The 35th American President, John F. Kennedy in his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, made a philosophical statement, saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
Although, Kennedy’s historical words were targeted to motivate Americans, there are indications that a young Nigerian, barely five years old then took the statement to heart and ran with it.
Today, the positive impact of adherence to such philosophical truth can be seen to have dominance over every aspect of Engr. Leemon Agbonjagwe Ikpea, as he celebrates his 65th birthday.
Born on December 19, 1956 at Ewatto in Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State, into humble family background, Lee as he is called by close associates loss both parents at a tender age.
First, his mother died when he was in class three, precisely 1976 and his father 11years after in 1987.
Earlier, Lee’s parents had sojourn to Warri in Delta state from Ewatto in search of greener pastures, fortune seems not to have smiled on them in the oil city thus exposing the family to the economic challenges of life experience by most African families.
It’s on record that young Lee had to do odd jobs to help in the payment of his school fees.
Hear him, “After primary education, I was admitted to Baptist High School, Orerokpe, about 30 minutes’ drive from Warri by car and up to two hours by foot.
In those days when I was in the secondary school, it was compulsory for every student to show proof that they have paid school fees.
“An announcement was usually made during assembly that every student in the boarding house should take their teller to the dining hall during lunch. When such an announcement is made, I always knew they were referring to me, because I always defaulted, but it was not my fault, because my parents, they tried, were not able to meet up in most cases.
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“So, when they asked for tellers, you know what it means when students are taking their lunch and the dining hall prefect now demands to see everybody’s teller and out of the multitude in the dining hall, you are the only one without a teller and they will walk me out.
“That was my experience and when they walk me out, you can imagine the psychological torture. I will leave the dining hall and trek to Warri. So, imagine trekking from Orerokpe to Warri; it is not a joke.
“My parents always understand why I am out of school when the term just began. I will then proceed to do menial jobs to raise the school fees; I have pushed truck/cart, sold newspapers, yes, I have been a newspaper vendor, selling Observer newspapers, Daily Times, among others. I was also working as a tally clerk, doing inventory of what was discharged from ships at the Warri Port. I pushed truck in Warri and my people witnessed it because it is not something you can hide; I can’t pretend. And, in those days in Warri you can’t see people stealing, because you must struggle genuinely to survive.
“Well, I managed to finish school, but I didn’t have the result, because I wasn’t stable in school.
Sometimes, I spend four weeks outside school to work and save money for my school fees; and those days, children were very honest, because if I earned 5 or 10 pounds, I give everything to my father and he will pray for me and he will save it until we are able to get the total amount we need as school fees and then I will go back to school. So, that was how I managed to finish school.
“In the midst of this trying period, I lost my mother when I was in class three. I lost my mother 43 years ago. My father died 11 years after my mother’s death.”
One cannot but agree that the daunting odyssey of Leemon Ikpea, the Adolor of Ewato, further goes to validate the wisdom that difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Today, he is the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Lee Group of Companies, a conglomerate traversing oil and gas services, engineering construction, travels and tours, super market chain, tool and equipment fabrication and manufacturing.
Ikpea worked for expatriates for many years, before deciding to retire and start something for himself. In his words: “I work hard and I am honest. I was usually the first to get to work and the last to leave the office. I needed to check the books and work being done. I always ensure that I do my job properly.”
Though, Lee is not an engineer by training as he had confirmed himself when he said, “I am an administrator, not an engineer,” his passion for success drove him to incorporate Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited in 1991 to provide engineering, procurement and construction services to the oil and gas industry. Lee Engineering is now a leading indigenous oil, gas and power services company performing brilliantly and professionally in the league of multinationals. With just a makeshift office, at inception in Warri, Delta State, Lee Engineering & Construction, over the years, through dint of hard work and dedication to customer’s satisfaction, has acquired the necessary technical capabilities that have enabled it successfully execute major projects in the industry.
Championing the course of local contact
Chief Ikpea has always been at the forefront of the promotion of indigenous technology, to take up the challenges of the oil and gas sector and engineering construction, jobs that were hitherto, the forte of big foreign companies. For example, the Utorogu gas plant, located in Delta State, was successfully constructed by his company, Lee Engineering and Construction Company, on a build-return-and- operate basis.
Speaking of his involvement in the emergency of the now famous local contact Act 2010, he said, “Local content discussion started in my office in Warri with the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche. You can ask him. We were holding meetings in my office and I was spending the little money I had. He too was spending his money. We did all that because we really wanted this local content to be in place.
“From there, he took it to the House. When he was deputy speaker, he championed it before the present government came in.”
On the impact of the Act to the industry in general and his company in particular, he said, “In those days, we were sub-contractors to foreign companies in the oil and gas sector. They got the jobs in billions, but they paid us peanuts. We were the ones who did the job while they collected the money. They paid us some few naira and took the bulk of the money away. They didn’t even invest it here.
“We suffered a lot. Then we could not even pay salaries. We managed and struggled and for the fact that we had the drive, we knew that God would answer our prayers. Really, God answered our prayers by bringing Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to steer the affairs of this country and luckily, he looked at the Local Content Act and signed it into law.
“Before he signed it into law, we had between 100 and 120 workers. Today, I have more than 1000 workers. I am working in about eight locations. No fewer than 99.5 per cent of the workers are Nigerians and the projects we are doing are even more complicated than the ones those foreign companies were doing. And the cost is not as high as it was when those foreign companies were doing it.
“So, you see the wisdom of the President? He is saving money by using Nigerian companies, and at the same time creating employment for our people.
“In those days, they brought Philippinos, Russians, brought this and that and even stewards to do the work our people should do. So, we have recorded over 90 per cent growth within this period. It is a very big leap. The Nigerian government has supported Nigerian companies enormously. We should continue to support this administration, support the president himself and pray for him.”
Overcoming challenges
Rising to the epic status of a billionaire didn’t come easy. However, one distinguishing character that has worked in favour of Lee is honesty.
Recalling how this save his company, he said, “In the process of our growth, we encountered a lot of storms, especially when we were doing one major job for one of the multinational companies. We lost about $3 million on that project and we had to borrow money to meet up, because we didn’t want to abandon any project. So, I took the risk and borrowed money from one of the commercial banks to fulfill our obligations and complete the project.
“As a result of that, we had serious challenges. But I had already signed a contract and I didn’t want to default. So, no matter what, I told myself that we must finish the project. We already knew that our books were in the negative, but we were resolved not to abandon the project. I borrowed about $1 million which is the equivalent of almost N550 million with interest and you can imagine the burden. It was very rough, but by the grace of God, we overcame. Our client also saw that we did our best. Luckily, we were able to complete the job.
“Our client tried us with another project, a bigger one. That was how we paid off the bank loan. From there, other companies saw how serious we were. That promoted our profile. We were able to breakthrough and forge ahead. Then, the company was about 15 years old.”
Philanthropy
Another important dimension of the Ikpea persona is his passion for touching and lifting lives. His hunger to improve the lot of the less privileged persons cannot be quantified. He fundamentally sees it as an obligation, a scenario nurtured in the bracing furnace of lack and want during his formative years.
Unlike many other in his status, he deeply appreciates what it means to be deprived of basic needs, especially school fees for education. He set up the Agbonjagwe Foundation to take up issues that concern the less privileged, especially as it affects their education.
Not a loud personality, he has also made quiet donations to several educational institutions and social welfare programmes all-round the country.
So many who have come in contact with him have had their lives touched positively, whether they are family members, friends, colleagues and the general public. It’s worth recalling here that during his 60th birthday celebration, the reception venue – Saint Leo’s Catholic Church Ikeja, Lagos – was built by him and donated to the church.
This would not have been public knowledge if the officiating priest had not mentioned it himself during the service. In his own words: “I concluded that since God has blessed me, I needed to be a blessing to others. My first priority are orphans, children that are passing the same road I took some years ago, because I know what it means when you cannot pay your school fees and when nobody cared for you.
Somebody needs to comfort them and I feel that I should be that person. So, I established a foundation in 2012 called Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Foundation.
“As of today, we have 385 students that have passed through us. We are also taking care of widows, old people who do not have people to care for them and they need to eat. So, every month, my foundation gives them allowance, as we are paying our workers’ salaries. We draw up a scheme for the widows for them to have some trade to enable them care for themselves and their children.
“We train artisans on welding and electrical works, pipe-fitting and train women in some communities on sewing and hair dressing. We also assist some people with serious ailments like liver and kidney problems, and even cancer. We sent about 15 people to India but we lost one and the others are still alive today.”
With all these, it was not surprising that an appreciative society tracking his humanitarian interventions move to recognize and fete him.
Leemon’s philanthropic acts does not stop at providing for people within his business enclaves, he has not failed to acknowledge the plight of his birth place.
He recognise that his people in Ewatto didn’t have potable water. When it rains, they used to collect rain water, which they store and drink. That water contains impurities and all that and so many people have died as a result of drinking such water, he said.
“I did some analysis on what it will cost me to give my people safe water. Not only that, in my house in the village (Ewatto), I have water. I am a man with conscience. I am a man that has fear of God and love for people. So, if I am drinking clean water in my house and my people are drinking rainwater, my conscience will prick me. If I have money to provide good water for them, why not? After all, am I God that made the money available? So, when God gave me the opportunity to provide water for my people, I did it. Today, they are happy. I did not do it for politics. They did not even know me. It’s only recently that they knew I’m the man that gave them water and the governor came to commission it.
“I have only made sure that my people drink clean water so that they will stop dying from water-borne diseases. So, I am not a politician and I will never be. I am not doing it for people to notice me. I started from point zero and I will not see people on point zero and leave them there. If there is a way I can move them forward, I will move all of them forward. That is my mission in life.”
As Leemon turns 65 years, one can still sense the vibrations of energy, a dimension that has driven his vision through thick and thin these past six decades and seen him climb the difficult ladder of success in different arenas of human endeavours.
Ever willing to learn, Ikpea regularly attends business-related courses and seminars at the prestigious Harvard University, Boston, USA. He has a gift for identifying talent and brilliant ideas, a scenario reflected in the quality of his team who are top-class professionals in diverse fields – both indigenous and foreign.
With offices in Europe, USA, Lagos, Abuja, Benin, Warri, Port Harcourt and in other lands, Chief Ikpea is hardly far away from the thick of action. His physical presence is felt in all of these locations because of his non-static approach to running things. Seen in this light, his private jet is a necessity, not luxury.
Another defining feature of Ikpea is his statesmanship. He rides far above primordial and partisan interests, as his network of relationships cuts across tribes and races, both within and abroad. His work force is also balanced along this line.
He was honoured with Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) by Benson Idahosa University; in 2004, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma feted him with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration (Honoris Causa) for what he is doing for humanity.
Chief Leemon Ikpea is a loving husband, dotting, big and dependable brother to his siblings, compassionate to his staff members and colleagues, loyal and faithful to friends, especially those he had known from childhood.
Chief Ikpea’s life story, is essential truth of John F. Kennedy’s historical statement, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” unlike many who allowed the challenges of life to weigh them down he chose to fight for life. Today, the society is better for it. One only hope that more Nigerians can learn from the his experience and create a better future for themselves.
