•’My dad wasn’t happy I converted from Islam to Christianity’

•Narrates: What I did with Ekwueme’s house after ex-VP ran to East during Civil War

By Nnamdi Ojiego

The occasion was ‘God in my Life’, a programme put together under the auspices of the Torchbearers Society of Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Diocese of Lagos West, Ikeja, Lagos.

And speaker was Otunba Michael Olasubomi Subomi-Balogun, an entrepreneur, community leader, elder statesman, philanthropist and founder of the First City Group.

‘God in my Life Series’ is an event held occasionally in which the speaker shares the place and role of God in his life.  Balogun is the 58th lecturer on this programme which has featured prominent Nigerians.

For Balogun, the Otunba Tunwase of Ijebuland and Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians, who is well known for always reverencing God and attributing all his achievements to his maker, the occasion provided him another opportunity to reveal and share God’s numerous interventions in his life.

He acknowledged the contributions of friends, especially the role played by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme in making him what he is today. The First City Group founder took the audience down memory lane on how it all started amidst applause.

Grace of God

“I firmly believe that there’s no Otunba Subomi-Balogun without the amazing grace and contributions of the Almighty God our maker”, he said.

“What I am today and what I will be tomorrow and looking back to what I have been in my younger age will never be complete without my admitting the presence and the motivation of the maker of all of us whose presence in my life has been so immeasurable and cannot be compared with other influences in my life.

“It has now become a continuous reaction of mine to anyone interacting with me that I continue to refer to the contributions which the Almighty God has made in my life.

Still Growing

“On the occasion of my last birthday, 9th of March this year, I clocked 87 and I’m still growing and appreciating the good Lord hence I will not hesitate to acknowledge my firm belief in our God.

“Towards attaining the age of 67, I have become so overwhelmed about what the good Lord has done for me and I felt that I must concede to the pressures of some associates that I should put into writing what God has done in life.

“I then published a book, my author biography, which I titled; ‘The Cross, The Triumph and The Crown’ which I thought encapsulated how the good Lord has brought me to the stage I have reached in life.

Not Finished

“Subsequently, I found that God has not finished with me and is still guiding me not only to see great ahead and follow him but also infusing confidence in me.

“Also, as I continue my journey appreciating God and maturing further.

“I came to realize that it was naive of me in my late 60s to believe that I have accomplished the greatest or I have achieved the highest in life. “However, my God continues to beckon on me to follow him. I kept on realizing that ever-present God has not finished with me.

“As I said, I’m now running to the end of my 87th year and I reflect on what happened to me in life up to now and still hold that the divine guidance I have continues with me.

“About 10 years after publishing my author biography, a university don who had assisted me in putting my papers together when I was writing my author biography, suggested to me saying: ‘Sir, I have not finished with you. Please, allow me to write a book on you from a third-person perspective of what I have observed about your life for the last over 20 years that I have associated with you.’ I agreed.

“When he completed the exercise, writing about me and some of my achievements particularly, in single-handedly establishing a financial supermarket, which has been acknowledged as outstanding and unprecedented in the development of the financial institution in Nigeria at that time, I came to the immeasurable conclusion that the good Lord has not finished with me.

Financial Monument

“My friend, the university don, also concluded about what he described as at that time, my unequalled achievements in life.

“I cautioned him and said I would not want such a flamboyant description of my achievements that whatever I have achieved is of the Lord’s making rather than arrogating my achievements to my efforts or capability.

“I also suggested that I will prefer that he give the credit to the Almighty God by naming his second book as he has written on me as ‘The Financial Monument Built by God’.

Not Tired

 “I’m still alive even though advance in age, I’m not tired. I’m maturing and I believe more good is still coming from God while I’m still in this terrain. “It was, for instance, my God who made it possible for me to embark on something unprecedented in Nigeria, setting up single-handedly, a group of financial institutions despite different machinations of people who did not want me to achieve the feat”.

Conversion

The Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians further stated that not many knew that he was born a Muslim.

He, however, explained how he was converted to Christianity. “I was involved in chapel service and my teacher didn’t know I came from a Muslim background”, Balogun said. “At a point, I decided I had had enough of living a double life. I went to my teacher, who ultimately became Bishop Segun, and confided in him that I was still a Muslim and would want to be converted.

“That was when I was about 13 or 14 years old. Thereafter, I became very active as a steward.

“Back home in Ijebu Ode, even though my father was not happy that I converted, after some time, he was pacified. It was my God that softened him.

“I was doing very well and my father was so happy and proud that he has a son who was doing so well as he had envisaged.

“I became so attached to my Christian worship that everybody recognized me and I was doing very well in my life and not many people recognized that I was born a Moslem.

Asiwaju of Christians

“Life progressed and I was serving my God with all my heart.

“In Ijebu Ode, many people recognized me as a faithful worshipper and a member of some church societies.

“Then, suddenly, Papa Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola, the most extraordinary prominent and about the wealthiest Ijebu, who was also the Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians, passed on.

“And to my consternation, all the Ijebu Christians decided to pick me to succeed him despite the number of people either older than I was or have been Christians from birth.

“I was elected as Asiwaju of Ijebu Christians. Incidentally, Papa Odutola father and mother were Moslems before he converted his mother to Christianity.

Further Training

“In 1961, after my degree, I was sent to the British Parliament for one year and after that, I spent some time in London learning how to draft agreements.

“I came back to the country and was appointed as crown counsel in the then Western Region and quite a lot of people were enamored by my legal draftsmanship.

“I came into the country with much adulation; everybody was wondering: ‘What has this young man got that I haven’t got?’

“And I said I would try and prove that I appreciated, not only what the government of the Western region did for me, but what my God did for me.

Law to Finance

“From law, I went into finance. I was there to compete with accountants and others.

“Suddenly and divinely, I was made the head of stock broking and capital issues at the subsidiary of NIDB, ICON Limited.

“I was the chief executive. I was amazed. I was sent to do some courses in the World Bank and other places.

Govt’s Bank

“Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, NIDB, was a development bank created by the World Bank with international financial houses. “That was the pedestal that helped me become what I am today.

“I went to a development bank as a lawyer.

“While there, the good Lord opened my eyes to see what was happening in finance, stock broking, stock exchange, selling shares and so on, and I suddenly found myself being redeployed to a stock broking company owned by my employers – ICON Securities”.

Meeting Ekwueme

Acknowledging the contributions of friends in his life, Balogun said this of then-Vice President Alex Ekwueme: “I had a friend, Alex Ekueme. We had been friends before the war.

“During the war, when many of our friends from the East abandoned everything they had and went away, the war was so hot that many people didn’t think there was any hope of staying in Lagos.

“I had a house, the first house I built in my life, in Apapa. Alex had number 6 while I had number 4, and as soon as the war started, some people started using the houses for playing pools.

“They would be there till midnight, sometimes in the morning.

“I wanted to protect my own house, I didn’t want people to jump into my house and rob me or burgle my house.

“So, the first thing I did was to arrange for the police to evacuate them to protect myself, having done that, I didn’t want to leave the place empty again.

“So I renovated Alex’s house and rented it out and I was collecting the rent.

“When the war ended, Alex returned to Lagos, he came to see me, I went back into my room and brought out a big envelope.

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“In those days, we didn’t use cheques much, so I gave him the envelope and told him I renovated his house and rented it out, and that was the rent I collected.

“A number of our friends from the East lost their house, some so-called friends took over their houses and claimed that they were given.

“So, for someone who was not familiar with him to take care of his house, rented it out and handed over the money to him, he could not believe it, all he kept on saying was just ‘Mike, thank you, I’m grateful’, and that was how the friendship started.

“So, when he became the Vice President, and I needed my license to be approved, I and my wife planned that when Alex would be led out of the church at the Cathedral, because he used to come to morning service, that I would grab his dress and my wife would grab that of his wife. “When we did that, his security details thought there was something wrong with us and then Alex looked back and said, ‘Subomi, what happened’ and I told him, ‘Mr. Vice President, why are you not giving me a license’?

“So Alex said I should come and see him and he assured me that the following Thursday, I would get my license.

“By 3pm of that Thursday, a minister called me and he said congratulations that the Vice President had approved my license.

Starting a bank

“My family and I were in the chapel in my house praying to God for the way forward after I was cheated out of the investment bank I helped to start for the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, NIDB.

“One day, my second son, Babajide, told my wife, ‘I pity dad, why can’t he go and set up his own business instead of wanting to work for people?’

“I felt it was the voice of God. That was how I set up my institution. It was divine and miraculous; it was as if the good Lord took me somewhere where I initially thought I did not belong and when I had problems, I didn’t want to dramatise it.

“People wanted to frustrate me. I always sought the face of God in whatever I do”.

Vanguard News Nigeria