Q: Please tell us about yourself
Well, I'm Charles Onyema Ugboko. I was born on 3rd of October 1946 at Asaba. At the age of 5, which is unusual, I started my primary school education at St. Joseph's Catholic School, Asaba. Why I said is unusual, In those days, you had to be 6 or sometimes 7 in order to be admitted into the primary school. But I don't know for what reason, I was very anxious to go to school, because I admired people wearing uniforms, seeing them going together every morning, trooping to school. So I insisted that I wanted to go to school. My mother took me to government school, Asaba, and then they told me to put my hand, it couldn't go anywhere, and they rejected me and they told me I should go. I started crying. My mother said, they said, you are not up to the age, let us go. I said, no.

So somebody told my mother, why don't you take him to St. Joseph's school, Asaba. So we got to St. Joseph's school, because I was crying. We saw one junior, the so-called junior headmaster, Mr. Okpunor, who taught my father actually, and then he said, why is your son crying? She said, he wants to go to school. He said, he wants to go to school, that's why he's crying? And there are people they bring here, they don't want to go to school, they start crying. So he opened the gates and brought me in and took me to primary, you know, nursery one, they as used to call it. That was how I started school and that was my primary school education in Asaba.

My secondary school, I went to Immaculate Conception College, Benin, popularly known as ICC Benin. I started 1960 January and then finished 1964 December, and from there I went to do HSE, in those days we used to do HSE, so that you could enter the university. So I did my HSE at Edo College, which was a government college then. In Benin as well, Edo College Benin, that was where I did my HSE. So this was just my education in Nigeria. Well, actually, after my HSE, I taught in St. Columbus College, Agbor. You know, in those days after HSE you had to teach for about 9 months, waiting for September to enter into the university, since the secondary school year ended in December, so I was a teacher in St. Columbus College, Agbor, waiting to enter the university in September. That was in 1967. My HSE was from 65 to 66 Then 67, before September the war broke out. And by that time, about mid67, the Biafrans crossed into Midwest, so we were locked up. There was no way of getting to the university.

Then the war was ravaging and we were hiding and trying to save our lives. So I didn't go to the university until I escaped the Asaba massacre narrowly. Before then, all my intention was to be a diplomat, So I wanted to go to the university to do foreign languages, but because there was no way I could enter, foreign languages were being offered in Nsukka. So since the war was on, there was no way I could. So I decided to find another way and having escaped the war, lost my brothers and uncles. And those remaining in the family felt I should run away. In case everybody got perished, at least they would know that someone else was surviving outside.

So that is how I found out that I could do diplomacy in Switzerland so I ran to Germany, first of all. From Germany, I went to Switzerland.

So I attended the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. So that was where I got my first degree in political science and economics. After Lausanne, wanting to be a diplomat, I changed my mind eventually, because I discovered that each time I visited the Nigerian embassy there, I saw the staff quarreling. Every time I came there, they were quarreling, either fighting or quarreling. And I used to wonder, is that a part of Nigerian diplomacy? To quarrel and fight? I said, okay, if that is the situation one would be finding in a Nigerian embassy, I wasn't going to join the diplomatic service. So I decided to go and do an MBA. So I went to Canada, to Quebec, where I did an MBA and then joined a multinational organization after that.

It's called Alusuisse. The multinational was Alusuisse. It had headquarters in Zurich.
So that is where I was working and then I got transferred to Alumaco in Apapa. That is how I came back to Nigeria. So I worked with Alumaco for six years and left and went into the banking industry. Thank you.

Q: What are your biggest strengths and what are your biggest weaknesses
I would say that my biggest strength as a young man then, because today we don't have strength anymore. My biggest strength then as a young man was my ability to learn any language. Well, you know, going to school in Switzerland, I didn't just enter into the university directly. I had to go to language school where I learned French. So I did all my university education in French language. So all my lectures, all my exams, everything I wrote in French. I spoke in French and everything, and while I was still doing the French, because of my interest in languages, I also learned German. So that was a plus for me, even in the banking industry. And if you look at it, I joined the then old IBWA.

I don't know whether you heard it. International Bank for West Africa. Which became AfriBank. That was a French bank. I would say about my weakness, my weakness is I'm very naive. I find it difficult to doubt anybody. When somebody tells me something, I believe him immediately, but sometimes I end up being shocked that the guy was not telling me the exact, but I have that weakness of believing anything I'm told. And I made a lot of mistakes in life like parting out with money or parting out with this or that because I believe people. My wife used to say, ah, you want to behave like oyibo every time everybody tells you something, you believe. So that's my weakness, I know, very well and my tendency to believe anything being told.

Q: What is your typical day like now
As a retired man, what do you have as a typical day? I remember when I retired, people were saying, why don't you go into business? I said, no, I don't want to go into business. Why? Because just as I told you my weakness, I will be easily duped and that will make life miserable for me. So I'm better off keeping off from people, staying indoors, staying on my own. I cover one kilometer, walking around the estate. So when I do three kilometers, I come home, I take a bath, I listen to news, I read newspapers, I go to church at midday, go to midday mass, come back, I meet people there, I chat with them. Weekends, if I have invitations, I know that that enables me to meet with people and chat with people so that I don't isolate myself from other people. That is my typical day. I used to play tennis, but at this age of 70 something, any time I finish the tennis game, I get pains on my shoulders. So I decided to stop.
Q: How did you start your day when you first started at work
It was the normal Lagos hustle. When I started my first job, I was living in Ikate, Surulere. You know, behind, just off Nnobi street, so that meant waking up very early in the morning because you know what traffic was then. I was working in Apapa, so I had to wait through the traffic to Apapa. Very early in the morning, making sure I got to the office before 8 o'clock and closing, I would go to my tennis club to go and play tennis. And then from there, you could get home. When I got married, I reduced.

Then I was a bachelor, there was nobody to meet at home, so I spent most of the time playing tennis at the club. But when I got married, I had to reschedule a little bit, not going every day. But I still went, but not every day and when we got our children, I started getting the children and then I had to reduce to weekends. So that was how I spent my life.

Q: How was your early life growing up, your days as a teenager
Well, the, growing up, that is, at what point are you talking now? At the point of… Your teenage years. Well, I, what do you classify as teenage years now? Your secondary school years? Yes, your secondary school years. Well, in the secondary school, the secondary school then was, you know, it's no longer the same today. In those days, it meant my going, traveling from Asaba to Benin, which was like a whole day journey in those days, because the roads, you know, the road wasn't, wasn't there. You had to go through meandering roads and, and it was, transport was difficult. It depended mainly on the AMEX, what they used to call AMEX in those days. AMEX was a transport company that carried mails for the post office. That was the means of transport from Asaba to Benin. So we had to go through AMEX. The AMEX had to stop virtually in most places Ogwashi- Ukwu, Ubulu-ukwu, Isele-ukwu, Agbor, you know, where you had post offices, they had to stop and collect the mails and dump some, you know. So it was quite difficult and traveling from Asaba to Benin was a whole day journey. And it sounded strange for people who thought, why didn't you go to St. Patrick's College, Asaba? Why, why all the way to Benin? But I enjoyed it.

I had my late friends in Benin today, our friends all over in Benin. And it was tough because staying without their parents. And sometimes when we had the, what do you call the, what do you call it, the visiting day or whatever day, what they call visiting day today, nobody to visit and you couldn't go home. We spent the time, a few of us, we spent the time in the school, but we were looked after. They gave us fairly good food and the community life in the college was very satisfying and even though the parents were far away, you didn't feel it so much because of the companionship you had in the school. And then from there, going to, well, as a teacher in Agbor, I was just about 19 years old. I had to, there I learned to cook for myself. I went to the market to buy whatever I needed. I had a, I had a room and a parlour, two rooms, you know, one, you know the kind of accommodation you had then was room and parlour. I had a parlour that was virtually almost empty with two chairs and then I had my bedroom and then behind I cooked and I catered for myself. It was a good experience because it helped me eventually when I got to Europe where I had to cater for myself. So there was nothing new.

I knew how to cook rice, I knew how to cook beans, I knew how to fry potato, boil potato, boil yam. When I got to Europe it helped me. In Europe it was not so easy because, number one, the harsh weather, the winter, which was new to me and I had to labour because, you know, having left from Agbor with no money, I had to work hard. I worked every weekend. Luckily it was easy for me to survive in Switzerland because at that time Switzerland was short of labour. They had terrible labour shortage.

So if you wanted to work anywhere you could easily get something to do. On the weekends, like Friday night, Saturday night, you could work and earn four days salary. Because you worked at night, they gave you double salary, what you would have earned if you had worked during the day. So with that, if you earned four days' salary in Switzerland, that would carry you, as a student, that would carry you for another two weeks. So it was really hard work, and then that also disciplined me to face my studies, knowing I didn't want to toil all that long time to make it as short as possible and go home. So that was how I managed my teenage years. It was quite exciting. I made a lot of friendship, a lot.

I had so many friends in the university, people from various countries, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spaniards, Latin Americans, you know, some French. And then many African students, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin Republic, Cameroon, Burundi, Rwanda. You know, I made friends from all these countries because we were all in the university.

And then the friendship I made when I was a teenager, actually, it was unbelievable. I had too many friends all over and because of it I travelled from within, from here to here, there to there, and my teenage years were very exciting to me.

Q: What was your first job
A: As I said, my first job was in Alumaco, Apapa. I came in there, they moved me. I joined Alusuisse when I was doing my MBA , because the MBA program that I took was tailored in such a way that we had four months classroom work, four months industrial attachment. So we kept on moving from classroom to the industry, from industry back to classroom. You know, it was a class of about, we were about 28. So we kept on moving that way, you know. So each time I had to do my industrial attachment, I had to travel from Canada to Zurich, where I was, The first job I did in Zurich was international marketing. So I marketed aluminium in Europe.

So I went from one country to the other. They had a program for me where I had to go and get the information on the markets, some of the different products. And then later on, I came to Nigeria. I did the same in Nigeria, and eventually got transferred to Nigeria. As I said, I worked with Alumaco for six years. Then because of my knowledge of French and other languages, often I had invitations for appointments and all that. Eventually, I left Alumaco and became the executive secretary of Nigeria Bankers' Employers' Association. You know, what did that mean? That meant I was more or less a trade unionist for the management of banks.

I had to face the unions on behalf of employers of banks. I faced Anubife and ASSBIFI. You know, I, every, any time they needed something from the banks, the management of banks, I was the one. So most of the time, I had to settle industrial disputes in banks. And I know at that time there were so many banks. Virtually almost every state had a bank. Almost every state, New Nigeria in Benin, Corporative Bank of Eastern Nigeria in Enugu, Corporative Bank in Ibadan, National Bank, Wema, so many banks. Bank of the North, Corporative Bank of Kaduna, so many banks. So I was actually representing and I negotiated terms and conditions of service in the banking industry on behalf of the employers. So I would say that today, many of the conditions of service in the banking industry today were negotiated by the committee I served under at that time. So I was in the Employer's Association from 1982, 82 to 87. No, 83 to 87. 87, means the managing director of then IBWA AfriBank, Mr. Abubakar Dalil. He was a young man. He was about 32 years old, the managing director then, and he came to me that he wanted me to join AfriBank, IBWA then. And because it was a French bank, most of the, many of the executives were Frenchmen. And the communication would have been very easy for me, you know, talking to them in French and all that.

So I joined IBWA then as an assistant general manager in charge of human resources. So from human resources, while serving, I moved over to development. And then in 1993, I got a letter from the Federal Government appointing me an executive director in Urban Development Bank.

And I was one of the founding directors of Urban Development Bank in Abuja. Urban Development Bank belonged to the Federal Government, the states and local governments. So I was there for about a year until Abacha took over government and dissolved the boards of all government parastatals and organizations.

So I left and came back to AfriBank because I was wise enough to take leave without pay. So I went there to Urban Development Bank. So immediately the board was dissolved, I came back and I continued with AfriBank. I was now in charge of development, corporate development. So from there, I became a GM in charge of admin and then later corporate development again, strategy one. And then in 1999, I was appointed an executive director. I served for six years. I had two terms. Each term was three years. I did two terms for six years. And then I retired at the age of 59.

Q: What was it like getting your first salary pay cheque
A: When I came back to Nigeria, I must say that I was lucky, because I requested to come back. I was tired of Europe, especially after my visit in 1975, I was so excited, I felt life was more interesting there than in Europe, where I had more friends here and all that. So when I came, the first check they gave me, my salary was as far back as 1976. I was earning about 649 Naira a month, which was a lot of money. If you had to compare that, most of my contemporaries in other companies and in the government were earning 200-something Naira, 300-something Naira, and I was already earning 600. So it was an excitement for me. Although it didn't make me crazy, I think I was lucky. They had to put my salary in Zurich a little bit to make it look good. Even though they were trying to give me the Nigerian salary structure, but they had to imagine how much I was earning in Zurich and what they should pay me now in Nigeria. So I was lucky I was earning double what my contemporaries were earning.
Q: Did you have a mentor in your early days at work
A: My mentor is my father's immediate junior brother. Reverend Father Ugboko. He was my mentor. Anything I did in life, I consulted him. He guided me all through my life.
Q: What is your current or your last job
A: I'm fully retired.
Q: How do your balance your work and your life
A: : My work and my life? Yes, your personal life. Well, the issue is that in those days, we had less tension. Most offices closed maybe 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock. So you had time for personal affairs. You could get home before night and then see your family. If you had the time, you could go to the club to play games. You had the time to do that. But these days, I don't think people have much time. Most times they close at night. I can't figure out people closing from work and going back to the club to exercise. You had that opportunity in those days. You could exercise, if you close from work, you get home.
Then you change and go back to the club to play tennis. Some people would go and play cricket or whatever, or even golf, but I don't think these days, young people have... I hear them saying, oh, I want to go to the gym. But most times, over the weekend, I doubt if they go to the gym during the week. But then, during our time, the traffic, and the timing was okay for us to exercise.

Q: How do you manage stress
A: How I manage it now or then? Then and now. In those days, managing stress, it was, you know, what I have discovered is that while you are working as a young man, you don't even know you have stress, except in the office, when your boss is on you, have you finished this, have you finished that, One is immediately, and this and that. You are struggling to make sure that you finish whatever assignment he has given to you.

But now, as a retired person, other than the stress we encounter now, the stress like electricity, water, gas, even security. Even when you have security, you are not even you can't be sure of your security. So, for those of us who live in the estate, that one is cut off because the security company is already taking that stress off us, but things like electricity, water, that is where you now have the stress. It is NEPA disappointing. Sometimes the water service is not working. I have to make sure. I am even expecting a tanker to come and deliver water to me today. So, this is the kind of struggle. What do you do? All you need to do is that, what you cannot help, you then have to absorb, so it doesn't disturb me. I don't stress myself at all. I just take things as they are.

Q: What are your hobbies
A: My hobby is listening to music. I like music. I like the old school music, not the new ones that you have. In those days when we were there, people like Matthew Cole, Ray Charles, those who were able to see life. I was lucky to see people like Ray Charles' live in Switzerland when he came to play. So, these are the kinds of music that I enjoy. I enjoy high life as well. Because when we were in secondary school, we used to have the social nights and what we played there was high life. Victor Olaiya, the Osadebe. These are the kinds of music I enjoy. And even our own traditional music too. I used to enjoy the Igbuzo dancing group. It used to be wonderful. I used to enjoy Agility. I used to love that music. In fact, one Dr. Mordi came and took away my music. I played it for him and he just couldn't resist it. He decided to carry it away. But still, later on I had the opportunity to play it.
Q: What is your ideal vacation
A: My ideal vacation? Oh, yes. My ideal vacation is to get away from home. Or you may have a good rest. The ideal vacation in life is going on a cruise, but it's very expensive.
You can't afford that every time. But we've done that a few times. So, my ideal vacation is just to keep away because Nigerians, they say, I'm on leave. And then they go to the village or they go to where they see have problems. And you say, I'm on working leave. It's nothing like working leave. Get away. Get out of the environment. Relax yourself very well. See other environments. You see people. I mean, it's changing the environment completely. That's the ideal vacation. You have to change your environment completely. But you can't be on vacation and stay in the same environment. It's not very ideal.


Q: Your favorite food, dessert and Snack
A: I don't have any particular favorite food. I just eat Nigerian food, Nsala soup. Okra soup, Vegetable soup. I don't eat pounded yam. There are many more I’ve stopped that for some years. I take oatmeal. If any time I have to do that, but I do that maybe once a week. Or once a month, twice a week. And my wife prepares a salad for me at times and I take, I don't say, tomato juice. In the morning, or soup. There is nothing. Anything that can keep me not fatty. Anything that is not fatty, that's what I eat. I don't eat beef. I can take chicken but I prefer fish. Because in our area, I would say, Asaba Ilah, we live by the River Niger. We never ate meat. The first time I ate beef was in the secondary school. Do you believe it? I never ate beef in my life until I got to Benin, and I got to beef, and one piece. Just one small piece. The first time I didn't eat it. And the guy sitting next to me in the dining room said, You won't eat? I said ehn, he just took it. I wasn't used to beef. When I was in Asaba in the primary school, I was a small boy. We ate fish every day.
Either dried fish or fresh fish. We never had the opportunity to eat beef. But after some time, I had no choice, I started eating it, and then I grew up with it. But today, I still love fish.Dried fish or fresh fish.

Q: Your favorite place in the world outside Nigeria
A: My favorite place in the world outside Nigeria? Oh, Switzerland. There's no, Switzerland is a country that is equal to none. It's not a big country. It's not very big. Switzerland is not bigger than Southwest. It's not even as big. It's not as big as Southwest. But it's ideal. Everything there is ideal. Everything there is normal. In a country as a population of about 10 million, with three languages, French, German, Italian, they don't have official language. They have official languages. The three are official. Any sign board, most of the instructions you see anywhere, you see the three languages.
Q: How did you meet your Spouse
A: Oh, my spouse? I went for a wedding. The wedding took place in Surulere. At the reception, I saw a young lady, as young guy, who was very well-dressed, and then she attracted me, and I made inquiries. They told me where was living, still with her parents in Ikoyi. Then, because I was a very courageous and bold guy in those days, I went to the house and knocked on the door, and when they opened the door, they said, Yes, who do you want to see? I said, I've come to see your daughter. I called her name. Then she ushered me into the house. They told me to sit down. I sat down, and then, the lady came. I said I've come to see you. I introduced myself, and then that was how the first contact started. Then I was a young boy in Alumaco. So we started chatting, and she was working in Mobil, you know, then Mobil was at Tinubu, Tinubu Square, one of the buildings there. It was how the friendship started, and eventually, in 1978, it was on the 29th of July, we wedded at St. Dominic's Church.


Q: How many children do you have
A: have five children.
Q: Did you want more
A: No, two boys. Two boys and three girls. Look at them. You can see them there. The Nnamdi is the first one, Eloka is the second, Afuonye who is in Canada. He's abroad. Fumnanya is the fourth and Dumebi is the fifth. So, I have five children.
Q: Did any of them follow in your footsteps, career wise
A: In career-wise? Yes, career-wise. I don't know why. They've all gone the finance way. Everybody. I don't know. All. They're in the finance industry. All of them. I don't know why including Eloka who is supposed to be an engineer. He is supposed to be in chemical engineering. Leave oil and gas. Well, for one reason or the other, when he came back, he had a friend, Chika Mordi, in UBA, Who just took him to UBA. Since then, he has refused to leave the banking industry, the finance industry. So, most of them, Afuonye was in a trust fund. What do you call it in Nigerian? Nigerian. Trust fund. Trust pension fund, or something like that, in Abuja, before she migrated to Canada with her husband and children. Fumnanya is in IBTC. Dumebi is in Standard Chartered.
They are in the banking industry, the finance industry. Okay.

Q: How does that make you feel
A: Well, there is nothing I can feel. They have to. It's left to them. Mine is gone. I've finished my career there. But the only thing is that at times, from time to time, they seek my advice. That is the only thing. It's left to them to know how they feel. I've finished mine. It's good when they get into the finance industry, sometimes they meet people, they say, I’m so so Ugboko, and people say ah! is he your father? It's just like him going to NTA. Everybody asks you Maduka, Are you the son of our former boss? Yeah. That's the only way. There is nothing else to feel about. It's left to them now to build their own experience.I've done mine.
Q: What do you think of people that force their children to do what they want
A: It's not good. Never force your child to do what he doesn't want to do. Because you see, when you do that, they don't feel there is no, you know, you kill their self-esteem. Let me put it this way. That's forcing a child to do what you want. If the child fails while pursuing that career, it becomes very difficult for the child to readjust. It's like, it's like you've killed their initiative. Because I've seen people who force their children to go and do medicine, especially medicine, we want a doctor in this family who will do medicine. When he does three years and he fails, they have to come back again and start all over again. While his mates are graduating, he's starting. So, you know, it's not good. God has destined people for whatever they can do. So, everybody has his innate initiative. So, when you do that, you kill the initiative.
Q: What is your favorite time of the day
A: My favorite time of day? Yes, favorite time of the day, morning, afternoon, night?
I would say the evening. It's my favorite night because that's when I can sit down all alone on my own and listen to the world news, change to French channel, TV Cinq, they call it. I will watch. I will listen to the news in Switzerland, in France, and then I will come back, watch football, and then I like football too. Then I can sit down here watching the various news in different languages until about 11 o'clock when I go to bed. So, I'm alone and normally I don't like being disturbed. My wife has her own television upstairs. She watches the women, what is it called, African magic and whatever.

But I sit here and I will go to different channels at different times. I know when to watch the French channel. I know when to watch sometimes German. I know when to watch football or CNN or BBC.

Q: What experiences have you had in your life that you’d say have shaped you to be the person you are today
A: My biggest life experience in what form? Generally, sir. Generally, both career-wise and in your personal life. My biggest life experience is let me put it raising my children. Raising my children, you know I had I had no, let me put it this way. I didn't have an easy child life. I didn't have an easy child life because I lost my mother when I was six years old. So, you can imagine a child without a mother at the age of six growing up. It wasn't easy at all. My mother had us. We were three children. Three boys, when she died, the last one died. So, two of us were left. And then we started growing up under hardship. When so, when I got my children I didn't want my children to go through that experience. Like that made me very close to my children, you know, because of my childhood experience. So, my children, and I was looking into the growth of each and every one of them in terms of career, in terms of education, guiding them because I didn't have that close relationship, you know, taking them all through and then themselves they themselves also listening to the advice of their parents, and then seeing them all coming out successfully. Each, I have being able to train each one of them up to Master's degree abroad. So, that was a lot of sacrifice. A lot of sacrifice. I would say I think I would say that everything my wife and I earned were put in the education of our children, and we are today we are glad that none of them derailed because sometimes we can some people train their children and they derailed and they are not in today they are not in talking terms and that is but today at least all our children are safe very close to us.

They can come here anytime they want even though they are now independent we are happy about that that should be our greatest achievement. Five of them for that matter none and they all went out of the country to go and study none derailed.

Q: What one thing do wish you could go back in time and do all over again
A: : One thing I want to go back and do all over again? Yes. That is maybe go to the go into the secondary school again or I would say one thing I would like to go into the university again maybe not to study exactly what I have studied before but something new. Something new going back to the university to stud, because you will find that the amount of knowledge you acquire that will be satisfactory to you. You often want to learn something new and as you see the world is changing very fast you discover that there are many things that are emanating for you to make more enquiries and discoveries, so if I have anything I want to do I tend to go back to it
Q: What are the best qualities you look for in people?
A: The best qualities I look, I look at behaviour maybe because the way I was brought up I look at people you must have respect for your human beings not necessarily because of age or anything but an old man should respect a young person and a young person should respect an old person an old man shouldn't expect respect from a younger person without being also respectful to him. So for me I count so much on behaviour especially respect and humility. One must learn to be humble, humility when you go out when you come out you meet people you see it doesn't matter whether the person is small or big or whatever so for me humility and respect are very important.


Q: What one thing do wish you could go back in time and do all over again
A: One thing I want to go back and do all over again? Yes. That is maybe go to the go into the secondary school again or I would say one thing I would like to go into the university again maybe not to study exactly what I have studied before but something new. Something new going back to the university to stud, because you will find that the amount of knowledge you acquire that will be satisfactory to you. You often want to learn something new and as you see the world is changing very fast you discover that there are many things that are emanating for you to make more enquiries and discoveries, so if I have anything I want to do I tend to go back to it

Q: What are the best qualities you look for in people
A: The best qualities I look, I look at behaviour maybe because the way I was brought up I look at people you must have respect for your human beings not necessarily because of age or anything but an old man should respect a young person and a young person should respect an old person an old man shouldn't expect respect from a younger person without being also respectful to him. So for me I count so much on behaviour especially respect and humility. One must learn to be humble, humility when you go out when you come out you meet people you see it doesn't matter whether the person is small or big or whatever so for me humility and respect are very important.


Q: How is your relationship with God
A: With God? Well I wouldn't say all I know is that I'm a Catholic I'm a Christian I'm a Catholic I try as much as possible to go to Mass as often as I can at least three times a week at least three times a week on Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday I try to go to afternoon Mass on Wednesday and Friday then on Sunday just like every other Christian I go to church, and I pray to God every day I mean for keeping me alive keeping my wife alive keeping my children alive that's all I do.
Q: If you could pick 3 people to have a conversation with either living or dead, who would they be
A: Three people that I would like to have a conversation with either living or dead who would they be? Um let me put it this way I used to have a teacher Mr. Oguta Edmond Oguta, although he's late he was my teacher my lesson teacher he taught me in the primary school preparing me for entrance examination and the man he was friendly with my father but a man whom I think loved me so much unfortunately he died quite early. He's somebody I would have loved to talk with every day. The second person I would say is my uncle who is late as well and I lost my very good friend whom I talk with every day I'm going to bury I'm going for his burial next week Mr. Ogbolu Onwuka he was my childhood friend even when we were in school and when he was in the university in New York I used to go and see him meet him in New York but unfortunately he died on the 6th of May. Easter was March 6th of April he's my very very close friend.
Q: What are your 3 greatest achievements thus far
A: My three greatest achievements my three greatest achievements is number one before I came back from my father died. I didn't, when I came back I didn't meet my father alive and I had as I told you my mother died many years ago my father remarried and also got so I have half brothers and a half sister. I was able to send them to school through university. One of them is a dentist, the other one is a computer engineer the girl is a banker so I was able to do them and that that gives me the joy that just as just as I give them the education I also give my children education. There are also some extended family members in the Ugboko family that I was able to give education because I believe that for somebody to be anything in life, you must acquire education first. It doesn't matter, it can be whatever you like but you need education the way you don't have education you can't even decide you can't decipher between right and wrong. So that is my greatest achievement the education I was able to give my children brothers and sisters and my cousins.
Q: What are your happiest moments
A: My happiest moments my happiest moments when I'm at the table with my wife we're eating and talking and laughing.

Q: Beef or Chicken or Fish
A: I already I told you fish you already know
Q: Hot or Cold weather
A: cold weather, no you see I don't know I don't like cold weather anymore but funny enough when I was a young boy you know it was the cold weather that gave me this bald head no one else in the Ugboko family has this except me why? because as a young boy in Switzerland I used to go out in the winter without covering my hair and I used to go skiing you know in those days and then look at this it's the winter and I would use iron comb and everything went off so now even when I go to when I travel out before it is winter I make sure I don't know I can no longer withstand the winter.
Q: Morning, Afternoon or Night
A: You already mentioned you like evening times when I watch the television yes
Q: Sweet or spicy foods
A: Spicy
Q: Read, Watch TV or Listen to music to relax
A: I would say I I relax with TV more than any of those
Q: Iphone or Android
A: Which one is this one? Android you see I don't I have gotten two telephones stolen from me so I don't I don't pay emphasis on all these expensive telephones anymore so I just get a phone that I can make a call on WhatsApp, the the mail and then retrieve my account whatever that's all I want I don't need any sophisticated phone anymore.
Q: Native, Formal or Casual clothes
A: Native formal formal or casual clothes? or formal what do you call native now? Formal. Up and down, that's what I like because of the weather now that we have climate change and when the heat is coming too much so it's you feel that's why I'm even wearing this.
Q: Window seat or aisle on a plane
A: window is my favourite
Q: Europe, Asia or North America to visit
A: okay Asia, why? because Europe is very historical there is most cities and most towns you visit in Europe are one historical memory or the other and movement is easy I mean you don't unlike North America where you must have a car in order to go anywhere but in Europe you enter the tram, you enter the rail you enter the train you can travel by train right from Switzerland to Stockholm in Sweden you just sit down in the train even at night, it's night you take a sleeping cab and you sleep and you wake up so Europe is very very ideal
Q: Going out or staying home
A: Now going out where do I go to? that is a problem at our age now where do you go to? whom do you want to visit? for example now at this hour of the day whom do you want to visit? Except your contemporary but your contemporary might be having something else or he might see most of our contemporary some of them have even gone back to their villages so whom do you really visit?

Q: Please can you give us 3 people that we can interviews as well
A: I'll give you Professor Idigbe, Emmanuel Idigbe. Professor Emmanuel Idiba was the retired DG of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research in Yaba he lives in the other estate just opposite. Chief Chief. Yeah. Idigbe is a chief. Then Chief Tom Allen. Ayo Ahonsi. He lives in Magodo.
Q: Please can you give some advice to the young people coming behind you
A: Well, the advice I will give to the young people is that the young people should get more and more involved in public affairs, in politics in Nigeria. Any country, when you look at the history of countries that have changed, you find that the youths changed those countries. Not the older generation. No. Look at what is happening in Senegal now. The youths have taken over Senegal. Unfortunately, the youths had the opportunity to take over Nigeria, but they are still being manipulated by tribal sentiment. It's not. You see, just as I have seen, you go to Poland. Poland, the youths changed Poland. Poland was a very backward country before, but today it's a country to be reckoned with in Europe because the youths changed Poland through the trade union movement.

So it's easy to criticize the older generation. Unfortunately for our own generation, we were not lucky because most of the time of our life, we had a military regime, and to worsen it, our generation also played a wrong game because who joined the military? Those who were the dropouts. The dropouts joined the military. I know many of them, our contemporaries. They joined the military. And these same people now, you have to go and beg to make me commissioner, to make me minister. You see what it is. So the same people you knew, you were better than. You are now begging them to make you this or make you that. So it's difficult. And many of our generation, they played into the hands of the military. And they are the same people that they picked up now as politicians. They are the people parading themselves as politicians today in Nigeria. These were the military apologists. They are now the people who are politicians.

So for the youths who think that things will change now, until the Nigerian youths come together and say, look, our future is your future. Whether you are Yoruba, you are Igbo, you are Hausa, you are Efik, you are Ibibio, you are Fulani, it’s the same future. If the economy is not good, if, it can't be good for one tribe and be bad for another tribe. No. If the country is not moving forward, the country is not moving forward for everybody. So that is my advice to the youths. Let them sit down. I know that I don't blame them because all this while, when they were born and when they were growing up, they didn't see democratic dispensation. So now that they are seeing it, they have to sit down and think. Take away tribes. You go to the market, there is no price for any tribe. The same inflation for everybody. So they have to sit down, think. Because running away is not the answer. If everybody runs away from this country, who stays? Nobody, and when you, no matter what you do, go to that country, after a few years, you will still be thinking of Nigeria. You would want to come back, because there is nothing like home. You still want to come back. We all had the same experience before.

We left this country thinking that it was good there. Oh, we came back. So even with the japa, japa, yes, after some time, you will be tired, you want to come home. And I used to have my best friend who was a doctor, a gynecologist from Okpanam. And he had a very successful practice in America. He was a gynecologist who had a practice in America. And any time he went into the hospital to have his surgeries and all, he would shout at them. So they would say, Tony, if your country were so good, you wouldn't be here. They would always remind him.

Even though he had American citizenship and everything, but he was not fully accepted. They felt that they gave it to him just for convenience, for his own convenience. Because they know from time to time he will come back to Nigeria when they visit for one month.
So whatever happens, if you really go abroad, one day you will come back here. And if you decide not to come back, I don't think you have a happy old age abroad. Because that's when it is most horrible.

One day you may have free medical facilities, but you don't have free, you don't have companionship. You want, as you get older, you want people to relate with you. But even if you are there, your children might not be around. They might be far away. So you are all alone. So they have to make sure Nigeria is straightened out for everybody, and let people stay here. And we've really never given a thought to it. In Nigeria, my uncle, I remember very well. He used to tell me, when he voted in 19... When he voted in 19... When did he vote again? When did he vote again? In 1979. In 1979, yes. He voted. After that, with the way the politicians were behaving, he told me, look, I will never vote again until I die. I said, why? He said, what are you voting for? He said, voting for people who don't even care about the people, that is the issue. So we have to make sure. Because the youths should sit down, straighten out, because they are the only people that can change this country.

In the colonial days, the students' movement in Nigeria, Nigerian students' movement, helped in driving away the colonials. They played a major role in our independence. The youths, they played a major role in the independence of Nigeria. Why is it now that the youths cannot play a role in straightening out Nigeria? We put a lot of pressure on people, on the government. We want this, we want it done this way, we want it done this way. But, today, I don't know whether they still have the students' movement or whatever.

Nigerian students' association or whatever. It doesn't exist anymore in Nigeria. Because they have the Balkanized, you know with the tribal sentiments. So it's nothing. But we have to forget about that. Forget about ethnic groups sitting down together.

Say, look, this is what we want Nigeria to look like. No more pressure on government. We are Nigerian citizens, we have a future in this country. We want this, we want that. This is it. So that's it.