My first car was a Datsun 180k. At the time I bought it from Mr. Harrison Ojubuyi at Ijeh in 1986, it was already fit for the junkyard. Except that I did not see it for what it was. I was in such a hurry to join the league of respected car owning students that I could not see that what I bought with my (then) life savings of N2500 was the relic of what used to be a car.  Hard as I tried to turn this misfortune of a car into an asset, it only left deep holes in my then very shallow pocket.

For all my investment in this car, I never had the joy of a car owner. Two years after, I made a once in a lifetime trip to the scrap metals market at Owode-Onirin where I managed to recover a sum good enough to buy and tailor two guinea brocade caftans.  I had been silly like a youth who bought Akara with his first earnings.

The misfortune of my first car was my first lesson in business. It was a lesson on how not to make decisions. I leant to never join the crowd of wannabe’s. I learnt too to flee at the sight of ‘hot sales’ or assets being sold in a rush. I learnt that when an offer seems too good to be true, it is often too good to be true. By far the greatest lesson was never to invest without well informed personal conviction.

I would fall mugu again in 2002. Someone I called a friend (who is now a commissioner in my second home state), knowing my interest in Real Estate introduced me to a land transaction that appeared to be a fantastic deal. Out of trust, I entrusted due diligence to this lawyer friend who was doubling as my friend and transaction consultant. I contacted another lawyer to do same so I could have the benefit of a second opinion. A few hours later, my friend the lawyer returned with a note affirming that the property was good to go. He advised that I should pay the seller so that the land is not taken up by someone else as it was a deal that was too good to be let go. Though I was reluctant to proceed with payment until I got confirmation from the second lawyer, i yielded to pressure from my friend and issued Cheques for the transaction on the promise that they would be held by him until I receive the confirmatory report from the second person. Barely twenty four hours after this gentleman agreement, the other lawyer called with a report advising that I should not proceed with the transaction because the land was encumbered. On the basis of this negative report, I put a telephone call across to my lawyer friend to instruct that the transaction should be discontinued. To my shock, he responded calmly that he’d paid the ‘Chief’ and had even received credit for his own commission.  That I didn’t have a heart attack from the disclosure of my friend is testimony to the strength of my heart.

Given my security exposure and access to executive authority, I pulled all strings but could only recover the sum of one million I paid to my friend as commission and another sum of one Million which he’d collected from ‘Chief’ being his share of the extra two million Naira added to the cost of the land.   It turned out that Chief was in a hurry to dispose this landed asset because he got wind that the State was about to acquire the area as part of a new government house development.  His offer was for ten million Naira but my friend requested that they add two million Naira as the ‘buyer has money’.

Twelve  Million Naira was a lot to blow away in 2002, especially for a young man in his mid thirties.  It was painful. There was more pain from the betrayal of someone I thought was my friend and advisor. I suppose it’s been difficult to trust since then, but given my above average risk appetite, I still lost six or seven times more money in a more ambitious business transaction ten years later.

I have learnt very useful life lessons from my errors. The mistakes I made serve today as part of my experience curve. They serve as scars to remind me of when, why and how to leap. The mistakes have not stopped me from taking new risks. Rather they have guided how I take risks, who I take risks with, who I trust and when not to trust. My friend who conned me is addressed as ‘Honorable’ by many today. I can’t blame those who think he is honorable. They don’t know about the dishonor of his past. They may not know he was once a thief. They may not care. His character may have changed. He could still be a thief. Who knows.

May 17, 2020