Being Agege boy helped my personal development —Okunola

Mutiu Kunle Okunola, popularly known as MKO, is the chief executive officer, Guestimate engineering company, Voyage Inn, among other businesses. He shares his rags-to-riches story with SEGUN KASALI.

 

You were a bus conductor at a tender age. How has this experience influenced your life?

I used to follow one man, Babatunde, popularly known as Were Eko (Lagos madman), to do bus conducting. My father was into the tyre business at Mangoro, Agege area of Lagos State. So, I washed tyres for him and it was from there I knew how to do bus conducting. At that time, I saw bus conducting as an avenue to meet and relate with people negatively; you see them, harass them and you just make money out of that rascality.

 

The rascality must have pushed you into other negative acts.

Yeah. I started dating someone older than myself and this destroyed my love life at that time. I made so much money to the extent that I would give to this person, a divorcee, to help me hold till I need it. To my amazement, I went to visit her one day and I found out that she was going out with one of my brothers in the area. So, I followed them and I found them in a hotel and as a matter of fact, she was still with my money.

 

So you didn’t get your money from her?

I could not fight and she did not want to give me my money. Then the (area brother) went to report me to my parents that so and so the person (the lady) was the one I was going out with. But I told my father to ask how he knew that I was going out with the lady because I only kept money with her. The woman had a baby from her marriage. So, those were the kinds of experiences I had and because I was so embittered, that really affected me trusting any woman later. Another experience is that of people not willing to pay and as a result beating them up, including those who were older than me without even because I could be injured. Like a bus conductor, you would face someone older than you because of a small change. Since you don’t want to lose money, you would dare them and go to the extent of getting injured and engaging in all forms of horse-trading to get the job done.

 

And your dad didn’t know about this bus conducting experience?

No, he didn’t know. Funnily enough, I would not go to Agege route where his workshop was. I would go to Mushin route which was the most dangerous and terrible. But I was able to surmount the challenge due to my rascality and street wisdom. As an intelligent fellow, you would always suspect danger and whenever it comes, you know how to deal with it. Not only that, but I also had those notorious boys as friends because they would be there for you. So I had friends older than me because of my kindness hence, their willingness to protect me, even like some things that would have turned into something else, like the issue of Indian hemp and all sorts.

 

Do you mean you didn’t smoke Indian hemp?

I tasted a little but I found out it was not for me and, thereafter, I dropped it.

 

Perhaps that’s why they called you Mutiu Kekere

The reason was that then I was not tall but I was very very smart. So I related with people older than me and some saw me as a younger fellow. You know kekere means small. So, it was more of a small boy with the intelligence of an adult which used to amaze them.

 

When did you stop bus conducting?

Actually, I was doing this bus conducting while I was in secondary school and as you know, you get more engrossed during the holiday. And a lot of people you find in this situation don’t have siblings to visit during holidays, unlike school hours that you know you have limited time. But, when I had to go to school, it took me out of the environment and I had to stop. Even in school, there are other vices such as joining gangs but I was never involved.

 

Despite been a rascal?

There were times I would ruminate about life, asking if I wanted to live this life or the other life, especially the fact that I did not want to disappoint my family. So, all these things stopped me from not joining them [bad company].

 

How did you survive financial difficulties in the higher institution?

Hmm when I got to higher institution, I met a ‘butty’ friend called Gbenga Oloko. We used to live together. I remember a time we paid for accommodation but the agent did not want to give us the place, despite collecting money from us. As expected, Gbenga dropped the larger share of the money but he would always say that we should take things easy. But, I told him one day that I was going to get the money today. So, I went to the agent’s place with him, where he saw the other side of me for the first time (laughs).

 

What do you mean?

So the shock of his life was when I grabbed a pack of Indian hemp and I began to puff it. Immediately the agent saw the way I was puffing it, he started asking my friend why he brought his kind of person, promising he would give us the money. So he paid us that day because of the behaviour I displayed. And because of that behaviour, my friend, Gbenga, refused to come near me because he never knew I was a bad boy (laughs).

 

So when did you stop smoking hemp?

Actually, I had stopped at that time. I just needed to make an impact on the agent to pay our money and I thought doing that would make him realise that we were not a small fry. To their amazement, puffing the Indian hemp did not affect me. Gbenga Oloko and I went into business, Bread Affairs. As I said, he was from a rich home. So we ran the business together and it was successful.

 

Would it be safe to say being a bus conductor  forged the experienced you garnered as an entrepreneur?

Absolutely! It gave me an insight into money management. It taught me how to take a risk with money.

 

When was your breakthrough in business?

I realised that what we do in school is different from what obtains outside. Hence you need to know more people outside and acquire street wisdom too to rise above the fear parents create in our minds. So, I was successful in business in school and I used that to pay my school fees till I went for my youth service in Port Harcourt. I was a contract staff at Trans Amadi for three months and at the end of the third month, one would be considered for a permanent appointment. When democracy came in 1999, I gathered all the money I raised to join politics because I was interested in serving people. I was a pioneer member who wrote a proposal to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu on waste management because, at that time, they were using caterpillars to pack communal wastes. So, they asked me to do a pilot scheme in Agege and Allen. I put that before Tinubu when he was coming in as governor and he told us to obtain a license to pick garbage from the community. That was how PSP started and consequently, I was a pioneer member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) then.

 

What about other businesses?

The waste management led me to other businesses. It helped me to raise money to go into engineering construction. When I built houses, I discovered that business wasn’t moving quickly and I incurred debts. I thought of what I could do and decided to build hotels and that was why I went into property. So, it was waste management that gave me the breakthrough and the financial muscle to start other businesses.

 

Did you meet your wife about this time?

Yes, it was about the time of the breakthrough that I met my wife. The breakthrough began in 2000. She was living in my area, at Cement, then. I had an interest in a fellow graduate then, but because of the limitation of finance, resources, and exposure, the relationship became very difficult for me to handle. So, I felt that if I could not control someone of that age, it would be better to look for someone younger in the community. At that time, I was doing waste management. When they told her that I am a graduate, she was not without her misgiving, asking them “why is he picking trash on the streets of Lagos?” Some even came up with the idea that I was a cultist, rusticated from Ife and that was why I started picking trash. But, at that time, I had started politics and contested for councillorship, House of Assembly, and what have you.

 

Did she eventually overcome her misgiving?

Yeah. She discovered that all she heard were lies and we eventually got married.

 

Did your dad benefit from this breakthrough?

One of those things that really got to me is that while my mum was taking care of us, my father was paying her to do so. But he was not alive to reap the fruit of his labour. So, what I would have been giving my father every month is what I use to assist people. That is why I am always kind in giving.

 

Is there anything you would have done differently?

What I would have loved to do differently, looking back, would have been not participating in politics and facing my business squarely because I can tell you that I lost a lot of money and opportunities with oil companies that would have made me a multibillionaire today. And even in politics, I am still unable to serve due to one thing or the other. And now at this age, I have passed up the kind of business that could have given me that big breakthrough. The only thing is that I have invested hugely in politics. The vision now is to continue pursuing it so that I can impact the community.

 

You never regretted being a product of Agege?

Ah! Not a day do I regret it. It really helped me a lot. Seriously, I even thank God I experienced it before coming into social and educated life. Otherwise, I would have become those rich kids who do not know the reality of the common man.

 

What is your life philosophy?

You need to raise human beings and be accessible no matter what and whatever you are in life because in the long run, some would pay back and others won’t. And sometimes you might not even need them but you are building them for your own kids tomorrow.