I was Not Born with Silver Spoon -Olotu

He stand tall like an iroko tree in the construction industry, Dr. S.O.Olotu is a tested and proven hand in Civil Engineering, his avalanche of awards are evidence of his expertise in construction work. He is known for quality and timely service delivery, as an Evangelist, he is the pillar of the Crminal rehabilitation programme of the God's Grace Ministry which has seen over a thousand criminals and prostitutse rehabilitated, he is a philantropist. in this chat with the Urhobo Times Correspondent, Tega Joshua in Warri, he discussed the Niger Delta problem, the increase in criminality, and several national issues.

Excerpts:

May we meet you please?

I am Dr. Evang. S.O. Olotu (JP), I am from Evreni town in Ughelli-North Local Government Area of Delta State, I attended my elementary school and Standard School there before moving to western Nigeria in 1956. I lost my father very early, and my uncle who I hoped to take up my schooling responsibility did not lived up to expectations, that was why I went into private studies but I have business instinct from the beginning. I started a bakery business in the late 60s in the western region, area called Aiyetoro. I came back home due to the cholera outbreak in 1971, on return I started a bakery at Ughelli which I named after my eldest son, Ejiro. We were the producer of Ejiro bread, then in 1975 the business urge continue to grow further and I went into contracting business. On June 15th 1975 I was registered with the Mid-West government ministry of works as a contractor, I have been a contractor since then, from minor to major. In 1983 I became a registered contractor with Shell Petroleum Development Company, then you were to register as a minor contractor, after assessment of your performances by expatriates engineers, you will be registered as a major contractor. I did a lot of contracts with them and was given award and recommendation by them. By the grace of God we are who we are today, nothing can happen aside his grace.

Could you tell us about your growing up experiences?

I was not born with silver spoon, I told you that I lost my father very early in life, we were still kids then, so it was never easy in a society where nobody wants to take up responsibility, like I said, then I was very brilliant and I use to come first in my class, a time came they thought I was using charms but believe me right from childhood I love God because I know he loves me too. It was not easy, my mother tried all she could, the initial education I had before taking up my training by myself was the efforts of my mother, though one of my uncle supported a little till standard six before he left out. My mother showered loved upon us, for our sake she did all sort of peasant farming, in fact I love her, that is why I built a house for her in my compound at Evwreni.

What can you say about your experiences since you became a rich man?

Life is not an easy game, you can make it with God, without God it is very difficult, you see when you are struggling nobody will recognize you, but when you have achieve greatness, my brothers you will be enemy to many for just no cause, but due to jealousy, do you know in December last year some people planned to assassinate me, but I respect them and that is the big work our father in the Lord, St. Dikeji Miyerijesu, founder of God's Grace Ministry is doing, through his prayers many arm robbers have repented, the press must recognize this great work by the man of God, in the Niger Delta Region, there is no Pastor, Prophet or Bishop who has attain this feat, he challenge assassins, ritualists, arm robbers and prostitute with the word of God and they come out to surrender and repent of their atrocities. From last year to this February, they keep coming to surrender their guns for destruction, over a thousand criminals so far, after baptizing them, he give to each, a brand new motorcycle for commercial engagement, to make them responsible and fend for themselves, some confessed that police hire guns for them to rob. Before the day that they planned to eliminate me, some of the boys got converted and when their leader saw it, he came to the church to repent too and they confess that they had been sent to assassinate me; this was just a week to the time. What I was trying to explain is that life is not easy, I have handed over the perpetrator to God, they just want to destroy people, life without God is crisis, I am advocating that no matter what you are, if you want to live a peaceful life, hold God firm because he is the author of life, Jesus promised that they shall surely rise up against you but they shall not prevail, life is full of challenges, even in Christendom, you could face persecution, it is not always a bed of roses but hold God firm, he shall not forsake you.

How does the business environment in Warri today, owe that the crisis had a telling effect on businesses, how about the construction industry?

There has been a little improvement, but not much from the oil sector, they are still being skeptical, the wound has not totally been healed because many of the companies that left Warri has not returned, the oil companies in the western zone are not functioning up to fifty percent.

Can you say that the State Government is making full use of the indigenous contractors in terms of road construction?

Well they are not making use of the indigenous contractors as ought to be, for example people like us, people saw what we have done and we won several awards, we expect that sometimes the governor could say, call so and so person who have done well to come and handle this project, they know what they are doing, I for one who have embarked on several youth empowerment programmes, everybody can testify to these good works, is the government not hearing, people that God have been using, philanthropist, giving scholarship to students, embarking on community based projects here and there, NDDC award winning contractor for the year 2007 and 2008, you media guys know that I won these awards genuinely, the selection process was done on the internet, I never knew about it until I was told that I had won such award, the state governments are not encouraging indigenous contractors, they are not, this is an are they need immediate improvement on. There are emergency contractors; I am not referring to that, a person that is grounded in the field like me should be encouraged. It is not just because someone is an indigenous contractor, not someone who will take government money and disappear or regard it as a share of the national cake, I am making this case for indigenous contractors that can deliver, they should be encouraged.

Don't you think that you are being ignored because you are not a politician?

Eh well, you may not be far from the truth, everybody can not become politician, I am a child of God, I am an evangelist, I know that we are all children of God. You see one thing that makes my Bishop not to fit into their favorite list is because he is not the type of Bishop they want, let me tell you this truth, he is not the one who will start clapping his hands when the going is not good, he stand by the truth and he tells you what you are without fear or favour, he tells you what is good and what is bad. So that is the thing my dear, I can not be a politician because I stand by the truth, they do not know the truth and if you go there with the truth, you will have yourself to blame, so why not hold your peace, they will not reach you and wherever they put you, that you stand for the truth, you will have yourself to blame.

Sir, as a Christian, how have you been handling bidding, because we hear that many times a contractor is being required to give kickbacks before being awarded a contract?

No, I do not kick back or front, I stand firm on my quotation, I can give someone gift of my own volition but not bribes and kick back, God is not against giving but it becomes bad when it is done to influence judgment and to blind ones eyes towards good reasoning, giving to outdo other bidders, giving bribe to sign papers for a contract that was never executed is very bad, you do not know tomorrow, many people are there today, they have great riches but they can not sleep peacefully because of atrocities, it applies to the contract, I do not regard any contract as a do or die, I have the faith that what belongs to me, my God will give it to me, the people I have dealt with so far understand my principles, it is not everybody that loves taking, taking of money, there are some few decent ones who cherished the good name, because when you claim to have done contracts which no one knows where they are, someone could come and say I can see that you claim you did 100 roads but we can not see 5, tomorrow the secret may be revealed, later in life when you may have been appointed into a bigger political appointment behold EFCC will come knocking, before you know it a big man is being thrown into jail, that is rubbish.

How would you advise the Niger Delta Ministry to tackle the issue of development in the region looking at the NDDC experience?

The ministry should borrow some ideas from the NDDC because it has been on ground and they have handled so many projects, I advised that they should work on the Niger Delta master plan jointly, the master plan has been in place, after completion of the master plan, they can move on to other areas. One major problem in the Country is lack of continuity, there could be something that could be very good to all, or a good idea that is been hatched, they know that the idea is good like the NDDC master plan but the execution has not been done, then somebody else will come knowing that the idea is okay, they will go and start doing new things, awarding contracts left and right for different consultants, squandering money, they should cultivate the idea of continuity when the idea is good.

Sir, you have won so many awards, what has been their impact on your service delivery?

Definitely, the awards has spur us further with regards to improvement, when I received the Niger Delta Area Award, my response was that it will further drive us toward improvement, we can never rest on our oars, you can see from our recent projects that we have improved tremendously, we put smiles on the face of our clients and the generality of the public with our enhanced service delivery. There are a lot of testimonies coming from people, when we deliver the Obi-Ayagha road in Ughelli-South area of Delta State , the people were flabbergasted because it was a difficult terrain but we use our expertise charged up with the awards and we did a fantastic road there. We never relaxed that we have gotten awards, but we worked harder, it is our wish to improve everyday and we are ready, we keep our standard up, at times I have to go to the field even though I have experienced Engineers because two good heads are better than one. We gathered that the reason why most contractors do shoddy jobs is because they share the contract sum with the official and as a result less fund is available for the execution of the project, how true is it? Well on that issue, I can only speak for myself, if you want to give me a job and you want to eat all the money, I will say, keep your contract, but the saying goes that you can't lead a bull to the farm and ties its mouth provided the bull does not eat the whole crops, on that area, I will never take a job if the client want to take all the money. If I can't do the job with the available funds or what is provided, I will leave it, I am not saying no to what you said, it could happen in some area but I guide myself against that and I think it has worked for me, by the time you are not too desperate and the client wants to eat the whole money, you will tell him to go and do the job, I hold my peace, I have not had such experience and I do not want to have it.

Recently, you diversified your business by opening a water treatment and packaging factory, and also a petrol service station, what spurred your business interest?

It is very necessary, first it creates more job opportunity for the unemployed, like the petrol station, if I tell you how many millions of Naira I spent purchasing diesel in a month you will be surprised, I felt in order to reduce operating cost, it is better I owned a petrol station to help my construction out fit and also the public. Secondly, water is an essential commodity for everybody, so it is not because of the profit it yields, its profit is very minimal, and the good thing is that it creates job opportunity.

What is the total number of persons working for you in all the business groups? You mean in my entire establishment?

For permanent workers, we have up to 400 while temporary workers are numerous; we have them in the construction, dredging, petrol station and the water factory. We have sites in three communities presently.

How can you describe your relationship with the communities where you are working?

The relationship is cordial, though there are many necessary devils among the youths, we call them necessary devils because you cannot do without them, even though they are devils among the lot, we know how to relate with them, we are always friendly to them, if you are hostile with them, they become hostile to you, they could be hostile to you but have to be calm in handling them. You must show love to them that is why they call me Ose (Father), sometimes when they get angry and want to behave violently and I gets there I won't be provoked but I will calm them down, I maintain a good working relationship with the host communities, I have gotten awards and recommendations from them.

What is your take on the Niger Delta problem?

My view is that first we should take the problem to God in prayer, God love the region, we should preach the gospel of peace and repentance just as I mentioned earlier, what is happening in the area, there are forces that needs to be conquered, those forces motivate those who are terrorist, you call them whatever name you like. The Niger Delta problem can be solved with prayers and sincerity, sincerity from all the parties, right from the federal government, if they makes a promise there should be the sincerity that they really wants to develop the region, by the time the militants and everybody sees what the government is doing in the region and if anybody want to disturb the peace of the region, everyone will prevent that person but for now what I can say is that the federal government should be very sincere about their promises of developing the region.

What advice do you have for the indigenous contractors?

Every contractor should very sincere in their work, if you are given a contract to do, ensure that you complete it, do not do shoddy jobs, and for the Christian, if you are bearing the name of Christ, then you should not bring the name into disrepute. Thank you.

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