Awa Ibraheem: How I’m keeping safe at home

 

BY KAZIE UKO

Awa Ibraheem is a very busy man, just like the few in his affluent class. As a dutiful husband and parent; a sportsman and enthusiast; entrepreneur and accomplished professional; one who sits atop the leadership of many organisations that are leaders in their various sectors, 24 hours may be too short a time in a day to attend to numerous requests the various caps he wears and offices he occupies demand.

A brief intro about the man: A doctorate degree holder in Management Science, he is the chairman/ CEO of ICMA Professional Services, a company engaged in integrated consulting, management and accountancy services, with clients in both the public and private sectors and offices across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Also, he sits on the board of many other companies as either Chairman or a Director. These include the Port-Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, Prime Metro Properties limited, Afro Commerce (WA) Limited, Oceanic Health Management Company Limited, Oak Pensions Limited, Force Select of United Kingdom and Lagos Executive Business School.

In addition to his entrepreneurial duties, he still finds time for his professional calling. As a Merit Award holder and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), he is held as a model and face of the accounting profession in Nigeria and consequently his views are highly sought and regarded. As in ICAN so it is with the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK.

But life for Brimmo, as he is affectionately called by close family members, friends and associates, is not all about work. He also makes out time to play. And he finds the golf course a veritably comfortable ground to let off pressure. At Ikeja Golf Course, his home ground, he is not just a passive player, but one who plays at the highest echelon of the club. He is the President of the Board of Trustees of the club.

Ordinarily, Ibraheem, 66, by this time of the year, would have been flying back and forth in-between work and domestic calls, to Old Trafford in Manchester, United Kingdom, to attend to his other passion, football. He may not have made a mark in football, whether as an amateur or professional, but he has worked very hard to earn a dedicated seat at Old Trafford, the home stadium of Manchester United, his favourite football club. Now, even the English Premiership for 2020 season has since been disrupted and finally suspended.

But who knew about the plague called Coronavirus or COVID-19? Who knew a day would come in Nigeria when overseas travel would become a taboo, akin to attempting suicide? Who knew a day would come when all the hustling and bustling in the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Onitsha and all the other cities and towns of Nigeria will come to a halt abruptly? Who knew that it will be an offence for anyone to say he or she wants to exercise their rights to freedom of association within their homes, talk less of associating with brethren in different places of worship? The rich and the poor are cut down to the same level, for the first time, at least in terms of obeying the law.

READ: ICAN celebrates AWA Ibraheem, ‘Notable Member’

As it is in Nigeria, so it is all over the world. Indeed, the whole world is a truly global village! We all speak the same language now, even though in different tongues. We have all become familiar with two words – isolation and quarantine – without having to look up their meanings in the dictionary. We also have the same way of greeting; ‘keep safe’ or ‘stay safe’. For most of humanity, the fear of Coronavirus infection is not just the beginning of wisdom, but wisdom itself.

So, in the first of series of how some prominent ones among us have been able to cope with the stay home order imposed upon Nigerians by our governments, Federal and states, we spoke with Dr Awa Ibraheem on his experience and how he has managed staying at home in the first of an initial two weeks order of lock down of Lagos, his state of residence.

He said: “I must say that it is not easy at all. It’s just a level below imprisonment. Everyone in the family knows the whereabouts of every other member of the family. STRANGE. Very much like a house arrest (this time by God).

“First of all, I take advantage of the situation to relax a lot. This is what I have not been able to do for the past 38 years.

“I have relocated my office to my dining room at home (so as not to be far from the kitchen because ‘am an epicurean).

“I kill time by sleeping for almost half of the day. I go to bed by 11pm and wake up by 5.30am to say my prayers. I go back to bed by 7am and wake up by 12 noon ensuring that I sleep for at least 11 hours a day against five (5) hours I was used to.

“I resume work in my home office by 2pm after taking my brunch by 1pm. I work from home till 6pm and then have my dinner by 6.30pm. I devote 7pm to 8pm for my evening prayers and then rest till 9pm when I jog around till 10pm, covering about three (3) kilometres within our premises.  I then watch news so as to catch up with how and what COVID-19 is doing and go to bed by 11pm.

“I try to reduce the boredom by living a regimented life. I behave myself very well to avoid any frustration-induced domestic brouhaha.

“Though not very palatable, I may continue some aspects of this ‘COROVID’ living in the post ‘CORONAL’ period.

“In all the foregoing, my greatest regrets are my inability to play serious golf and to travel in pursuit of my daily bread. But then, can anybody free you from God’s imprisonment other than God Himself? We pray to the Almighty God to see us through this scary and trying period.”