Simbo Olorunfemi and Ade Adefeko
Miziara, with a population of 6,000 people, is a beautiful Lebanese village perched on the Hills of the North Governorate of the country, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. While Lebanon is widely known as a country of diaspora, with more of its people outside the country than within its borders, nowhere is that as pronounced as it is in Miziara, an archetype of the relationship that has existed between the Lebanese and Nigeria, dating back to the late 19th century, starting with migration from Ottoman Syria to the protectorates that later came together as Nigeria. With a Lebanese population of between 30,000 and 100,000 in Nigeria, there are fourth-generation Lebanese-Nigerians who know nowhere other than Nigeria, which they gladly call home.
The main street in Miziara is named “Boulevard Gilbert Chagoury” in honour of its most illustrious son and benefactor, Gilbert Chagoury, who some fondly refer to as “Miziara’s child prodigy”. Speaking to “Middle East Eye’’ years back, the Deputy Mayor of Miziara, Pierre Daaboul, said of Chagoury, “He is like a godfather to us. He can do whatever he wants at the municipality; no need to be elected.” That is for a reason. Chagoury has played a major role in the development of Miziara, with substantial investment in infrastructure and philanthropic support for education in the community. He and his family are highly revered, with the town centre named “Ramez Chagoury Square” in honour of his father.
Perhaps his most significant contribution might be the enduring link he has established between the people of the town and Nigeria, which has become their second home. Indeed, Miziara has benefited immensely from the relationship with Nigeria. Just as generations of Lebanese have made a huge impact on the Nigerian economy, so has the payback been felt back home in Lebanon. Reflecting on this, Pierre Daaboul says, “Everything was built with money from Nigeria; our entire economy relies on emigration to Western Africa. Today, about 80 per cent of the village works there because they make much more money there than here.”
Indeed, while Gilbert Ramez Chagoury’s roots go back to Miziara in the North of Lebanon, it can be said that Nigeria, where he was born in 1946 to Ramez and Alice Chagoury and has lived for most of his life, is his home. But for the time he spent in Lebanon, where he was sent to study at the College des Freres Chretiens, it is in Nigeria, a country he is quoted to have said that he has “come to love passionately”, where he has raised his family and begun the business that has made him one of the richest men around. It is in Nigeria that he found fame and fortune.
His return to Nigeria after his studies in Lebanon, he says, was fired by his instinct for entrepreneurship and belief that there were opportunities in Nigeria waiting to be tapped. His return coincided with the immediate post-independence period, when Nigeria faced the task of developing infrastructure from scratch, and he was quick to get involved. His biography states: “He started selling shoes but soon worked his way up to selling a slightly more complex mode of transportation in automobiles. His enthusiasm and leadership caught the eye of his employers to the point that they promoted him to be the youngest regional and then national sales manager in the company”.
He founded “The Chagoury Group” in 1971 and was joined in 1974 by his brother, Ronald, upon his graduation from Long Beach University in the US, where he earned a degree in Business Studies. Over the years, The Chagoury Group has grown to become one of Nigeria’s leading conglomerates with interests in construction, real estate, property development, agribusiness, flour mills, water bottling, glass, aluminium, furniture, and hospitality, among others. Some of its notable interests include: Hitech Construction, Nigerian Eagle Flour Mills, Eko Hotels, established in 1977, Tin Can Island Grains Terminal, which was built in 1981, and Eko Atlantic City, a new coastal city built on reclaimed land from the Atlantic Ocean, as a solution to the environmental hazard of coastal erosion and perennial flooding of the Bar Beach area. An 8.5-kilometre-long, elevated sea wall, called the Great Wall of Lagos, was built as a shield from ocean surges. Eko Atlantic City now sits as one of the most prized real estate assets in Africa. The United States is building a new $537 million consulate general, set to be the largest one in the world, in Eko Atlantic City.
At various points in Nigeria’s history, when the country has embarked on landmark infrastructure projects, the Chagoury group has played a significant role. Eko Hotels, then known as Eko Holiday Inn, was established to house some categories of international guests who came for FESTAC ’77. The Chagoury group stepped up with a solution to the issue of flooding and coastal erosion that had swept off a larger part of Bar Beach, leading to what it described as “one of the most ambitious land-reclamation projects ever attempted” and the creation of the Eko Atlantic City. The 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, currently being built by Hitech, one of the Chagoury companies, is another historic project that has been entrusted to the company to deliver for Nigeria. While some have expressed concerns about the circumstances under which the award of some of the contracts was made on the grounds of a lack of competitive bidding, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, argued that the decision on restrictive bidding for Section 1 of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, in favour of the company’s specialisation in concrete infrastructure, scale of equipment, engineering capability, and operational infrastructure as reasons for which it was deemed uniquely qualified for such a large and technically demanding project.
It is gratifying to see project making steady progress, with some of the initial sceptics and critics beginning to change their minds. We look forward to the project being delivered within the timeframe, so that the projected benefits for the corridor and the Nigerian economy can kick in
However, the connection between Gilbert Chagoury and Nigeria has not always been smooth. His relationship with Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who died in office in 1998, was controversial, with allegations that he engaged in money laundering on his behalf of Abacha coming to the fore after his death. Chagoury, however, denied knowledge that the funds were stolen. He paid a fine of one million Swiss francs and returned $65 million to Nigeria. The conviction by the Swiss court was said to have been later expunged.
Over time, Gilbert Chagoury’s multi-faceted business conglomerate have grown in stature, deepening its investment portfolio in Nigeria and other parts of the world. His devotion as a Catholic and philanthropist earned him recognition from Pope John Paul II, who honoured him with the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. Following that, the government of St. Lucia appointed him Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of St. Lucia to UNESCO and the UN in Geneva in 1995. He was later appointed as the Ambassador of St. Lucia to the Holy See. His philanthropic activities in different parts of the world include significant support in Lebanon, Nigeria, and the US. The contribution by the Chagoury group of companies in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with its donation of One Billion Naira to the Lagos State Government was a landmark.
An amateur Artist, Chagoury’s love for the Arts has found expression in different forms, including the donation to the Louvre Museum in Paris of a famous 16th-century six-part tapestry, which he had purchased to ensure the national treasure did not leave France. The museum in 2020 dedicated the “Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury Gallery” to display the six-part tapestry and other works of art donated by the Chagourys. In May 2010, Gilbert Chagoury was honoured by the French Government with the distinction of Commander at the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” in recognition of his contributions to the arts and literature.
There is no doubt that Gilbert Chagoury has indeed found a home in Nigeria, having invested massively in the country over the last five decades, making a huge impact across various sectors of the economy. The most outstanding achievement has to be the extraction from the jaws of the sea a new city at the bank of the Atlantic Ocean, consisting of 10 million square meters of reclaimed ocean land. The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway might eventually turn out as another significant one. Home, for Gilbert Ramez Chagoury, might have originally been Miziara, on the hills of Lebanon, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, but there is no doubt that he has found a new home, thousands of kilometres away, in Nigeria.
Simbo Olorunfemi is a Communications Consultant and Managing Editor of Africa Enterprise, while Ade Adefeko is Director Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Olam Agri, ex-Officio NACCIMA, and Honorary Consul of Botswana in Lagos.
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