The day was the 15 th of March, 1990. Nigeria was to play
host to some of the most important personalities on earth.
Guess who? Diana, the Princess of Wales was in town, with
her husband, Prince Charles on a state visit. Princess Diana
charmed everyone with her magical aura. At the lepers’
colony, she almost made many shed tears as she held the
hands of lepers, stroking their hands and looking at where
they lost their fingers. The military president, General
Ibrahim Babangida was ecstatic and wanted to ensure that
the guests got the finest treatment possible. Thus, the
Nigerian government made spectacular arrangements to
make them comfortable. The search was on for a befitting
place for them to stay.
BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS
Born into the Mai Deribe family, Alhaji Ahmed Mai Deribe’s
father was one of the prominent long-distance traders of
colonial Borno.
MAKING MONEY
Although Mai Deribe’s name is etched in the minds of many
Nigerians as one of the few lucky and controversial owners
of crude oil wells in Nigeria, he also had his hands in some
other pies:
-Mai Deribe established the Dalaram Soft Drinks Factory, the
first of its type in northeastern Nigeria and it was
commissioned by President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari in
1982 alongside the Deribe Hotel. The factory had the
capacity for one million bottles per day.
-Mai Deribe also established the first (said to still be the
only) five-star hotel in northeastern Nigeria, the Deribe
Hotel. -Mai Deribe was a major shareholder in the Preussag
Drilling Company. Today, the state governments of Borno,
Adamawa, Yobe, Kano, Gombe and Bauchi are making use
of the services of this company to access their aquifers and
other underground water basins.
MAI DERIBE THE PHILANTHROPIST
Mai Deribe was known and is still revered by the people of
Borno for his charitable activities while alive. He pumped
money into various ends, and these include:
-Construction of the Deribe Central Mosque, Old Maiduguri,
Jere Local Government, Borno. It was commissioned by
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
-In the early 1980s, Mai Deribe upon returning from
overseas (most probably the US or the UK) came with gifts
of ultramodern gadgets and equipment for the staff of NTA
Maiduguri. NTA is the Nigerian Television Authority. The
gadgets were so advanced that it took the staff two years to
master it, even after inviting their seniors from NTA Channel
2, Victoria Island, Lagos.
-On the 1 st of January, 1987, Mai Deribe gave a sum of
N5million naira to the Maiduguri Central Mosque on behalf
of his family and that of his brother, late Alhaji Kuli Deribe.
-His neighbours were the people of Fezzan and Old
Maiduguri, and they also benefitted from his largesse, he
sent money and food to them, one bag of millet per family
every month of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of
fasting.
-Construction of the Bulumkutu Central Mosque, Borno, the
Aminu Deribe Mosque, the Doggon Masalanchi in the
Fezzan Ward of Maiduguri, Deribe Hotel Mosque, School
Mosque, Government College, Maiduguri and Fillin Polo
Mosque, Airport Mosque. This is in addition to 27 smaller
mosques all across the country. In total, he erected 78
mosques.
-Deribe Arabic and Islamic Schools.
-For 44 years, Mai Deribe sponsored people to the hajj, the
Muslim holy pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Atimes, he
would ferry the pilgrims in his own Gulfstream private jet.
-Deribe Hospital along Bulumkutu Road. It was
commissioned by Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, the-then
Chief of General Staff, the second-in-command to General
Babangida.
-Construction of the Baga Road Central Market and
Shopping Complex.
-In the mid-1980s, Alhaji Mai Deribe dropped the sum of $
1million for oil prospectors looking for crude oil deposits in
the Gajiganna and Kukawa areas of Bornu State. Some
geophysicists believe that there is a considerable quantity
of oil in the Nigerian part of the Chad Basin and that is quite
feasible as the Chadians have already started drilling oil in
their own part of the basin. In a recent NTA programme
hosted by the suave Cyril Stober, Governor Kashim Shettima
said the Federal Government of Nigeria is the one stalling
progress on the exploration of crude oil in the Chad Basin.
-Mai Deribe’s company, Preussag Drilling Company, built
and donated more than 60 boreholes in rural districts across
Borno and Yobe State.
-Mai Deribe sponsored numerous indigent students from
Borno State to study abroad, giving them scholarships to
England where some of them stayed at his palatial
residence in Gloucester, London.
-Mai Deribe was regarded as a patriarch for the people of
Borno State and that explains why his people ran into his
open arms at various occasions. During the devastating
flood disaster in September 1994, thousands of displaced
residents camped at his house where they were catered to.
Although he was not in the country when the flood
happened, he sent a sum of one million naira (about $
375,000) to the Borno State government to assist them with
the relief efforts to purchase food items, shelter materials
and other accessories for them. A similar scenario would be
re-enacted in July 2009 during the unrest in Maiduguri.
HIS FABULOUS WEALTH
-That Deribe was extremely wealthy is a fact and even more
factual is his action of dazzling others with his luxurious
wealth. And many other Nigerians remember him more for
the trappings of his wealth. In the 1980s, he was one of the
very few people on earth who were cruising around in the
newly-released Gulfstream G550 private jet. It is believed
that he was among the first 12 people to purchase the
customized version of this jet in the early 1980s, putting
him in the same league with Yoshiaki Tsutsumi of Japan
who was the richest man in the world at that time and other
billionaires like Khalid Ibn Mahfouz of Saudi Arabia and
Robert Edward ‘Ted’ Turner, the owner of CNN.
-There is also the Deribe Palace (Gidan Deribe) in Maiduguri,
the state capital. Sprawling and vast, the building’s majesty
was enough to impress the late Princess Diana and her
husband, Prince Charles, King Juan Carlos I of Spain who
stayed in the palace for two days in 1986 (the Spanish king
was said to have been amazed with such opulence right in
the middle of a vast desert) and even a son of an American
President (George Bush would later become the US
President himself), all of whom were hosted in the gold-
marble building which was so exquisite that its
commissioning was done by military president, General
Ibrahim Babangida. IBB was also a guest at the palace,
while another high-profile guest is a retired army general,
Muhammad Saad Abubakar, now the Sultan of Sokoto.
Many Nigerians were flabbergasted at the majesty of the
Deribe Palace when Ovation magazine did a feature on the
man and his wealth in early 2000. How much did the palace
cost him? Just $100 million. And cleaning his house was
said to have cost N5million per month. This is what Dele
Momodu, the publisher of Ovation has to say on the Mai
Deribe piece, which he said was one of the most memorable
for his company:
After that, I think the Mai Deribe in Maidugri. I also flew in Colin
Ramsey from London to do the photography for us and this is a
man who has photographed Imelda Marcos (former First Lady
of the Philippines) and all the top stars. When he got to
www.naijarchives.com/mai-deribe-famed-billionaire-borno/

.

-Mai Deribe also purchased a special bed, once owned by the late King Hassan II of Morocco. -Although many Nigerians are familiar with the Mai Deribe Palace in Maiduguri, he also built another palace in Dakar, Senegal. ROMANCING THE LORDS OF POWER -THE DAYS OF POLITICS The late Alhaji Mai Deribe was the Treasurer of the National Party of Nigeria (Borno State Branch) under the Presidency of Shehu Shagari in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Using his convoluted political connections and wide- reaching influence, Mai Deribe prevailed on the Nigerian Federal Government in the 1980s to site one of the four international airports in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. The contract to build the airport was awarded to him in 1981 after he had also constructed the Brigadier Maimalari Barracks along Monguno Road, lecture theatres at the University of Maiduguri (alongside the Ramat Library, Science and Social Science Complex with the Agricultural Department Building/AgroVet Building commissioned by Babangida, see photos below), Maiduguri Main General Hospital Building near the Post Office, public buildings and secretariats in Yobe State all as part of contractual agreements with his companies. When Yobe State was carved out of Borno State on the 27 th of August 1991, Mai Deribe prevailed upon his good friend and military president, General Ibrahim Babangida to shift the capital city to Damaturu. Babangida also commissioned the Gidan Deribe in 1991 upon its completion. It was said to be the most expensive house in Africa. Alhaji Mai Deribe was one of those who assisted the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to the limelight. In fact, one of Atiku’s children, Ahmed (a twin, the other boy is named Shehu, named after Shehu Musa Yar’adua), was named after Mai Deribe. He rendered immense assistance to Atiku while he was in the customs and when he also entered politics. When it was time to swear Atiku in as the Vice President of Nigeria in 1999, he said that he would not regard himself as an orphan (he had lost his two parents) as long as Mai Deribe was present at the swearing-in ceremony. Aliko Dangote’s uncle, Alhaji Aminu Dantata was also best friends with the late Mai Deribe. THE ABACHA CONNECTION In 1996, the military junta of General Sani Abacha gave approvals for various crude oil applications. One of the beneficiaries of the one-in-a-lifetime opportunity was Alhaji Mai Deribe, the owner of Cavendish Petroleum in control of the Oil Mining Lease (OML 110). OBE4 and OBE 5 are two well-known oil wells owned by Cavendish Petroleum. Estimates indicate that the Mai Deribe family earns more money in a year than the entire Borno State. While he was alive, Mai Deribe was actually the richest man in Borno State.

Oh my world

Chai see the luxury. This will make the Queen of England green with envy.

This man had oil block since the military era of IBB and has been quietly creaming off the oil dollars long before Nigerians knew the meaning of "marginal block".

He has taken great care to hide from public view.

There and there is Niger delta money.
Only free and easy money is spent like this.
Money made through hard honest work is usually

cc: OAM4J, Afam4eva, Ikenna351

Moderators: Front page abeg......

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mohince:
Construction of the Bulumkutu Central Mosque, Borno, the
Aminu Deribe Mosque, the Doggon Masalanchi in the
Fezzan Ward of Maiduguri, Deribe Hotel Mosque, School
Mosque, Government College, Maiduguri and Fillin Polo
Mosque, Airport Mosque. This is in addition to 27 smaller
mosques all across the country. In total, he erected 78
mosques.
-Deribe Arabic and Islamic Schools.

Why is he only sponsoring building of mosque every where and Arabic/Islamic schools?

How about normal schools to impart contemporary knowledge and skills
How about hospitals
How about scholarships

Do Mai Deribe's children only attend quranic schools and mosques alone?

Choi. Dangote is just like a small boy compared to Mai Deribe.

I always say it, that Dangote is not the Richest man in Nigeria or Africa for that matter. Forbes simply does noot have data on everybody.

Very influential man while alive. I understand his houses are now national monuments. Read that OBJ once cooled off at his place during one of the bloody coups.

Mai Deribe has come under fire by those who have accused him of being one of the oligarchs of Nigeria. They accuse him of using his unfettered access to the corridors of power to promote his business concerns, corner contracts and oil blocs for himself and make outrageous profits only to sprinkle crumbs on bedazzled masses who saw him as an angel sent from the very chambers of heaven. Many, especially his teeming supporters from his native Borno State, do not agree with this submission. His critics pointed out that many of the projects he carried out were based on contractual agreements, purely business matters which he profited from, and should not be flaunted as his personal works or any outstanding works of charity. HIS DEATH Death came visiting the grand old Nigerian billionaire while he was faraway in Saudi Arabia. He died on the 13 th March, 2002 at the age of 78. The next day, his body was prayed upon at the Al-Masjid al Haram (also called the Grand Mosque or the Sacred Mosque, the largest mosque on earth) . Thereafter, he was buried at an unmarked grave next to the Grand Mosque. Many Muslims believe there is no better way to die than to have the last breath within the proximity of the Kaaba as it is believed it is a ticket that facilitates one’s entry to Paradise. INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT MAI DERIBE -The late Mai Deribe’s influence was not limited to Borno State alone but also to the neighbouring Yobe State. Borno and Yobe States are the only Kanuri-majority states in Nigeria. The late General Sani Abacha was from Bornu State while his Chief Security Officer, Major Hamza al-Mustapha hails from Yobe State. -In 2001, there was a dispute involving Dublin-based Tuskar Resources and Mai Deribe’s Cavendish Petroleum over an oil field. -Mai Deribe took his religious injunctions seriously and was said to not miss any of the Umrah and Hajj (lesser and major pilgrimage of the Muslims). In the 1970s, the Saudi government embarked on an expansion of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and they had to pay off the owners of the adjoining buildings that had to be demolished in order to make way for the expansion. Mai Deribe refused any form of payment for his own house, saying he donated it in God’s cause since it was for the expansion of the Holy Mosque. -He was also said to visit his mother while she was alive three times in a day. The first time was after the morning prayers, then later at 1pm and then 6pm. -The late Mai Deribe is one of the most important figures in the life of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Atiku met Mai Deribe in 1974 when he accompanied his friend Mohammed Indimi to Borno State for his wedding. The two met and the rest is history. Mai Deribe was said to have treated Atiku like his own son. -In 1969, there was a legal tussle between Mai Deribe and Alhaji Usman Ali/Borno Holding Company Limited, another wealthy Borno businessman. The two later made up. -One of Mai Deribe’s sons married the daughter of former presidential aspirant and MKO’s running mate, Alhaji Baba Gana Kingibe. -Mai Deribe was also friends with former President Obasanjo. In her book, Bitter-Sweet: My Life with Obasanjo, Obasanjo’s former wife, Oluremi wrote: It was not surprising that Hassan Usman had arranged with Alhaji Mai Deribe to receive us on our arrival at Maiduguri. We flew in an Air Force helicopter to Maiduguri and Mai Deribe came to the airport in a Mercedes Benz car to receive us. -The furniture for Mai Deribe’s house was done by the world-renowned Giovanni Monzio Compagnoni (GMC) of Italy. This interior décor company is known for decorating the homes of people like the late President Omar Bongo of Gabon, the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, Sheikh Khalifa Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and the Central Bank of Kuwait. Actually, Mai Deribe’s name is listed on their website as one of their most important customers and you can check it out HERE LEGACY AND REMEMBRANCE – Alhaji Mai Deribe Building, Sir Kashim Ibrahim Way, West End, Maiduguri, Borno is named for him. Same goes for the Mai Deribe Street in Maiduguri, where his hotel is located. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

Another beneficiary of our corrupt leaders attitude of robbing Peter to pay Paul,
Abacha handing over an oil well in far away niger delta to his cattle rearer kinsman making him rich and powerful at our expense,
This is one of the reasons the always want to be the rulers,

I don't find any of the photos stylish at all. No use of colours........Na only one colour dey this world?!!!!!!!!!1

A friend of mine who served in bornu told me about a certain gold marbled house. I didnt understand what he was talking about till this evening I came across this thread. Wow!

Cavendish Oil..
Also built the Maiduguri International Airport...

Dis House dat is usually described like "Guy,that house is made of Gold"..

I know him...

This should be on frontage. No matter the misgivings southerners may have against the northerners, we should still celebrate this exceptional Nigerian who was among the richest people in the world in his time.

Went on a tour of that house,..... Sorry, palace during my service year in Maiduguri. First time I ever stepped into a room constructed with pure gold in my life. People come from all over the country and outside to tour that house. Funny enough, he never moved into that particular palace before he died. Dangote na shoe shiner for the man side oo!

Indimi,mai deribe,dantatas,the sani bellos,danjumas,dangotes,abachas......stupendously rich northern families. ..but majority of their citizens are illiterates and poor!

i lived in his compound when i was in Maiduguri. The man get bar die

may his soul rest in perfect peace

cuteboy2:

Oh gracious Lord....

Mai Deribe's house dwarfs that of the Sultan of Brunei in sheer splendour.

And this guy is from Borno State where Boko Haram has ravaged the place. The people are living in abject poverty.
Mai Deribe has never built one single hospital or donated material to the refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) in his home state.

Chai. OP has just ruined my day.


**** SHAME ON NIGERIAN ELITE *****

Mai Deribe is late. He died around 2003 or 2002.

Nonsense waste, go and see what became of the palaces built by Mobutu, Bokassa and others now home to reptiles and rodents. If this wealth hd been invested in factories, farms and industry, Boko Haram would find it hard to get recruits.

We still lack a modernizing elite, all we have are rent seekers with little long range reasoning. How many of the Mai Deribe family can comfortably move around in Maiduguri today

Maiduguri my home my town I remember when we use to run around the house in the 90s the house has the largest corridor in africa and it's not connected to the national grid no nepa but a power plant

Pictures of that house was in one Ovation's Magazine issue one time, damn! that house, I dey always pray to enter am for my dream.

Nigeria is a land flowing with miliki and honey just uneven distribution of the commonwealth.

That palace should be common room if the wealth of Nigeria is justly spread. I believe PMB will fight corruption to a standstill and recover all our stolen commonwealth and turn Nigeria into UAE in just 4years.

He was busy building mosques and Arabic schools and today the products of his legacy have turn northeast to the theatre of war and series of heartless killings while the likes of Andrew Carnegie and bill gates brought to America an unprecedented industrial revolution. Shame on him and his likes.

in fela voice: he be ITT

In total, he erected 78
mosques.

God, I pray you take me to that height where I can exceed the achievement of this man. I don't pray to build mosque alone, I want to build churches too(think whatever you like, I don't care) , especially, the Catholic church and Qua Oboe church(now called ECWA) in my hometown. This churches made it possible for us to see Christians as our brothers and sisters, and we grew up with this orientation.



Erm, God, I pray to be empowered too so I can feed those that go to various houses of worship to worship you. No one 'worships' well on an empty stomach.

infohenry:
He was busy building mosques and arabic schools and today the products of his legacy have turn north east to theatre of war and series of heartless killings while the likes andrew carnigie and bill gates brought to america unprecedented industrial revolution. Shame on him and his likes.

Mark my word, I will build 500% of what he built by God's grace.

You ducks refuse to see yourselves as being religious and not Godly; and this why we have every problems in our country today, rather you blame everything on religion.

Vanity upon vanity. How did his riches raise the standard of living of his people? A house made of gold in a poverty stricken state? May his soul rest in peace.