Tribute: How Late Subomi Balogun Preserved Ex VP Alex Ekwueme’s House During Civil War

The sun has set on one of Nigeria’s business moguls as Otunba Michael Subomi Balogun, is dead.

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The Founder and Chairman of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) was said to have passed on in London at the age of 89.
Balogun was the Olori Omo Oba of Ijebu.

With the passage, the country has lost one of its influential entrepreneurs who was also a philanthropist and statesman.

Among other beautiful stories he bequeathed to nationhood and posterity, he proved that humanity has no tribe when he preserved the house of a neighbour of his, Alex Ekwueme, during the Civil War.

Rather than coveting the facility when Ekwueme, a South-Easterner who would later become Nigeria’s Vice President, became vulnerable because of the war, Balogun rented it out and surprised Ekwueme with the proceeds.

He told the story himself:

“The first house I built in my life in Apapa, Alex had the next building to mine. As soon as the war started, some pool players took over the house and were playing pool there. They would be there until midnight, but in wanting to protect my own house from being burgled by those people, I arranged for the police to evacuate them. And having done that, I renovated the house and rented it out to a lady from the East and I was receiving the rent.

“When the war ended, Alex Ekwueme returned to Lagos and came to see me. After the exchange of pleasantries, I went to my room and brought out a big envelope.” Otunba Balogun narrated: “In those days, we didn’t use cheques much, it was all cash. So, I gave him the money. I told him I renovated his house, rented it out and this is the rent I collected. Dr. Alex Ekwueme looked at me, he could not believe it. All he could mutter was “Mike, I am grateful.”

Ekwueme was the first democratically elected Vice President of Nigeria to late Shehu Shagari. He died on19 November 2017 (aged 85)