Let’s meet you, your name and
what you do
My
name is High Chief Sunday Nwobodo, Akaekpuchionwa
1 of Enugu State; I am from Nkwuoka, Nkanu East Local Government. I am also Akaekpuchionwa
of Lagos State, a businessman, and by the grace of God, I am the caretaker,
because God owns, the caretaker of New Planet Resort Limited.
As Chairman /CEO, what do you
do, after all, ordinarily you should be relaxing at home while your workers
bring returns?
Yes, as
a CEO of a company it does not mean you will relax and sleep, because God chooses
kings, and when God chooses that king, He chooses him to help others. Even if
you are successful, you have to make others successful in many ways, if you are
working hard others will only learn the way you are working hard, it will help
them even to be successful persons also. If you are at home they will never
have experience and will never learn from you, but when you are working hard
many people can benefit from you directly or indirectly without even giving the
person cash. So that is why I try to work, one, to make sure my business is
standard, and make sure that other Igbos and Enugu people learn from me and
survive and have their own companies.
How many workers are in your
payroll?
By
the grace of God I have some workers, I have a lot of workers and contract staff,
some people are trainees, we train those who want to run hotel business and
other things. We train them for free.
There is peace in your
company, your workers don’t complain, what is the magic?
The magic
there is very simple, when as the CEO of the company; they see that you can do any
work, so others will not complain even if you send them to do the same work. It
is only when you sit down and fold your hands and send someone, go and clean this
table, the person will feel, maybe, it is because I am poor that is why you
said I should go and clean that. But when they see that the chairman, CEO can
clean table by himself, it means you don’t need to tell them to do it, they
will be happy to do. Again they receive their salaries according to your agreement
with them.
Let us look at those services
you render that make people talk about New Planet Resort
There
are a lot of things that make New Planet unique. I will only say a few because
they are too many; it is like branches of a tree. And it depends on the angle
the person has his own view, but the good thing about it is that everybody is
saying good things about New Planet. One there is security, we are doing well; we
are not God but we are doing our own and the rest to God. Even me, I am always
awake, supervising to ensure everything is safe and since we started this
hotel, we have not had any bad record. We have a lot of shows and a lot of activities,
which a lot of hotels don’t even have a quarter of it, they will have problem,
either you heard that they kill person or fight, we don’t have such here.
Immediately someone enters this place, they would obey our rules and regulations.
Most
important, the CEO of the company, you must be disciplined; because they say
you first respect yourself before people respect you. If they know you as an
honest person; that is what will make people to believe you. Even if you tell
the person don’t do this, believe me I will do this, that person will keep calm
without causing violence. Here they know that if any matter that comes inside
this place I will go straight to the truth on it, that is why when I say stop,
both customers and staff will believe, so that is it.
Tell us a little about hotel
business as a way of mentoring the young ones. It is said that hotel business
requires astuteness and business intelligence; is that true in your own case?
Yes. Like
when you have a car, there are a lot of things, you service it. You check the
engine, the oil, you change it, even big man; they service big man. You must
service it and maintain your big man. Many have become big man before; that is
how the hotel business is. It requires discipline. That is the first thing that
made many hotels to fall. Because in a hotel it is like, you sit pleasure and
success sleeping in one place. And normally in human life, this skin will
always like to pick pleasure, road to success is always painful, if you see
enjoyment and see work, your flesh would always like to pick enjoyment and
leave work, and you know work is the road to the success, without work there is
no success. So that is how it works.
In a
hotel you must make sure you purchase what customers want, repay what need to
be repaired, don’t wait until customers complain, The hotel is where you can
see people are coming out any minute, people that come yesterday night by 12, early
morning, by 4 or 5, they don’t care whether you are awake, they need the same
service, and the issue is how would you maintain it. You make sure you
supervise the major departments by yourself.
Why did you go into hotel
business?
When
I travelled abroad I saw the way oyibo people run hotel, I saw that hotel is a
place where you will see people , everybody will feel at home, so when I saw it,
I said if I come back I will run a hotel and treat human beings like this.
The roads around the hotel are
bad, why have the authorities not done the roads and how has it affected your
business?
It affected it too much, three much, because
if the roads are not too bad, you will see a lot of people. Before, the whole
of FESTAC, Abu-Lado come to gather here, even Cotonu people, weekend they
always come here. I have met the local government chairman, but nothing. I fill
the road with sand myself. My Honourable House of Assembly member has come, and
he has promised to help.
Tell us a little bit about your
state, Enugu, and what makes you so popular there.
Let
me put it in this form; the business I have in Enugu is when you have good
record in your home, in your village especially. As I said earlier, when I was
a small boy, we made a good record, good name in our place, then when God
started to help us to grow, when they are having meetings, other things, the
people will call and say they want to hear from me. All those things made me to
grow more popular.
If
you go to my community, my name doesn’t hide, once you call my name the okada
man will take you to my father’s compound. From childhood people believe God
created me special to care for people. When you entered here you saw some Ezes,
all of them are from Enugu State, they said they want to come and see me,
ordinarily they supposed to invite me; that is that part of respect when people
believe in you.
How much time do you give to
your family concerning the time you devote to your hotel business?
It is
a very big challenge, that is why in marriage when you want to marry, you ask
God to give you your own wife, a woman with understanding, a woman who knows
you and who knows what you are up to, who knows the purpose of running that
business, with that I and my wife have no problem, even if she didn’t see me
but heard how I behave, she is not worried.
Other states and parts of
Lagos are envious, they are asking when are you going to open New Planet branch
in their areas, any such plans?
In my
village I have a little Planet, it shows that I valued my village, and my
people are happy with it, they didn’t believe somebody could suffer and go to
the village to make people to be happy. That is why you can’t say why people
like me or talk about me. If God help us, maybe we can get money to expand.
Your advice to Igbos in Lagos
Igbos
are created special, and when we are working we should not forget our home.
Like as I said, the little second Planet I have is in my village, there is no
place like home.
Do you have interest in
politics?
I am
a businessman, I am not a politician, it is only God that can say my friend,
like Jonah and the big fish you may say okay I don’t have interest, but if God
say you have work to do for the people, that is why God never neglect anyone
created in special way, most people that value people’s lives, you may be
there, that is it.
Nigeria at 60, your opinion
and advice
My
advice is that we should be serious as a nation, like Hong Kong that we got
independence with in 1960, if you go there, the difference is more than too
much, 100 much, you may think those people existed more that 1million years
ago. Nigeria is moving like a country that nobody is driving it. There should
be dedication on the part of individuals, organizations and government at all
levels.
You started as a youth, and you are still a
youth, your advice to Nigerian youths
You
should learn not to depend on government or my father. Some will say my father
no give me money; that your father, his father, how much did he give him? I
believe if your parents can suffer and give you education, even Primary school,
you can give yourself education, self determination makes success. China people,
let’s say by year 2000, the condition of China , Nigerian airport was better
than China airport, China airport was like Enugu Airport. Now China changed
like magic, every day China change, the secret that made China to change is
that every individual work hard.
What are some of the things
you do for people living around this area, your CSR?
The way they are feeling they are feeling happy. One
the security we have, many years ago here is a no go area, but no more one
million boys, and everybody is sleeping with their eyes closed. Since New
Planet came here, all their properties added much value. We help in cleaning
the gutter and grading the road, Planet changed a lot of things. Their children
are also employed here. If I want to take the Planet away they will protest,
they will not allow me.
When you
are not working, how do you relax?
How I relax, you know when you
are serving the public and you see they are happy, you feel relaxed; there are
moments for relaxation, but when you see that people are happy you are happy.
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