Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has opened up on what his father, Michael Otedola, told him about the importance of money and power.
Speaking in his new memoir, ‘Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business,’ published by FO Books and scheduled for release on 18 August, the businessman shared an interesting encounter with late business magnate, philanthropist, and politician, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola.
He stated that he met Abiola shortly after his late father was elected governor of Lagos State.
Naijaonpoint reports that the late Otedola was a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Lagos State from January 1992 to November 1993, during the botched Third Republic.
In excerpts of the book seen by Premium Times, Otedola explained how his encounter with Abiola shaped his perception of the interplay between money and power in the lives of politicians, business moguls, and other notable societal figures.
According to Otedola in his new book, he encountered Abiola and his wife at the Lagos State guest house in Ikeja, where the then-outgoing military governor of Lagos, Raji Rasaki, advised his late father to stay and recover from the stress of election campaigns. Michael Otedola had just won the Lagos governorship election on the platform of the National Republican Convention (NRC).
Femi Otedola noted that when he got to the guest house to visit his father, he met Abiola, who addressed him as a “great man”, a description he found pretty fascinating.
Otedola wrote, “I had yet another upbeat encounter with Chief Abiola after my father was elected. The outgoing military governor, Brigadier General Raji Rasaki, suggested that dad recover from an exhausting election campaign at the Lagos State guest house in Ikeja and that nobody was supposed to see him.
“I went to visit him there early one morning and found Chief Abiola and his wife waiting in the living room. “Great man. where is your daddy?” Once again, this great man had called me ‘great man’.”
Otedola explained that after Abiola and his wife left, he was surprised by his father’s decision to host them despite Rasaki’s suggestion that he be secluded in the guest house.
“After Chief Abiola and his wife left, I enquired of my father why he gave Chief Abiola and his wife an audience with him when nobody was supposed to see him. My father said to me “Femi, there is a difference between power and money; money will always bow before power”, Otedola wrote.
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