Giwa Bisi Rodipe, 80, is a legendary carpenter, foremost industrialist and tree planter. In half a century, he is credited to have planted over three million trees. The octogenarian is the founder and chairman of Bisrod Furniture, and president of Evergreen Tree Planters. Born in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, on September 4, 1939, Chief Rodipe has been involved in a national campaign for tree planting to save future generations from disaster. He has a private forest plantation with over 600,000 trees, including mahogany, walnut, teak, opepe, masonia and appa. He was equally a three-time chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area. In this interview, he shared his life experiences with Daily Trust on Sunday.
How would you describe your childhood experience?
My childhood was very pleasant. Even though I lost my father at the age of three and a half years, my mother took very good care of us. She was responsible for our education, which made us experience a pleasant childhood.
At what age did you start school?
I started western school very late because we had to first attend an Arabic school. I started primary education at the age of nine, and that took me another eight or nine years, which means that at the age of 18, I was still in primary school.
When did you eventually proceed to secondary school?
Well, I was admitted into the Lagos City College, Yaba, but I could only spend two years there because of delay in tuition fees. In many cases, tuition fees were not forthcoming. That made me take an early decision to look for technical education because there were a lot of opportunities and hope.
Most government parastatals had training schools, like the Ports Authority, the Railway Corporation, and of course, the Electric Corporation of Nigeria (ECN). I also tried those schools, but when it was not forthcoming, I went to Yaba Trade Centre, a technical college adjacent to a technical institute. There’s a difference between a trade centre and a technical institute. A technical institute was higher. Today, it is called the college of technology and the trade centre is the technical school. There, I was admitted into a course of my choice – Furniture Craft and Cabinet Making – in 1958.
My experience of childhood poverty after the death of my father, which led to the inability to pay school fees at the secondary school level, was the driving force which made me take my training very seriously. Within a period of six-month training at the trade centre, I discovered that I could do all basic furniture products, bearing in mind that it was poverty that led me into that course. I had to enlist with a roadside carpenter to practise my trade, and within three months, I was making sellable products. The development enabled me to open a bank account while I was still a student.
When we finished in 1961, I had three jobs waiting for me, unlike now. I had a job waiting for me at Kingsway Stores, Lagos; the Nigerian Railway Corporation, Yaba, and Cooperative Woodwork in Ibadan, but I chose to go to Ibadan. Not long after I started working at Cooperative Woodwork, an offer came again from the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV)/ Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS), and our works manager, the late S.O Davies, nominated me for the job. That was how I got to WNTV/WNBS and that’s where many opportunities opened for me.
Can you remember some of your childhood friends?
When you talk of childhood friends, after my employment at WNTV/WNBS, I had a lot of them, such as Tunji Makus, who coined my nickname, Bisrod, which I used for my company. In the financial sector, I had the late Kola Odubanjo and the chairman of Honeywell, Oba Otudeko. There were many of them.
What were those pranks you played while growing up?
I cannot remember playing pranks in poverty. Survival was the ambition, so I had no time to play pranks. It was survival that led me as a student into working at a roadside workshop. As I worked variously at Cooperative Woodwork and WNTV/WNBS, I still had a private workshop in front of my house to practise my trade to make more money. So, rather than pranks, it was survival strategies.
During those challenging years, at what point did you break even?
I think it was at the age of 27 when my boss at the WNTV/WNBS, Mr Steve, who was the controller of programmes, gave me the contract to build two giant stages used by James Brown when he visited Nigeria in 1970. The multinationals gave a quotation that was too exorbitant, but my boss recommended that he trusted I could do it cheaper and better. That was my breakthrough. One of the stages was built at Onikan Stadium, which was used twice in Lagos. The other one was built in Ibadan and used three times. It was moved from Ibadan to Benin and Kaduna. At the end of that contract, when the organisers realised that there was a wide margin between the quotation the multinational company gave them and the value with which I did the job, they gave me a whooping sum of 1,800pounds in 1970. You know what that meant to a young man. That breakthrough also enhanced the capital for my roadside workshop and upgraded my furniture company to a registered one. That was the beginning of what I stand for today.
How would you compare your experience back then to what is obtainable nowadays?
There are a lot of differences. In those early days, there were a lot of opportunities and hope. That was why I had a choice from secondary school to a technical college. The subjects at the technical college back then were very all-embracing, unlike now that it is only the children of the rich who can afford the cost of higher education. In the past, there were scholarships, but now, there is nothing like scholarships. There are no opportunities, and hope loss is what we are witnessing today.
The politicians of those years were concerned with the growth and development of the nation while the politicians of today are concerned about their family and pockets. That’s why Nigeria is where it is today.
At what age did you get married?
I had my first child at the age of 25, but I got married at 27. Today, I am polygamous. I have four wives and all of them are living under the same roof.
As a furniture maker, what led you into tree planting?
I have always said it’s a divine calling. I had a very good opportunity as a furniture maker to have forest concession for the Ministry of Forestry in Oyo and Ogun states. On that fateful day, I decided to go into the forest with timber contractors and a tree of about 90 years old was to be cut down by the then sustainable management period. I was given only six logs to cut, under the supervision of the Ministry of Forestry officials. A mahogany tree was cut down and I was sitting in a far place, but despite the distance, a seed from that tree fell and landed on my lap. I held it and asked the contractor, “What is this?’’ and he replied, “It’s a seed.’’ Educationally, a seed is what you can plant. I took the seed and said that I would plant it. I was not a forester, though in my technical education we did timber technology. So, I took the seed back to my factory and I planted it. Despite that I didn’t know about nursing a tree seed, it germinated very well. Even though we did not take care of them, 15 out of the 500 seeds we planted survived. That was in 1984.
Later on, in 1999, I was on the delegation of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to Kuala Lumpur during the Afro-Asian Business Forum in Malaysia and I discovered that in Malaysia, agriculture and forestry were their preferred sector. They didn’t talk about oil. The engineers and directors all had their forests, and I joined them to their forests. So, when we were done and I returned to Nigeria, the first thing I did was to look after those trees I had planted, and I discovered that they were doing very well. And then, I saw it as the best investment I could make, most especially because Nigeria was not providing enough for the survival of industries. Look at the issue of power; no industry can survive without power. In Nigeria, every industry has to rely on generators. That is not the way to develop industries. So, I decided to spend my money on tree planting, and the result is what we have today.
How many trees have you planted so far?
I have planted over five million trees.
Have your children taken after you in tree planting?
I can say I am extremely lucky, in the sense that I have very brilliant children. At 18 I was still in primary school, but many of my children were admitted into the university at the age of 14. Many of them celebrated their 15-year birthday at the university. And they are all doing very well.
Some of them are interested. Already, I have a son who is a chartered accountant involved in the job. I also have an architect who graduated with first-class and is fully involved. Since all my children are highly educated and the purpose of education is enlightenment, I do not doubt that they will pull resources together to ensure that the industry and the plantation do not perish. There is a plantation forest in Japan, which is over 5,000 years old, and one in Malaysia, which is over 3,000 years old. Forestation is not something that can just start and die. The survival of a tree is nature and nature would continue to be part of human life.
Tell us more about Bisrod Furniture and the forest plantation?
The factory is one with a sawmill. The forestry has more than 25 species of trees, and our flagship is the mahogany, which we planted in 1984. The trees are doing very well. You must have noticed the visit of so many prominent personalities, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, wife of the vice president, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, Mrs Ajoke Mohammed, and many others. Recently, it was Chief Philip Asiodu, the chairman of Ecobank Foundation and president, Board of Trustees, Nigeria Conservation Foundation, who visited the forest to commission our arboretum. In the last five years, more 15 universities’ 400-Level students are doing their industrial training at the plantation forest. This is part of our achievements and it is expanding our horizon. We have influenced many institutions in tree planting. At the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, there is a private forest named after me.
What exactly are the potentials in the forest or tree planting?
There are unlimited potentials. Unfortunately, forest reserves have stood out to be the bedrock of poverty survival; that is why the nation is facing a serious problem of deforestation. This is because all the saw millers and timber traders depend purely on forest reverses, and they are cutting trees irresponsibly because it is a poverty survival. Since the government is not providing jobs, people now face forestation as their survival. Unfortunately, they are only cutting, but not planting, and that’s why nature and forest are almost extinct. This is where we come in.
The almighty God is giving us rain, dry season and harmattan. Why must human beings use resources without replenishing them? They are harvesting and consuming without planting.
What do you think would be the implication of this soon?
We will pay dearly for it. Global warming is coming. Chief Asiodu read in his speech that if it happened, all the coastal areas in Nigeria would be wiped off. And the place that makes up the coastal areas is one-third of Nigeria. What will be left when one-third is wiped off? Europe and America are planning how to prevent it. We are not doing anything, we are just sleeping. We are using loans to finance our budget. Something has to be done.
Some universities are still offering Forestry as a course of study even though there are no jobs for graduates, especially in that field; what is your take?
Forestry is not the only course that students study without getting jobs after graduation. Millions of Nigerians are graduating from universities without getting jobs. The labour market is filled with graduates. They all have to be catered for, either by themselves or the government.
Some herdsmen invaded your plantation two years ago; how did it happen?
It is regrettable. Forestry is a bush affair and the herdsmen’s open grazing is very disturbing. They don’t only engage in open grazing in the forest, they do it in the residential area too. That’s one of the ills of this country. It happened in the dry season when everywhere had dried up. We just planted our young seedlings, which were green. The cattle entered and ate up more than 350 of the seedlings. They even went to where we had a research plantation a second time and ate all the trees. This is the problem in this country. Why should that happen? There is a law forbidding open grazing, yet some people are privileged to go against the law, and they are still doing it.
The incident happened two years ago. The ministry officials and the commissioner of police came, but they did nothing, except the second one which took place in our nursery plantation. It was fenced and the police felt embittered and took the people to court. After about six months, the court jailed them.
What would you suggest as a way out of the farmers/herdsmen clashes in the country?
Look, there is no other way out than for them to obey the law. Open grazing is prohibited in many states of the country. Lawlessness cannot help this country. The government should apply the law or give a directive that it must be obeyed. Take, for instance, Ogun State has a law prohibiting open grazing, yet there is open grazing everywhere. Lawlessness cannot save this country.
What is your take on the Ruga policy of the Federal Government?
Ruga is another problem for the future. Nigeria has a structure of three tiers of government – local, state and the federal – why must the Federal Government establish Ruga for states or tell them to establish. The only land the Federal Government has is the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Why can’t they establish Ruga in Abuja? That means the Federal Government is overstepping its boundary; that’s illegal.
You were a three-time executive chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government, what led you into politics?
Well, I would say it was military politics because it was the military that first appointed me as a member of the Local Government Management Committee. From there, I became chairman. Later, I stood for an election; that’s how I was a three-time chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area. Till today, 20 years after I left office, it is a general belief that no chairman has been able to do as much as I did. That’s why I always refer to my period as “politics of service.’’
What other position did you aspire for after serving as local government chairman?
I tried a senatorial seat. There were four of us who took part in the election; the struggle was high. I lost that election, and after that, I felt it was not my way, so I stopped further struggling for any political office.
Are you still active in politics?
No.
Do you just sit back and watch?
Naturally, if they come to me, I would give advice. You know, politics in Nigeria is of blind competition. It is said that our problem is leadership because it is not the right people that come forward. The right people have shied away.
Do you think the ‘right people’ have justification for staying away from politics, thereby giving way to the bad ones?
The nation is not getting what it deserves; that’s why people complain. How can you imagine that after 59 years of independence, there’s no electricity and so many things like that? We lost our airways, the railway, shipping company and power supply. We have politicians who cannot find solutions to our problems.
At 80, would you say you are fulfilled?
Absolutely! I am fulfilled, and I thank God. You were in my factory, did you meet me there? You don’t have to meet me there, but it is running. You were also in my forest plantation, did you meet me there? It is being looked after by nature. I have done my bit. You see, in this world, everybody has to do his little bit and go. I have done mine, and whether I like it or not, I will go one day, like every other person. Where are those who came before us; those I refer to as people of yesterday? They have all gone! A sensible person must know that he or she will also go.
Do you have any regret?
I have no regret.
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