Olorogun Oskar Ibru, billionaire Nigerian industrialist dies at 67

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One of Africa’s most ardent champions, the billionaire industrialist and head of the Ibru conglomerate, Oskar Ibru, has died. He was 67. His family said on Wednesday that he had passed away after a brief illness.

Olorogun Oskar Eyovbirere C. J. Ibru, was born in 1958, a son of the late Olorogun Michael Ibru, who founded the Ibru Organization, which has interests in shipping, media, oil and gas, hospitality and commerce.

Ibru attended Nigeria’s prestigious Igbobi College Lagos, where he played football, table tennis, cricket and hockey as well participating in the high jump. He remained an athlete for decades. For his tertiary education he went to the United States for undergraduate studies at Skidmore College where he met the woman he would later call his wife, Wanda Swann. He then went on to Atlanta University Graduate School of Business for his master’s degree.

Ibru returned to the family organization in 1983 working in various positions at Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper, as a management trainee and then at a shipping line, and in various other capacities before rising to helm the entire organization as group chairman.

His role in expanding the conglomerate over the decades has been lauded by many and he received numerous professional accolades and honorary chieftaincy titles and degrees. While directing affairs of the Ibru group, the businessman made sure that the company remained one of Nigeria’s top job and wealth creation organizations. The number of philanthropic engagements also increased as the years went on.

Ibru was a visionary businessman who remained bullish on Africa, and on Nigeria in particular. He told British journalists on ITV that Nigeria “was a bride to be sought after,” and he encouraged a return to those Africans who had left and had made careers in the West. “They should come and see what those of us who are here see,” he said.

Often clad in white robes, the man was an art connoisseur and a patron to many artists. His homes featured works by local unknown artists, and he had been known to pop into exhibitions of upcoming Nigerian artists. He was always a champion of culture, particularly his own Urhobo culture. This past June, he was spotted out and about in Lagos checking new work by up-and-coming visual artists.

Ibru was fondly referred to as “Skido” by many who knew him intimately, and it was not a surprise to see him in Lagos, Accra, or in his beloved hometown of Agbara-Otor in Nigeria’s Delta state, deep in jovial conversation with those who worked for him — or were inspired by him.

When he was at his country home in Delta state, where he routinely escaped from the urban center of Lagos, he enjoyed the quiet country farming life with numerous animals roaming around his compound.

He once told a reporter that he could retire there to live the life of a farmer. “I have a poultry farm with about 25,000 birds. I have archery, I have a very massive fishpond, and I am going into agriculture full time,” he said. And his hand of hospitality was always extended: “You are welcome to my house of palm wine, red oil, soap, fish, pigs, banga soup and chicken”.

As the shock of his death made waves around the world, many who met me began to reminisce online. Journalist Dele Momodu wrote that, “He was an extremely friendly gentleman, and a socialite [par] excellence, who was loved so passionately by families and friends.”

Others called him a jolly good fellow. And for good reason. Ibru made everyone in his orbit at ease and spoke the languages and vernacular of the people. Always dapper, and rarely seen without a hat, or bedecked in his coral beads and gold bracelets, and the wide mile, he was the people’s prince.

He was comfortable with the world’s wealthy as he was with the world’s neediest. He dined with presidents and royalty with the same vigor and offered his legendary generosity of spirit to strangers he’d only just met.

Ibru is survived his wife of 39 years, Wanda Ibru, curator of Nigeria’s Ijebu National Museum; their children, daughters Makashe and husband Kayode Awogboro; Nenesi and husband Chinedu Okeke; and son Christopher Ebruba and wife Ibiyinka Ibru; five grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews and an entire community of loved ones across Africa, the United States and Europe.