That Borno-born billionaire, Alhaji Mohammed Indimi donated $14 million to University of Lynn, in Florida, USA, at the graduation of his two daughters, Amouna and Hauwa no doubt came as rude shock to Nigerians.
What, however, will come as a greater shock is his background and how he rose to super-richdom.
Their joyous billionaire father donated a $14 million (N4.2 billion) complex to Lynn University named after him as “Mohammed Indimi International Business Center” as part of the activities of the University Commencement Day.
WHO IS ALHAJI MOHAMMED INDIMI?
Mohammed Indimi is a Nigerian businessman.
He founded Oriental Energy in 1990, of which he is still chairman.
He is an in-law of former Nigerian president and retired Nigerian Army general Ibrahim Babangida.
Alhaji Indimi is reported as the tenth richest billionaire in Nigeria.
Mohammed Indimi was Born in August 1947 in Borno State, the homestead of Boko Haram.
He sits comfortably on #39 of Forbes Africa’s 50 Richest 2015 Lists, previously #37 in 2014.
Indimi is not only the chairman of Oriental Energy Resources; he is the leading shareholder of the company.
WHO IS ORIENTAL ENERGY RESOURCES?
Oriental Energy is a privately held Nigerian oil exploration and production company he founded in 1990.
Oriental currently has three projects offshore of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
Six of his children serve on the company’s board.
They are:
1. Jibrilla Indimi
2. Ibrahim Indimi
3. Ahmed Indimi
4. Mustafa Indimi
5. Amina Indimi-Fodio
6. Yakolo Indimi-Babangida
His net worth dropped from an estimated $670 million a year ago due to ongoing low oil prices.
Alhaji Indimi’s profile on Oriental Energy Resources official website reads:
“Alhaji (Dr.) Muhammadu Indimi, OFR, Executive Chairman/CEO
“A distinguished and highly successful businessman, Dr. Indimi is the sole Founder and Chairman of Oriental.
“He has over 20 years’ experience in the Nigerian Upstream oil and gas sector.
“Dr. Indimi is an astute business man with a notable presence in the international business arena.
“He is a founder of many successful indigenous companies and sits on the board of several privately owned companies encompassing all sectors of the economy.
“Dr. Indimi is a humanitarian and a philanthropist and has received numerous awards as well as honorary doctorate degrees from notable Universities in Nigeria, Ireland and the United States.”
He is the father of Mohammed Babangida’s wife, Rahama Indimi.
Haven garnered enough data on Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, one can’t help but wonder:
What inspired his unsolicited philanthropic gesture to a faraway university while thousands of his countrymen are wallowing in abject poverty?
Albeit one of the highest exporters of crude oil in the world, Nigeria is significantly one of the poorest countries in the world i.e. judging by GDP of the country.
The poverty is heightened by the hardship inflicted wholesale by the insurgent group Boko Haram, founded by previous governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sherrif, where Alhaji Indimi hails from.
This self-acclaimed humanitarian and philanthropist can hardly lay hand to a single project to his credit in Borno in particular, and Nigeria in general.
Many Nigerians, no doubt, are hearing this name for the first time as it had hardly resonated in any humanitarian quarter, including this correspondent.
According to a commentator, “the Borno-born billionaire, Mohammed Indimi has never ever donated a plastic chair to the University of Maiduguri or any university in the Niger Delta; talk more of endowing a chair in any Nigerian university.”
As the commentator would say, “this is how Nigerian elites underdeveloped Nigeria.”
via Elomba Reports
