WHEN PASSION FOR FATHERLAND RUNS DEEP

By Samuel Ajayi.
Recently, Ifeanyi Ubah, multi-millionaire businessman and founder of Capital Oil, led the management of his football team, FC Ifeanyi Ubah, to West Ham United in London. This is despite media attacks on the man and his businesses. Samuel Ajayi looks at the man, his rise and why his determination to provide employment for his compatriots remains strong
It was unfamiliar faces at Upton Park, the home of West Ham United Football Club in east London. But the purpose of their visit was not lost on them neither on their hosts. The entourage, from Nigeria, was led by billionaire businessman, Ifeanyichukwu Ubah. The aim of the meeting was to develop a working relationship between the English football top flight side and Ubah’s football club, FC Ifeanyi Ubah.

During the meeting, Ubah made an official presentation on the strength and aspirations of his football club to the English clubside represented by its managing director, Angus Kinnear, and other officials. Ubah was to later meet with the chairman of West Ham United, David Gold. Sources informed THISDAY that the meeting was a private one and another meeting would soon be held between the two men at a later date. The collaboration between the two sides would see both clubs start exchange programmes, players’ scouting, youth football development and training for coaches as well as business alliances.

As he marked his 44th birthday recently, the meeting with West Ham United was another milestone in the life of one Nigerian who has come to see the development of his fatherland in all aspects of human endeavour as a passion he must pursue with the last drop of his blood. The passion is there and the determination seems to be growing every day.
Ubah is a young man by African standards but he seems to have found a way to dine with elders and the result is a young man pulling his weight where old men are groping in the dark for direction. He started early. And it was not always a smooth journey. The day he quit school and told his father that he was going to Lagos in search of direction in life, his father was downcast. The old man could not take it and he burst to tears.