I’m better than my peers who’re professors – Folorunsho Ojo, furniture maker

Mr. Folorunsho Ojo

Mr. Folorunsho Ojo, 76, a furniture maker, shares his life experiences in this interview with ADEOLA BALOGUN

By now, you are expected to have slowed down but you still resume work normally.

Well, I have always loved working very hard. I believe that since I still feel very strong and healthy, the best thing for me is to come to work and do what I have been used to doing for years. I can’t just wake up and stay at home beyond 9 or 10 am; what would I be doing? I cannot afford to stay at home for a whole day without going to work. I have made up my mind to work until I can no longer walk. That is why I prefer to meet anyone who wants to see me in my office because when I return home, I want to rest and sleep. I do what I can and supervise my workers and since God has not retired me, I don’t want to retire myself.

How was growing up?

I was born in July 1938 at 19 Odunfa Street, Ebute Meta, Lagos and in 1944, my parents sent me back to our village in Kogi State for my primary school education. When I finished Primary Six, my parents wanted me to go to the only available good school in Keffi but I said I didn’t want to further my education. I told them I would love to learn a trade that could make me use my hands to create things. That was when I went for cabinet making and I was trained by Costain West Africa. I was at Costain until I rose to become a supervisor and by 1969, I resigned after working there for 15 years. But before I left, I had saved some money. I had built a house, built a workshop beside it and employed one of my subordinates to start work there. I was paying him the exact salary Costain paid him; the man has worked with me for over 40 years and he is still with me till date.  I joined him after I resigned and I thank God that I made it. I can confidently tell you that I have made a name as far as furniture work is concerned in this city and beyond.

How was furniture making business then?

It was poor, but in my case, apart from the fact that Italians trained me, I was very hardworking. When I finished training and I was properly employed, I was getting £10 as salary at a time until it became £30. At a very tender age, I had cultivated the habit of saving any amount of money I made. Then I was banking with UBA, Ijora branch. In 1972, I used the documents of the house I built at Somolu, (that is where my mother is today), to borrow money from Cooperative Bank to travel to London to buy tools. The tools are still available in my workshop till date. That was how I started and I employed about 30 workers.

Would you have gone further in education if you had someone to sponsor you?

I didn’t need sponsors. My parents were ready to send me to school but I was the one that said I wanted to use my hands. I was even persuaded to train as an electrician but I said I wanted to be able to build things on my own.  My father died 24 years ago and before he died, I was already rich. Even when I came back to Lagos in 1961, my father insisted that I should go to school or else he would disown me but I refused. He retired from Nigeria Railways while my mother was a petty trader.  There was nothing my father did not do to persuade me to go to school but I told him that I wanted to use my hands. And when I later became a successful furniture maker, he apologised for what he did and I told him I was glad I stood my ground.

So there is no regret that you didn’t go further educationally?

Regret? I am even better than my peers who went to school and became professors.  This is the picture of one of them, Professor Olumehin. We left Standard 7 together. He rose to become a professor and died at the age of 74. None of my peers or mates was more blessed or more successful than me. Many of them have been retired while others have died. Even after some of them were retired and came back to the village, they didn’t even have a good house to live in. I really thank God for guiding my steps and leading me to my destiny.

When you were in school, did you have problems comprehending what was taught and quit in frustration?

I had good results throughout. I would have even shown you my results now but I don’t know exactly where I kept them. I purposely opted to train as an artisan because I didn’t fancy any white collar job.  I had the opportunity of going to trade centres but at that time, if you go to a trade centre, the only place you could work was at the PWD where you would not have a free hand. But the Italians taught me how to set blocks and  paint. I am not only a cabinet maker and upholsterer, I am a machine operator. As at last year, I had trained about 52 apprentices. Not that I am not intelligent; in fact, if you are not intelligent, you cannot do this job because it requires a lot of calculations. If you are not intelligent, you can’t calculate.

It is amazing that you could express yourself fluently in English Language, how did you learn the language?

When I finished my apprenticeship, I took a step to develop myself. I got enrolled at the National High School but when I joined the company; my Italian bosses didn’t allow me to do that successfully. I wanted to read up to school certificate level but I didn’t have the time. Then, we could close as late as 10pm. In those days, they weren’t hanging clocks in workshops so you would not even know the time. The Italians did everything to engage me because of my skills; I even built flying boats for the company at a time. When I wanted to retire, my Italian boss said no, I could not go. But when I eventually left, I was paid one year salary in appreciation of what I did for the company.  After six months, my immediate boss visited my workshop in Ebute Meta and was very happy to see my machines and the progress I had made in such a short time. He informed me that he was going to Kumasi, Ghana; that he could not work at Costain without me. Before I resigned, I had got enough customers so I wasn’t looking for customers when I opened my workshop. I became a contractor for the likes of UAC, University of Lagos and my last contract was with the NNPC.

When you said you were not going to school again, didn’t some of your mates make jest of you?

That is natural. They couldn’t comprehend why I chose to become a ‘carpenter’ but I knew what I was doing. Even in 1961 when I wanted to come down to Lagos, I didn’t have transport fare. It was my step mother that gave me money and prayed for me. She said she saw determination in me and said she believed I would be a big man in future. She was very prophetic whereas my father would not hear any of that. He threatened to disown me because he couldn’t understand why his first son would choose to disgrace him by shunning school for apprenticeship.

Why did you even choose furniture making?

I was fascinated by the beauty of a showroom; I love to build something and put it up in my showroom for people to see and buy. And through this job, I have met important people in the society such as ministers, even governors and other big men in Nigeria. I knew that if I worked hard, God would bless me and I thank Him for  blessing me. When I was an apprentice, I had an accident and doctors wanted to amputate one of my legs. Because of the money they demanded, my father agreed that my leg should be cut, but his friend,  Mr. Ekemode from Ilesa, shouted and said it was not proper for his first son to have his leg amputated. Then, when my father died and I buried him, Ekemode was there, he thanked me for giving my father a befitting burial despite what happened. And when he too died, I buried him just as a son would bury his father. If not for him, they probably would have cut my leg and I would have ended up perhaps as a miserable shoemaker somewhere.

But when your peers that chose to go to school sat in air-conditioned desks after they finished, how did you feel?

I preferred to sweat and use my hands and I am happy that I am better. I am now 76 and here I am in my own office. If I had gone further and worked, I probably would have been asked to retire at 60. I have many of them in the village selling rice, beans and elubo after retirement. I really thank God and I have no regret at all.

How is furniture work now?

It is a very good job. At times, people may think you are an armed robber when you hit it because it is possible to invest just N50,000 to make N500,000. But you have to be very skilful and honest. Without honesty, there is no way you can make it as a furniture maker because anybody you rob today will not come back tomorrow. I remember when the late General Murtala Mohammed took over government in 1975, I was working for the Sports Council in Yaba, Lagos then as a contractor.  Some of our contractor colleagues colluded with officials to present invoices for works that were not done or delivered to collect huge sums of money. But I refused to join them. I would make sure that my LPO and invoices were genuine for work done because very early in my life, I vowed that I would not add what was not rightly mine to make money. When Murtala came, he jailed some of the contractors who presented invoices for works that were not done. I remember that when President Shehu Shagari’s government was sacked in 1983, I couldn’t get my money for a contract I did at Metallurgical Training Institute, Onitsha. I borrowed money from the Cooperative Bank to execute the contract, using my house as collateral. So, I went to the head office of the bank in Ibadan to explain what happened to me and to know how I would be paying back. The third day, I got a contract from the NNPC that was more than my debt to the bank. My debt was N25,000 and the NNPC contract was more than N70,000. Out of the 50 per cent  upfront, I paid off my entire debt to the bank and the management wrote to ask me not to leave the bank.  Most of my jobs advertised me because I would make sure I use the right materials.

Why is it that furniture pieces made nowadays don’t last any more?

Most of the makers nowadays don’t learn enough; they are in a hurry. There are no apprentices any longer as most of them have now become okada riders. At times too, it depends on the state of the wood used in making the furniture. It is very important to use dry woods to do any furniture piece for it to last. The foams that we use too, there are fake and original foams but I don’t use fake because I want my clients to always remember me.

Did you have to know some of the big men in these companies to be able to win contracts?

Well, I told you that my jobs really advertised me. I remember one Chief Edun, he is retired now. When I was at my showroom at 74 Old Yaba Road, one day, he was just passing by and parked. Then he was living around Somolu as a tenant of a landlord friend. I was introduced to him and he was the one that invited me to UAC and through Edun, I knew other managers of different companies. I furnished the office of Chief Earnest Shonekan on the 12th floor. So anybody who visited his office wanted to know who did the furnishing. I told you I worked with Costain, so I learnt so many things there that still help me till date.

When young men start making money, they spend it on things like women and drinking. How did you manage when you started making money?

You would not be successful if you do that. I didn’t know any woman before I got married. I just hated women. When I built my first house, I only had two shirts and two pairs of trousers. I never bothered my head about women or drinking or going to the cinema. I believed that was not the way to be successful in life. Right from school, I had always hated women and we always quarrelled. Even when I was working, I had the belief that if you didn’t spend, you would not be able to chase women and because of this, I kept to myself. Even after I got married, I realised that the fleeting enjoyment you get when you sleep with a woman is not worth the trouble. If I had been doing that before I got married and continued chasing different women, do you think I would still be like this today? No way. Now I can tell you that I don’t feel any difference in me between now and 30 years ago. I may be getting old in terms of figure, but my body is strong because I didn’t waste my energy unnecessarily. Drinking or carrying women all about is nothing but a waste of energy. You can’t gain anything; you only lose. I know that very well. Sex has never been my hobby.

Were you then forced to get married?

Nobody forced me. I married at the age of 26. My wife is a housewife and she really took care of the children. My marriage is now over 50 years. My grandchild is now in the university. My wife has been out of the country for a while on a visit to one of our children.

What of your children, did you ask them to follow in your footsteps too?

Two of them are in the same line of business with me even though they have their degrees. I trained one of them here and asked him to go and work with another furniture company for a while. Now, he is on his own doing contracts. But all my children are well educated. I have seven children; six of them have graduated and are married. The last one is studying medicine and that is why he has not graduated. I trained all of them from what I made from my furniture work. My children see me as a model and they want to follow in my footsteps. I told them that I didn’t have the opportunity to combine school with craft. I impressed it on them that they should look at ways of using their hands together with their degrees and they took to my advice. Among them, there are big time caterers, plumbers apart from their degrees and they are doing well. They are educated and at the same time, they like to use their hands. None of my children has less than first degree and they are well established. The one in London is a PhD holder.

Would you say you are fulfilled?

By the special grace of God, I am a fulfilled person.