On Saturday, November 16, 2024, Auchi Polytechnic in Edo State will confer its Honorary Fellowship on a significant citizen of the state and the Kauthar of Auchi Kingdom, Chief (Dr.) Abu Inu-Umoru. Inu-Umoru is chairman of Setraco Nigeria Limited. He also honchoes Hartland Civil Construction Limited. Both companies are key players in the building and construction sector in Nigeria. Through the shrewdness and disciplined leadership of this unassuming businessman, both companies have continued to improve on their market niches, expanding their frontiers and consolidating their footholds in aid of playing leading roles in the sector as it were.
It is important to point out the fact that Inu-Umoru does not go out of his way to look for or demand recognition, including the instant case of this honorary fellowship award by Auchi Polytechnic. The naturally taciturn, sedate but highly fecund scion of the wealthy Inu-Umoru family of Warrake in Owan East Local Government of Edo State is always contemplative on issues of awards and recognition. This is the same disposition he has towards publicizing his philanthropy and other eleemosynary acts, preferring that no noise is made about them. That is a mark of his humility and the disciplined upbringing by his late father, Chief Inu-Umoru.
In his response to the Rector of Auchi Polytechnic on the decision of the academic board to confer the honorary fellowship of the institution on him, Abu Inu-Umoru had been measured and dignifying, demonstrating an unusual level of equanimity
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A man of few words but big actions, Abu Inu-Umoru’s disposition to productive ventures exemplifies the archetypical can-do spirit of successful people. It is a testimony to his propensity towards value addition that institutions have continued to search him out for recognition and associate with him subsequently for mutually beneficial relationships. The affable businessman has positively touched many lives at the interpersonal level as well as at the community and corporate levels. As previously captured in a piece to mark one of his birthday celebrations, an event took place that provided an opportunity for the immediate past minister of state for budget and national planning, Prince Clem Agba, his childhood friend, to comment on his persona.
A recap of how it happened: “On Friday, May 5, 2023, a delegation of Uwuake Community Progressive Union, Abuja branch, paid a courtesy visit on Prince Agba when he was in the saddle as the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning. Chairman of the union, Mr Abdulrazaq Salami, was at the head of the delegation whose mission was to thank the minister for facilitating the construction of the Warrake-Iyakhara-Egono Road and the remediation of a gully erosion site in the community by the federal government.
“During the conversation around the road project, it became necessary for the minister to let his visitors know how the road project caught the attention of the federal government. He told members of the delegation that their son, Dr Abu Inu Umoru (Chairman of Setraco Nigeria Limited), was the one who, when he was given an opportunity to ask for a favour from government, decided to opt for the construction of a road that will benefit the community.
“The point that the then minister underscored during the conversation was the selflessness of Dr Abu Inu -Umoru. Agba said that as a contractor who was being owed by government, he (Inu-Umoru) could have asked for the facilitation of payment of debt owed his company by the government. He did not do so; he also did not ask that another contract or even the contract for the road project be given to him; rather he just requested that this road be constructed by the federal government for the benefit of the community.
Agba’s testimonial of Abu Inu-Umoru’s altruism has remained noteworthy and a good reference point. Very few people would toe Abu Inu-Umoru’s path in a world where self-preservation is the first law of nature. The Kauthar of Auchi continues to devote his life to the promotion of public good. His inclination to charitable works is incredibly writ-large. His leadership and friendship stand secure in the intercourse between business and politics; whereas, he is not a politician, he has many politicians as his friends whose character and tendencies he has been managing without being insinuated into partisanship.
The intrepid businessman is, without a doubt, following the advice of Germany Kent, American print and broadcast journalist, television personality, former beauty queen, actress, businesswoman, producer, philanthropist and author, who once said: “Live your life in such a way that you will be remembered for your kindness, compassion, fairness, character, benevolence, and a force for good who had much respect for life, in general.”
In this corollary, Abu Inu-Umoru is also acting out the words of Michael Bassey Johnson in “The Book of Maxims, Poems and Anecdotes” to wit: “A fulfilled life doesn’t point to the number of years, awards, wealth and followers someone amassed for himself, but the number of faces that smile because of him.”
Read again, my essential verdict as I couched it in one of my birthday tributes to him: ”‘Chairman’, the moniker by which he is widely addressed, fits perfectly, for all times and purposes, into these significant nuggets of how to live a meaningful and fulfilled life and leave behind a body of legacies for posterity. Regardless of how importantly he affects your life, he does not want references to be made to the gesture(s)…. Although he is taciturn, when he speaks, he carefully chooses his words, perhaps not wanting to hurt anyone. In a much more profound way, he gives expression and illumination to the Yoruba proverb, which is loosely translated thus: ‘Good words bring out kola nut from the pocket while harsh words bring out sword from the sheath.’
“Indeed, on both scores of being taciturn and carefully choosing his words, his gravitas, in the face of his largely inexplicable humility, is made even more instructive by his almost shy disposition. Unlike many wealthy people, who flaunt what they have in the faces of others by their signature and archetypical styles, Abu Inu-Umoru’s self-effacing, affable character and his measured gait present a composite picture in self-restraint.
“Therefore, referring to him as ‘Chairman” in all situations and circumstances is in pari materia with the content of his disciplined character. No wrong characterization is contemplated here in this deliberate enterprise of penning a writ-large assessment of his individuality or alternatively in the task of painting his portraiture, remarking the “warts and all” to borrow the phrase of Oliver Cromwell, a politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history, to his portrait painter, Peter Lely.
“To be sure, Cromwell’s ‘warts and all’ means including features or qualities that are not appealing or attractive. That simply means that no man is perfect after all. Therefore, in painting Abu Inu-Umoru’s portrait, especially the components of his corporeal configuration that harbours his humanitarian essence, I am consensus ad idem with a friend who knows Chairman very well that he (Chairman) is a special handiwork of God’s creation, and his kinds are rare.”
Meanwhile, it would be recalled that Edo University had on November 5, 2022 conferred on him the honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration. The event that took place on the Edo State University campus at Iyamho, which witnessed a minimalist response by Abu Inu-Umoru was a reflection of the summative deportment of a man who could mobilise influential friends to grace the occasion of his honorary Doctorate Degree conferment but would rather choose not to encourage public excitement over it or go out of his way to create some razzmatazz just for the sake of showiness. Not a few people would have rolled out the drum in festivity. And, this, obviously, is not in the character of Chairman.
The Iyamho outing was obligatorily a quiet celebration. He was deliberate about the protocol for the outing. He kept it simple. He received the honours with a handful of friends and family members, practically discounting what would have counted for much to many others. This critical component of his character explicates the multidimensional contemplations in which his persona can be contextualized for essential deconstruction and a clear narrative of his beautiful earthly voyage thus far.
Abu Inu Umoru’s existential story of “from grace to grace” is a beautiful one. Having had a silver spoon upbringing, he would transit seamlessly to build his personal businesses-Hartland Civil Construction company and other businesses- from the scratch into a bourgeoning empire, proving as it were to be an accomplished engineering and construction business mogul. He has continued to silently deploy his sagacity and commitment in providing leadership to his siblings to consolidate on the family business-Setraco Nigeria Limited. Through that instrumentality, he has helped to preserve and build on the legacies of businesses and investments that their patriarch, the late Chief Inu Umoru, left behind.
Now, to be able to bestride the entire field of businesses owned by him in addition to the family business as a gentle colossus that he is, Inu-Umoru had passed through the mills to conquer himself and mortify fleshly cravings that are capable of making one to lose focus. His thoughts were on all fours, finding anchorage in Plato’s postulation that “for a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” And this orientation is not totally different from Aristotle’s thoughts that “what lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.” Inu-Umoru took deliberate steps to cut a niche for himself in business while the father was alive and has continued to do the same in the administration of his businesses, through discipline, which Jim Rohn, an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker, once averred, was the bridge between goals and accomplishment.
And as Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th U.S. President, once said: “With self-discipline, almost anything is possible”; whereas, “humility”, according to Confucius, a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages, “is the solid foundation of all virtues.” Abu Inu Umoru has both in abundance. The management of Edo State University, Iyamho, must have examined his trajectory in life and business including the magnitude of his accomplishments to come to the decision that conferring on him a Doctorate Degree (Honoris Causa) in Business Administration was apposite.
Congratulations, Chairman, on the latest Auchi Polytechnic Fellowship award!
