•Young people must have focus, work very hard to succeed

 

By Christy Anyanwu

Captain Emmanuel Iheanacho is a Nigerian entrepreneur and politician. He was Nigeria’s Minister of Interior from April 2010 to July 2011. Iheanacho is also the executive chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited and has received awards for his contributions to the maritime industry. Recently, he has been advocating a fair power shift to the Owerri zone in Imo State’s governance.

He is the chairman of the socio-political movement called Imo Harmony Project (IHP).

In this interview, he spoke of his earnest desire and expectations on the 2027 governorship election in Imo State and how equity and fairness would play up for the best candidate from Owerri Zone to become the next governor of the state.

Could you tell us what you do to maintain your good looks? You still look young and energetic at your age. Tell us the secret?

It’s a lifestyle, so don’t mind me. Well, actually, I enjoy working. You know, it’s very odd that somebody enjoys working.

People like to take a break from work. But I enjoy doing business, you know, creating value, creating opportunities to employ young people.

I can say that I exercise on a regular basis. I eat well, and I try to be nice to my fellow Nigerians.

You’ve travelled far and wide. Where would you say is your favourite destination?

Of all the places that I’ve been to, I like South Africa. It looks really nice out there. You know, there are a lot of things. You hear so many negative things about some parts of South Africa, but in general the standard of living there is quite high. I like South Africa. I like the UK.

Where do you like in the UK?

I went to school there. It’s really natural.

You also have a good dress sense. Tell us about that

I used to power-dress, but not anymore.

Why not anymore?

Age. Age.

What influenced your dress sense back then?

That’s a very difficult question. It was the times, you know. Certain things you do at certain times. So, if I was dressed in a certain way years ago, that was the vogue at that time.

So now we dress down. And we allow the young ones to power-dress.

What lessons have you learnt about life?

That a lot of things you see, in business, a lot of things that you see in life, are really an illusion. Everything that you see. We’ve got to do this. We’ve got to fight for this. No, it’s an illusion.

Calm down. You know, the solution will come to you. Calm down. Don’t lose your focus. But in everything that you do, try to be truthful. Try to be honest.

Try to be nice to people.

What advice do you have for young Nigerians who look up to you, who want to be like Captain Iheanacho?

They’ve got to work hard. No, they have to work very hard, actually. They have to be properly focused. They have to be driven. And they have to believe in themselves. There’s no room for slouching around. You know, feeling miserable, feeling bad. No. Tomorrow is a better day.

In this present Nigeria, or let’s just say this age, get-rich-quick is the in-thing. What is your advice to these young ones?

Well, don’t do those things. If you follow through the story, because you told me the story about how they’re getting rich quick, but you see, one day they will put a handcuff around their wrists and they will lead them to jail, and they get 10 years for it. Sometimes they get more.

So if you don’t want that, take your time. Don’t try to get rich quick. Your own time will come.

Tell us more about yourself…

I’ve told you a bit about myself. The only thing I can tell you is about where we’re sitting down here. I used to work for a company in the 1970s called the Nigerian National Shipping Lines.

And that company had a guest house that was here, right in this building. So, in 1990, I think it was around that time, I was in the UK. I was working in the Nigerian National Shipping Lines, but I was in the UK. And I very much fancied the idea of becoming the managing director of the Nigerian National Shipping Lines (NNSL). But it didn’t happen.

Because, in those days, the government always brought military people to be head of the Nigerian National Shipping Lines. So there was Major Gwadabe. There was Admiral Laguna.

It didn’t matter that these people really didn’t know much about the industry. But the government always brought them.

So I remember coming to this house one day, you know, just after 1990. I came down to the house that was here, and I was looking at it. It looked really nice. And I was thinking, how nice it would be if I could become managing director of NNSL and then have the opportunity of living in this house.

Anyway, I left. I didn’t have that opportunity to become managing director of NNSL.

Then one day, a few years later, a friend of mine who did business with NNSL told me that he owned this building, and he leased it to NNSL. Did I want to buy it? And I said, the same building that I wanted to reside in as managing director of NNSL? So I put the money together and I bought it.

So the building came back to me. Not too long ago, people who were retirees from NNSL came down here to hold meetings. They came down here and they were sitting here.

And one of them asked, isn’t that our building? I said, yes, but it’s not this one anymore. So that felt good. So you see, dreams come true.

A dream comes true, yeah. And, incidentally, I was born around this area. I grew up around this area.

I went to school, if you know, Apapa Methodist School, just down here. Just by the way, what’s the name of that place now? They have a place where children play, Amusement Park. Amusement Park, that’s the school there. That’s where I went to school. So I know how this area was for a long time. For instance, if you passed, when you were coming, somebody was in Marine Beach. You passed Marine Beach and then you passed that police station and then you could see all those bridges rising. That area was a jungle at that time.

And what we used to do in that area was to go fighting. If I had a grouse with you, we would go to that jungle there and fight. I would fight. So, anyway, that’s it. This is my home.

What do you have to say about why NNSL failed?

It’s a long story.  It’s a long story why NNSL failed. You could write a book that’s fat if I tell you the story. NNSL failed and they don’t have a shipping line anymore. So NNSL failed.

And after NNSL, there was one ship. Which was one ship. It could never stand because the liner vessels are not made to operate with one ship. You would have a fleet of four ships or eight ships. So, if you are going to the UK, for instance, you would go down here, then another one is coming. You move forward, then that one goes there. And the reason why you do that is you don’t want the tram vessel to come in and pick up cargoes that are there. So you are carrying that cargo. For that reason, you charge very high rates.

But the thing is, the service is always there. Whether there is cargo there or not, you must stop there. So you keep on doing that all the time.

But NNSL didn’t make that distinction between how a liner ship trades and how a tram vessel trades. NNSL didn’t pay attention to what happened when technology changed. And when technology changed, ships used to be like a triangle.

That’s how, if you cut the cross-section, it would be like a triangle. So you drew things inside the ships. But after some time, they changed the shape of the ship and widened it out, and it became like a box so that you could fit a specific number of boxes.

So the carrying capacity of the ship changed. So you could have the same size vessel with another vessel, which I did a project on when I was in Liverpool, a ship the same size as Nigerian National Shipping Line vessels was carrying 737 TEUs, boxes.

But the Nigerian National Shipping Line vessels were carrying 242. The carrying capacity was different. So NNSL could never make more money.

You asked me a question, why did NNSL fail? That’s one reason why it failed. The other reason why it failed was that they created a situation where the priority in management was given to the department that employs seamen and buys food and buys spare parts, such that everybody wanted to work there.

You are an AGM technical. You are in charge of employing seamen, buying food, buying spare parts. But you didn’t have a department that actually looked for cargo. Business development.

You didn’t have a department that looked for cargo. And if you then bring, as your agents, your competitors in the trade, they are your agents and so they are booking cargo for you. And that was where I worked.

I worked in that office for three years. And when I worked there, I did all the studies on my own and I saw exactly why NNSL would never try. Because NNSL would carry so many boxes but did not know how much the customer actually paid for that service.

So was that what gave birth to Genesis? No. Genesis was just my idea in the beginning. Oh, okay. Yeah, in the beginning.

Did that failure affect Nigerdock’s loss of fortune? No. Nigerdock is a completely different type of fish. You know, there’s Nigerdock and there’s a floating dock.

You know about the floating dock? Brand new floating dock. Paid $50 million for it and they never used it for one day. They never used it for one day.

Do you know why? Because when they were buying it, they didn’t think of where it was going to be put. If you understand how a floating dock works, it is different: a floating dock works if you pump water into it, it goes down. If you pump out the water, it goes up.

So you have to have a depth, an area, and then you dig a depth of water and it’s sitting there. And then you have to install cranes on the quayside for lifting things and putting in and taking out. But if you have more money than you have good sense, you buy the floating dock.

Recently, I looked at the picture of the floating dock. I nearly cried. It’s just here, right here.

It’s an absolute wreck. Somebody was offering them 10 per cent of the money that they paid for, brand new $50 million assets. So these are some of the things.

And Genesis, by the way, we started because I had a lot to say about how ships were run. And I started Genesis because I borrowed money from NIMASA. It was NME at the time. It was $2 million I borrowed.

And I bought one ship, and I had seven other ships. But then I sold them when my focus changed from shipping to the oil that I was carrying; because I was carrying oil for people. And I said, okay, I will stop doing the ships.

I regret it, though. I really wish that I had continued to own ships. That’s where my skill lies.

Which one is more profitable?

Shipping is difficult if you don’t know the business. But it’s very profitable if you know. It just goes easy.

On the socio-political front, your group, IHP, is advocating inclusiveness in the governorship of Imo State. Being that everybody is from the same tribe, same area, speaking the same language, why do you believe there should be rotation in the governance and politics of Imo State?

The transition to civil democracy happened in 1999. We have had several people who have governed Imo State. We have three zones in Imo State. We have Orlu, Owerri and Okigwe zones. Orlu Zone, for some reasons, has indeed had the lion’s share of opportunities which exist for governing Imo State. You asked me a question just now that we are, if you like, a homogeneous people; why do we then have these divisions? 

These are divisions to facilitate the administration of those areas and, really, when you break down from the state level, you will see that these people are closer. Owerri people are Owerri people. Orlu people have their own characteristics and traits. Okigwe people are like that too. We believe that the opportunity to govern the state is something that really should go round. Nationwide, it’s only a few states, about three states, that have not had contingency arrangements to ensure that there is inclusiveness in terms of the personality who governs the state.

The Imo Harmony Project is a very peaceful project. If you look at that name, it’s a very unique name. We are people who are looking for Imo harmony. We are not people who are looking for development or progress for any single zone in particular. We want to be able to resolve any issues that we have in an harmonious manner. That’s why we convened the Imo Harmony Project. It’s a project that has its membership made of people from every political party; we do not discriminate against anyone. You could be APC (All Progressives Congress), you could be PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) or any of these new political parties, as long as you do not come in there on a political party basis and start clapping for one person to go forward. All we want is that, given the time that has elapsed since the transition from military to civil democracy, other people also should have that opportunity to showcase what they can do, if they become the governor of the state.

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