By Florence Amagiya

Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, former minister of states, Education, no doubt, is one of the richest lawyers in Nigeria without taking any loan from any bank in the world.

He has made billions of hard-earned naira as a business mogul. He is an hotelier, attorney, criminologist and a politician who is living a dream of a fluence while providing jobs for the youths.

Kenneth Gbagi may not be fully appreciated by those who do not know him, but he has afffected the lives of people in Delta State and beyond.

Through his deep-rooted humanitarian gesture, scores of ailing persons ranging from traditional rulers to clergymen, and many others, have been flown abroad for treatment.

Documented evidence shows that the ex- minister who refused ministerial appointments twice accepted to serve as a chairman of Legal Aid Council where he went physically to wash prisons, vaccinate prisoners and release illegally detained prisoners all over the country by quashing the obnoxious law of “with-holding charge” Through his several business outfits, he has empowered youths who are in need of it.

His yearly charity programmes are presently helping so many children and youths go back to school, graduate, and become useful people in the society. As a Rotarian, he became the first black man in the world ever to have donated more than $250,000 to help eradicate polio as a humanitarian gesture to become an AKS member of Rotary worldwide. Now, he has his eyes on becoming the governor of Delta State come 2015.

In this edition, we present to you an icon who was so scared of poverty that he fought so hard to achieve a dream of living a wonderful life of wealth, luxury, and of philanthropy.

Biography of Kenneth Gbagi

Kenneth Gbagi was born in Sapele, Delta state in a Catholic hospital by the Cemetery at Ogodo road. He attended Bishop Johnson Memory Primary School also in Sapele. Kenneth was born into a polygamous home where his father decided that only the first child of each wife, out of his 21 children, will be sent to school. Being his mother’s third child, he wasn’t sent to school by his father. Kenneth struggled to pay his way to school by doing the worst of odd jobs only boys of his age with his drive could do.

He left home at the age of 11 to become a sailor. After completing his primary education, he landed in Argentina, traveled to Montevideo and some other countries. But his thirst for education prompted his return to Nigeria where he succeeded in enrolling in a secondary school even when his mates were already in class 3.

The ex-minister was already 14 years old when he attended Kosofe Secondary School, Mile 12. Interestingly enough, he sponsored himself to secondary school through working as a bus conductor. Upon finishing his secondary education, Kenneth worked with a Foreign Service before travelling abroad to further his education. While in Hong Kong, he shot a movie titled The birth of Hong Kong in 1993. This gave him some money to pay his tuition fee.

He gained admission into one of the oldest universities in the world, Sans Thomas University in Philippines, to read political science. He left Sans Thomas University and graduated as a criminologist from the Philippine College of Criminology. He returned to Nigeria for his National Youth Service. He served with the Police Force and taught many important persons in the Police Force.

Career

He received his first appointment as a lecturer at the advanced wing of the Police College, Ikeja because the Police Authority was impressed with his performance during his Youth Service program.

They discovered that he was a very sound criminologist with foreign ideas. Along the line, he went back to School and made distinction at the faculty of law, University of Lagos. Later he went to the Law School and returned. Afterwards, he registered a security outfit and grew it to a highest point in Nigeria. He accepted and worked with the legal aid council in Nigeria. He became the Minister of Education, while making millions of naira through his security outfits, which helps banks with their security operations nationwide.

Investments

He is the proud owner of a security company called GKO Security Nig. Ltd. He supplies security materials to banks and to the high and mighty in the society. He has investments in real estate with over 700 properties to his name. His Robinson Plaza, Warri branch, is a magnificent work of art; ten times bigger than the popular computer village in Lagos state. It has over 500 shops that generate billions of naira yearly.

His properties alone is worth billions of naira. He singularly built two churches, his hotels, cinemas and other businesses too numerous to mention. According to him, “my properties are so many to the extent I do not even remember some of them. Just the other day, l asked my manager to bring out a file of my properties, I couldn’t recognize some of them!” Kenneth Gbagi is the owner of WoodRidge hotel in Warri, Delta state; he is also the owner of Geekay Hotel, Warri.

Recently, he became the first man in Warri to invest in a 5-star hotel when he became the owner of Golden Tulip hotel franchise in Warri. He also has a franchise that established the Silverbird Cinemas at Warri. He has lots of business plazas that he rented out and which rake in billions of naira yearly.

Hotels

Kenneth Gbagi has invested a lot in tourism. He has so many hotels in the 3-7 star classes. The Woodridge Hotel, Warri is worth N50-N60 billion. There is also WoodRidge hotel, Lagos, The Woodridge Cottage, Abuja. The Golden Tulip, Effurun, Warri is not less than N6 billion in construction alone. The Diamond Tulip, Abuja in aviation village still under construction is expected to cost about N72 billion.

Charity

He has provided jobs to so many youths, being one who believes in showing a man how to catch fish instead of giving the man fish to eat. He has employed these youths at his several companies, hotels, and establishments. He runs a scholarship scheme where 2000 students are sponsored to various schools and trades yearly.

Cars

Kenneth Gbagi sees himself as a car freak, saying he has driven all sorts of automobiles, including planes. To him the inside of a vehicle may just be the only reason for buying a particular car as he loves amazing interiors. His garage is quite an entertaining spectacle for the eyes as they hold cars like the jaguars, the Lexus SUVs, the Range Rover SUVs, the Mercedes 560 SE SUVs and more.