Late Otunba Gadafi
The payoff ‘Shit business is serious business’ is synonymous with the late Isaac Durojaiye Agbetusin popularly known as Otunba Gaddafi.
In his days while alive, Otunba Gaddafi who was only 47-years-old when he died on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, after a brief illness created the first sets of public toilets, inventing all shapes and sizes thereby creating a thriving sanitary business.
Just when you thought you have seen it all, Otunba Gaddafi would come along with something out of the blues, tagging it a special name like “VIP Toilets”, as he made a success of each new invention.
Otunba Gaddafi’s Dignified Mobile Toilets (DMT), was so successful that hardly would a day pass without commuters spotting several of his trucks going to several destinations including parties, parks and markets either to deliver fresh toilets or to take away waste in a very professional, orderly and healthy manner.
At a point in time, just before he died, business was so prosperous that DMT had over 19 branches in Nigeria and seven in the West African sub-region with over 3, 000 designs of international standards manufactured.
All those days seem very faraway and bleak too, as the fortunes of the business which was subsequently handed over to his brother to manager is fast dwindling just two years after the idealist behind it passed on.
Today, innovation, steadfastness, calculated risk taking and diligence all watchwords which Otunba Gaddafi preached as key to a successful business are no longer peculiar with DMT Toilet any more, as it seems the inventor who breathed life into the business from the start took away the magic touch when he died. DMT, has suddenly witnessed a nosedive and hardly has a public presence with what is seen been the leftover touches of the last days of Otunba Gaddafi.
The situation in DMT presently is believed to be so appalling that nothing is being heard of the bio-gas plant which was designed to process and convert sanitation waste into cooking gas and electricity.
Knowing that the man who proudly tagged himself the Senior ‘Agbepo’ of Nigeria (SAN) excelled in a line of business a lot of people considered dirty and demeaning a lot of people had questioned the ability to find a capable replacement to run the business after his demise.
Although when Otunba Gaddafi died, the management of DMT in a statement signed by the Chairman of the board of the company, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, and the company’s Secretary, Fes Eze Eke
assured clients that the deceased’s business would continue to function despite his demise.
However, as it is presently, it won’t be wrong to say that the business which the late Otunba Gaddafi began with three containers, constructed into 18 toilets, six toilets in each container in 1996 is fast dying due to lack of a passion driven manager. The facts are there for all to analyze.
When we reached out to DMT for a reaction the organisations Head of Admin and Human Resources Manager Busayo Popoola revealed thus” the organisation is doing better now. From owing two months salary when Otunba Gadafi died we are not owing anymore. Our public presence might not be what we want but it is the way it is because we are just trying to stabilize. We are paying a loan of 62 Million to Skye Bank and every month we pay a certain amount to the bank. Otunba Gadafi left six children when he died and the company is responsible for them, none is in a public school. One of them even graduated from Babcock University recently. The land on which the company is built was been reclaim by land grabbers and we had to repay. Bills here and there has caused a setback, but i can tell you categorically that we are bouncing back”, she concluded.
-Ahmed Korede
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