It’s a new dawn in computer village, says Ojikutu Ahmed , CAPDAN President

Mr. Ojikutu Ahmed Adeniyi is newly elected President of Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN). In this interview with MARK ULOKO he bares his mind on various issues including how his leadership intends to take the association to next level. Excerpts.

Can we meet you sir?

My name is Ojikutu Ahmed Adeniyi. I was born to the famous family of Ojikutu of Lagos. By the special of God I am the managing Director of Pacific Network Solution Ltd as well the chairman of African Agro Development Project and also an approved license PKO Refinery. The success record in my business was made possible due to experience gathered from the number one ICT hub in Africa (Computer Village, Ikeja). As matter of fact I am a man of many parts, I involve in an active politics, Academia (Business Entrepreneur Lecturer). Despite many responsibilities on me, God see leadership capacity in me; he added another feather as the first elected president of Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN). I’m happily married and blessed with children.

What informed your decision and confidence to contest the election which led to your emergence as the president of CAPDAN?  

I always see myself as a product of Computer Village. There are lot of opportunity and potentials available within this environment that can turnaround the fortune of the people and contributed greatly to economic development of Lagos State but I observe that reserves is the case because much have not been done to utilize this great asset. As a matter of fact, I have done research to see problems and challenges confronting the stakeholders in Computer Village to know where we actually got it wrong. I discovered that; there are great potentials abound that are yet to be utilized within the Computer Village and I come to the terms that, it is time to build a great new business environment for business to succeed. So my strength and confidence to join the race is because I discovered my ability to work with people of different background and race that can build a unifying structure in order to achieve a desire goals and objectives. And I thank God; that the election was able to produce the kind of executive on the board now. The people that are reliable, trustworthy, articulate and in all knowledgeable character that can work for the interest of the body. I believe that, electing me as the president of CAPDAN will be a total revolution in the market and there is possibility for us to achieve great within my period of leading this body. I have the maturity, objectivity and sagacity to pilot the affair of this great association to the next level. 

What are the plans you and the members of Executive have for this body?

Before the election we have our manifestoes that we used to sell our candidacy to the electorate. For me, we all have the same agenda for the sake of this body and that has eased our campaign. We are all passionate on how we can make Computer Village the number one ICT destination particularly in Nigeria and Africa in general. Since CAPDAN is a large body we are going to build a foster unity among the entire stakeholder to enhance co-operation and business integration that will lead to capacity building and the growth of our members. Working to ensure there is unity and cooperation of our members is sacrosanct and paramount. First CAPDAN is going into partnership with some coperate body and government agency both at the state and federal level through ministry of Science, Communication and Technology, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). We are establishing Multipurpose Co-operate Society by partnering with the new Lagos State Ministry of Empowerment and Employment for direct SME fund. World class ICT, e-commerce (i.e. market website) will be created. For purpose of uniformity; Price review committee for Phone, Laptops and other product in the market will be constituted. To add more value and expertise to our services, we make it compulsory to have training on products. Engineers are also expected to have training on various products that enter the market with certificate of Lagos State College of Technology. We are going to organize Leadership Summits and business owners training, quarterly Business development training and ethic in partnership with Lagos Business School and Babcock Business School. This will be achieved through our business development plan. Secondly, just like I mentioned earlier unity among the market men and women is not something we can compromise. You know Computer Village is made up of different religions, tribes, race, ethnicity with difference mind set and character. To achieve this, we are going to organize an annual inter-denomination service for all Christians during Christmas and annual Ramadan Lecture for Muslims. We are going to organize Computer Village Week for inter-cultural interaction program and annual sport festival (inter-street competition) just to ensure that there is unity among the people in the market. Security is another key area we are going to work on.

There is this perception some criminals are operating in Computer Village. This has created fear in the mind of many customers, how do you intend to address this issue?

We all know that some set of people masquerade themselves within the market doing their criminal act; this has been given bad impression about Computer Village. I promise you that our come on board will put an end to all criminal activity within the market. We are going to take an aggressive measure to sanitize the system to restore the confidence of our esteem valuable customers so that they can enjoy our good services as expected. We have already mapped out a blue print on how to deal with the situation decisively. We are planning to work strictly with security agency combine with other security facilities put in place will make it so difficult for them to operate within the environment. That task is very important as far as this Association is concerned just to restore our glory back.

 How do you intend to achieve all of these?

 Well it may seen as a difficult task but we are all passionate about new computer village and we are going to do anything possible  to make sure Computer Village become one of the biggest ICT centre in whole of Africa. For us to accomplish our mission we are going to work harmoniously in order to avoid divided house. We are partnering with necessary agents and bodies to achieve our business plans. Security agent combine with our own Task Force will be there to overhaul the security challenges in the market.

Many people have said good thing about you; is it the kind of person you are or you decide to act that way to win the heart of the electorate?

Whatever people tells you about me, that is the kind of person I am. It is my nature and I don’t see any reason for me to pretend to get support from the people. God had given me a gift on how to manage people in any situation any time irrespective of who they are, being tribe, culture, race or character. People have already seen that in me as a reliable, trust, articulate someone with a high level of strategic reason and diplomacy that is why you see how I was accepted and voted for at the poll. In a nutshell; I always see myself as symbol of unity and progress, someone that always say no to discrimination anywhere I found myself.

Consider the margin between you and your opponent; what really came to your mind when you were declared winner?

Just like I said earlier, Ojikutu remain someone that always pull crowd any time any day because of who he is. One thing about life is this, when you are in the midst of people, there is need for you to know how important people around you are to you and give them the due respect. It is God and people that can lift you up even higher if humble you yourself before them. What transpire on the Election Day never came to me as surprise because I know that people have much confidence in me. But to answer your question directly; what really came to my mind is this, “I must not disappoint the people’s confidence”. And Ojikutu have no reason to fail them because I quiet knew their feeling and challenges confronting them before I contested for the election and I have all it takes to fulfill my promises to them. I know that the task is much because many thing need to be put in place rightly for interest of all but we have a team that is capable of doing thing that will bring back innovative, ideal, creativity and excellent to computer village.  

What should people be expecting from you?

Well during campaign I gave a lot of promises and people are expecting me to fulfill those promises. I want to let you know that I am still stick to the promises I made and to fulfill it will be my priority. My people have shown me the love they have for me by voting me as president of CAPDAN. They should be expecting something difference from what we used to have in old Computer Village from me and member of my executive. New innovative, branding, developments, creativity in fact it is a new dawn in computer village which will start bringing fruit immediately for the benefit of all. All I need from them is to continue supporting us as they have done and all that is being expected from us will be achieved by the grace of God.