(OPINION) Raymond Aliga: Extraying a Ray of Hope for Humanity

“Some people don’t like you because your strength reminds them of their weakness. Don’t let the hate slow you down.”

By Dr Thelma Bryant Davis

There is an African adage – which is very prominent among the Yoruba people – that discourages parents and people generally from comparing children with one another.

Specifically, the adage says that if we compare one child with another, we may end up beating the other one who is not doing so well to death. So, it is better we allow all kids of different characters, traits, talents and abilities to grow at their pace and time.

Having digested the theme of this adage, we in Africa over the years have learnt how not to compare two people at all, whether they are kids or adults. So in a family, community, workplace etc, we just silently dispense favours, benefits, commendations, awards, disciplinary actions and punishments on the basis of those who are deserving of any of them.

This is a culture we have to revisit for the purpose of inspiring, especially the younger generation to aspire for greatness.

Because of this recent culture and the humility, modesty and fear of God in certain individuals, the fact that these individuals don’t blow their own trumpet, some persons have been seeking to rewrite our recent history and pull wool over the eyes of unsuspecting people by dressing truth as falsehood and packaging heresy as gospel. These people are trying to launch a lie that if we allow them to sustain in the front burner of discourse, it will begin to look like the truth.

Based on recent events in the political landscape of Abia State, we have to begin to separate the wheat from the chaff for the purpose of posterity.

Raymond M. Aliga, a proud indigene of Nenu in Obingwa LGA of Abia State, a self-made, wealthy entrepreneur and philanthropist par excellence, is one of the underrated titans that I am talking about. A great, patriotic Nigerian who has for decades dominated the business landscape of the state and environs like a colossus and who has now expanded his terrain to Lagos and other parts of the country.

An Industrialist of repute, Aliga has over two decades of experience in Shipping and General Marine Consultancy, Oil Field Services, Procurement Services, Construction, Oil and Gas, Hospitality, Agriculture and Manufacturing.

He is a multi-talented personality with a proven record of successfully steering organisations from humble beginnings to limelight. He holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Human Resource Management option from the prestigious Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Oyo State. He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Planning (Transport) from Lagos State University (LASU), and a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Shipping Management from the Certified Institute of Shipping, a Maritime University. Aliga is a Chartered Shipping Practitioner having been awarded Associate of the Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria.

In 2005, he founded Allray Maritime Services Limited, an integrated shipping company which commenced operations immediately, offering services in Shipping, Air and Sea freight, LCL Consolidation, Trucking, Project Logistics, General Marine Consultancy, Oil Field Services and Procurement Services.

A restless entrepreneur, Raymond Aliga also founded Goodseed Foundations which is a co-founder of Australian Academy in Nigeria. The Goodseed Foundation, an Africa-based philanthropic organisation, focuses on vocational training and providing short courses for artisans.

He is also the Chairman of Goodseed Industries with technical college called Kiara De – Luke Academy and with clusters of six industries which include Goodseed Farms Ltd, Integrated Farm, Logistics, De Luke Garment Manufacturing Company Ltd, a company whose specialty is textile and garment production, Logistics De Luke furniture manufacturing company Ltd, that is employing over 100 Abians, Logistics De Luke Construction Company Limited which specialises on construction of all kinds of building and roads, Logistics De Luke Electrical and Logistics De – Luke Fabrications.

Aliga has a strong flair for humanitarianism and hospitality. He is the managing Director of Staywell Hospitality Services Nigeria Limited; operators of Aries Suites Hotel, Osborne Foreshore Estate, lkoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. He serves as a community leader in Abia State, also an Elder of United Evangelical Church.

Mr Aliga is furthermore, a member of the Board of Directors, Vica Hope Foundation (VHF) a humanitarian organisation whose mission is “to provide a platform for enhancing the status of women, teenagers, and children through education, empowerment, welfare, healthcare provisions/ skills development and to undertake interventions in poverty reduction, obnoxious widowhood and teenage girl abuses as well as promote maternal and childcare, women, and children’s rights.”

Democracy, with its accompanying freedom of expression, is however a leveller… The sort of leveller that makes all manners of roadside charlatans and nonentities take advantage of the lack of adequate gatekeeping on social media to spew all sorts of ridiculous stuff against honourable gentlemen who have over the decades toiled day and night to get to the top and build mighty  empires that are the envy of all and sundry.

As a result of the failure they have made out of their own below-average lives, some persons have conditioned their warped minds to think that it is impossible for anyone to make it as a result of decent toil or hard work. Because of their criminal mindset which would have made them loot the God’s own state dry if they ever got close to the cookie jar, they think people like Aliga had also depended on illicit money from politics to reach the heights it pleased God to take him to.

Let us however set the records for the sake of posterity, not for the purpose of these shady characters who obviously cannot be coached and can never learn. Aliga’s success in business did not start with the outgoing administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.

Infact, it was Aliga’s office that served as Ikpeazu’s campaign office when he aspired to be governor and won in 2015. It is therefore preposterous for people to insinuate or allege that Aliga made his fortunes from illicit funds from the Abia State Government under Ikpeazu.

Aliga has for years been making game-changing impacts on the business climate of the state and beyond long before the coming of Governor Ikpeazu. Contrary to the lies the vocal minority would want to feed people with, all sane Abians will agree with me that Aliga has been making impact in philanthropy, human development, employment generation and community development and advancement of Christendom with his legitimate  resources years before the coming of Governor Ikpeazu.

It was his contribution to philanthropy and humanitarian causes that earned him the national honour of Member of the Order of Niger (MON) which was bestowed on him by President Muhammadu Buhari last year. Even though he had prior to that time won several awards and commendations locally and internationally, the one from highest authority in a country like Nigeria is a crowning glory of his efforts over the years and a fitting tribute to his sacrifices and impact on his people. In a nutshell, Elder Aliga’s giant strides have over the decades been noticed by the people that matter in Abuja even though envious people do not know that their evil thoughts would never stop the work of God.

For us to be able to build a Nigeria of our dreams and reach the proverbial Promised Land, we have to be a society that gives honour to whom it is due. By the time we elevate the crooked elements among us and rubbish the icons who are deserving of celebration, we give our young ones the wrong impression that hard work doesn’t pay and that cutting corners pays, and by doing so, we destroy our society gradually.

Elder Raymond Mkpuruoma Aliga, MON, deserves better!