Cletus Ibeto, the man who spurned Saddam’s money
On January 22, 1966, the 13-year-old Cletus
Madubugwu Ibeto, was in high mood. He was going to
Crusader Secondary School, Isingwu Amachala,
Umuahia, following in the footsteps of his two elder
brothers, Cyril and Louis Ibeto. His box of new clothes
and provision were all packed and his friends gathered
to bid him farewell.
His elder sibling, Cyril, arrived and went to have a
discussion with his father for over 30 minutes. He came
with a message from their maternal uncle. Soon after
Cyril left, Ibeto’s world crashed. His father had made a
decision: Ibeto would not be going to secondary school
again! A man should not put all his eggs in one basket.
His two sons were already in secondary schools, his last
son should chart a dierent course—not academics!
Shocked, deated and traumatized, Ibeto resorted to all
the tricks in the world, refusing to eat for days, climbing
trees as if he would jump to his death, crying, begging,
inconsolable, but his father has made his decision.
Young Ibeto’s fate was sealed behind the close doors
and he was helpless to do anything about it.
In those days, the young Ibeto felt his future was over,
but today, if you count ten of Nigeria’s richest men,
Ibeto’s name would be found somewhere in the middle
of the list. How did this come about? It was to nd
answers to this question that took Mike Awoyinfa and I
to Bundu Ama Creek, in the outskirts of Port Harcourt,
where Ibeto had reclaimed 30 hectares of land from
the sea to build one of Africa’s largest cement bagging
terminals. But the interview was nally shifted to his
exquisite Ibeto Hotels, Abuja, where as the “chairman’s
guests”, we were treated to a bit of luxury the place has
to oer.
Ibeto is being featured in the elite category of our book
titled, Nigeria’s Corporate Caesars, featuring Nigeria’s
topmost business founders. Ibeto Group, made up of
over eight major companies, is employing above 5,000
workers and still counting. The companies include Ibeto
Industries Limited, a photographic processing chain
spread all over the former Eastern Region; Kings Palace
Hotel which was the forerunner of the current Ibeto
Hotels Limited, a hotel chain that include a 100-room
ve-star hotel in Abuja, with ongoing construction of
branches in Port Harcourt, Lagos and Nnewi where a
250-room hotel is under works.
Others are Odoh Holdings Limited, a property company
that manages Ibeto’s large property holdings; the Union
Auto Parts Industry, makers of Union Battery brand, that
started with the manufacturing of automotive batteries
for Nigerian market to exporting batteries to all of the
West African countries, United States, India, South Korea
and Indonesia. “China is our only competitor now,”
Ibeto asserts.
At the time Ibeto came into manufacturing of
automotive batteries, there were about a dozen local
and foreign auto battery manufacturers in the country,
but today, only Ibeto’s company is still in business,
waxing strong. Indeed, Union Auto has added a
subsidiary, Union Recycling Plant which extracts the lead
from used batteries and renes “them to international
purity standard.”
Apart from manufacturing of automotive batteries and
their recycling arm, Union Auto is also manufacturing
motor accessories including auto light covers, reectors,
fan belts, front grilles, wheel covers, break pads, break
linings, clutch linings, break shoe kits and PVC materials.
Ibeto said that during the Gulf War II, his company
received a lot of pressure from Saddam Hussien’s ocials
who badly wanted Union Recycling Plant to export the
lead products rened by his company at very lucrative
terms, but the company turned down the tempting oer
because Ibeto believed that such leads would go into
production of dangerous weapons of war by Saddam.
This was far more ethical than a business decision, but
Ibeto argued to his astonished management that even
though the group desperately needed the fund to inject
into the construction of the cement terminals at Bunda
Ama Creek, they also had a responsibility not to escalate
the war and perhaps, in future attract international
sanctions.
Another money-spinner in the group is Ibeto
Petrochemical Industries Limited which started with the
Expresso Oil brand of lubricant, but has now diversied
into establishment of a tank farm that at the time in
2000, boasts of the largest storage facility in Apapa,
Lagos with 36 tanks with storage capacity for 1.3
million litres. Today, the company’s capacity has
expanded with massive tanks with combined storage
capacity of over 20 million litres.
The ever restive Ibeto is also a big player in commodity
trading through his company, Palmex Agencies Limited.
Since he won the battle for the re-opening of his
cement terminals in Port Harcourt, closed by draconian
and intemperate President Olusegun Obasanjo regime,
Ibeto has truly joined the league of cement kings,
especially with his acquisition of Eastern Bulkcem
Company Limited and Nigerian Cement Company
Limited, (Nigercem) Nkalagu.
The irony of Ibeto’s battles with the Obasanjo regime
was that it was Obasanjo who banned the importation
of bagged cement and in a bid to create jobs in Nigeria,
asked stakeholders to build bagging terminals as well as
invest in Greeneld production—total manufacturing of
cement from limestones. But four months after
commissioning the N12 billion bagging terminals, with
patronage booming, Obasanjo closed the company. It
took the coming of President Shehu Yar’Adua
administration to reopen Ibeto’s factory and by so
doing, his nancial oodgate.
“Of course, cement is one of the best businesses in the
world,” enthused Ibeto. “It is better than crude oil. If
you are talking about the development of infrastructure,
you need cement. I don’t know any other business that
is better than cement. And the competitors are not
many because it is a big budget issue.”
But then, if you want to be rooted in solid wealth, Ibeto
says it is a great folly to close your eyes to investing
widely in property. “The white man calls the money you
have in your bank “liquid cash” and property is called,
“real estate”.”
Once his eyes opened to this wisdom in 1987, Ibeto
says he has gone haywire in investing in prime property
in all the prime areas of Nigeria. “You cannot believe
what I have in real estate,” he told us. “And that is
between 1987 and now. And any one I have would be
choice property. I found out that money is coming out
of these real estate investments. Plenty money! Nigeria
is indeed a land of opportunities. Real estate is one
thing that would outlive you.”
But every rosy story came with it thorns. Ibeto has
waded through many thorns. Go back to his beginnings.
Once his parents determined that Cletus should be
groomed as a trader, his father parceled him out as an
apprentice to one John Akamelu, at Onitsha. He arrived
at his new station still wearing his school uniforms and
becoming the butt of jokes. “School boy,” became a
new name they gave him in a market where people
looked at going to school as the refuge of weaklings
who could not brave the competitive world of trading.
Probably to whip out school sentiments from him, his
master did not spare the rod. Today, Ibeto still has as a
trophy the mark of his master’s whip lashes on his laps.
But Ibeto was a brilliant trader and competitor, before
his apprenticeship was cut short by the civil war. At 17,
Ibeto was conscripted into the Biafran army, becoming
a batsman to a Biafran captain who died at the rst
battle, betrayed by a saboteur. Ibeto survived the
enemy’s ambush only because he had been sent to go
and get food.
At another battlefront, Ibeto was shot, but he survived
after months in hospital, although the bullet is still
lodged in his lungs. After the war, Ibeto’s trading
dexterity came to the rescue. To raise trading capital
which ultimately became the foundation of the
multibillion dollar octopus Ibeto Group has become, his
elder brother, Louis gave him a leather handbag and a
Biafran round neck suit which he sold along with a
packet of APC tablet he picked at an evacuated hospital.
The magic of translating a few pounds in 1970 into
today’s multi-billion corporate empire is the secret of
what denes Cletus Ibeto as one of Nigeria’s Corporate
Caesars. In the narrative of his life’s odyssey, Ibeto
seems to have crossed a decisive rubicon in business
when he proted from a policy change during President
Shehu Shagari regime. Under the liberal regime of
President Shehu Shagari, goods could be imported
without import license. But as Nigeria’s external reserve
dwindled the government introduced import license.
While other importers stalled at the fence, monitoring
the state of things, Ibeto moved to secure N3m import
license at a time a dollar sold for 68 kobo. He sub-
sequently imported 65 containers of vital motor spare
parts. By the time other im- porters went for import
license, the gov- ernment has tightened the screw and it
was virtually impossible to get import license. To
worsen matters, Shagari’s government was toppled and
the borders were closed, but by then, while nobody
could import anything, Ibeto’s containers were already
in the Nigerian ports.
Ibeto became a virtual monopolist for motor spare
parts. “That was the turning point for me,” he declared.
“Come and see the line-up of people who wanted the
spare parts. I was packing money with cartons. There
was no armed robbery then, no kid- napping. ..It was a
seller’s market. And the mark up was almost 500% but
people were buying! In fact, within two days of the ar-
rival of the containers, I made four million pounds!”
Ibeto still has to ght a nal battle. After a painful betrayal
by a friend he partnered with to open a bank, owing to
his limited education, Ibeto fought to sit for a WAEC
examination at 48 and subsequently grad-uated from
University of Nigeria with a degree in Accountancy, at
age 54! And, all these while, he was already a billionaire!
But he is not just a billionaire, Ibeto is today the
godfather of billionaires. Ask Mr. Innocent Chukwuma,
Chairman of Innoson Group, Nigeria’s rst vehicle
manufacturing, (not assembling) compa- ny who points
to Ibeto as his mentor and the mentor of many other
Nnewi billion- aires. “If you run into nancial problem
and go to him to help, he would help you out. Ask any
of the big business persons from Nnewi and they would
tell you the same thing. He has helped me too.”


copy-paste from Facebook.

He never miss the opportunity.