Olorogun Michael Ibru (1930-2016)

Nigeria lost one of its greatest businessmen earlier this month following the death in Florida, USA of Olorogun Michael Christopher Onajirhevbe Ibru (OFR) after a protracted illness.  Ibru, who died on September 6, was the patriarch of the Ibru family, owners of a business group that is undoubtedly one of the largest conglomerates in Nigeria. […]

Nigeria lost one of its greatest businessmen earlier this month following the death in Florida, USA of Olorogun Michael Christopher Onajirhevbe Ibru (OFR) after a protracted illness.  Ibru, who died on September 6, was the patriarch of the Ibru family, owners of a business group that is undoubtedly one of the largest conglomerates in Nigeria.
Olorogun Ibru was born on December 25, 1930 in his hometown, Agbarha-Otor, in present-day Delta State. A leader of the Urhobo people, he attended Igbobi College from 1948 to 1951 and upon his graduation with distinction in 1951, he joined the United Africa Company (UAC) as a management trainee. His stint as a manager in training at UAC paved his way into the business world.   He left the company in 1956 and registered his own company, LaIbru, which grew to become one of the biggest indigenous conglomerates in West Africa. LaIbru was a partnership with the expatriate Jimmy Large, a friend he met at UAC.
Ibru then established Associated Construction & Engineering, later to be known as Ace Jomona, the company that successfully built Queen’s College, Yaba; St. Gregory’s College, Obalende; Police College, Ikeja and Navy Barracks along Mobil Road, Apapa, Lagos. However, the long-winding process of contract acquisition coupled with delayed payment for executed projects forced him to re-think his business strategy. Ibru saw a huge business opportunity in the frozen fish market and founded a company for fish importation. He built cold storage facilities across Nigeria. The mainstay of the business was to import fish to Lagos from across the world in standard cold rooms and by 1965 he founded the Osadjere Fishing Company in partnership with a Japanese conglomerate.
Ibru’s ability to explore opportunities through local entrepreneurship led to the successive expansion of his flourishing business interests which also included transportation and construction and was also profitably involved in palm oil production, tourism, brewery, timber and poultry. He also ventured into oil and gas, media, real estate, building construction, banking, aviation and also established a transportation company called Rutam. In 1983, Michael Ibru became a candidate for governor of the old Bendel State which is today Edo and Delta states, and was later a member of the Liberal Convention and the New Movement, which became the National Republican Convention (NRC) in the failed two-party system experiment by military President Ibrahim Babangida between 1990 and 1993.
Ibru, who led a modest, exemplary life of humility, despite his vast resources, was in 1981 a recipient of the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). Despite his humble beginnings, Ibru attained great heights by far. Not only did his life mirror aspirational possibilities, his entrepreneurial spirit was positively inspirational. Michael Ibru gave generously to education, donating vehicles, classrooms and in fact a whole college – Ibru College – to his people and later established the Michael and Cecilia Ibru University which is the first educational project of the Michael and Cecilia Foundation.
He was irrevocably committed to ensuring the ascendancy of the rich Urhobo cultural heritage and used to say in his native Urhobo language “akpo rutcha na, akpo re pene” meaning “the future is the world of the pen” therefore, anyone who is not educated will be lost. Michael Ibru won many awards, including the Nnamdi Azikiwe Leadership Prize and the Kwame Nkrumah Excellence in Enterprise Award.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in his tribute, described late Michael Ibru as the patriarch of the Ibru family and said the deceased was an accomplished businessman whose edifying role in the corporate world and private sector in Nigeria would continue to inspire generations to come. Nigeria has indeed lost a very disciplined, honest and patriotic statesman. May his gentle soul rest in peace.