admin In all nations of the world without exception, there are men and women who have found themselves at the top ladder of success through the manifestation of the hand of God upon their lives and their endeavours. For such men and women, the notion that the spiritual controls the physical is beyond rhetorics but real. Talking about the finger of God in the lives of individuals, Khandi Alexander, an American actress, singer and Choreographer once said “Talk about divine intervention, I can’t even tell you how blessed I feel” Fellow American actress, author and motivational speaker, Priscilla Shirer, in her agreement with the idea that spiritual forces have a profound effect on what happens in the physical to individuals sounded a note of warning: “Never underestimate God’s hand in all your plans. The Mark you make and your eternal significance will be found in yielding to the divine intervention God sends your way”.
The reality that God truly is involved in determining the course of events in human affairs became the exciting success story of the Chief Executive of Divention Construction Limited, a lawyer turned Real Estate and property developer, Akinwunmi Ajibola.
How did it all happen that a well trained lawyer with all the bright and dazzling prospects of the future i n the legal profession will suddenly change the route of his career to a new area with no formal education nor vocational training there?
In an exclusive interview with Crude Reports magazine, Mr Akinwunmi Ajibola said the best way to summarise how the construction company registered over ten years ago has become one of the biggest players in the building industry in CEO Divention Ltd Nigeria is nothing short of the hand of God’. In his words, the name : “Divention ” is a shortened abbreviation o f Divine Intervention, a soft way of returning all the glory back to God for how he started and the tremendous success it has achieved so far. Asked if the divine intervention was by way of the “Finger of God”, ” Hand of God” or “Divine visitation” in form of a divine helper sent through a human factor”, Mr. Ajibola’s response was quite revealing and exciting: In a voice ringing with joy, Mr Akinwunmi almost jumping up from the executive rolling chair he sat on said “It is everything put together. Immediately I finished my National Youth Service Corps in Kaduna in 1991, I relocated to Lagos and was working with a company known as August Ventures owned was here I first had a taste of real estate and property development in my life” Narrating the story further, he explained that ” Our company was looking for office apartment and I was given that assignment. I saw this old dilapidated structure at Yaba, near the popular Psychiatric hospital.
As ugly as it looked then, we remodelled and rebuilt it to a befitting and attractive office. That seems the first divine signal that I took notice of” He went on, another thing was that the moment I graduated from the law school, I did not want to be going to court to practice as a lawyer but was rather interested in the business of buying and selling, in addition to handling corporate legal services like registration of businesses for individuals and organisations. There was an inner voice that kept pushing me to be passionate about Real Estate “Even when God is involved in the journey of life for someone, there is a pattern which is, God reveals his agenda in parts until a time for full manifestation of the divine leading.
It was in Abuja that God started to show Mr Ajibola that in line with his desire not to go to court and be defending clients or prosecuting cases, he will be sorted out in the building industry. He bought a land at thirty million naira (30m naira) because the owner was urgently in need of money, improved on the land by clearing it and putting fence round it. Two months later, the same land was sold for One hundred and twenty million naira (120m naira), this was the first real confirmation that God has something big for him in this new career.
Impressed with this unbelievable profit at the first business, he decided to be buying land and reselling, when another divine intervention, this time, in the form of an advice was given against that. According to Mr. Ajibola, “There is a friend that suggested and advised me to be buying land and be building houses so that I can make more profit than just buying land and reselling it. I followed his advice and see where God has brought us today”.
Following that friend’s advice which was a divine voice, has been the big turning point for Mr Ajibola. From that moment on, it has been one building or office project after another, as clients from individuals and corporate bodies kept rushing to Divine Holdings Corporate office at Number 45, Missisipi street, off Alvan Ikoku way, Maitama Sule, Abuja.
Another amazing thing that has proven beyond reasonable doubt that the hand of God has rested upon the business is that, potential home owners always pay fully in advance for several of their projects that are just taking off. The implication of this according to the chief Executive officer of DIVENTION CONSTRUCTION LIMITED is that most of the times we use customers money to build the houses which means no need to go and borrow money from the banks and thereby save us the pressure that comes with bank loans” he explained.
As at today, DIVENTION CONSTRUCTION LIMITED is spreading its tentacles into nearly all important areas of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. From Cadastral Zone, BO5 Utako District Abuja, Gaduwa, Lateef Jakande Crescent, Gudu, Ukiwe Street to Jabi, Abuja, the company kept on with an unstoppable galloping speed.
Asked to comment on how Technology has helped the growth of his company, The amiable Real Estate developer was quick with his response “In Divention Construction, We have invested a lot into modern equipment that can help our staff to perform more effectively and deliver results with speed. We have Pentium servers, Pentium 60 laptops and Video conferencing equipment for seminars and regular trainings so as to keep updating the knowledge of the staff. All our construction sites and offices are also equipped with CCTV cameras to enhance security and boost the morale of the workers” As part of what the company is doing to inspire better service delivery. Mr. Ajibola said free transportation is available to the over one hundred (100) staff of the company located in various parts of the Abuja metropolis and outskirts, either by way of free bus to and from work or by direct allocation of official cars to deserving officers.
Crude Reports magazine confronted the CEO Divention Construction Limited with the alarming figure of building collapse cases of six hundred and fifty (650( between 1974 to 2024 with over 200 lives lost and trillions of naira worth properties destroyed and his suggestions in tackling this national tragedy.
As if expecting this question, Mr. Ajibola changing his voice from the soft tone to a more louder one said softly: “As far as I am concerned until some government officials are used as scapegoats to as deterrents to others who are deliberately sabotaging and compromising the rules, standards and ethics, cases of building collapse will continue to rise”. Asked to expatiate on this, he said: Let me use the Lagos building collapse of the 21 building edifice in 2021 as an example. Lagos State government approved fifteen (15) for the structure but certain building plan officials went behind to give go ahead for the developer to put six more stories far more than what the capacity of the foundation can cope with. The result was the disaster that we witnessed with loss of lives and terrible damage to Nigeria building industry image and integrity before the international community”.
He is of the opinion that unless the government regulatory bodies like COREN (Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria) and the Builders Council wake up to their responsibilities, Nigeria might as well be joking with the fight against containing cases of building collapse.
Mr. Akinwunmi also frowned at estate developers who are too greedy for what he called “blood money” at the expense of human lives by using substandard building materials like less quantity of required cement, low quality iron rod and other materials needed to give building foundations strength to withstand any natural occurrence like a raging wind or storm.
By Tunde Olaore
