Niyi Onifade, the MD/CEO of Heirs Insurance Limited is not what you expect. In this interview, Niyi shares with us the unexpected bit about his interests in adventure, food… and surprisingly, dance!
- What is your favourite food?
It depends on whether we are talking about breakfast, lunch or dinner. But let’s assume it’s lunch for this purpose. I will vote for pounded yam plus egusi soup with chicken, fish or turkey.
- What is the funniest thing that happened to you recently?
Sometime last month (December), I wanted to buy something at a supermarket but their POS machine was out of order, so I could only pay in cash. I checked my wallet and realized that I didn’t have enough cash with me. I then drove to the nearest ATM to withdraw some cash but the machine was down. I went to another one but the queue was too long. I made a third attempt at another ATM but the machine rejected my card for no reason; so I gave up. On getting home, I realized to my greatest shock that I did have enough cash with me all along, but this was zipped up in the innermost part of my wallet. I felt ashamed of myself.
- What were you like in secondary school?
I think I was somehow skinny and very tall (laughs!).
- What one thing about you would we never find in your CV?
You won’t discover from my CV that I dance very well to King Sunny Ade’s music – most especially his fast beats.
- If you were given a million dollars, how would you spend it?
Wow! A million dollars is a lot of money – close to half a billion naira!
Given my rather moderate lifestyle, this is not the kind of money that I can easily spend so I take it that the word “spend” includes investment. All I would do is to divide the money into three parts. Part one goes to long term investment, part two goes into short term investment/emergency fund and the third part would be for feeling good…enjoyment money (laughs!) It would be something in the ratio of 60:20:20.
But wait a minute, 20% of $1 million is still a huge sum to blow away, so it will include the amount I will give out for charity and religious purposes. Of course, this third part will take care of the feeling good aspect for up to six months or more without the need to touch the remaining 80% already invested. There wouldn’t be any temptation to break the investments.
If the idea is however to spend the entire $1 million dollars without putting any part of it into investment such as business, property, stocks etc., then, I would simply embark on an exotic trip around the world. I should be done with the money by the time I return to Nigeria after a month or so (laughs!).
- What was the last book you read?
“The Charge” by Brendon Burchard. It was sent to me by the author as a gift. The book talks about the 10 human drives that make people feel alive and how one can activate them. The ten drives are: the drive for control; the drive for competence; the drive for congruence; the drive for caring; the drive for connection; the drive for change; the drive for challenge; the drive for creative expression; the drive for contribution; and the drive for consciousness.
- Would you watch an action, romance, or comedy movie at the cinema?
This would again depend on the situation. It would depend on a number of factors – who is with me; the mood at that hour; the time of the day etc. But let’s assume I’m alone and I just want to catch some fun at the cinema. In that case, I will most likely go for an action or a comedy film.
- What’s your dream way to spend a vacation?
The vacation will be a long one taking me to different places of interest across the world; such as Machu Pichu, The Great Wall of China, The Taj Mahal, The Great Pyramids, The Terracotta Soldiers of Xian etc. The vacation will also include different adventures like a safari in Kenya; fishing in Texas; climbing on a glacier in Alaska, scuba diving in Australia, riding in a hot air balloon in Switzerland, swimming with the dolphins in Bahamas; and having lunch in undersea restaurants in the Maldives.
- If you woke up and had 2,000 unread emails and could only answer 300 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?
Two thousand emails in one morning! That would be amazing and rather unusual, but my strategy will not be too different from what I usually do. The simple step will be to sort them by importance and start dealing with them one after the other. I will concentrate on those mails that contribute more to my goals and aspirations, and trash the ones that are time wasters. I doubt if the important ones will even be up to 300 because most emails just distract one’s attention.
- Describe the colour ‘red’ to someone who is blind.
Since this person cannot see, I have to appeal to his/her emotion. Colour red connotes something that is hot or warm (say, fire or something that burns the body). I will use this description for colour red.
- How would you describe true love to a 6 year old?
Love is the way you feel when daddy or mummy buys you a new toy that you have been asking for. Or, love is the feeling you get when mummy or daddy hugs you for coming first in your school exams.
- If you were the President of Nigeria for a day, what would you do with your 24 hours?
Knowing that all the country’s problems cannot be solved in a day, I would have spent some time to reflect on the three major issues that must be tackled immediately. I would then concentrate on the greatest of the three within the 24 hours that I have.
This will definitely be power.
Within 24 hours, I would declare an emergency on the country’s power system. Immediate changes would be made in the organs of government to send some signals. I would make pronouncements on how the issue of power will be resolved, who will do what, and within what timeline. The top 3 to 5 deliverables to be executed would be listed out and actions will be taken on each of them immediately.
Without doubt, we won’t get to where we should be within those 24 hours but everyone would know that this is an action president, and they will, hopefully, trust me to deliver.
With this, I stand the chance of getting re-elected for another 24 hours (laughs!).
- What was your best birthday ever and how did you spend it?
One birthday stands out in my memory. That day, I went to work as usual only to find my office in total disarray! There were gifts, cards, letters etc. everywhere!
I was touched.
Later in the afternoon, I got a mail that we would be having a business dinner with some guests from outside the country at a certain restaurant in VI. On getting to the venue in the evening, I was shocked to find my wife, colleagues and some of my friends already seated at the table and they all started singing the moment I entered the room.
I was shocked. What a coup! Needless to describe how beautiful the evening turned out to be – exceptionally memorable!
Interesting, I laughed almost all through