•‘My mum was a poor, single parent. I changed the story’

By Olalekan Bilesanmi

Chima Israel Onyeolu, 33, is a successful, daring but humble entrepreneur. Like the octopus, his hands are on every pie available, provided it is profitable. He is the brain behind Sinocle Nigeria, a construction firm in Delta State spreading its wings to Abuja, Lagos and across the shores of the country to Togo.

He is the new kid on the block in real estate, particularly in Delta. Though business oriented, and yet politically exposed, his idea of politics is totally different from the general view. Unlike many of his peers, he thinks the old must continue to be in leadership position for their experience and wisdom while the young plays innovative roles beside them, saying this represents a perfect balance for leadership growth. In this interview, Onyeolu says the real estate sector of the Delta State economy took a quantum leap during the administration of immediate past Governor Ifeanyi Okowa when he opened up the hinterland through massive road infrastructure. 

 You are playing big in the real estate sector in Delta State, yet what you read in the university is totally different from what you are presently doing.

I’ve always been a fighter. That fighting spirit gave me this positive mindset. There is this positive mindset that always drives me. I guess that is why whatever I do always prospers. When you are running a business, when you are pursuing your goal, there will always be discouragement from your environment, from your family, from your friends, and all that. But what has been keeping me going is my positive mindset. This real estate and construction generally is where I have my passion. When I walk around an area, I look around, including houses, I would be asking myself why didn’t the owner do this or that? It would have been finer if he had done it this way, would have been more beautiful this way. I’m just an inquisitive creative mind. Great people are not made in a comfort zone. Before gold becomes gold, it has to go through fire. Most of the products we are seeing today, it went through processes in the factory. So, great people are not made in a comfort zone. 

 With government unstable business policies and the unfriendly economic environment and system, how are you able to stay afloat.
Despite all the hindrances, if as a young man, I have this positive mindset and I’m able to scale through it, I think others can do the same thing. If you have this zeal and the goal to be great; your environment can not stop you. Yes, there will be difficulties and challenges along the way, but when you are focused, it won’t matter at the end of the day. For example, you bid for a construction, you get it and shortly after, inflation sets in which by the way, is a major problem at the moment in the real estate sector, you start having issues with the client. If you want to review the contracts, they will say no, we have paid you for this project. You must deliver it. If, for example, I am quoting for a project, let’s say a bag of cement was N3, 500 or N4, 500. Two weeks to the project completion, a bag of cement rises to N7, 500, that is one of the challenges we face in construction. All the items are dollar driven. Once dollar rates jump up, everything goes up. So, it takes patience and continuous explaining to the clients. There are some clients you fall out with, and you end up terminating the project due to inflation because some clients will not want to continue the project. You have to bear the loss to keep your name and integrity. You come around different personalities, different characters. There are some clients that will not understand, no matter how you explain to them, they will not understand. So, you just have to let go. You’re building a residential house for a client, and he releases money, that might be the only money he has to build the house. So, if you come back and you are now telling him that inflation have affected the contracts, most of them will not understand. 

 At a young age, you have been this successful. Some can attribute it to unethically practice or shady arrangement. How did it happen?

 That is expected. I grew up in a church. I’m a Christian and my mother is a Christian. I grew up with my mom, a single parent. I’m the only child of my mom. I have always been a prayerful person. Every night, in my prayers, kneeling down, I ask God, what is the next move? Should I do this? Should I not? I’m a spiritual person. I have never laid my hands on anything illegal. I started my business from the scratch. If you do a good job, people will like it. People will love it. And they will give you more. My school mate gave me my first project. My rise to success was through the circle of friends around me. 

 You are barely 33. You married quite early at 29. Why the rush into marriage?
 I’m the only child of my mom. So, I needed to marry on time. Besides, marrying on time makes you to be stable and more focused. It makes you to be more disciplined. Running after women won’t allow you get to your destination on time. I am a proud product of a single parent. When we had nothing, the only blessing God gave me was my mother. My mother was and still my blessing. She did not remarry even when she had issues with my late dad because of me. She finished school, and looking for job was not easy for her. She didn’t get any job. She hustled. At times, she would take me to our family house or friends, to stay so that I could eat. It wasn’t easy for us at all.
Whenever I went home from the university, she would give me like N200 which was all she had. I would cry and break down. That was when I started defining my life and said no, even if my upbringing was not good enough, I should be able to change the story and change the state of my mum because my mum struggled for me. She would carry me at her back wherever she was going even to work. There was a time she was working as a cleaner in a hospital. I was about 4-5 years old. She would carry me at her back because the hospital was quite a distance from our house. The owner of the hospital was generous and considerate to my mum that she gave a room within the hospital premises to live.  With the little she was giving me, coupled with the various jobs I was doing in school, I graduated. She is doing very well now. She now owns her own school. That is what I tell the young ones that there’s life after school, especially when you are in an environment like Nigeria. There are no jobs. You need to have a plan B and even a plan C so that if plan B does not work, you have something to fall back on. Of course, plan A is given that you get a job when you graduate. I have a step brother intending to go to the university, I told him no, you should learn handwork first. I told him we are going to sacrifice your one year because he is still young. He is learning the art of plumbing presently. I told him that plan B at times has nothing to do with plan A. If this road does not work, you follow another road. My advice to the youths is that great people are not made in a comfort. You have to sit down, look at yourself and know what you are good at and try and build your capacity through that. Nigeria is the easiest place for anyone to be a millionaire. It’s easier to be a millionaire in Nigeria than in other country if you know what you are doing. You don’t need a godfather to be a millionaire in Nigeria. You don’t even need to have a rich parent. If you are focused and determined, you will achieve your goal. Do you know the population in Nigeria? Just look for a problem and get the solution to the people. Just create a value and every other thing will follow, including riches. That is all. I tell my staff, don’t limit yourself to this office. You should have a dream. You should have a goal. Build your capacity from here. If I am paying you salary, there are some you eat, there are some you save for your goal. You shouldn’t remain here forever. If you want to do what others are doing, like fraud and other negative things, it may not end well. I don’t blame some of them at times. Why? It is because of the environment they find themselves in.

We all react differently to the environment. Some can be positive and some can be negative depending on the spirit that is driving them. That’s why I don’t blame them too much. Everybody wants to follow the trend. If you look at girls today, they want to follow the trend. There was a lady in my school then. Oh God, this lady really motivated me. She was making popcorn and doing very well. That was what she used to train herself in school and graduated. Other girls would travel at weekends and go and do what other girls do. They returned with money and all that living flashy lifestyle. But in her case, she was just living her life, doing her popcorn and she was making money even more than those girls. And she was not messing up herself. So, if you are focused and determined, you will make it in this country. The youths in this country don’t need government to succeed. Yes, they don’t need government. If they are smart and intelligent, they don’t really need government to succeed. Yes, there are a lot of problems in this country that need solution. Create that solution. 

 You talked about government economic policies as they relate to inflation. Can you relate your experience?
 It does affect business generally in Nigeria including the real sector especially when it comes to inflation. Something happened to me recently. I was opportune to have $200,000 which was about N300 million. I invested it in a housing project. A dollar was exchanging for N850 then. The estate of duplexes was completed. By the time we were done, dollar was exchanging N1, 510 to dollar. Watch what happened. I got a land for about N60 million. Then I divided the land into two of 900 square metres each. I was to sell for N150 million each based on N850 to a dollar. You can see that the profit margin was high. But by the time buyers started coming, dollar exchange had risen to N1, 510. The important part of the whole transaction was that there was no profit at the end. I only got the actual invested money back, not with profit. That is the effect of inflation. So, inflation is not only affecting the poor or those that don’t have food to eat. It’s affecting us, businessmen and everybody. This is where the government must be seen to be doing something so that the environment can be conducive for everyone and business.

 Talking about policies, some are of the opinion that political leadership should be with the young and not the old politicians. 
 Nigeria is a very, very blessed country. I don’t have a problem with the old people ruling the country. That’s not even the problem of this country, in my view. Who is at the top plays a major key role. But let’s not just blame the president alone. What are the local government chairmen doing? What are the governors doing? What are the senators and House of Representatives doing? True, the president has a share of the blame but what about the other levels of government? Yes, you can say the president should be blamed because he’s not able to organise the country very well, but note that Nigeria is a big country with different dialects, ethnic groups and ideologies. We have Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists. So, the problem of this country is not just from the top, it is also from the grassroots. Why I blame the top partly is because they have not been able to get the persons that are capable to handle specific roles and offices. I thought as you run for office, you would have from the onset the kind of capable persons that are going to work with you. You don’t just give somebody posts because the person supported you during the election. That is part of where our problems lie. You don’t give out public offices as a souvenir for supporters or as a payback. We have persons that are capable. We have young people that are capable. Bring them into the game. If it’s your own company, will you run it like that? Why is my mother not my manager? Has she not done a lot for me? Why is my mother not my accountant? Or my brother not my accountant? Did he not play a role in my life? My mother played a very key role in my life. Why did I not make her my accountant? Because I know she can’t handle it. That’s where this godfatherism has brought us. 
But at times, you don’t also blame the people at the top, too. You know when you are climbing and the people that put hands as ladder for you to the top are demanding from you, your hands may be tied as you would not want to create enemies for yourself. However, you can still pay back without neglecting merit and competences. I don’t support discarding the old from our politics. I believe there should be a balance in the system? Yes, young people should take over those offices that require smart brains, people that can think fast.

 One year later, has Governor Sheriff Oborevwori lived up to expectation?
 No doubt, he has. The former governor, Okowa, did his best. He was able to do a lot. He was able to touch lots and lots of lives. I saw a lot of improvements in the state when he was governor. Okowa is somebody that carried everybody along. He tried to do a lot of road projects. He was able to touch a lot of towns and grassroots. I give him his accolades. The present governor too has really done a lot in one year. I am happy he’s learning from his mentor, Okowa. That is the essence of having continuation in government. Okowa is one of the persons that played key role in the real estate sector here in Asaba because he was able to open a lot of roads and made the state peaceful. You can hardly hear of kidnapping and all that during his time. He was able to coordinate the security of the state. He was able to handle the infrastructure including roads. That was why they called him ‘Road Master’. The roads he opened up helped a lot of us in the real estate sector such that the price of property of some of us in locations of roads constructed went up. It started selling fast. Even till now, the impact of Okowa is still being felt in this state. I am beginning to see the same footsteps of Okowa in this administration. Despite litigations here and there, he has actually done a lot within one year. We still have three years ahead of us. So, we are expecting him to do more. I was one of the people that really benefited from what Okowa did in his own time, though I don’t know him personally. He never gave me projects but he was able to make the state conducive for us to do business and which I appreciate.

 Despite your success, what are your regrets?
 My only regrets are how I wish the country was a bit better than the way it is now. The second is that of my late father. Wish he was here to see the goodness of the Lord over the family.

 You talk about plan B in everything we do in Nigeria, outside real estate, do you have plan B?
 Of course I do. I studied Human Anatomy and Cell Biology. But here I am in construction which, through God, I have and I am still making success of it. I am into goat farming and poultry. Remember, I told you that your plan B sometimes may not have any correlation with plan A or C. This is what I am talking about.
There was this woman that sells ‘ofe nsala’ soup, she uses goat meat. My friend took me there, we sat down and ate. I saw crowds trooping in. There were a lot of meats in the soup and it was quite sweet. After the meal, I went close to the woman selling it, I asked her how many goats does she kill in a day? She said she kills up to 10 goats every day. I didn’t sleep that night. I started calculating it. I said if this woman kills 10 goats in a day, that means someone can be selling close to 50 to 100 goats in a day in Asaba. She wasn’t the only one selling that kind of food. So, if I’m selling 100 or 50 goats in a day, I could be making 10,000 naira each on a daily basis. I went to acquire a land, a large area of land I fenced round. I built the goat pen. As we speak, I have started selling goats. I am presently building poultry farm for at least 10,000 birds because the demand for eggs is far more than supply.

 With the kind of empire of business you are creating and most of your employees all far older than you, how are you able to command their respect and commitment?
 The company manager is far, far older than me. He is about 50 years old. But they all love me. Most workers can be very stubborn. You know, some of them come from different backgrounds and environments. Some of them will come to steal from the company. But at times, those ones that want to hurt you and the company can be very good in their job. Some of them can have a bad attitude. So, it takes wisdom to be able to manage them. So, what has helped me in all of this is the kind of books I read. I’m a fast learner. I study and read people a lot. I know how to follow you at your own pace. If I see you are an emotional person, I know how to follow you. Yes, you have to be psychologically strong to be able to handle people. Most of my workers, they are older than me, but when they see me, they respect me. Why? I have been able to build trust with them. A friend asked how I was friendly with my staff because they flow with me. I said “deal with your staff as a leader, not a boss because it’s better to love you than fear you”. If you are able to create a good bond with them, be nice to them, know what is happening in their personal lives, not only on how they treat your company, but their homes. See how you can step in and help them in the time of need. They will not just see you as a boss, leader, they will see you as a brother and friend. But if you are all bossy, shouting, you can’t move forward. They will rebel against you. But if your workers love you, they can’t rebel against you. I have and still playing key roles in their lives. My Secretary, when she first started working with us, I watched her closely. I noticed she was not happy. I was like, is it that she does not like this environment or the work? What was happening? So, I called her to my office. I sat her down. I started asking her some personal questions. Then, I noticed that she has been struggling with her house rent. She didn’t have where to stay. I asked her how much the rent was. I paid the house rent. She was surprised because she was barely five days in the company. She started crying in my office. That kind of person can hardly betray you. I told her, “No, we are not taking it from your salary. It’s just my gift to you. I want you to be happy working here”. I did the same thing for my accountant. I have played a key role in the lives of my staff. There is a staff who I noticed was not eating well. I called him one day, I said “all the money I pay you, I don’t see it in your body. You always walk to the site. You don’t even enter Keke, you don’t enter bus. Tell me what is happening. What are you saving for? I know you don’t gamble. What are you saving for?” He said he was saving to enroll in a university. I asked how much he had saved, he told me. I said I would pay the balance with the promise that he was going to be eating well.
So, you have to be nice to people. If you know where you are coming from, you know how it feels when people don’t have. Your worker today might be your helper tomorrow. You wouldn’t know. That’s why it’s good to be nice to people. They can never talk bad about me outside. They will defend me outside. So, before you become bossy, first of all, build friendship with your staff and make them your family; make them your brothers, make them your sisters. Make them your friends. And you get the best of them.