In 2007, I made the decision to pursue my dream of building a highway restaurant for travelers. It was a dream I had long held in a part of my heart from when I opened my first restaurant at the age of 19 while in the University. The highway town of Ore has been a natural stop-over town for over 100 years. It is a very progressive town with almost full employment, something that many might find curious.
Think about this for a minute. Everyone going from West to East must take that road—well, for the most part except of course if you just feel like seeing other parts of the country in a leisurely travel. Aside the Lagos-Shagamu segment which is probably one of the top ten busiest 50km stretches in the world, the Shagamu—Benin stretch certainly ranks among the top two for second place in Nigeria.
Upon my return to the country, I went about trying to do a study to see about the viability of the project of building a restaurant first in Ore, next at 9th mile, next at Akwanga, and then, Lokoja in an attempt to build a ring across the nation. That was the dream.
A feasibility report was produced by a highly reputable company that essentially told me I was on the right track. The plan was to take the restaurant public after 3 years in an IPO that would make me a billionaire.
We broke ground on May Ist, 2009. Construction was complete by November 1st. We opened for business on November 2nd, 2009.
It was a huge day of triumph.
My life’s dream had been accomplished. Blessed be the name of the Lord. If this were a movie script, the rest of the story would go—-blazie, blazie bla—and he went on to become a billionaire! Front page news. American returnee hits it big in Nigeria!!!
However, for me, it would be a baptism of fire, learning what, and who the average Nigerian employee is, who his or her father is—(for the most part, the devil), how our government officials are the biggest disincentive to business, and how the lack of a functioning energy sector is a vicious destroyer of dreams for businesses in our beloved country.
I am not bitter, dear reader, but I can tell you this—-if Nigeria were not our country, it would be hard to imagine how a people could be the way we are, and expect to have good people come out of the rot we have created to be great leaders. Orange trees do not yield Apples.
We opened for business on November 2nd, 2009 and the place began to bubble. I was a happy man. I lived amongst the people. When my son came to visit me, I recall him saying—“Dad, why would you leave America to come and live in this tiny village?” I said to him, “Son, men build their countries. I am here to do my part in building my country.”
In the first week of opening, I had bank managers gushing over me to earn my business account. They flooded me with gifts. They offered me loan facilities which I turned down, one after the other. I was flush with cash.
In May of 2010, we went to work to do the work for the day. It was a day like any other day. The sun began to shine when it was supposed to begin to shine.
Cars began to stream in as expected. Transport buses had adopted the place as their stopover place. We had a great bakery that churned out great bread, and meat pies. Our food was top of the line. We had 121 employees. We were open for 24 hours. My employees looked happy. They had a reason to be. I paid higher than the minimum wage. Add to that, the fact that we built 44 toilets for customers, and you will begin to see why no one could feel more accomplished and blessed than me.
When you build any major project, whether it be a car, a house, a rocket, a city, or an airplane, until the project is tested, you cannot declare—Mission accomplished. Our first major test came at Easter, in April of 2010.
Thousands of passengers came through my property. The place did not shake. The toilets withstood the onslaught. It sparkled every minute of everyday, and we smiled to the bank. It was magical.
On this fateful day in May 2010, I was sitting on the top of the hill overlooking the parking lot, almost two-thirds the size of a football field. Vehicles were streaming in.
At about 12 noon, I saw a black SUV drive into the property. There were two men seated in the back.
The policeman who accompanied the vehicle jumped down with his gun over his shoulders and opened the door for his boss.
The two gentlemen walked briskly to the restaurant to enjoy our facilities. I had six employees whose job it was to help customers park their cars, assist customers in disembarking from the buses, and to keep the grounds clean all day long.
One of them was a quite irritable young man. His name was Bello. He was a stutterer, and he had been involved in a few fights already with other staff. His patience was thin. He was fearless.
We had a big sign outside that read: “Please go inside to piss. We have 44 clean toilets.” The policeman started to piss right there, in front of the sign post. I saw Bello walking towards him. Instinctively, I began to walk down the hill in a bid to stop my employee from trying to stop the policeman from pissing right there in the parking lot. What unfolded for the next 60 seconds is a story, a nightmare that is hard for anyone to forget. My heart races every time I try to tell the story.
To be continued next weekend on our Weekend Story segment.
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Michael Ovienmhada.
Good evening my bros. Cherish your dreams. I thank God for the manifestation of the vision. Also, I appreciate your unwavering desires and resolve to make Nigeria great. More
Stay tuned for more this weekend. Nerve wracking!
What an incredible story! I can’t wait to read the remaining part.
Big bros, the story just dey start.
Like you said, a rotten tree can’t produce good fruits. Where do we expect good leaders in Nigeria or Africa in general to emanate from?
Poor people eat one another and ‘they’ keep Africa poor with the help of Africans themselves that are motivated by greed.
Only God can bring Africa out of the quagmire they are in.
Where do we begin the fixing from?