Business mogul, industrialist and philanthropist and Parakoyi of Ibadanland, Chief Bode Akindele, died today at the age of 87.
Akindele, who, according to a report by Streetjournal, changed mortality for immortality, was a renowned entrepreneur and successful industrialist.
The late Chief Akindele was born to a father who was a Chief Tax Collector in the old Western Region, Pa Joshua Laniyan and Madam Rabiatu Adedigba, a wealthy female trader who was reputed to be first woman in Ibadan to pay the holy pilgrimage to Mecca.
His business interests, under the name Modandola Group of Companies, whcha has its headquarters in the United Kingdom, range across maritime, properties, manufacturing, real estates, investments, finance and flour milling with its headquarters in the United Kingdom.
The late Parakoyi of Ibadanland has thriving subsidiaries, including Standard Breweries, Diamond Foods Ltd, United Beverages Ltd and Associated Match Industry all based in Ibadan.
He also went into partnership with some companies in Ilorin, Port-Harcourt and Lagos to form a company with a large share of the Nigerian market and Standard Flour Mills in Lagos.
He was also into the brewery and soft drinks industry, brewering and bottling the Club Beer and Dr Pepper brand of soft drinks in the 1980s, also from Ibadan.
The late renowned philanthropist, who registered his first company at the age of 20, was also the founder of the ARAMED Medical Centre, Ibadan, which he built and dedicated to the memory of his mother and which is the healing ministry of the Bode Akindele Foundation.
Born without the proverbial silver spoon, he started his education at Olubi Memorial School, Ibadan and attended Lisabi Commercial College, Abeokuta, Ogun State for his secondary school education.
He initially nursed the idea of traveling to the UK to study Law, but the growth of his business activities took a better part of him. Hence, he diverted the money given to him to procure an international passport to place an order for a sewing machine which he sold at a good profit.
He got his first paid employment in 1952, as secretary to an assistant district officer and later became a cadet manager with the United Africa Company (UAC), where he was an assistant to the expatriate manager at Oyo. Akindele left UAC foods for the Western Nigerian Union of Importers and Exporters.
A produce buyer and exporter, the importation of goods and high volume of cocoa exports paid off tremendously for him. This led him into having an interest in clearing and forwarding and road haulage and the eventual setting up of the Coastal Services Ltd.).
Later, he became a shipping agent, chartering vessels in London and using old school connections with the National Bank of Nigeria which had opened a London office in 1956, to finance his transactions.
His business group opened the big Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) terminal and warehousing operation at the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos as the managing agent of the Nigeria Ports Authority for RORO terminals in all Nigerian ports.
The group also ventured into fishing after securing four trawlers from Ghana in 1971. Obelawo Farcha Fishing Industries Ltd currently has a fleet of 28 trawlers and five shrimpers are under construction. In the early 1980s, the group expanded into boat building and ship repair as well as dry-dock facilities in a joint venture with Damen Shipyards of Holland.
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