Fellow Nigerians, this is the third part of my serialised tributes to The Parakoyi of Ibadanland, Chief Bode Akindele, the enigmatic businessman who departed this earth on June 29, 2020 and was buried on July 31, 2020, in Ibadan, Nigeria. I can’t remember writing such a detailed essay on anyone else except Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Such was the respect I had for this icon whom I had studied like a recommended textbook in an MBA class.
They were doing things I didn’t like so I tried to get out. We went to Europe to see one of the companies that supplied us with materials. They owed us money. When we got there the people said they had used our money. I insisted that we had to get the money back. Besides, all the Lebanese people in our own match company wanted to sell their shares.
He asked for the selling price and when I said one billion dollars he said I must be joking. He said how could I invest one billion dollars in matches. He said no bank would listen to me. What he did not know was that inside the company there were subsidiaries like disposable lighters, shaving sticks and so on. They were numbet 3 in the world in disposable lighters. They had huge factories all over Europe and in Brazil. So we put in our application to buy.
Indonesia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana. I got hold of the 10th largest company in Zimbabwe, Lion Matches. It’s owned by us. I’m also in Tanzania. I then decided that Chile was too far. I had bought the Chilean company for 25 million dollars. I then decided that Indonesia and Thailand were too far away. I later sold the Chilean company. In 1990, the UK company alone made 9 million pounds profit – just one company out of the 63 countries.