Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, founder of Elizade Nigeria Limited and Chairman, Toyota Nigeria Limited has revealed his best kept secrets…

Chief Michael Ade-Ojo

“My life started as a street hawker in Ondo State. I sold all sorts of things including charcoal, matches, pap and firewood to make ends meet. I continued with life until my mother was convinced that I needed to go to school. So, she decided to finance my education. My father had three children and he did his best to sponsor the education of only one child from each wife.”

“But unfortunately, I was the youngest child of my mother. I was very obedient to her and my mother was a good disciplinarian. She would not take nonsense from me. While my immediate senior brother would go to farm, the only one who was sponsored to go to school would go to school and the other two children from the other women.”

“And I was going to fetch water from the brook every day for mother to cook. I was handling all the chores including sweeping in the home. While my mother decided to finance my education, I was still doing the house chores. All the time, she was grinding corn to make pap and she taught me to be responsible. So, I was quite obedient. She never spared the rod whenever I made mistakes.”

“In the morning before going to school, I would have to fetch water, sweep the house and sell pap for my mother. And when I came back in the evening, I would do my homework. I also sold kerosene and matchsticks, cleared weed to slip poverty. In those days, people were not able to buy one box of matches at a time.”

“We would tie them in pieces, between five and 10, and then hawk them around. That was my own business. One thing I could not forget was the fact that my parent’s poverty subjected me to abuse by my uncles. My uncles deprived me some childhood communion that other children enjoyed. When they were enjoying tales and fables, I was always sent on errands. I had no option but to go.”

“That was one form of intimidation that I experienced in life. If their children were not busy, they would still call me to work for them. My parents were poor and my uncles took advantage of that. It was as if I came from heaven with poverty. We were living in a house roofed with mat while others were living in houses roofed with zinc. Those experiences propelled me to determine that I must change my family dynamics. So, I was doing very well in school.”

“In my final year in 1953, I took the entrance examination but I did not pass. I was worried. One of my aunties noticed that something was wrong. So, I told her that I lost two admissions. I almost lost hope of gaining admission to secondary school. While I was ruminating on the issue, I slept off and I had a dream that I was admitted into a secondary school. I woke up to discover it was a dream and I felt bad.”

“I took another entrance examination and I was waiting for the result. One day, at about 5.30am, we left for the farm. On our way back home, I met one of my classmates in primary school, Cecilia Akanjo, who called my name, “Ademiyan”, and asked if I had seen my name on the list of those who passed the entrance examination. I immediately rushed to the primary school and met the headmaster who confirmed that I had passed and I was happy.”

“I lived with my mother, so I was not too familiar with my father. Fatherly role? I lost my dad when I was in secondary. He died in 1956. Nobody told me about his death because I was the youngest. It was during a holiday break that I learnt that my father had died. And my brother’s wife who did not know I was not aware of my father’s death jokingly said, “Oga has come after killing his father”.

“My father had died and buried before I was told. I was in class three and it was believed that I could not have played any role in his funeral. Sincerely, I loved my father.”

“My ambition was to be a doctor; unfortunately, I never knew I needed physics to be doctor. I was good in other subjects but mathematics was not part of my life. When I gained admission into secondary school, money was the problem. In 1953, my brother, who was then in Police College, Lagos, bought my clothes while my mother paid the school fees for the first term.”

“After a while, I had to finance my education. So, during the holidays, I would join some of the labourers in the community. I also worked in the farm as well as a bricklayer. But there was a recruitment process in the school by the Nigerian Army, and I told my mum that I wanted to go for the interview but she told me I would die if I tried it. But I was determined and I went for the interview but I was not taken.”

“I proceeded to the School of Agriculture Akure in 1959 to 1960. I finished the course and I was posted to Ibadan and I was there between 1960 and 1961 when I got admission into the University of Nsukka to read Business Administration and, at the end, I came out with Second Class Upper.”

– Culled from VANGUARD