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| Chief Dr. Sam Maduka Onyishi |
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Having
started out as a bus driver and a spare part dealer earlier in life, the
transport mogul believes that his company is a force to reckon with in the
sector, although, a litany of challenges ranging from inflation to bad roads
now greet the transport business in Nigeria. In this interview, the business
baron tells his success story and his future plans for his entrepreneurial
endeavour. Sit back and enjoy it.
Background
I am
the Chairman and Managing Director of Peace
Mass Transit Limited. I would like to say that I am a hard working Nigerian
who likes working for every kobo that I earn. I don’t play lottery, I don’t
play gamble, I don’t play pool, and I am not planning to start tomorrow. I am
not a contractor. I am just a man that works under the sun 24/7 and God has
been blessing my efforts. I believe in Nigeria. I believe in spending my money
here in Nigeria and I don’t own any house elsewhere, apart from Nigeria.
Everything I have is in Nigeria. I believe using my money here to develop my
country.
I
believe in creating jobs and by the grace of God, I have over 4,000 jobs in my
different businesses. It is not because Nigeria is the safest but because this
is my country and if I can’t use my money to develop Nigeria, who am I
expecting to do that for me? I started business the moment I left secondary
school, although I did some apprenticeship after leaving school. I am a
professional. I started as a bus conductor, bus driver, a labourer in a company
and a motor spare part dealer, and today, a bus operator by God’s grace. You
know a bus has one driver, so when you have 3,000 buses that is 3,000 drivers
and 3000 jobs. We also have workers who are on the field at the bus terminals
and I have other businesses that I employed quite a number of people, making it
over 4,000 jobs.
Starting up
Well,
as a road transporter by divine guidance, it is not like I sat down and wrote a
business plan or said I wanted to go into road transport. I came into road
transport out of hardship. I was a bus operator, bus driver, motor part dealer,
but didn’t know God was preparing me for a big operation. I thought I was
undergoing hardship. I thought I was working to help my mother because I am the
first out of seven children and my father died early when I was in class one.
After secondary school, I couldn’t go to the university immediately so I went
into business to support my mother and I didn’t know God had a project for me.
I came into this business by divine guidance and since I realised that it was a
calling from God, I see it as a ministry and I approached it from the point of
view of service to God and humanity. I see transport as my ministry and I use
it for service delivery. Peace Mass Transit is over 23 years old now. For us,
our passengers see and, I think, know us as a transport company that uses the
best of buses, the newest buses, all the time; the best quality brand new tyres
and we give fares at encouraging tags. We are among the best because we take
safety very seriously and I am proud of what I am doing.
Managing competition
I am
an ethical operator in the sense that I mind my business. I don’t do anything
to undermine other people’s businesses. I do my competition by working on the
roadworthiness of my vehicles by making my firm friendly and I believe in
making money through turnover. That is when my profit is low and my turnover is
high. I do my competition on the road while some people do theirs on the social
media. When your vehicle is involved in an accident, they go and edit it ten
times and use it as breaking news. Every day, they post our vehicles as being
involved in accidents. We have suffered a lot of social media demarketing.
Business edge
The
edge I have is that my customers believe in us, despite all this social media
campaign. It is because these people have tested our service for many years and
they know who we are. We are not going to join them in this social media
campaign because if we do, we are going to kill this sector. We are the largest
flight operator in Nigeria. It can be investigated. By the time you check
Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, then you know who
is who in Nigeria. That is why I am encouraging the Federal Road Safety Corps to come up with a clear term of assessing
safety of transport companies and publish it yearly.
The
road safety officials are trying but I want them to do more by coming out with
a clear way of assessing transport companies. I deliver 30,000 passengers
safely every day and out of our 3,000 buses, we have over 2,000 everyday on the
highway. Each bus carries 15 passengers and 15 passengers times 2,000 buses
gives you 30, 000. That is simple arithmetic. I deliver 60, 000 trips every
month and we are still the safest. There are ways that these things can be
checked. Anybody that cannot guarantee safety should leave the business. We
have to use our local drivers and the effect of inflation is affecting
everybody. It is even difficult recovering your investment in the country
today. If the condition of the roads should continue, I tell you, there is no
road transporter in this country that would be able to buy just one bus. The
prices of vehicles have doubled and depreciation has increased due to the bad
roads. Cost of spare parts has also doubled.
On loans
I
don’t believe in getting loans. I have people that give me buses without any
interest. Chief Mike in Victoria
Island discovered us over 19 years ago and has been supplying us buses. His
post-dated cheques have never bounced for once. Yes, another name for Sam
Maduka is integrity. I want to have a minimum of 10,000 workers before I
retire. My children and staff are there always there to continue. God willing,
I will like to take the business to the Stock Exchange.
Government intervention
They
just have to come in immediately. Government should make roads available and
that is killing the business. We are contributing to the economy of Nigeria and
government should not forget us. Another major challenge for us is electricity.
We run a workshop and an assembling plant licensed by the Federal Government. I
find it difficult to accept that a country that prides herself as one of the
oil producing countries in the world is still importing petroleum products.
That is one area we also need to work on. When we import everything, we are
breeding unemployment and that, in turn, breeds militancy.
Motivation
I
believe that we can achieve greater feats through hardwork, but success does
not come from hardwork alone. I have always believed in God. My drivers have
all been good, if not, how did they grow the business from two buses to over
3,000 buses? How come they grew the business to make us the best in the
country? As at today, we remain the first to bring in the speed limiter into this country and we took it to the FRSC. They
adopted it. The former Corps Marshal, Osita
Chidoka, came to commission it for us then. Peace Mass Transit remains the
first transport company to train over 2,000 drivers in the Road Safety Academy.
Passengers
should also respect the drivers. If passengers see a driver as a friend, the
driver would assume he is carrying his family. Peace Mass Transit has not
changed. Our years of experience should only help us change for the better.
Profit or no profit, I will continue to give the best. The price of buses has
increased. A bus which used to sell for N7.2 million now sells for over N15
million. The price of tyres has skyrocketed too. I want to be one that would give
Nigeria a safety standardization process. If Peace Mass Transit is not among
first two in this country, I will close tomorrow. I look beyond Nigeria because
I travel a lot. If you are number one in Nigeria, then you are number one in
Africa. I don’t compete locally. I believe in ethical competition. I am not
going to be a party to a job that goes about killing Nigerians in the name of
making money. To do what with the money?
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