Michael Christopher Onajirevbe Ibru was born on December 25th, 1930 in Warri, Delta state, Nigeria to Pa Peter Ibru and Madam Janet Omotogor Ibru. He was an educator, philanthropist, businessman and head of the Ibru Organization, one of the largest business conglomerates in Nigeria. He was a major stakeholder and influential figure or factor in the Nigerian economy in the 60s, 70s, 80s and the early 90s.
Michael Ibru would have been 93 years old, if he were alive today. May his soul rest in peace.
A native of Agbara-Otor in Ughelli North local government area of Delta State, Ibru was the first of seven children. His father was a missionary worker who also was a Nursing Superintendent at Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital while his mother was a fish trader who traversed the creeks of the Niger Delta to transact business just to make ends meet for her family.
The young Michael took keen interest in his education, pursuing it with total zeal and hardwork. He attended the famous Igbobi College, Lagos between 1948 and 1951. During the period, he not only distinguished himself in academics, he also excelled in extracurricular activities such that in his last year in school, he was appointed the senior prefect, a position usually reserved for the best students with leadership traits. His ingenuity manifested itself for the first time at Igbobi College in 1948 when he moved up meteorically to Secondary Class II straight from the Elementary School without the usual preamble. In 1951, his fourth year, on a study that normally lasted six years, he passed the Cambridge School Certificate Examination with resounding distinction in Division One.
Immediately after leaving Igbobi College, Ibru secured a job in the United African Company (now UACN), as a manager- in training. There again, he set another pace for his peers as he was one of the very few fresh school leavers to be so appointed to posts of responsibility by the UACN. Between 1951 and 1956 when he worked with the United Africa Company, a trading consortium that once bore the name of Royal Niger Company, Ibru had an intense internship that effectively prepared him for the bigger world of entrepreneurship.
In 1956, a few years after joining U.A.C, he resigned from the company and at the age of 24, the young Michael formed Laibru, in partnership with an expatriate, Jimmy Large, whom they both worked at UAC. After engaging in successful general trading, in 1957, he discovered that the frozen fish market was a fertile market with the potential to deliver returns above the market rate. However, it was a tough market to penetrate, at that time, as many expatriate firms and Nigerian traders were lacking and some were not interested in the market.
Ibru had his greatest commercial innovation in the 1950s when he began the production and marketing of frozen fish. When he introduced frozen fish in 1957, its detractors, including meat sellers, labelled it “mortuary” fish. He waged a vigorous campaign that successfully persuaded the whole nation that frozen fish was good, establishing over 350 distribution depots throughout Nigeria. He went on to form the Ibru Sea Foods, an importing company solely owned by himself. He rented cold-storage facilities at the Ijora Wharf in Lagos from the UAC, using the facility at night and traded from the back of a Land Rover. Later, he built his cold storage facilities first at 33 Creek Road, Apapa. By the mid-1960s, fish trading had become the traditional money maker for the Ibru organization. Though he had other profitable interests such as transportation and construction, fish trading helped him secure financing and other forms of capital to engage in large scale trading.
Michael Ibru was also a philanthropist. He donated a college – Abraham College which was later re-named Ibru College, to his people. Besides, the trail blazer of the Ibru dynasty, Michael, at different times, donated classroom blocks, vehicles and money to various educational institutions and charity organisations; awarded several scholarships to deserving Nigerian students in secondary schools and institutions of higher learning both in Nigeria and abroad, and sponsored various sporting activities in order to ensure an even development of the mind, soul and body. He was also touted among his people to be a major pillar in the economic empowerment of the Urhobo nation. He also established the Michael and Cecilia Ibru University in Agbarha-Otor.
In 1963, Ibru chartered his first fishing vessel from Taiyo Gyogo of Japan and two years after, in 1965 he founded the Osadjere Fishing Company in partnership with a Japanese Conglomerate, one of the largest fishing companies in the world. The company began with three long-distance freezer trawlers. Taiyo Gyogo held 30 percent of the equity and provided the management for deep sea trawlers and shrimpers.
By the end of the 1960s, Ibru had branched out fully into other areas of the economy. In 1969, a transportation company, called Rutam was acquired as another major arm of his business as it engaged in marketing and distribution of Mazda, Saviem, Tata and Jeep brands of automobiles. At a time, Rutam was appointed by the Federal Government, as the major distributor of Peugeot brand of vehicles in the country. In 1965, he began a large palm-oil plantation Aden Farm in the old Bendel State as well as a citrus and pine-apple farm on an 800-hectares site, which for some time, supplied the Lafia Cannery in Ibadan, Oyo State. He acquired the Mitchell Farm in 1973 and at the time, the farm was the largest producer of day old chicks and processed poultry in West Africa. The company was acquired from the American owners Alizar who had established the farm in 1963.
By 1974, he extended his business adventure with the acquisition of Nigerian Hardwoods, a logging and sawmilling and wood processing company Ubiaroku, at a low price from the Lathem Group, UK. The firm was originally established in 1919 and exported hard wood logs. His early success in business can however be attributed to the assistance he received from his family. Felix himself served as part-time clerk for Laibru, while his mother in her early life was a long-distance trader in the creeks of the Niger Delta where familiarity with fish was a necessity. Driven by the passion to make his family prominent, the late Olorogun Michael Christopher Onajirhevbe Ibru took all his siblings, Felix (late), Alex (late), Goodie, Grace and Bernard (late) along in his business after ensuring that they were all well-educated.
Onajirhevbe Ibru also tried his hands in politics in 1983. He was a gubernatorial candidate in the defunct Bendel State but lost to Gen Samuel Ogbemudia Rtd. He was also a member of the Liberal Convention and the New Movement, which metamorphosed to become National Republican Convention, NRC during the two political party system under the Military President, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. He made his marks in almost all aspects of life hence many people described him as man with many parts.
Ibru had five wives including Elsie Nelly Ibru, Titi Ibru, Nike Ibru and Cecilia Ibru. He had a total of sixteen children, including Olorogun Oskar Ibru, who heads Ibafon Ports and Vice Chairman of the Ibru organization, Peter Ibru, Emma Ibru and Oboden Ibru, who was a key player in the defunct Oceanic bank International PLC. A few others include; Gloria Ibru, Elvina Ibru, Osio Ibru, Obaro Ibru, and Obukome Ibru. He died at the in the Town of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in United States in the early hours of September 6th, 2016.
In February 2017, his children filed suits and counter suits over the sharing of his multi-billion naira assets.One of his sons, Oboden Ibru, has approached the Igbosere High Court, Lagos, for a declaration, among others, that he and his 15 other siblings are entitled to the estate of their father.
Michael Ibru is estimated to have a net worth of about Over $30 million
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
Click to view profile
4 based on 0 reviews
© 2024 Manpower Nigeria. All rights reserved.
