•Anyone asking you to pay tithes is a thief
By Oluseye Ojo
The resilience and wisdom of Abayomi Obabolujo, a man whose extraordinary journey from prosperity to devastation and back again to affluence has shaped him into the fearless entrepreneur, manufacturer, and pastor he is today, is highly captivating.
Having achieved immense success in the cutthroat world of the stock market, he faced a cataclysmic crash that obliterated billions from his empire, leaving him with nothing but determination.
In this raw and enlightening interview, Obabolujo fearlessly exposes the grave errors that haunt investors in the stock market, ensuring that others may learn from his painful mistakes.
As a cleric and founder of a Christian ministry, he challenges convention by rejecting the widely accepted practice of tithing, and unveils the profound reasons behind his revolutionary stance.
He provokes, inspires, and revolutionises perspectives on both the fickle world of finance and the realms of spirituality.
The Chief Executive Officer, Stockwatch Group, who hails from Ugbe, near Ikare-Akoko in the Akoko part of Ondo State, lost his father before he was born, and naturally faced considerable challenges while growing up. He managed to attend Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), while working in a stockbroking firm within the capital market to support himself. He studied Mathematics and Statistics.
At what point did you go into business and what kind of business did you do?
I will say being an entrepreneur is innate. When I left secondary school, I worked in a factory in Lagos. Then, along the line, I left Lagos. I went to live with my immediate elder brother in Kano. When I got to Kano, I worked in a factory, where they produced bags and shoes.
They called the company Saraku. In about three months, I started my own mini bag production. How did I get the machine? There was this friend to my brother, whose wife was a fashion designer. She had an industrial machine. I approached the technician that used to come to the factory where I was working to fix our sewing machines. I asked him if he could convert a machine being used to sew clothes to the one to sew leather. He said yes.
So, I approached the fashion designer woman. I asked her: ‘Can we go into business partnership? I’ll use your shop, and you will give me one of your machines. We’ll convert it. I will manufacture bags, and whatever income that I get, we’ll share. The woman agreed. The technician came and converted it.
Then, I was member of Deeper Life Bible Church. So, I was very dedicated to the church, work, and production. As soon as I collected my N120 salary, I would go to a market called Birni Market in Kano. It was the place where materials for productions of bags were sold, such as the leather, the fittings and so on. I would spend all my salary to buy materials. I would have to depend on my brother to sustain me for the rest of the month. I would make bags and take them to church. I ensured the bags were of high quality. I would even package the bags very well.
When Kano riots started, that should be around 1990, I came down to Lagos, thinking that I would just continue in that bag production business. But a brother in the church, who was working in the capital market, helped me.
I applied to where he was working and I was interviewed. I was employed to work in the mortgage firm. Later, they brought me to the capital market. I worked there till around 1997 or so when my appointment was terminated. Looking at the level of contribution and productivity, I swore never again in life to apply for employment. Then, I was 26, 27 years old.
What did you do thereafter?
My friend and myself started a mini stockbroking firm. I was around 26 or 27 years then. He was around 29 or 30 years. In the process of time, I left the partnership. I started Stockwatch in year 2000. I left Lagos Island, came to the mainland and started low there. By the time I was four or five years in the business, I had become a multimillionaire by the grace of God.
I set up Stockwatch Group. I started Stockwatch. I set up a printing press. I had a five-colour A-One size speedmaster. I had up to 13 Kords at a time. I had the digital separation unit.
I also went to Ondo State, and started the first daily newspaper in the state. I also set up a printing press in the state. I employed no fewer than 48 people in Ondo State.
I was planning to do it in Kogi and Oyo States, having community newspapers. The one I had in Ondo, I called it Sunshine DailyWatch. I was to do it in Oyo, Osun and other states. I also set up a bookshop called Stockwatch Bookshop, which was the biggest bookshop, housing investment books in this country. But the stock market crashed. At the time, I was on 16 radio stations in this country. I was on the network news of Radio Nigeria. I ran two programmes on the network of Radio Nigeria. At a time, I stopped Stockwatch TV. I was on MiTV. I was on NTA Network.
And then I started a Research Group. We were holding workshops in London, United States, Lagos, and Port Harcourt. In Lagos, I was commanding about 5,000 people every Sunday in my workshop. Then, the stock market crashed and that was where all my life was attached to, I also crashed with it. So, I lost everything. For like two years, I didn’t even have an office.
Approximately, like how much did you lose?
Conservatively, I can put it at N5billion.
Can you recall the ordeals you went through during the difficult time?
As at that time, my children were driven out of school because we could not pay their school fees. There was one scenario that I cannot forget. My first child, who by the grace of God, finished in Law School in November 2023, was in SS3, preparing for WAEC. They were writing mock exams. The proprietress went to the exam hall, called my daughter out, and put her in the school bus. So, the girl did not write the mock exams.
Then, the younger one was in JSS 3. She was preparing for junior WAEC; they called it BECE. I had told her mother; don’t take this child to school because I have not paid the school fees. But she said she would beg the proprietress. She came back to say nobody had ever disgraced her the way the proprietress did to her. When I came in, the younger one had locked herself up in a room, and was crying. When I forced the door open, I met her writing a note that the day was the saddest day of her life.
I got the paper. I tore it. And I said: ‘You will not experience a saddest day of your life in Jesus name.’ By the grace of God, she is in final year at Babcock University.
Before the stock crashed, I had over 450 staff. Every one of them left.
But what would you say you didn’t do correctly which led to the insolvency? Did you put all your eggs in one basket?
I wouldn’t see myself as frivolous because normally I don’t party. I don’t drink. I’m just a conservative person. But I fell in love with the stock market too much. Everything I did, and everything I had was stock market. I still have some stocks now. Some of those ones we bought for N5, and N7, that are now seven kobos in the market. So, the major fault that I did was that my life was too associated with the stock market that I did not diversify. In fact, the house we live in, I bought it because my wife reported me to people. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought a house.
Two, if you want your money to be secured within the stock market, diversify your portfolio. The kind of stocks that I bought were such that between 2008 and now had not recovered. And for them to recover back to their 2008 prices might take almost all eternity.
So, if you know you want to pitch your tent with only the stock market, make sure that you invest in stocks that are fundamentally sound; stocks that have age to their advantage. Stocks that are in very good industry, stocks that have what I call inelastic demand of their products. What is inelastic? This means the demand that no matter how high their price goes, it will not reduce the quantity that you buy…
But the stocks that I held were blindly insurance stocks. I was engaged more in what was called private placement. Of course, there were a lot of opportunities and a lot of money in there. But they were not the type that we could call fundamentally sound stocks. So, when the market even began to stage a comeback, those stocks refused to come back. So, those were the kind of investment that I got myself into. It was not like I used the money to play ‘Gelede dance” Not that I used the money to do kalokalo…
How were you treated by your friends and church then?
I loved the down period, though it was very difficult to bear. But I loved it. When you are down is when you would know who is a real family member, who is a real mother, who is a real wife, who is your real sister, and who is a real brother. Don’t talk about church people…
It is then you would find out the relationships that were between you and your staff. Of course, when the going was good, I was also very good to them. I would pay them 100 per cent bonus in December. I would pay them 50 per cent bonus when they resumed in January, on an assumption that all the money they got in December would have gone with the festivities; not to talk of rice, oil and other things that I would give them. In the middle of the year, I would also give them 100 per cent bonus. When the capital market crashed, I did not immediately adjust my staff strength. I sold my good stocks to pay salaries. When there was nothing to sell again to pay salaries, they left.
How did you pick up your life again?
People know me too well within the capital market media. Anytime I attempted to quit, people would always call me not to quit. Some of them rose as individuals to support me, Many people supported me. So with that I was able to sustain myself and then I bounced back.
I stopped the hard copy of Stockwatch. I even stopped the TV too, and the radio. But we are online. By 2025, I’m believing that I will start first with the newspaper and later, maybe TV and radio.
Have you fully recovered?
I’m coming up by the grace of God, via the assistance of a friend. I started a business a couple of years ago and I can tell you that by now, the company is already climbing up to generating turnover in billions. In fact, I can tell you to a large extent, most of the things that I lost, I have recovered them.
What should be the lifestyle of a successful entrepreneur?
Number one, in your idea, be conservative. Always know that the fact that you are out there today does not mean you cannot come down tomorrow. If you have N2, live as if you have 50 kobo. Two, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Always make sure that you diversify your risk. Three, you don’t need friends. Make sure that for every relationship you are entering into, there must be value. If there is no value, what is the essence of the relationship? It is useless. Four, maintain a low lifestyle. Five, know God, stay with God, and worship God. Six, always sow in the life of people, because whatever you sow in the life of somebody else, one way or the other, it will come back to you.
What is your advice for media practitioners, and media organisations on the kind of investments they can venture into, especially those that are interested in the stock market?
When the opportunity is there for you to still make money as a media outfit, let the company itself diversify, and be involved in something that can be generating money, in case advertisement does not come in. So, what I will suggest is that when the media organisations have money, do something that will sustain you. Then, continue to do what you are doing with truthfulness and make sure that you are solid. Make sure that the public have trust in you, and they are the ones patronising you. When you make money, you can do real estate, you can do stocks. But in that stock, make sure you have the information. You should buy fundamentally sound stocks – stocks that banks can take as collateral.
How about the journalist, the reporter?
As a reporter, make sure that as you are meeting people, you’re building relationships. At the end of the day, it is relationship that will make everybody. Make sure that you are able to build very solid relationships. Create value in any relationship you find yourself, so that people will not treat you and use you as a nonentity, as a useless person.
At what point did you decide to become a pastor, even as an entrepreneur?
My father was a pastor and my grandfather was also a church planter. So, my father became a pastor before he got married. My only elder brother that I have now is a pastor. In fact, the only surviving sister of my father is also a pastor.
I found myself in the church while growing up, and because I lived with very many families, while growing up, I had the opportunity of attending quite a number of churches. So, I had experience. If you are talking about Cherubim and Seraphim, I have been there; Celestial church, I’ve been there; the Apostolic Church, I’ve been there; Christ Apostolic Church, I’ve been there; Catholic, partially I have been there; Anglican Church, I’ve been there. I’ve seen it round.
In my adolescent years, I became a member of Deeper Life Church, and I was very active there. I grew very fast there. Later, I left the Deeper Life Church. About three or four of us started a church in Lagos for a church that is headquartered in Ibadan. I left and I became a representative of another church as a head in Lagos. Also, I had a partial stint with the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Later I joined Winners Chapel. I left for Daystar. Later, I joined Living Spring Chapel.
At a time, I said I was not going to church again. For about four years, I got fed up with all that they do in the Pentecostal circles. They run the church as if it is a business enterprise. I left and came back.
The vision of this church had been with me since 1997. The name was handed over to me in 1997, but I never wanted to start a church
Eventually in 2012, I started the church – Chapel of Impartation, Shofunde, Agege, Lagos. And it is better I didn’t start earlier. If I started earlier, I would have been running the church the way all those other churches are run.
What is the vision of the church?
The vision of the church is to mentor you, so that you can achieve the purpose of God for your life. What I read in the Book of Acts was the way the church started, particularly the sharing, is what we established. And that’s why in our church, we don’t look for members like everybody does. We don’t collect tithes. The offering we collect in the church, we also sow in the lives of the members.
For example, the last Christmas and in the New Year, the church, as small as we are, we bought five cows. We killed and shared. We bought 70 bags of rice and we shared among all the members. All the widows in the church, and their children, by the grace of God, we bought them Christmas clothes and New Year dresses.
In January, which is what we have done now for many years, every member of our church that may find it difficult to pay their children’s school fees, instead of sending their children out of schools, the church would pay. And our higher institution students, whether your parents are rich, or not, every semester, there is an amount that the church will pay to their accounts.
Now, I have a youth forum in the church. I teach them investments. The one we are going to have January 6. I called it ‘Resolute.’ It is about how to access your mind to make your life better, and become successful. We are going to teach what is called ‘Forex Investment Made Easy for Kids. Stock Investment Made Easy for Kids.’ We are catching them young. Some of them may not even have the money to invest now. But something is ringing the bell in their heads. We have put something in their head that in the next 30 years, they won’t forget. So, in the church, we teach business. We read the Bible.
In your church, you don’t pay tithes. What is your understanding of tithes?
Anybody that teaches you that you must pay tithes is a thief. Did Jesus teach tithes? Matthew 23:33, if you read the first part of it, it said woe unto you the Pharisees. Then, he told them that you talk about all those other items, which are irrelevant, without leaving this one. So he was not talking to them. Jesus did not teach them about tithes. He did not collect it from anybody. The apostles did not teach tithes, and did not collect tithes from anybody.
Since we started the church in 2012, the only external money that has entered our church account was N50,000 from a non-member. We have three generators; we have 100KVA, and we have 80KVA. We also have the petrol generator that we use often.
How do we juxtapose your position on payment of tithes with the popular verses in Malachi?
No. Are you a Malachi character? The instruction there to pay, was he addressing you? Did Jesus refer to Malachi? We must understand the reason why we are Christians today. What makes you a Christian? Is it not Christ? The Malachi people, were they Christians? And so why are you now going to Malachi and not focusing on Jesus?
How was it started? Let nobody deceive you that Abraham paid tithes. He went to war. He came back successfully. He met Melchizedek, and he voluntarily gave Melchizedek 10 per cent. But it was an offering. He only gave 10 per cent of his war proceeds as offering and people call it tithes today. That is deception.
Now, fast forward, when you get to Jacob; Abraham’s son – Isaac did not pay tithe. Now Isaac had two children -Jacob and Esau. In the case of Jacob, he promised God; he said ‘I’m going, when I returned to my father’s house and you make me have plenty and return in peace, I will give you 10 per cent. Did he pay? No. Did God kill him? No. Anybody that tells you that Jacob paid tithes, let him show you where he paid in the Bible.
The Job that God blessed, did he pay tithes? No. Then, Esau. When Jacob was coming back and they reconciled and Jacob was trying to tell him, take this, he said no, I have more than enough. Was there any record in the Bible that he paid tithes? No.
From there, all through until we eventually got to Moses; did they pay tithes? No. No record that we saw, until Moses, in the law, and why? They were the family, not those that are working for God. They were the family – the Levites. They are the family to produce the priests. So, God said they would not work. They did not share them part of the inheritance that they gathered when they entered Jericho. God’s instruction to them was that they should just go and serve in His vineyard. He gave them instructions that all these other families that were given assets, take the 10 per cent of what you have, give to this family. And that is what people call tithes today.
Then, leave that session and get to Solomon. Did Solomon pay tithes? Did David pay tithes? Tell me again, who paid tithes before you come to this Malachi?
When you get to the New Testament, the Levitical Order was done away with. Jesus did not come from the family of Levites. Jesus came from the family of Judah. It was prophesied that ‘the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.’ – (Genesis 49:10).
So, what are they talking about? If you have and you want to pay 10 per cent of whatever you earn as offering, fine.