publication. It is on record that the very first managing director of the company was Mr. C.S.O Akande while Chief Kola Daisi was the very first chairman of the conglomerate.

Prior to the appointment of Raji as GMD of the Odu’a group in 2014, despite the best intentions of the previous boards of the company in recent years, the economic fortunes of the company which peaked in the late and early 1990s began to experience some economic and business challenges.

The conglomerate also began to lag behind in catching up with modern trends in corporate governance, modern corporate cultures and realities of the 21st century as a result of its rigidity on relying on the old ways of running its affairs which admittedly had worked successfully in the past.

The era of election of business minded executive governors into the government houses of the respective owner state also translated into the decision to go back into history by opting for a professionally driven rigorous process of getting an alter ego for the company as against ‘political appointism’. This resulted into the engagement of Mr. Adewale Raji, a dynamic, intelligent and committed man of uncommon integrity that this writer often described as the 7th Governor of the Western State.

The above description is not an empty hype; he was able to salvage the company with the support of his equally vibrant board, especially with the support of chairmen of the board during his tenure, to navigate the company away from going the way of its Northern and Eastern counterparts which have since been bellied up.

To further underpin the achievement of the company, it is a plus that Odu’a is still able to sustain one of its subsidiary, the Lagos Airport Hotel Limited, which is today the oldest surviving rated hotel in Nigeria with over eight decades of hospitality stewardship.

As for it treasured hotel in Ibadan, the Premier Hotel has been given a new lease of life by its on-going repositioning which will make it cope in the very near future with the task of providing the highest standard of international class hospitality services for the city of Ibadan as it once did.

The OICL since the tenure of Mr. Raji has successfully executed series of strategic initiatives, spanning governance structure, asset optimisation, and growth in investments and profitability. These initiatives have not only positioned the company for accelerated growth but also showcased its adaptability to market trends, as evidenced by the modification of the business models of some of its businesses.

The fact is also out there that during his two-term tenure, the company’s profit before tax grew from N378 million in 2013 to a high of N2.2 billion in 2021 and he paid a total of N2.56 billion in dividends.

Apart from the above, there are others factors that earnedhim my respect and admiration. One of which was his desire to ensure that companies responsibility on staff liabilities are met despite paucity of funds. This was achieved with the support, understanding, dedication and sacrifice of the loyal and supportive partnership of the conglomerate’s workforce.

Right from his assumption of office, Mr. Adewale Raji identified Agri-business and investment as a very crucial sector of the Nigerian economy. He devoted attention and focus during his tenure in office as the GMD of Odu’a Investment in growing of the company’s agribusiness profile.

He rallied on the regional strength and antecedent of the western states to drive commercial agriculture value chain development. His passion and devotion to the sector was widely spotted far and near and he was a critical resource person at the AGRA Innovate West Africa (Lagos) on Agric business development which was a major regional platform on the subject of agric business in this part of the globe.

The writer also had the privilege of tapping into his wealth of experience and investment in the agric space by also relying on his expertise as a core resource person at the Agric Finance Seminar titled AGRIFIN 2019, held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island.

He was able to work the talk on agric business development with the success he recorded with Westlink Integrated Agriculture Ltd. This is a company incorporated during his tenure in 2018 and it specialises in planting and processing of tomatoes and cassava. Similarly, under his watch, he established a sister company called Westlink Todoconstruccion Limited in 2015. A company OICL owns 50 per cent.

It is today the company with OICL highest stakes in all of its associate companies both publicly and privately quoted aside from fully owned subsidiary companies.

The footprint of Westlink Todoconstruccion Ltd in the wealth generation arsenal of Odua cannot be ignore for the foreseeable future of the group especially in the real estate sector of the Nigerian economy. The company is one of the products of his five years development plan (2015-2019) on what the new policy thrust and business objective of the company should be pursuing.

Although his mien is that of a quintessential gentleman, Adewale Raji happens to be a man of deep faith in Islam and reverence for culture and tradition despite the fact that these two sides of his personality are often missed by many due to his very simple nature and disposition.

His love for culture witnessed his commitment and support for the history and culture of the Yoruba People of Western Nigeria and the Odu’a tradition in particular. I find very interesting his pride in the O’dua Gallery and Museum, a private pet project of the group which demonstrates his pride in the Odu’a project and vision. Similarly, his support for the DAWN Commission initiative piloted by Odu’a group and the western states is also well documented.

It was his interest and faith in the objective of the commission that led to Lagos State joining its western folks by becoming the Sixth Odu’a Investment owner states during Wale Raji’s tenure. He was able to achieve this feat by tapping into the sanguine nature of the extra-ordinary Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode whose single term in office as governor of Lagos State is still considers a massive concomitant and reference point for state management and governance in Nigeria.

Raji without doubt left a positive legacy for the company to build upon and I have no doubt that the company is in a very competent hands under the leadership of the hugely experience former director finance, who is the new Group Managing Director. His rich corporate and finance background has been fully exploited by the company in recent times and it can only get better.

This perhaps informed Mr. Raji’s charge at a recent staff workshop that the survival of the company “is dependent on the human resource that we have, and that human resource should continue to enhance her capability to deliver efficiently so that the company can remain a thriving entity”.

I join thousand of well wishers in wishing him well for the future and hoping that our country Nigeria will find use for honest and patriotic Nigerian like you that put the common good far and above personal gains. This is more important at a point like this that the economy, social esteem and public trust are at their all-time low.
Fayemi wrote via:omobalogun2000@yahoo.com