Sheikh Alli Balogun: The titan, his philanthropy, his mosque

• Published date: 08 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Reputed to be one of the wealthiest in his era, religious and affluence, his opulence, business acumen and humanitarian gesture touched all and sundry. Sheikh Alli Balogun, a renowned businessman born in 1830, was a Nupe Prince of Tapa ancestry and an Awori woman of Isale Eko extraction. He died in 1931 and 90th years after he remains unforgettable. Gbolahan Alli-Balogun writes.

HIS name is synonymous with Lagos. So popular was his name that nearly a century after his exit from the planet of earth, he remained iconic. Alli Balogun was a wealthy business man, religious leader and politician in Lagos in the late 18th century. Alli Balogun in his early life was a deeply spiritual kids who is well grounded in reading and learning Qur'an. Not long after, his father passed and his uncle took charge of his upbringing., shortly after, his uncle also passed.

A man of destiny who wouldn't allow his circumstances to hamper his vision, barely into his twenties, he had known that the inherited business game his father established had to change and be built upon. From being harboured, tutored and guided, he now had to break out on his own and fully take control of his life.

His first effort at fully fending for himself was in trading in bits and ends, especially iron bands (oja agba). He started off brightly but things moved rather slowly. Very soon, he analysed his competition and his opportunities and came up with the idea that, all alone, he could not reach all of his intended targets without some form of assistance from deploying more human resources to his business. So, he employed a band of people to assist him trade extensively while he conducted the business from the top. Fortune soon smiled on him because by trading outside religious, ethnic and other sectional lines with his itinerant small timers, he was able to garner a critical mass of customers to satisfy on a daily basis. But, much more than his trading instincts, was his ability to keep his accounting books.

He was so adept at keeping his accounts, it was said that he knew by rote all his transactions and those carried out by his subordinates. With time, he opened his own shops and he was no longer itinerant, even though his employees still were. Sensing his business acumen and his visible success, he was approached by a retinue of European companies to be their representative in Lagos and in the hinterland, trading in merchandise.

This was the beginning of the stupendous wealth of Alli Balogun. Having to...