BACKGROUND
Sir Phillip Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, popularly recognized with the title OBE, was a Nigerian entrepreneurial mogul from the Ojukwu family of Nwakanwa quarters Obiuno Umudim Nnewi.
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EARLY LIFE
He went to the Hope Waddell Training Institute and a primary school in Asaba.
In 1936, he met Bishop John Cross Anyogu, who was a priest at Nnewi at the time. He followed the Roman Catholic faith.
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OCCUATIONAL CAREER
Ojukwu initiated Ojukwu Stores, Ojukwu Transport, and Ojukwu Textiles. At the height of his career, he was the first president of The Nigerian Stock Exchange and the president of The African Continental Bank.
He was also chairman or on the board of directors of some of Nigeria’s most successful businesses, such as Shell Oil Nigeria Limited, Guinness Nigeria Limited, Nigerian National Shipping Line, Nigerian Cement Factory, Nigerian Coal Corporation, Costain West Africa Ltd, John Holt plc, Nigerian Marketing Board, and others.
Ojukwu’s first job was in the Agricultural department, but he left to work as a tyre sales clerk for John Holt. During this time, he also started a textile business in Onitsha to make more money. This was an early sign of his entrepreneurial spirit. While he was at John Holt, he saw how hard it was for Eastern textile traders who didn’t have good transportation. Later, he left John Holt to start a transportation company to help Nigerian traders do business better.
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As a transporter, he worked hard and paid attention to every detail. He was usually the first one to check his vehicles for oil leaks and other problems. Aside from being a hard worker, his success was helped by the economic boom that followed World War II.
He worked with the West African Railway Company and the newly formed produce boards to use his fleet to move goods and help other traders. As a transporter, he had his own company, Ojukwu Transport Limited, which was the first major company to move easterners to Lagos from the Asaba end of the Niger River, after they may have taken a boat from Onitsha.
In the 1950s, he bought some businesses, put a lot of money into real estate, and joined the boards of directors of a number of large companies, including the Nigerian National Shipping Line, which was owned by the government. He was on the boards of Nigerian Coal Corporation, Shell Oil, D’Archy, and African Continental Bank.
The Ojukwu trucks carried goods and made money for their owner during and after the World War. At one point, the British had Louis’s trucks move their war supplies. For this service, Louis was later rewarded. Years later, Queen Elizabeth II gave him an OBE.
Back where he was comfortable, in business, Ojukwu became even more powerful. He was on the boards of many of the biggest companies in the country. He also helped start the Nigerian Stock Exchange and was its first president.
POLITICAL CAREER
Ojukwu was an active member of the political party NCNC and gave money to it before and during the First Republic. He served in the House of Representatives once. In 1958, he was the head of the Eastern Region Marketing Board and the Eastern Region Development Corporation.
On May 1, 1953, he was put in charge of an NCNC peace committee and given the power to choose most of its members. The committee was given the job of making the regional House of Assembly peaceful again. His ideas about policy were a little bit more capitalist and to the right of Zik’s.
He wrote a report with Azikiwe about the Economic Mission to Europe and North America. The report suggested that the produce marketing board put more money into a regional bank and public corporations to help the economy grow. Ojukwu died in 1966, just one year before the Nigerian civil war.
As his money grew, so did his power and influence outside of the industry. He was involved in politics before Nigeria got its independence, and he gave money to the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC), a political party that Nnamdi Azikiwe was a member of. He was elected to the House of Representatives at one point.
During the first republic of the country, he won a seat in parliament.
MARRIAGE & FAMILY
Ojukwuis the father of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was a military governor in Nigeria and the leader of old secessionist state of Biafra when it tried to break away from Nigeria. His wife was named Bianca.
DEATH
He died in September 1966.
NET WORTH
By the time he died in 1966, Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu was worth about $4 billion in today’s money.
