A prophet has honour, except among his own kinsmen, says the scripture. But in the case of Chief Agbon­jagwe Leemon Ikpea, the reverse has turned out to be the case. In the sleepy Ewatto community in Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State, Ikpea is revered almost to a point of being idolized. This is for good reasons. Until recently when he took it upon himself to sink boreholes, the people of Ewatto had never experienced the joy of drink­ing clean water.

Besides giving Ewatto its first borehole, Ikpea, a distin­guished and astute businessman, enterprising engineering services consultant, seasoned administrator, and philanthro­pist par excellence, has also sponsored infrastructural devel­opments in Edo State and within the operational areas of his company. Through the Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Founda­tion (ALIF), which he founded in 2012, he has put smiles on the faces of many less-privileged persons, especially orphans via scholarships and skill acquisition programmes. No fewer than 100 indigent students have benefited from scholarships awarded by his foundation. He has also empowered widows through business start-off grants as well as undertaken the construction of electrification projects in Okpokunoe com­munity in Delta State, town hall in Amukpe in Delta State, community guesthouses in Okari and Ogoloma communities in Okrika, Rivers State among others.

Born on December 19, 1956, Lee, as he’s fondly called, says his dream to impact lives could have been impossible without the Local Content Act signed into law four years ago. According to him, before the law came into effect, the av­erage Nigerian businessmen in the oil and gas sector were mere hewers of wood and drawers of water in the nation’s oil industry. According to Ikpea, indigenous companies in the oil and gas sector were struggling as sub-contractors to multi­national companies in the sector. A fellow of the National In­stitute of Corporate Administration (FNICA), the soft-spoken Edo-born businessman also sheds light on the challenges of running his own company in the last 24 years and his deci­sion to be involved in philanthropy in this interview.

Excerpts:

You have been managing a business in the oil and gas sector in the last 24 years, can you give us an insight into how you started and how the journey has been?

Before I established my company, I had always been into construction. I worked with some foreign compa­nies. I never begged. I am an honest, truthful and hard­working man. The first organisation I worked for was a British company (Weshoe Nigeria Ltd with head office in Darlington, United Kingdom). When they were leaving the country, they handed me over to Snamprojetti Nigeria Ltd., an Italian company. When that one was leaving Nigeria, it also handed me over to ABB Soimi Nig. Ltd., another Ital­ian company. So, with the experience I gained working for those companies, I established Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited with head office in Lagos. Today, I am the CEO of Lee International Services ; Lee En­gineering & Construction Co. Ltd. (UK); Lee International Limited (Isle of Man) and Trebet Travels Agency Ltd. I was inspired by those companies. I am an administrator, not an engineer.

How have you been able to cope with the competition from multinational compa­nies operating in the oil and gas sector?

Experience is very important. With the experience I gained from my previous employers, I established Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited. By then, most Nigerian companies like NNPC, Shell, already knew us. My former company worked with them, so they know me in person. So, when I established my company, I went to them to say, “This is my company.” For the fact that they know me as a humble gentleman, they started to test us with some jobs. That was how we started to build up our reputation.

In the 24 years of Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited, there must have been some ups and downs. Can you re­call one or two major challenges and how you overcame them?

In the process of our growth, we encountered a lot of storms, especially when we were doing one major job for one of the multinational compa­nies. We lost about $3 million on that project and we had to borrow money to meet up, be­cause we didn’t want to abandon any project. So, I took the risk and borrowed money from one of the commercial banks to fulfill our ob­ligations and complete the project.

As a result of that, we had serious challeng­es. But I had already signed a contract and I didn’t want to default. So, no matter what, I told myself that we must finish the project. We already knew that our books were in the negative, but we were resolved not to aban­don the project. I borrowed about $1 million which is the equivalent of almost N400 mil­lion with interest and you can imagine the burden. It was very rough, but by the grace of God, we overcame. Our client also saw that we did our best. Luckily, we were able to complete the job.

Our client tried us with another project, a bigger one. That was how we paid off the bank loan. From there, other companies saw how serious we were. That promoted our profile. We were able to breakthrough and forge ahead. Then, the company was about 15 years old.

You incorporated Lee Engineer­ing and Construction Company Limited in your thirties. What was your driving force, especial­ly as many young men at that age will still be comfortable working for others?

Let me tell you, if you go through my background, I started from point zero. In fact, only God knows how I was able to complete my education. If you had that kind of background, you have to be ready. You don’t have to be 50 years old before you succeed.

Yes, I started very early. There is no menial job I have not done. I once hawked kerosene. I did all sorts of me­nial jobs to put food on my table. I lost my parents at a very young age; so, I didn’t need to wait for anybody to tell me the time has come.

I resigned from my last employment in 1991 and established my company. You can see that I have the drive. I had a vision. Then, I met storms on the way, and I was able to surmount them.

Then, the local content matter came up. Local content discussion started in my of­fice in Warri with the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche. You can ask him. We were holding meetings in my office and I was spending the little money I had. He too was spending his money. We did all that because we really wanted this local content to be in place.

From there, he took it to the House. When he was deputy speaker, he championed it be­fore the present government came in.

So, 30 years is not 30 days. If you go to some countries, a 30-year-old man is already a bil­lionaire. He already has a lot of companies. It depends on what you want.

Talking about the Local Content Act, how would you say it has helped indigenous companies?

The gap was very wide. First and foremost, I must on my own and on behalf of Nigerian companies working in the oil and gas sector that I know of, thank Mr. President. I want to thank him in the sense that he is the only president that has thought about indigenous companies. There were other presidents-military and civilians- before him. He is the only one who said the time had come for these peo­ple to stand up. For his courage alone, I will continue to pray for him.

In those days, we were sub-contractors to foreign companies in the oil and gas sector. They got the jobs in billions, but they paid us peanuts. We were the ones who did the job while they collected the money. They paid us some few naira and took the bulk of the money away. They didn’t even invest it here.

We suffered a lot. Then we could not even pay salaries. We managed and struggled and for the fact that we had the drive, we knew that God would answer our prayers. Really, God answered our prayers by bringing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to steer the affairs of this country and luckily, he looked at the Local Content Act and signed it into law.

Before he signed it into law, we had be­tween 100 and 120 workers. Today, I have more than 1000 workers. I am working in about eight locations. No fewer than 99.5 per cent of the workers are Nigerians and the pro­jects we are doing are even more complicated than the ones those foreign companies were doing. And the cost is not as high as it was when those foreign companies were doing it.

So, you see the wisdom of the President? He is saving money by using Nigerian com­panies, and at the same time creating employ­ment for our people.

In those days, they brought Philippinos, Russians, brought this and that and even stewards to do the work our people should do. So, we have recorded over 90 per cent growth within this period. It is a very big leap. The Nigerian government has supported Ni­gerian companies enormously. We should continue to support this administration, sup­port the president himself and pray for him.

Today, if we were not given this opportunity, I won’t be able to have my own foundation. My foundation is catering for almost 400 peo­ple. Majority are orphans. They are under my scholarship scheme. If I am just an ordinary sub-contractor that cannot pay salaries, how would I be able to take care of the less privileged? I won’t be able to. This govern­ment has done so well and I will continue to pray for the president and the country.

Does that mean you support the President’s re-election bid?

The president must be re-elected. All of us have to rally round, support and vote for him in 2015, so that he can come back to complete the job, because there are still a lot to be done. Many people don’t know the president is doing so much.

He is doing so much for those of us in the oil and gas sector and for the country. Look at some of the roads. So many investors are coming in everyday. So, we all are pray­ing for Mr. President. We will support him to come back and complete this job and hand over to the right person after his second tenure.

A lot of people are saying that the Local Content Act should still be expanded, because if you go to countries like Saudi Arabia, almost 90 per cent of the jobs are local content-driven. There is the agitation that it should not stop in the oil and gas sector, that the manufacturing sector should also be local content-driven?

You are very right. Look at the economy to­day, 80 per cent of the economy is driven by oil and gas. Let us fully consolidate on the oil and gas sector. I am sure by the time the gov­ernment comes back, it will be able to com­plete the other sectors. But the major sector, which brings almost 80 per cent income into the economy is the oil and gas sector. I am sure that if we concentrate on it, that will con­tinue to boost our economy, while they look at the other sectors when the president returns for another term.

I know that the Minister of Petroleum, Dezi­ani Alison-Madueke and one of her directors, Ernest Nwakpa are very competent in implementing the Local Content Act. Saudi Arabia started from somewhere. We are just four years into it. I am sure in the next 10 years, we will get to where those people are. Rome was not built in a day. I am sure we are going to get there, by the special grace of God.

You are into philanthropy, so much so that you gave water to Ewatto community. What is your political persuasion? Are you likely to run for public office very soon?

First of all, I am not a politician, and I don’t think that will change but I will definitely sup­port the party in power. The party in charge right now is the PDP (People’s Democratic Party). So, I am going to support them. Don’t forget that the PDP is the president’s platform. So, I am going to support the PDP when the time comes, even though I am not a politician.

Now to your first question. I come from the centre of the universe. Ewatto is the centre of the universe in Edo State. My people didn’t have potable water. When it rains, they used to collect rain water, which they store and drink. That water contains impurities and all that and so many people have died as a result of drinking such water.

I did some analysis on what it will cost me to give my people safe water. Not only that, in my house in the village (Ewatto), I have water. I am a man with conscience. I am a man that has fear of God and love for people. So, if I am drinking clean water in my house and my people are drinking rainwater, my conscience will prick me. If I have money to provide good water for them, why not? After all, am I God that made the money available? So, when God gave me the opportunity to provide water for my people, I did it. Today, they are happy. I did not do it for politics. They did not even know me. It’s only recently that they knew I’m the man that gave them water and the governor came to commission it.

I have only made sure that my people drink clean water so that they will stop dying from water-borne diseases. So, I am not a politician and I will never be. I am not doing it for peo­ple to notice me. I started from point zero and I will not see people on point zero and leave them there. If there is a way I can move them for­ward, I will move all of them forward. That is my mission in life.

What does life mean to you? Is it all work?

No. I make out time to relax. I believe strongly in life-work balance. I have hobbies. I love reading, playing golf and engaging in humani­tarian activities. I am a member of Ikeja Golf Club, Lagos, IBB Golf Club, Abuja, Royal Oaks Country Golf Club, Houston, USA, Associa­tion of Esan Professionals, Nigeria; Presi­dent, Edo United Club, Warri and patron of Assurance Social Club of Nigeria.

– Courtesy: THE SUN