Ray Umukoro

In the late 80s when it was fashionable for young graduates and youths of his age to jet out of Nigeria to pursue the American or European dream, one man was returning from Europe to Nigeria to pursue the Nigerian dream. Leo Stan Ekeh is that man.

At that time, even up till this day, the fad was for young Nigerians to travel out of Nigeria. Destination has always been North America, Europe, and now Asia. His story is a profile in self-belief, patriotism, derring-do and spunky chutzpah.

Irreverent and restless, some of these Nigerian youths have made good their dreams, translating their lofty expectations to reality. Some never did. Not so, young Ekeh. He had a dream. To build Africa’s largest digital enterprise; to imprint Africa on the global digital map. For an iconoclastic young Nigerian at that time, the idea of building a large computer enterprise sounded abnormal, if not unthinkable. But Ekeh was never a regular, predictable guy. He brims with unconventional ideas, sometimes wild ideas. A highly disruptive thinker and problem-solver. He’s futuristic and possesses the uncanny capacity not only to see the future but also to create it. Indeed, he lives in the future.

The Holy Writ, the Bible, says that God rules in the affairs of men. Ekeh typifies this truism. Early enough, his life took a trajectory from Africa to Asia to Europe and back to Africa. On this tripodal coursing through three continents is hinged the storied life of a typical African child. His first stop from Nigeria was Punjab University, India where he earned a B.Sc. in Economics. His journey to India was fortuitous. Having missed the resumption date for entry application into his preferred Nigerian university on account of a ghastly automobile accident that restricted his feisty being to a hospitable bed, India became the next option.

However, by hindsight, it’s easy to discern God’s hand in what appeared a disappointment. It worked out for his good because India, famed for the entrepreneurial skills of her citizens, birthed the DNA of entrepreneurship in young Ekeh. By September 1983, he proceeded to Republic of Ireland having successfully completed his first degree in India. Often life throws up challenges, not to bring us down but to serve as spring boards to launch us to higher ground. Ekeh had wanted to study Computer Science, specializing in User Interface at Cork City University, Ireland. But strangely, his lecturers advised otherwise fearing he might end up a frustrated man if he returned to Africa and finding there was no place for him to practice his informatics knowledge. They did not reckon that Africa had a place for computers in her workplace ecosystem. They thought Africa had no need for computers either then or in future. But they were wrong. They did not know that Ekeh was the future of computers in Africa they thought never existed.

He would later settle for a shared postgraduate course in Risk Management between Nottingham University and City University, London. Upon graduation, he opted to pursue a Master’s degree in Business Law which he reckoned would expose him to the dynamics of the laws guiding international business. But after spending eleven months in the London Guildhall University, he was faced with the dilemma of paying his school fees just to be allowed to sit for exams and earn a Master Degree in Law (LLM) or investing the school fees in his dream to build the largest computer group in Africa. Again, Providence showed up at the gate of decision-making. He chose the latter. He returned to Nigeria to pioneer a tech startup with bias for desktop publishing.

Leo Stan Ekeh’s story bucked the trend. It’s a story of a young man who moved against the tide; who yielded to his inner self and a questing for success rather than submit to the bandwagon of his generation. History, they say, belongs to dreamers. Ekeh was, and still is, a dreamer. Every dream has its own zeal, a burning desire to birth it to reality. It was zeal that turned what was meant for school fees into a seed money for investment. It was zeal that transformed an enterprise which started in a rented flat (which also served as his home) into a conglomerate spanning computers, telecoms, property, entertainment and e-commerce, all across three continents.

Today, Ekeh remains one of the most cited examples of role models for African youths. He is a living proof that hard work pays. He typifies the Nigerian dream. He reminds Nigerians, young and old, that just as Americans have their American dream, Nigerians also have their Nigerian dream. There’s a Nigerian dream, nay African dream. It’s a dream that crowns hard work with success. It does not promote indolence, neither indulges in shadowy, sleazy stunts. The Nigerian dream sees opportunity in adversity.

Nigeria has a reputation of being a difficult place to do business. No electricity, no reliable public transport system, bad roads, a culture of public sector red-tape and graft that put a sludge on private businesses, multiple taxation, a general life style that patronizes foreign products and services over indigenous ones, and many more. Ekeh knew all this, yet he took the risk to return to Nigeria to sow in what many considered a hard ground. Proof of this is writ large: Many computer firms that set out in the 80s and 90s have closed shop. Their promoters could no longer bear the burden of entrepreneurship. They left the country to chase dreams in America and Europe. Ekeh did the opposite: Left a well-appointed life and comfort in Europe to chase a Nigerian dream and he has made a success of it.

Ekeh’s sojourn in Europe and Asia exposed him to how Africa was never in the reckoning of the world in terms of ICT penetration and development. His chance meeting with the now deceased Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple, further indexed how lowly ranked in ICT Africa was. Jobs, just like Ekeh’s lecturers in the United Kingdom, did not envisage a bright future for African tech industry. Little did they know that the future they couldn’t see was in their midst. And that future has already happened. It happened when Ekeh, may years later, all by himself, became the rallying point for all the major brands (Original Equipment Manufacturers) from Apple, Microsoft to Acer, Dell and HP among others. But far beyond this, he has brought the future to reality in the brand Zinox, the only Nigerian OEM recognized by Microsoft to have met international standard.

On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, he turns 66. Bouquets of flower are not enough to salute the courage of a man who gave hope to many African youths. On this special day for a consistent job and wealth creator, a man who has been honoured and recognized by all Nigerian Presidents since 1999 including being honoured as Icon of Hope, a merit garland of Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) by President Olusegun Obasanjo; National Productivity Order of Merit Award by President Muhammadu Buhari, a Global Advisor by Microsoft and Africa’s Leading Tech Icon award by Forbes, one can only mutter the words: Thank God for grace!

• Umukoro, a blogger writes from Lagos