‘Unpleasant Situation’ Made Me Start Hotel Business-E-Phoenix Hotel CEO
It is usually fun being with Chief Adebisi Ojo as he will keep you busy giving narratives of life experiences and spicing it with relevant jokes and funny punch lines.
Chief Ojo, an octogenarian, who, at different times, served as Osun State Chairman of the defunct NRC and Chairman of Osun State Civil Service Commission, is a successful businessman.
An indigene of Okuku, Odo –Otin local government, Osun State, he has for years now remained a force to be reckoned with in the Kwara State hospitality industry.
In this interview with Team@orientactualmags.com, Chief Ojo disclosed that an unpleasant situation made him get into hotel business. He also talked about his involvement in Osun State politics and other issues.
Read On:
With the removal of petrol subsidy and its concomitant economic hardships, how has the business environment been especially the hospitality industry?
Well, let me put it this way, the global economy is very rough right now and Nigeria Is part of the globe, since the removal of petrol subsidy ,everything has been so difficult for everybody especially in the hospitality sector because we need to provide electricity for 24 hours but right now the electricity supply is good but the tariff is not friendly and as good as the electricity supply is, we still don’t get it 24 hours,we still have to buy diesel and the cost of diesel is not friendly, so, at the end of the day you will discover that your profits are so eroded that if care is not taken, you will find it difficult to break even, it is not even the energy aspect only , a drum of Total engine oil is now N840,000 it used to be N164,000 naira before, sachets of soap, everything you can mention is damn so expensive and the problem in the hospitality sector is that there are many hospitality outfits, like here in Ilorin we have so many hotels, so, hardly can we increase our tariff and I can tell you that 99.9% of the people that come to the hotel ask for discount nobody will just come and look at your tariff and pay, no, it doesn’t happen these days, so, we have to part with our profits and make do with the little left for us ,but one thing I know is that after every darkness there must be light ,if you can sum up courage I know after this hardship we are going to enjoy this economy later, yes, Iam sure with what the president is doing now, yes ,it is like a structural adjustment, to adjust your structure you have to demolish and rebuild and during the period of demolishing and rebuilding you have to stay outside in the sun and in the rain that is what we are in now , we are in the sun and in the rain now, so, when our building is ready you will enjoy it but it’s very harsh now, it’s very bad ,to be frank , the economy is tight, it is harsh ,we are not seriously breaking even in the hospitality industry now and the taxes are there too, we pay a lot of taxes here and there ,signage, gaseous emission, so many taxes, personal income ,VAT and so on and so forth, they are so many ,we have to fumigate and I think I have to make a representation to the government in respect of this , you ask me to fumigate my hotel ,after fumigation I will have to go and buy certificate, ehn, let me rather go and buy certificate and not fumigate but if I don’t fumigate and a customer sees a cockroach or an ant or a rat he or she won’t come again, so, I have to fumigate and the government is now telling me a particular fumigator should do it ,and after that I have to buy certificate and that is the area I think the government should look into, it is unfair, it is cheating on our own part, it is not good why should I buy certificate? The moment I fumigate my area and an appointed fumigator issues a license, I don’t need to pay for certificate or license again, it is unfair, it is cheating, it is not good.
You have complained about taxes but the government gave moratorium to business outfits during the Covid 19 lockdowns, are you saying the hospitality sector did not enjoy such a benefit?
They did not consider us at all if they did in other states I don’t know but in Kwara State there was no intervention to assist us, no government has given us assistance either to give us loan that we will repay at a single digit or whatever.
Many will say that all these have already been made available by the Federal Government through the Bank of Industry and other financial institutions?
Where is it? If anybody knows anything about that let us know, nothing like that ,if there is anything make it open and then whoever needs it will go there but nothing like that for the hospitality sector maybe for other sectors I cannot say but for the hospitality industry nothing for us .
You are the owner of E-Phoenix Hotel, one of the popular hotels in Ilorin, you have two in the GRA area of Ilorin?
It is even 3 and not 2, I remember about 8 years ago you interviewed me and you asked a question that in the next 5years where do we see E-Phoenix Hotel? And I remember that I told you that by then it would have become a 5-star organization, yes, where we are today was not here then, so, this is the E- Phoenix Annex 2, Flower Garden, GRA, Ilorin, it stands out ,the location is okay, the building is perfect, the standard of our rooms and facilities everything is very very okay, it is a world standard, so, I am proud of that, when it comes to hospitality in Kwara State, we stand out
I congratulate you, and I will like you to tell us the locations of the three outlets?
We have E-Phoenix that is the main one which is at 45 Aderemi Adeleye Street, opposite Federal High Court ,very close to Shoprite and the federal secretariat , we have Annex 1 which is along Umoru Taoheed Road, opposite University of Ilorin senior staff quarters ,then here at Annex 2 , No 23 Reservation Road, Flower Garden.
Do we look forward to seeing Annex 3?
Well, I feel reluctant about that because when I look at my age for the fact that I still can do what I am doing, I thank God, but you see my joy is that I have grown up children who are well- educated and one of them studied hospitality management, so, I believe we are not yet at our peak, we are working towards a bigger something to come up in the nearest future.
You will turn 82 next month and you are still active, can you possibly share the secret with us?
The secret is Grace of God nothing but Grace of God, I may also say that I do things in moderation but it takes the Grace of God for human beings to do anything in moderation, Yoruba says ‘kosibitikodun lara eran amojukuro leyan mani’ , to do things in moderation it takes Grace of God and I think I have that grace and I do things in moderation, I eat in moderation, I finance in moderation, I relax in moderation, I work in moderation.
Do you have a gym?
Yes, I have a gym, I have a commercial gym and I have a gym in my room and I do a lot of exercise I walk.
But before gyms became common in the country, what were you doing to keep fit?
I worked ,I worked very hard ,I was always working, thinking, racking my brain, using my physical body, going up and down, for example now, we have an elevator here but I don’t use it ,is a three- story building, I go up and down the stairs like 7 times in a day, I don’t use the elevator I have made myself get used to climbing the stairs ,you know, nobody can ever say I am up to my age, I look younger than my age, the way I walk, the way I do things, nobody will ever believe Iam old ,in fact these days, I don’t want to tell people that I am 82 because they say he is an old man, but for me I am not an old man oo I am a young man, yes, what is it that you can do that I cannot do? (He asked the reporter) There’s nothing, if we are walking now you will be running a little bit faster to catch up ,I work, I work, I know I am a workaholic, Yoruba people will say ‘ise kipayan aise re gan ni ijogbon’ ,so, they can’t say ‘ha! the man is hardworking and he died’ no , laziness can kill ,hard work doesn’t kill I am hardworking, I work very hard I task my brain I task my physical body all the time and to the glory of God I am getting results .
You are a businessman, a socialite, a politician and a religious man, how have you gotten all these done together?
Yes, it is easy now ,let us talk about religion, it is a thing of the heart, Iam not an extremist, I read my Bible, I go to church I give to the needy, nobody comes to me and go back in tears ,you come to meet me, you won’t go back in tears, if you come and you ask, I will give you, people who have come to ask me will testify to that, that’s how I serve my God, talking about the social aspect ,I have old friends and I try to grease my friendship and I don’t wait for my friends to call me, I call my friends very often ,we chat we talk, sometime I say ‘oh, awe come let us see’ ,we will sit down, we will prepare good food, we will eat ,we will drink ,talk and laugh and the last one, politics, yes, I have mellowed down on politics, here in Kwara Iam not a politician, but in Osun I do politics but when I look at the proximity of Osun and Kwara, it is not an easy thing for me, so, I have mellowed down on politics but even despite that anytime I show my face and say ‘I am here oo’ that’s where my people will go.
I know that nobody can beat me politically in my domain, nobody , I mean nobody ,no matter how strong you are in my domain you can’t beat me politically because I don’t wait until the election day before I do my little charitable activities, I don’t bribe anybody ,but I give before campaign before election, at the end of every year over 300 pieces of clothes are distributed to the poor ,the elderly, the widows, the orphans and on Easter day, anyone who attends the Galilee will receive food parcels ,I feed everybody there and it is not because I have too much but I feel happy doing it ,so, when it comes to politics I just say ‘yes, this is where Ojo is going oo’ and everybody goes there.
You are from Okuku in Osun Central, but you have never launched senate bid, why?
There was a time my people called me to join the senate race but I did not accept the request, I believe in facing my business and to the glory of God my business is flourishing I know many people who had their business outfits before going into politics or who went into politics and then set up businesses ,most of them are no were to be found today, but for me I do say ‘aje iweyin loba elede je’ ,I play politics a little I use more time for my businesses, so, I cannot go and sit at the senate or house of representatives chamber and say Iam making laws while my business is suffering, because here in this country ,any business you know that you cannot stay around to monitor, don’t dabble into it because ‘kosi eeyan mo’.
What do you think is responsible for the loss of moral values and why is it difficult to find men of integrity?
You see, number one is this, if government will listen o, politics is too lucrative, you see a poor man go to the senate ,house of reps , house of assembly and he becomes a millionaire , the remuneration is too much ,make it sitting allowance, the remuneration is too big, so, how do you want people to show interest in working? Okay, look at this, 87% of my staff are ladies, the boys don’t want to work again either they prefer to do yahoo or go into politics or whatever, you don’t find boys working or looking for jobs now especially all this our menial jobs but some people have made careers in our own establishment anyway ,but finding boys working in the hotel now is very difficult,87% if not more than that of my staff are girls, no boys want to work, they want quick money .
What do you think can be done to ensure we have people who are men of integrity?
Don’t make politics too lucrative because politics in this part of the world is too lucrative ,so, people want to go into politics by all means ,make it an allowance-based something, you come for sittings, you take your sitting allowance but with all these millions, it is not helping us , it is not helping the nation, it is not helping anybody and you see in business now nobody want to set up industries, people want to go into importation because they believe it is fast ,you will get fast money but importation will not help our nation, I am thinking of diversifying but I will not go into importation I will rather go into production of anything , but how many people want to do that? People want quick money, but after all what is money? ,I was born and raised in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah will always say ‘money is something but it is not everything’ ,yes, money is good, it is good to be comfortable but being stupendously rich is not the best, when you have too much money, there will be a lot of waste, it will not useful to you .
People will steal and you know so many of them cannot utilize it very well, they cannot do anything well with it ,so, government should not make politics too attractive ,if politics is not too lucrative, let people use their brain ,let people go into production let people produce something and not politics, let politics be a hobby ,yes, how I wish everybody can see politics as a hobby ,have your business, go to the house of assembly, sit down take the allowance come back to attend to your business and so on, it will go a long way in addressing it but if it is full time ,with all these fat salaries, fat allowances, that is why many people are killing themselves in the name of politics and money , it is unfortunate anyway, but government should stop the idea of politics being lucrative, let it be based on sitting allowances, you come, you take your allowance, you don’t come, no allowance and you go back to your business, go and produce something ,even if it is farming instead of pumping money into politics, pump it into business people , I mean people like us who are ready to take a single digit loan to establish industries, give me 3, 4 10 billion naira today I will set up an industry in my village ,I will employ almost half people of my village everybody will have somewhere to work but where do I get such money? So, the government should look into that oo.
What really do you think government should to encourage those in the private sector, the SMEs and people in the hospitality industry?
It is simple, people who are willing to do business when we come to you, give us a single digit loan and monitor it and ensure it is used for production and everything will be available but if everybody goes into politics who produces what to eat? Who produces what to wear, drink and other things?
Encourage those of us who are ready to go into production, give us a single digit loan and see what happens monitor it, yes , this place we are now, I borrowed I got my loan from the development bank of Nigeria then my Wema Bank came to my aid too everything I have been able to own, I borrowed and I don’t have any bad loan with any of my banks that’s why Iam always serious paying back my loan, so, people like us should be encouraged, give us loans and you may say ‘have you applied?’ Yes , I have applied several times, giving excuses they say ‘go and bring this’ go and bring that’ excuses here and there ,but it can be given to a politician who will not produce anything and so on ,give money to people who will not divert it to importation , give loans to people who can produce and see whether things will not be available in the market for everybody to enjoy.
You once served as Chairman of Osun State Civil Service Commission but you have not been active in Osun State politics, when do we hope to see your face?
I can’t give a specific time, when the time comes you will see me, just don’t worry when it is time, you will see me.
What were the factors that motivated you to start hotel business?
Hmh, I chose hospitality sector because of necessity, actually, necessity got me into hospitality industry, that is a very long story anyway but making it short, let me put it this way, necessity made me start hotel business, then, I had I lost everything I had and there was no job, but I had an uncompleted 4bedroom flat which I was planning to move into but having lost everything in business, I made use of the 4bedroom flat and it became a guest house , it was then called ‘Spring Motel’ , I started with a 4bedroom flat and here I am today, where we are now, we have 64 rooms and the other one has 54 rooms ,the third one has 29 rooms ,I started with 4 rooms ,here I am today as far as Kwara State is concerned, this is not about being boastful or whatever at least we are in the single digit if we are to count hotels in Kwara I don’t think you will count 1 ,2 before you will mention E Phoenix, I thank God for that and I am proud of that.
You had lost everything and a 4 bedroom flat became a guest house, who gave you such an idea?
.
It was my brainchild, I just said ‘okay, let me do this’, and I did it.
Many other people would have gone into depression?
Of course, but you see, Iam a tenacious person, I never give up, I don’t give up if you give up you can’t win ‘quitters never win ,winners never quit’ ,whatever situation you find yourself on earth don’t give up that is my watchword I didn’t give up, I have had a lot of setbacks but I never gave up even in marriage I had a setback but I never gave up ,I thank God that there’s no vagabond among my children I have a doctor, I have a lawyer ,I have an educationist, I have an economist ,I have grand children who are graduates ,even with first class honors . I don’t give up. Whatever I set my mind on I never give up, I have 8 children all of them are graduates my own direct children are 8, they are all graduates.
When you converted the 4 bedroom flat to a motel, did you employ people and how did you manage to pay their salary?
I did not employ anybody apart from the person who was washing the bed sheets ,I was the receptionist, I was the manager, I was the even the cook ,it was later that I got someone who was preparing food for the guests and gradually when almost all the rooms were filled up daily I started to employ people not that I even employed people like that ,I brought in my own children who were in school then when they come back from school they take over from me ,then gradually we were able to do things, and expansion began, there was an uncompleted building near us , we bought it and we built another 8 rooms there making 12 rooms all together, here we are today in the hospitality industry , I give thanks to God but I started with 4 rooms.
Why did you change the name from Spring Motel to E-Phoenix?
It was not that I changed it deliberately, it was the situation I faced that warranted it ,when we started growing big and I brought a particular property that belonged to the sugar company in Bacita, that particular property had moved from people like 4 to 5 hands before the sugar company became the owner , when the sugar company became dysfunctional ,I bought it and I now said this property has gone through 4 to 5 hands it will not go out of my own hand I will maintain it forever that is when I now thought of Phoenix, you know Phoenix is the proverbial bird who lived for 100 years ,died came back and said ‘I am not dying again, I will live forever’ ,so, I said ‘this my hotel will not leave my hand again, I will maintain it build it and run it forever, so, that was what gave birth to e-phoenix.
When I wanted to register it at the government agency that oversees registration they said ‘phoenix is already registered, add something to it’, so, I added something close to the meaning of phoenix which is ‘forever’, so, I said ever phoenix that ‘e’ is ‘ever’, meaning that phoenix that will leave forever-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
