Ernest Shonekan’s Business Empire Crumbles
Years after the scourge of economic meltdown that affected businesses and some countries’ economy globally, it is sad that some companies are bound for extinction as they do not have machineries in place to withstand such situation. Yet, many companies have since regained their grounds and some are just picking up, but one company that is finding it difficult to pick up is the business conglomerate owned by the defunct interim government of Nigeria, Chief Ernest Shonekan, which consists of Unic Health, Unic Insurance, Nigerian German Chemical (NGC) and Critical Rescue International (CRI).
A visit to the Oba Akran, Lagos administrative headquarters of the conglomerate shows the place is desolate and sparsely used. Though it was at a time said that the NGC has been moved to Sango, Ogun State, it is common knowledge that Adeboye, Shonekan’s son generally referred to as A. S. who is also the executive vice-chairman and CEO of the company will not allow his head office to be moved away from Ikeja.
However, the current state of decay and neglect the Oba Akran head office is in has everything to do with the fact that the income of the company is close to being in the red.
Unic Insurance which is the parent company of Unic Health, had years back entered into an agreement with the then V-Mobile, one of the three GSM companies in the country during that period and this led to the formation of Critical Rescue International (CRI), a quick distress response firm, that also has its office and call centre inside the Oba Akran premises of the company, though it also had its affiliation with a South African company.
This and many petty investments made the Shonekan family business very healthy during that period, but the current condition of the building that also serves as the head office of Unic Insurance and Health is in a state of disrepair that passers-by would wonder if the place has been abandoned.
Many reasons have been attributed to the state of things in the company. Some set of people believe it may be due to the economic meltdown, and that the company is only struggling to get back on its feet, but many attribute it to the fact that A. S. who heads the headquarters is not a good manager of men. One Femi who was at a time said to be at the helm of affairs in the company was forced to resign for allegedly dating another senior staff of the company who the CEO is also having an affair with. This and many more were said to have been working against the growth of the company and is said to be responsible for the current state of things in the company.
