Michael Ibru
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Michael Onajirevbe Ibru (25 December 1930 – 6 September 2016) was a Nigerian pioneer industrialistbillionaire business magnate and the founder of the
Ibru Organization The Ibru Organization, established in 1956, became one of the largest conglomerates in Africa. By 1990 it had between 9,000 and 11,000 employees. By 2009 the Ibru Organization was a multi-billion dollar business with interests that included shippin ...
, one of the largest conglomerates in Africa. As a traditional
chieftain A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...
of his homeland, Ibru bore the tribal honorific Olorogun and often used it as a pre-nominal style. This title is also borne by many of the members of his large family in the same way.


Early life

Ibru was born to the family of Janet Ibru and Peter Ibru, a
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
worker, who also worked at the Igbobi Orthapaedic Hospital,
Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
. After secondary school, he joined the
United African Company The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the ''United African Company '' and renamed to ''National African Company'' in 1881 and to ''Royal Niger Co ...
, as a management trainee. In 1956, a few years after joining U.A.C, he resigned from the company and started a partnership, which he called Laibru. The corporate entity was in partnership with an
expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
, Jimmy Large. After engaging in general trading with some success, in 1957, Michael Ibru 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 the time, many expatriate firms and Nigerian traders were lacking and some were not interested in the market. But he felt he could put extra effort communicating with general traders, who played key roles in products acceptance. To trade in seafood, he established an importing company, he also rented and built cold storage facilities across the country. By the mid-1960s trading fish 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. He established a partnership with a Taiwanese company, Osadjere Fishing Company, which provided Trawlers and other accessories for trading. By the end of the 1960s he branched out fully into other areas of the economy. Like a lot of his contemporaries, he established a transportation company, called Rutam. He also invested in
palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
production. Over the years, the Ibru Organization has expanded into other areas such as Tourism, Brewery, Timber and Poultry. He was known as an entrepreneurial figure who created one of the largest modern Nigerian owned groups with other figures such as the low key Bode Akindele.


Education

Michael Ibru attended
Igbobi College Igbobi College is a college established by the Methodist and Anglican Churches in 1932, in the Yaba suburb of Lagos, Lagos State, South-western Nigeria. It is still on its original site and most of the original buildings are intact. It is one ...
and acquired a school certificate in 1951.


Urhobo nation

No group of Nigerians has benefited more from Michael Ibru's legacy than the Urhobo people. Urhobo men and women have profited at many levels since the rise of the Ibru brand in the second half of the 1950s. First, Urhobo market women were among the first batch of Nigerians to embrace the "Ibru" frozen fish. Many of them rose from relative poverty to higher economic brackets because they participated in the new Ibru ventures from market stalls. There were more direct beneficiaries from Michael Ibru's openness to his Urhobo people. These were the many Urhobo professionals who joined the Ibru organization. Many of them left the Ibru organization to pursue their own independent dreams constructed with the aid of ambitions conceived in the Ibru organization. A full list of Urhobo professionals who worked and prospered in the Ibru organization will fill many pages. The Urhobo have a more particular reason for admiring Michael Ibru. Well up to the 1950s, the image of the Urhobo was not among the best in the Nigerian nation. With the accomplishments and competence of Michael Ibru especially, as well as the achievements of other giants of Nigerian commerce and economics as
David Dafinone David Omueya Dafinone OFR (March 12, 1927 - September 30, 2018) was a Nigerian accountant & politician, who was a senator for Bendel South during the Nigerian Second Republic. He was a member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Dafinone wor ...
and Gamaliel Onosode, the Urhobo image has been strengthened in major ways. For that, the Urhobo have embraced Michael Ibru as an historic figure. There is more in the love bonds between the Urhobo people and Michael Ibru. Michael Ibru has embraced Urhobo culture and Urhobo cultural organizations, especially Urhobo Progress Union, in a manner that pleases the Urhobo people. It is Michael Ibru who popularized the use of the title "Olorogun" in place of "Chief."


Private citizen

Chief Ibru has five wives, and seventeen children, the most prominent being Olorogun Oskar Ibru (who heads Ibafon Ports), Oboden Ibru (who was a key player in Oceanic bank International PLC) and Emmanuel Ibru (CEO of Aden River Estates Limited and President Nigeria-Brazil Chamber of commerce and industry)↡He also tried his hands in politics, in 1983, he was a gubernatorial candidate but lost to
Samuel Ogbemudia Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia (17 September 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a Nigerian army officer and politician. He was military Governor (1967–1975) of the Mid-Western Region, Nigeria, Mid-West State, later renamed Bendel State, part of which in ...
. He is also a member of the Liberal Convention and the New Movement, which metamorphosed to become NRC.


Death

Ibru, who was the patriarch of one of Nigeria's foremost business dynasties, died at a medical facility in the United States in the early hours of Tuesday, September 6, 2016. Ibru was survived by his brother, Goodie Ibru; his wife, Cecilia Ibru; and several children, including Oskar Ibru and Oboden Ibru; and grandchildren.


References

*Tom Forrest, The Advance of African Capital:The Growth of Nigerian Private Enterprise. University of Virginia Press (August 1994). {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibru, Michael 1930 births 2016 deaths Businesspeople from Lagos Igbobi College alumni 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople
Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...