Before he died last year, Jerry Ugwu, a lawyer and an old boy of Holy Ghost College Owerri, Imo state, drew our attention to one undeniable fact: Leo Stan Ekeh, another old boy of the college, has innovated his way ahead of all of us; both his seniors and juniors at the college.
Last week, months after Jerry’s demise, we had gathered at the Lekki, Lagos, home of another old boy to palatable food and exotic wines amid light music on an evening of reflection and catch-up when another old boy, Gaby (Gabriel) Eze, who showed an elephantine memory of many tales out of our alma mater, reminded us to thank God on behalf of Leo Stan Ekeh, one of us in those good old days who has worked his way to continental and global reckoning. Holy Ghost College, Owerri (HOGOSCO) was those days, I guess it still is, a secondary school of first choice for many parents. They wanted their children (wards) to experience the first-class drills of scholarship, discipline, sporting excellence and integrity which the school was famed for.
It has produced many great men in medicine, business, engineering, legal profession, entertainment and sundry professions. The likes of Dr. John Ebuwa, a reputable heart surgeon, the inimitable Charly Boy (Charles Oputa), and football legend Kanu Nwankwo, among others.
The gathering was on Friday night, January 31, barely four days after Leo Stan (that’s what we call him) was honoured with the CEO of the Year Award by Thisday newspapers. It was a rare moment as his first son, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, was also honoured by the same newspaper with the Young Global Leader Award. Both father and son play big in the digital economy marketplace, contributing to Nigeria’s GDP by widening the frontiers of technology. While Leo Stan is the Chairman of Zinox Group, his son is the mastermind behind the nimble-footed Konga e-commerce company, ranked one of the leaders in Africa.
Gaby reflected on our past, recalling how restless Leo Stan used to be, a trait he still exhibits till this day. He packs both brain and brawn mixed with a formidable sociable persona that endeared him to many. Aside academic excellence, HOGOSCO was famous for its sporting prowess and Leo Stan played his part. It was at that point that the words of our late friend, Jerry, about Leo Stan began to dawn on us. The Ubomiri-born star has developed into a digital colossus to the acclamation of both the high and mighty.
Received opinion as we got chatty that night was that no one is surprised at the success story of Leo Stan. He has always demonstrated a rare tenacity to dare and take on difficult tasks. And in all cases, he rides every storm and berths safely on the other side. We were not surprised that after schooling in India and the United Kingdom, he would return to Nigeria at a time his mates were doing everything possible to travel to UK, United States or anywhere and settle down there. Gaby reminded us how Leo Stan had always defined his own path, his personality even as he freely mixed with people of all tribes and tongues. In those days, HOGOSCO was cosmopolitan with students outside the south east savouring the academic drills from our devoted teachers.
Though not a surprise, but what caught our fancy the most was the fact that Leo Stan was honoured same night at the Thisday awards with his son. It was a pleasant rarity in Nigeria that a father and his son would mount the same dais on the same night to be honoured as outliers and whizzes in the same sector. It was not just an honour for our alma mater and the Ekeh family, it is a national honour and one that should inspire many parents and children. Leo stan and his son have achieved what many Nigerian entrepreneurs have failed to achieve over the years: the inability to mentor their children and groom them to transition from mere start-ups to huge enterprises, even conglomerates.
Yet, while people celebrate the success of Leo Stan in the African digital arena, they lose sight of the fact that he was a school dropout, a high profile one at that. Typical of him, he had started his university education from the University of Punjab in India majoring in Economics before migrating to UK for his post-graduate degrees. India was an alluring destination for many Nigerians in those days and we had Indian teachers especially in mathematics and sciences across Nigeria secondary schools. I know Leo Stan has a derring-do spirit but I wager that his stay in India helped to fortify that spirit.
In the UK, he picked up an MSc in Risk Management from the University of Nottingham and was on the verge of adding an LLM when he dropped out. Leo Stan used his school fees for the LLM as seed money to start his journey into the risky world of entrepreneurship. As an old boy of HOGOSCO who has followed his trajectory, I thought he was crazy not just to return to Nigeria but also to abandon a sought-after post-graduate degree programme in the UK. Only a natural risk-taker like Leo Stan would dare such. What many us thought was a high risk those days has today become a blessing to humanity and to the entire alumni of the great Holy Ghost College.
But see where he is today. At the cusp of Nigeria’s digital economy. A serial digital pioneer. A multiple awards winner. A proud father of a high-flying son. He has not only become richer than all of us, he has become HOGOSCO’s biggest Ambassador. Honoured as Icon of Hope for his exploits in the nation’s ICT industry by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2001, he is also a recipient of one of the highest national honours in Nigeria, Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). Add these to the numerous doctoral degrees (Honoris Causa) conferred on him by several Nigerian universities and polytechnics, what you get is the profile of a dropout who practically turned little into much.
In all of this, there is a God factor in Leo Stan’s storied life. Blessed with a brilliant wife and well-behaved children, not many wealthy people enjoy such peace of mind and family bliss. Perhaps, this is why it was possible for him to raise a digitally-minded family. His wife, Lady Chioma Ekeh, a mathematician and chartered accountant runs the biggest tech distribution company in sub – Saharan Africa, TD Africa. His first son and fellow award winner, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, is in charge of Konga, a company that either by design or default, has a huge constellation of young staffers. His first daughter, Mrs. Gozy Ajogun (nee Ekeh), an alumnus of London School of Economics (LSE) oversees Task Systems, an ICT solutions firm under the Zinox Group. Miss Chidalu Ekeh, his second daughter with Masters in Digital Marketing from Imperial College, London, is a Fintech buff, while his other two younger sons are hot on their heels in the tech space.
Indeed, it’s hard to find an African family so united and focused in the digital industry. The Ekehs are and it says so much about the character of my school mate and an epitome of the Nigerian ‘possibility’ spirit. Congratulations my dear friend, the iconic Leo Stan Ekeh, on all your achievements.
Ogbonna, old boy of Holy Ghost College, writes from London.
