50 Hearty Cheers to ‘Vodi’

By sheer coincidence, three weeks before his 40th birthday in 2015, I wrote a column about Seyi Adekunle, known to most people by his business brand name, Vodi. My intervention was provoked by a mild altercation with my wife on what turned out to be the commencement of ‘The Entrepreneur (1): Vodi’s Big Dream’—a series I pledged to use in promoting entrepreneurship. Young people, as I wrote in the column, should be asking themselves such salient questions: What are my talents? What are the needs around me that I can deploy those talents to meet and make money? What am I passionate about that can become opportunities for self-actualisation?

As Seyi turns 50 on Saturday, I republish a slightly abridged version of the column as a reminder that indeed, there are many young men and women who started out with nothing but their dreams yet have become not only successful entrepreneurs in their chosen fields but also employers of labour. By all account, Seyi exemplifies that.

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For almost one week in October last year (2014), my wife nagged me to give her N50,000 that she owed a tailor on my behalf. The problem is that without my asking, I receive different tailors in my house or office who come for measurement. The bit I don’t enjoy is having to pay for what I never demanded. However, when the money she said I owed this particular young man everybody called Vodi was becoming an issue, I told her to ask him to come to my office to collect it. Then she laughed and said: “Seyi should come to your office to collect his money?” 

That baffled me. I am not a snub by any means, but we were talking about a tailor who had been in my house many times not only to take measurement but also to drop clothes. So, what would then be the big deal if he came to my office to collect his money? “It’s obvious you don’t know who Vodi is,” my wife replied. “Just because he comes here out of respect and likeness for you. I think you should take the money to his office yourself.”

Having been handed his office address, I was also curious to know more about this tailor. It took me another week, but I eventually found my way to 43/45 Madeira Street in Maitama, Abuja where I was amazed. With no fewer than about 60 staff comprising tailors, account staff, receptionists, artists etc., it was difficult to believe that the young man who usually prostrated to greet me is the owner of such a big outfit. I was even more surprised when he began to share with me his vision and the projects he was working on: A tailoring training school in Abuja for a thousand apprentices and a 24-hour service laundry mart. I found his story not only fascinating but also inspirational, especially for young people who are looking for role models.

A graduate of geology from the University of Maiduguri, Seyi Adekunle hails from Ile-Ife in Osun State. Upon completion of his degree programme in 1999, Seyi was posted to Akwa Ibom state for his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) assignment. It was while teaching Physics at Slawd Peters Technical Institute in Etinam Local Government as a corps member that he made friends with some young tailors in the town and started to learn the trade. With time, Seyi mastered the craft and saw an opportunity to make money to augment his NYSC monthly stipend. That was how he started making boxer shorts for his fellow corps members who became his first set of customers.

When he completed his NYSC, Seyi came to Abuja in search of a job. Although he kept thinking that he could venture into the tailoring business full time, he held back because he knew his parents would never approve such an idea. His father kept sending him contact details of people he should go to for job placements and he wrote several job examinations in the process. The turning point, however, came in 2002 when at the final interview session of his employment into NUB International Bank (one of the seven banks that would later merge to form Unity Bank during the banking consolidation exercise), the Managing Director asked about his passion, and he told a long story about his cloth making enterprise. With the session concluded, the Managing Director said: “Congratulations but if I were you, I wouldn’t take this job. From what I can see, your other creative talent can take you to the very top.”

With the banking job secured, Seyi collected his letter of appointment and reported at the training school. But he felt no fulfillment, especially with old acquaintances sending him messages to provide them with new boxers and shirts. Besides, the words of the bank MD kept ringing in his mind such that before the training exercise ended, he decided to quit in pursuit of what had become his passion. At that point, Seyi didn’t have a shop, he had just a bag with which he was going around but he found fulfillment in what he was doing. He would travel to Aba, buy the clothes, sow them and would come to Abuja to sell.

In choosing a company name, Seyi remembered a female Fulani friend in school whose name was Vodi which she said means beauty. He decided to adopt the name for his business. But it was tough at the beginning as Seyi was branded a stubborn and prodigal son by his parents who felt disappointed that he would leave a bank job and “loaf around” hence for two years he didn’t go home. But with tenacity of purpose and discipline, Seyi’s business was picking up and after a while, his dad learnt that he had bought a car. That told the old man that his son was serious, and he finally gave his blessing for Seyi to follow his dream.

When I spoke to Seyi last year, he had just started a five-year plan (2014 to 2019) with one of the projects (now almost completed) being an automated dry-cleaning outfit that runs 24 hours. The idea, according to him, is because “there are people especially politicians whose business meetings extend till late hours. We want to provide such people with the opportunity of getting these services provided to them round the clock.”

The second project is the training school for which Seyi has already acquired a big expanse of land in Jahi, Abuja. It will have capacity for a thousand tailoring students. “The idea is to train young Nigerians who have interest in fashion, and we will liaise with different state governments to give us people that we will train. My dream is for Nigeria to be the hub of fashion in Africa, because considering our manpower, money and population, we shouldn’t give such lead to Senegal; we are a more creative people. For instance, Vodi should be able to mass-produce uniforms for schools, the army and other institutions, and in a year or two, this project would have been completed by God’s grace.”

But what does it take to succeed? Two things, according to Seyi: Discipline and integrity. “You cannot survive the fashion industry without those two. Integrity in the sense that you must live up to your words and I try to uphold that; discipline because you cannot afford distractions. I come to work every day with the same zeal as I did the first time that I started this work, and I am usually the last to leave.” 

The foregoing does not in any way tell the complete story of Vodi and the sacrifices that Seyi Adekunle has had to make along the way, especially in the days of small beginning. But the message I want to pass is simple: if you don’t dare, you don’t win. Seyi may have read geology thinking he would work in an oil industry, but he saw an opportunity in fashion and grabbed it with both hands…

ENDNOTE: All the things that Seyi Adekunle told me 11 years ago were in the pipelines, he has accomplished all of them and much more. Across West Africa today, Vodi is the go-to guy for most of the political and business leaders when it comes to fashion. As he therefore joins the Quinquagenarian Club on Saturday, I can only wish him more success, good health and long life.

• You can follow me on my X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com