Lessons from Iheagwazi: Passionate pan-African industrialist
By Ayo Baje
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader – Henry Ford (Gentleman’s Journal)
Put simply, he is a rare gem; a well-heeled, multiple award-winning, Nigerian-born industrialist, a God-fearing philanthropist who strongly believes in matching vision with passion. That is, to walk the talk on employment and wealth generation through diverse, yet fertile fields such as agriculture, petroleum and the solid minerals industries.
Good enough, our noble subject, Dr. Emmanuel Iheagwazi, a graduate of Mass Communication from Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto as at this day, runs his wave-making company, Climax Lubricant Industries Limited, as a subsidiary of NECIT Nigeria Limited. Interestingly, it has made forays into African countries such as the Republic of Niger, Mali, Chad, Sierra Leone, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And outside the shores of the continent he has investments in the United Arab Emirate, UAE as well as Japan.
With the firm focus of the Vision: “To be the preferred national, continental and global player in the petroleum, petrochemical and allied product Industries”, Climax Industries Ltd is into the production and marketing of lubricants, greases, petrochemicals as well as car care products.
On its part, Climax Agriculture is an indigenous value chain initiative with the competence in the production of vast and varied products from raw materials such as cocoa, hibiscus flower, dried ginger, cashew nuts, sesame seed, soy beans, shea butter, tumeric and black seed. To achieve its noble mission the company has set up farm settlement centres for their production on over 7,500 hectres of arable land spread across three geo-political zones including the South-West, South- East and South-South.
Worthy of note is that over the past three years it has successfully exported over 7,000 Metric Tonnes, MT of agro- products to reputable manufacturing companies in Europe and Asia. That is in addition to putting in place a network of passionate farmers ‘Cooperative and Farmers Groups’. But that is not all there is to the life-changing company.
In fact, it has stepped into the long- neglected mining sector and carved a niche for itself with an exploration license spanning diverse solid minerals such as iron ore, gold, tantalite, coal, lead, zinc, fluoride and of course, the much sought after lithium. One cannot but ask himself the million-naira question: “All these brilliant ideas coming out of one man’s visionary mindset?” The answer is a resounding “yes”!
You, my dear reader can therefore, imagine the thrill, excitement and profound eye-opening first encounter yours truly had with this great son of Africa, which took place recently at the Mowe branch office of the company, off the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. As events unfolded his responses to the questions proved the fact that he is indeed, a man who certainly knows his onions.
On the life’s unfailing philosophies that have seen him standing tall above his peers, Dr. Iheagwazi reminds us of the autobiography of the late publisher of Ebony Magazine, John Harold Johnson, aptly titled:’ Succeeding Against the Odds’. Indeed, he has had his fair share of odds to contend with. Though he was one who excelled in his academic pursuit, achieving the feat of always coming first amongst his classmates, at a point he had to keep sitting for and writing the NECO examination which he had missed while either in China or India, for one business trip or another. But even before then he had an unforgettable challenge in his upcoming years as a marketer of lubricants and other products of oil. But what could that be?
While his mates spent six years to get trained in the demanding marketing business, the young Emmanuel spent eight odd years. To push him harder his father told him point blank to go out there and prove himself: ” Do not wait for anyone to offer you a job on a platter of gold, go out there and do something for yourself”. Though that was one bitter pill hard to swallow, he mustered the will to do so. As Bruce Lee, the late Chinese movie superstar, who promoted karate to the global stage did say, “to succeed in life you have to learn to turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones”. That means that you must lift up yourself against all doubts, don’ts and undue delays.
On the stumbling blocks and high hurdles placed ahead of virtually every Nigerian entrepreneur, right there in the race to make it in life having access to the start-up capital is one. For instance, there was a point in time when Iheagwazi lost huge sums of fund due to the scarcity of foreign exchange. So now he believes, and strongly so, that Nigerian political leaders should come up with incentives such as zero-interest loans, as it plays out in more advanced countries.
Of great significance however, is the imperative of entrepreneurs to be driven by the powerful principles of Trust and Integrity. That precisely is what has kept his pragmatic partnership with the Bank of Industry BoI, going forward over the years. In fact, this is much-needed in driving the vision he has, to turn Nigeria, nay the African continent into the Food Basket of the entire world.
Said he: “Africa is immensely blessed with vast agricultural potentials. Recall that during the tenure of the then President Goodluck Jonathan, there was in place policies to support the running and growth of agriculture at the small scale level. Subsequently, Buhari made the practice easier.” SoIheagwazi’s great and timely innovation is for state governments to provide him with hectres of land. His company will pay for it and boost production with modern agricultural practices driven by technology. That would be in addition to providing fertilizers and pesticides. Through such project up to 100,000 youths could be trained and actively employed. They will pay for the training programs but within five years their efforts will definitely bear fruits.
On the lasting lessons to learn from the illustrious life trajectory of Iheagwazi he would gladly admonish the younger generation of Nigerians to key into his 2-R principles of Religion and Riches. But what does he imply by that? “With regards to religion, every one of us has to have absolute Faith in God, our all-powerful Creator. Having belief in Him will guide us all through our lives because there is divine destiny”. As a philanthropist who has fed many citizens and built churches for different denominations, he should know.
He would also tell the younger generation of Nigerians that: “To become rich you must work hard. There are no two ways about it”. Indeed, to him every second and every minute counts. He has no time for frivolities. And that reminds us of how both Aristotle Onasis, the then great Greek entrepreneur, as well as our own Chief Samuel Adedoyin, who was a game-changer in Nigeria’s processing industry valued their time.
This philosophy of course, is one of the key principles he has imbibed in his dutiful workers. So, as Sam Walton once stated: “Individuals do not win, teams do”. All said, it is no surprise that Iheagwazi is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including The Sun newspapers Award in 2021, Africa’s Industrialist of the Year Award for 2021/2022, the Standard Excellence Award for the Best Premium Lubricant Products to mark the World Standard Day in 2022 and of course, the Nelson Mandela Leadership Award for Excellence and Integrity. They are well-deserved.
If for nothing else, his great vision to get African leaders to provide selfless leadership and their countries to feed themselves should be food-for-thought for the current and future generations.
