AN UNCONVENTIONAL CANDIDATE

Braimoh, son of a teacher, wants to be governor of Kogi State, writes Richard Elesho

The small things that shape lives, often flow from tragedies. An indigent teenager was at the end of his wits on how to raise N3,000 to balance up his N6,000 school fee, at the University of Ilorin. A day before the commencement of exams, he attempted seeing the Dean of his faculty to seek his understanding. Unfortunately, the Dean’s Secretary not only blocked the stranded student, but washed him in open derogatory remarks. That was in 1996.

The disgraced teenager burst into tears. Feeling concerned, another student who watched the scene, consoled him and led him away. Of course, he abandoned the course, recalibrated and eventually with much self -denial attended Kwara State Polytechnic. It is now more than two decades ago. Today, he is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who pays the school fees of over 200 students in higher institutions across Kogi State.

That is the story of Olayinka Adenehon Braimoh, the brain behind Hall 7, an Abuja based firm, with vast interests in real estate. For the better part of a decade, he has anonymously been involved in helping people to overcome difficult situations. But much as he prefers to operate under cover, his foray into partisan politics has exposed him to public gaze.

Braimoh is a front runner in the forthcoming Kogi State gubernatorial race. He is the standard bearer of the Action Alliance (AA), one of the 18 political parties fielding candidates in the poll. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the off season election will hold on Saturday, 11 November. The electorate in Bayelsa and Imo States will also choose their Governor the same day.

Braimoh defeated two other aspirants, Ada Haruna and Simon Ogu to clinch his party’s ticket in an orderly primary election on Monday, 17 April at Reverton Hotel, Lokoja. While conceding, Haruna described Braimoh as a young man with superior ideas on how to unite and get the people of Kogi State out of the woods. “He is just the ideal leader our state needs, at a time like this”, he enthused.

For Braimoh, it has been a long-distance run to prominence. Born in April 1977, to a humble parentage in Akutupa, Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area, Kogi State, he imbibed the values of discipline, education and hard work early in life. His father, the late Sam Oke Braimoh was a teacher, politician and community leader well known in the Okun countryside, while his mother, Margaret Braimoh, also of blessed memory was the first female graduate in the entire Bunu district.

He was born in a polygamous home where selflessness and communal service were inculcated as a way of life. In fact, Braimoh has more than 20 siblings raised under the same roof. “A visitor would hardly know we had different mothers. We related and played together as one.” Olayinka recalled with nostalgia.

Young Olayinka attended Kajola Nursery and Primary School, Kabba. From there he proceeded to Titcombe College, Egbe, a missionary institution established by Rev. Tommy Titcombe.

Olayinka completed his secondary education in 1994, the same year he lost his mum. His mother’s death dislocated his match, bringing a hiatus to his educational pursuit. The Unilorin experience was part of the fallout of that travail. “I resolved to always do my best to prevent regrets. If things don’t turn out the way I envisaged, after doing my best, I hand them over to God and move on. I don’t also like to see people suffer or unable to meet basic needs.”

That may be the genesis of his philanthropy. His foundation gives generously to the less privileged, especially students and women. He has also donated boreholes for water, classrooms and offices to schools, aside other interventions in public facilities.

At the polytechnic, Olayinka studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He took menial jobs and participated in businesses such as printing stationary for the Students Union Government (SUG), to survive in school. His search for fulfilment led him to reading all sorts of books and motivational literature, including one on Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen.

After completing his Diploma, Olayinka was back on the street. But his determination to succeed was unrivaled. The search for greener pastures led him to Port Harcourt. There he honed his entrepreneurial skills, rented a shop on credit (of course, he later paid up) and worked as a volunteer in a church, House on the Rock.

One day in 2004, a friend whose father worked in Abuja invited him to the capital city for a business prospect. He honoured the invitation. Sadly, the business did not happen, but the young man did not return to Port Harcourt. Instead, he continued to hustle in the FCT construction industry’s value chain.

He had a mental picture of how to grow a real estate business, but lacked the funds to prosecute his dream. After about five years in the wilderness, luck smiled at him. In 2009, he was able to negotiate for the management of a large expanse of land at Lugbe, on credit. By divine providence, he got buyers, paid off the owners and made good profit. From that humble beginning, Braimoh would fall and rise at intervals. In fact, his first company failed. After learning the ropes and some hard lessons, he successfully launched Hall 7.

The firm has been more than a dormant player in the FCT’s real estate sector for over ten years. It has developed more than 1.5 million square foot of projects, evolving into a company of choice in the nation’s capital. Stemming from his success in private business, Olayinka says he wants to replicate same in the public sector of Kogi State.

“My main motivation is service delivery and eradication of poverty or suffering. There is a limit to what an individual can do to change the lives of millions of people. I think wealth creation at all times. Truth is we are too loaded with natural blessings to be poor. What we need is visionary leadership.

“Development does not happen by chance. It happens by the deliberate actions of visionary leaders. I am a wealth creator. When you go to Kogi and see bushes, mountains, rivers, etc., what I see is wealth. We must harness our God-given resources in solid minerals, tourism, agriculture and trade. We have dwelt too long on this mountain of poverty. It is not sustainable to always give people fish. We must teach them how to fish.”

Married to Adetutu, the father of four also attended the Business School, Netherlands, for his Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. This philanthropist exudes confidence, in his analysis of Kogi, national and international issues.

Elesho writes from Lokoja, Kogi State