Femi Otedola, Chairman of Forte Oil has revealed that he would have committed suicide when he lost N200 billion in the heat of financial meltdown which crashed Naira, and in turn affected his businesses. Narrating his ordeal in a no-holds barred interview he granted to Thisday, the white garb loving billionaire businessman said “Of course, after I had lost N200 billion, I had two options to either commit suicide or solve the problem. A week after the idea ran through my mind, I heard news that the richest man in Germany Adolf Merckle committed suicide having lost his wealth. Let me tell you in case you don’t know. At one time I was subsidising the entire country because I was the largest importer of diesel and added to that had to deal with a huge amount of losses incurred by the devaluation of the currency and the slump in oil prices. You see, at any point in time then, I had diesel worth over $400 million on the high seas. So when crude oil prices slumped from $147 to $36, then I didn’t have the structure to hedge against these losses. But whatever the case, I was determined to solve the problem.”
Femi also explained that he went through nightmare in the hands of his creditors; “What I also found funny was that when some banks were wooing me with their money, before my losses they sent beautiful looking women to run after me for the accounts. But after I lost money and the same banks wanted to collect their money back, they sent stern looking men (laughter). Some hungry looking people will come and knock on my door early in the morning demanding repayment. They didn’t care how much I lost or how I lost the money, all they wanted was that I pay back their money.”
Read more on how Femi made his father, Sir Michael Otedola, Governor of Lagos State in 1991; his fight and reconciliation with Aliko Dangote, his struggles in business, his greatest fear, his memoirs and other private issues.
Click here for details of the interview