In death, Samua shakes West Nile as he did in life

In its heydays, Ozuu Brothers enterprise was a household name in West Nile and beyond, and its majority shareholder Samuel Ejidra,  alias Samua, a colossus of sorts.

The business was Mukwano Industries’ sole agent in West Nile, servicing market in the region and neighbouring present-day South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

On its catalogue were edible oils/fats, domestic and industrial plastics, soaps and other cleaning detergents, bottled drinking water and protein for animal feeds.

These were trucked from Kampala to Arua at a time many business feared to directly supply the region due to the risk of ambushes by the Joseph Kony-led Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on a jagged Karuma-Pakwach highway, and the resulting losses.

The principle of economics is that profits are higher where risks are high. In risking to make basic household items available, Ozuu Brothers struck a fortune in the goods traded.

Buyers queued outside its headquarters on Hospital Road in Arua City centre, with lines stretching several metres either direction.

There were different allotment at the business premises for serving whole sellers, retailers and individual buyers.
 Trailers that delivered the goods stretched on both sides of Hospital Road, with the drivers finding comfort at the nearby Bibia quarters, a hotspots for sex workers, where businesses of earthly kind thrived.    

Across the road, inside Ozuu Brothers headquarters building, the proprietors, salespersons, accountants, managers, cashiers, storekeepers, and loaders worked overdrive to book orders, reconcile accounts, and authorise stock releases.

And Samuel Ejidra, widely known as Samua, an adulterated version of his Christian name Sam, kept watch in person whenever available.

The enterprise was dear to his heart for his late brother Isaac Nyakuni, who founded it in 1992, had tasked him to grow it, look after their ageing parents Ephraim Nguru and Erina Kana and educate youngsters in the family. 

Grow the business, he did, by leaps and bounds. And involved sibling too: Mr William Etria and Mr Richard Aderubo each got 500 shares in the business and Mr Moses Draza held 1,000 while Ejidra retained 5,000 shares.

Mr Benjamin Alioni Nyakuni, a son of the business founder Isaac Nyakuni, whom Ejidra raised as his own child, was assigned 3,000 shares.

Ejidra as the principal shareholder had dropped out of school early, after Primary Seven, to build, from age 25, what turned out a gigantic business empire with multiple subsidiaries and widespread impact.

“My father was always starting businesses,” Mr Benjamin Nyakuni, the owner of Onduparaka Football Club, said of Ejidra who died at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 16. He was 56.

Tributes poured in for him near and far spontaneously, more so when the body was flown back.

As the cortege crossed by road into West Nile, residents of Pakwach town, just like those 52 kilometres away in Nebbi town did, thronged the streets to bid farewell to a man whose entrepreneurial spirit brought basics of life and wealth to their doorsteps or kins.  

Businesspeople, relatives and leaders in Arua City assembled at Odianyadri, a trading centre six kilometres away, to receive Ejidra’s body driven through a sobbing city in a convoy led by a band playing dirges. 

“He (Samua) was the only man we could buy Mukwano products from,” said Mr George Opio, a businessman in Nebbi town, “If we needed a bigger quantity of products, we would just order from Arua and the goods would be delivered on time.”

By employing locals or offering them dealerships, mostly on favourable terms, Ejidra helped many natives grow rich and have a fair shot at life.

Mr Sam Baker Kakondah was one of the managers at one of the many Ozuu Brothers’ business subsidiaries.
Ejidra, he said, was always a “risk taker” and never feared contracting bank loans for investment.

“We always reaped from those decisions. We managed to sustain a livelihood because he employed us. He was a man with a large, forgiving heart,” Mr Kakondah said.

His management style ensured training of staff in business management and some former employees of Ozuu Brothers successfully started their own investments.

In motion at a special Council sitting on Saturday to honour the deceased, Arua City Council’s Leader of Business Joseph Feti described him as a “hero”, a unifying opinion leader and a big-ticket taxpayer whose contribution aided service delivery.

“As an entrepreneur and investor, he played a part in transforming the economy of Arua City through establishing major investments, provision of essential goods and services and creation of job opportunities to many of the unemployed sons of the soil,” he said during the session at Greenlight Ababet Stadium, the home grounds of Onduparaka FC, west of Arua City centre.

His love for soccer
Ejidra was life-time supporter of Onduparaka FC that his nephew (in Lugbara a son) Benjamin Nyakuni founded, often showing up at the camp unannounced to deliver food and material gifts to players.

“I will miss his exceptional leadership both in business and family, but I am encouraged that his good deeds will preserve his legacy,” said Mr Nyakuni Junior. 

At home Ejidra was a loving father who took care of many --- both biological and adopted --- children to whom he taught children entrepreneurship and values of integrity, honesty and hard work.

Ejidra sent the children to school mainly for business courses; Benjamin Nyakuni pursued a first degree in Business administration while two of his siblings pursued graduate studies in the United Kingdom.

They leveraged their combined knowledge to power on the business, which thrived for most of its three-decade history, before disagreements from 2015 prompted shareholders Etria and Aderubo petitioned court to dissolve the company, citing oppression by majority shareholders.

The infighting prompted each shareholder to eventually go separate ways to run own businesses.

To former Ayivu MP Bernard Atiku, Ejidra should posthumously be honoured as a “national hero” because he “employed thousands and contributed to national economic growth through the taxes he paid”.

He will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in O’dunyai Cell, Ayivu West division in Arua City today. Adieu.

What they say
George Opio, businessman: “If we needed a bigger quantity of products, we would just order from Arua and the goods would be delivered on time.”

Arua City Council’s Leader of Business Joseph Feti: “As an entrepreneur and investor, he played a part in transforming the economy of Arua City through establishing major investments, provision of essential goods and services and creation of job opportunities to many of the unemployed sons of the soil.” 

Moses Draza, the deceased’s younger brother: “He respected everyone and never put himself above us. He would always advise us on how we can grow the business more since we all grew up with a business mind.”