When Orji Uzor Kalu, jet-setting Nigerian businessman and controversial politician is in Abuja, he usually spends most of his time at his sprawling mansion, which is located a few minutes’ drive away from the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, the official residence of Nigeria’s President. It’s easily one of the most glamorous homes in Nigeria, and even comes with its own church.
The house is a Mecca of sorts. Highflying politicians, senior executives at his conglomerate, diplomats, private bankers and hangers-on typically have to wait for hours to get an audience with the man. When I meet him on a crisp afternoon in May, he’s relaxing his frame on a couch in the dining room, chatting with senior executives from one of his companies.
Orji Uzor Kalu is as eccentric, as he is charismatic. When I enter his dining room, he sizes me up quizzically for seconds, and then spontaneously welcomes me heartily to his home in my local dialect before offering a seat directly opposite him. In less than a minute of meeting him, he immediately switches to discuss the state of Nigerian affairs. He had only returned from London a night before and on his arrival, a group of journalists at the international airport in Lagos had asked him to comment on Nigeria’s security situation. He loses all reticence when he talks about Nigerian affairs and Kalu, who has always had a predilection for uttering provocative statements, had declared that Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, could become the country’s last president. He is a newsmaker and sure enough, his statement had made it to the front pages of some of Nigeria’s major newspapers on this day.
“There was a time when news of bombing and terrorism was synonymous to countries like Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Nigeria is now at that point. We are now like those countries. This is what we have become. If care is not taken, Goodluck Jonathan would be the last president we’ve had in this country. Jonathan might become to Nigeria what Mikhail Gorbachev was to the Union Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) when he presided over the disintegration of USSR. If we don’t take time and collaborate with foreign countries to end the war the insurgents are waging against the country, Nigeria, as we know it, might just cease to be,” he says.
Over the last few years, Nigeria has had to contend with its worst security challenge in its recent history. Boko Haram, a dreaded Islamic sect, which plans to institute an Islamic state in Nigeria, among other warped objectives, has embarked on a series of terror attacks on hapless Nigerians. Kalu believes the Nigerian government is not handling the current security crisis properly and has severally urged the government to negotiate with the terrorists.
Last year, he offered to negotiate with the Boko Haram sect on behalf of the Nigerian government. He believes he could have been able to strike a compromise with the terrorists and stop the bloodshed. The Nigerian government barely considered his offer. The government has declared on several occasions that it would never negotiate with terrorists, a decision Kalu believes is ill-advised.
“It’s sad enough that lives are being lost – precious lives that could build our country. And we’re losing them to terrorism. This is what we have become. Apart from the thousands of lives that have been lost, the damage on our economy is irreparable. Businesses are shying away from Nigeria and jobs are being lost,” he says.
He should know. Orji Uzor Kalu, 53, is one of the wealthiest men in Nigeria and runs one of West Africa’s largest companies, Slok Holding – a $2.5 billion (annual revenues) conglomerate that has interests in everything, from shipping, manufacturing and energy distribution, to insurance, property, banking and the media. Slok Holding employs more than 3, 000 people in Nigeria, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, and the Gambia.
He owns 93 per cent of the conglomerate, an asset that puts him in the league of the wealthiest businessmen in Nigeria. Kalu is not involved in the day-to-day management of his companies but still maintains his position as Chairman of the group. He now spends the vast majority of his time as a commercial diplomat in his own private capacity, helping to support business promotion between Nigeria and other countries while persuading foreign businesses to invest in Nigeria. Later this evening, he is hosting a group of international businessmen and Abuja-based foreign diplomats to a dinner at his home to discuss commercial relations, among other issues. And as we chat, we walk around his expansive residence, as he selects wine and discusses with his chefs on food selection for his evening soiree.
“All these foreign companies are eager to do business in this country but when they turn their TV on and they see all the bad news of insurgency, it’s a deal breaker. So, I feel a sense of responsibility, as a successful businessman, to sell my country as an attractive investment destination.”
Kalu was born on April 21, 1960, a few months before Nigeria gained her independence. At the age of 19, after he got suspended from the University of Maiduguri for spearheading a series of student riots, he took a $35 loan from his mother and started trading in palm oil and fish. He would buy his goods cheaply from Nigeria’s Eastern region and sell at double or triple the price in the Northern states. As his trading business prospered, he expanded his business horizons, venturing into the sale of furniture and importing commodities like rice, sugar, flour, cement and aluminum roofing along with fellow billionaires, Mike Adenuga and Aliko Dangote, who are his close friends. By the time he was 22, in 1982; he was already a multi-millionaire and was enjoying a rising national profile, as one of Nigeria’s most successful young businessmen. In Nigeria, more than anywhere else, success begets success and before long, the young, ambitious businessman had ingratiated himself with top-ranking military officials, who were ruling the country at the time. Nigeria was under military rule for the better part of the 80s. Leveraging on his connections within the military, Kalu cornered a series of lucrative state contracts, chief among them being a contract for the supply of arms and ammunition for Nigeria’s defence forces and law enforcement agencies. He cleaned out with deals like this and promptly reinvested his money in commercial and residential real estate across Nigeria and expanding his trading business from Nigeria to other countries in West and Central Africa.
When Ibrahim Babangida came into power in 1985, as president, he began to encourage Nigerian businessmen and indigenous companies to participate actively in the upstream petroleum industry.
“I saw an opportunity in the marine service sector. In those days, it was extremely difficult to spot an indigenous vessel on Nigerian waters. I don’t think there was a Nigerian vessel back in those days – in the mid 80s, and even with all the foreign vessels that were on our waters, there was still a deficit of vessels. At that time, market focus had begun to drive and consummate the upstream oil and gas industry into deeper waters and it was clear that there was an increased need for more operational service vessels,” he says.
In 1987, Kalu, drawing from his own personal funds and loans from the banks, launched Slok Shipping to service the marine sector. “We started off with crew and patrol vessels. They are smaller vessels that take personnel to offshore drilling sites and we grew from there.”
Today, Slok Shipping operates much larger Offshore Support Vessels - Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) and Multi-Purpose Support Vessels (MPSVs). PSVs are deep-sea vessels, designed primarily to transport supplies and equipment to and from offshore oil and gas support production platforms, offshore drilling rigs and other types of offshore vessels and installations. MPSVs, on the other hand, provide a diverse range of supply and maintenance functions in the offshore oil-field services industry. These vessels are not cheap.
According to Kalu, they could cost anywhere from $30 million – $50 million, depending on their size, components and capabilities. Slok Shipping has 21 of these vessels, making the company the largest operator of Offshore Support Vessels in Nigeria, and one of the largest in Africa.
It’s a capital intensive business, but as Kalu says, the rewards are worth it. “Usually, if you can get 75-80 per cent utilisation per annum, which we do, you can recoup your investments in six years.”