DON EBUBEOGU
I’ve always admired Peter Obi, even long before he entered politics.
Our paths crossed several times, but I got particularly close to him at a dinner hosted by Engr. Uche Ubajaka, for him, in 2003. There, Peter shared his bold intention with a select audience to run for Governor of Anambra State.
Years earlier, during a visit to a bustling Menax market in Onitsha, where we had a sales office, Peter arrived in a modest Peugeot 505 Evolution. He stepped out and warmly exchanged pleasantries with his distributors registered under his Grepet International. I couldn’t help but reconcile the simplicity of the man who alighted from that car with his generous reputation: even as early as 1997, he was providing vehicles to his staff and distributors as performance bonus.
By then, Peter Obi’s influence was woven into countless Nigerian homes through his food distribution. If you weren’t enjoying Ovaltine, chances are you had Heinz products in your salad—like their Salad Cream, Baked Beans, or Sweet Corn. And if those didn’t catch you, the bread or cake you savoured likely included ingredients such as Saf Instant Yeast, Rayner’s Essence flavours, or Centage Crown baking powder.
At the time one of our new Sales Managers opted to join his company in 1998, Peter Obi had about 157 SKUs in the market, available in the length and breadth of Nigeria.
Peter sat on the boards of about three major banks and held substantial investments in blue-chip companies. He even launched Next Cash & Carry, a venture set to rival Shoprite with massive pavilions in Port Harcourt and Abuja. He embodied the entrepreneurial spirit every business owner aspires to.
Yet, he set aside all that promising expansion and growth to step into the unpredictable arena of politics.
Today, he is the most scrutinised politician in Nigeria. His words are subjected to a forensic audit and scrutiny, and his business empire has not grown beyond where he left it.
Peter Obi’s Next Cash & Carry (part of his Next International group) was indeed envisioned as a significant retail powerhouse in Nigeria before he dove into politics in the mid-2000s. He started it in the 1980s as a commodity trading outfit. He evolved it into a supermarket chain with ambitions to rival global players like Shoprite, focusing on affordable goods, local sourcing, and expansion across West Africa. However, by choosing politics over expanding his business interests, Next Cash & Carry hasn’t scaled as aggressively as planned.
Fidelity Bank had a chance of acquiring Diamond Bank if Peter Obi had been the bank’s Chairman at the time. That opportunity went to Access Bank, which took over Diamond Bank’s enviable retail presence in the South East. 1 out of every 3 savings account holders in the South East has an Access Bank account, courtesy of Diamond Bank.
Today, even his Fidelity Bank is witnessing a passive political interest, with underground massive acquisition of shares to dilute his shareholding in a bank he built from scratch.
SAB Miller (AB InBev) in both Anambra and Ogun State would have been Peter Obi’s private business if he had not chosen the state as the core investor instead of his company, which introduced their brands in Nigeria years before he convinced them to set up manufacturing plants in the country. Politics played a role in his decision to relinquish ownership. Today, AB InBev, through International Breweries, is the 2nd-largest Brewery in Nigeria, after Heineken.
When I look at the likes of Aliko Dangote, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu, and other fast-rising entrepreneurs reshaping Nigeria’s business landscape, I feel nostalgic, knowing that Peter Obi would have been playing actively in that league if he had not gone into politics.