By Chidi Iketuonye
Analysts and thinkers tend to put things in boxes; they tend to classify things in groups based on common features and qualities. These generalizations then get to be passed on as conventional wisdom, for instance one can generally say that all birds fly or that that all musicians can play an instrument. These categorizations are of course based on assumptions that do not always prove true.
There are always exceptions to every generalization. As one Chess player said, “the golden rule is that there are no golden rules. Elizabeth Ehigiamusoe, also known as Ehiliz, breaks the usual conventions and surpasses all pre conceived notions. Well into middle age she radiates the enthusiasm of a young school girl about to attend her first dance. A reputable and successful business woman, she mixes with effortless ease with youths and neophytes yet to arrive anywhere. An accountant by training, discipline and practice, she is yet as creative as any gospel artist on the scene, releasing album after album of delightful music. Dedicated to her husband, she is yet enterprising and innovative.
And so to a strictly logical mind, Ehiliz is a marvel, but not so once one identifies the key to her personality. She is a woman of passion, purpose and pursuit. That is why she is able to sustain the energy to excel at seemingly diametrically opposed ventures. We had written elsewhere of that outstanding ability of the modern Nigerian woman to multi task and excel at different things. Ehiliz, in her old fashioned dedication to her husband, her musical gift and business ventures all at once succinctly depicts that amazing faculty.
She is also a very inspirational influence on youth aspiring for greater heights and presents a convincing incarnation by her rise from humble beginnings to the top, through hard work, character and humility. Her passionate engagement with youth orientation and empowerment speaks for itself. Like most artistic people she is also a romantic and her eyes light up with a twinkle when she recounts her courtship days when her husband made a gallant play for her hand in marriage. And indeed the bond is still strong between them even after many years.
We had the following conversation with this remarkable woman:
Q: Tell us about yourself
A: My name is Elizabeth Ehigiamusoe, I am a gospel artist also known as Ambassador For Peace (AFP). I also host a TV programme called Vivid View with Ehiliz. I obtained a first degree in Accounting and a Masters degree in Finance. I am married to Godwin Eseiwi Ehigiamusoe (PHD), the founder and CEO of LAPO Micro Finance Bank. We are blessed with five children and a grandson. I have worked in several places and am still working in spite of my music career and television programme.
Presently, I am the managing director of Micro Investment Support Services Limited, FM2 Limited, and TDS services Limited. We also own a school, Green Park Academy in Benin City. I am also on the Board of many companies and associations, like the Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria where I am the vice President of the Board. I also am a member of the Board of Orange Insurance Companies Limited. In terms of capacity building, I have attended seminars and conferences around the globe, in Europe, America, and Africa etc in a bid to improve on my competencies.
Q: Did you work in the Banking Sector?
A: Yes I have sixteen years experience in banking at the defunct New Nigerian Bank, now Unity Bank. I also worked in a community bank which later became a micro finance bank.
Q: you have also been involved in youth empowerment.
A: Yes, I do that through the Vivid View television programme. It is a programme slated for youths between ages 18 – 30 years. Our slogan is “say it and do it”. If we tell them to stay out of trouble and avoid vices, there is the need to provide an alternative lifestyle. It happened also that some of them often came to me for one form of assistance or the other. I found myself being distracted so I came up with the Ehiliz Support Initiative, inaugurated last year, and we intend to support the initiative. In fact about a month ago, I discussed with the Chairman of Onigbobgo LGA and he indicated he would sponsor the next line of activities. We have also secured some media support.
Q: From your experience what do you perceive as the major challenges facing youths?
A: I would say unemployment and idleness, and the challenge of how to get them gainfully employed. If for instance I have five children educated up to university level and upon graduation they find no employment; that is demoralizing. So the question is, what can we do to keep them busy? Some may be lazy but there others who are eager to start something.
Q: Do you think the quality of education they receive is relevant enough?
A: It may not be sufficiently relevant, but it is a stepping stone. We know the quality of education is dropping day by day. Even the quality of teachers is dropping, some of whom are unqualified. But education is still the basic preparation to make one employable. The good thing is that some companies now send their staff for training after employment, thereby improving the capacities of their employees. However without any basic education, one cannot even be employed.
Q: What other initiatives towards youth empowerment are you engaged in?
A: we have the Ehiliz Support Initiative mentioned already. We also teach them about leasing. We provide training and capacity building on leasing and sourcing capital for start ups. We lease tricycles (keke) to those who are interested. It is not the ideal employment for a graduate but it beats getting into crime.
A: So how did you transit from finance to music?
Q: There is no relationship between the two at all [laughter]. But I had always been interested in music and singing. As a child, I took rapt interest in our community church choir. Then oftentimes when returning from school, I usually stopped to listen to the choir rehearsing to the point that I would get carried away while my siblings got home. My mother sometimes had to drive me home with a slap on my back. However by 1977 while I was a member of the Scripture Union, I prayed at the advice of the President, for God to reveal my peculiar gifting to me. After that prayer, I travelled home and had a vision at night. In that vision, a regal figure in white apparel appeared to me and I heard a resounding voice saying, “sing unto me”. I knew from them my gift was singing. I had a sonorous voice that was thrilling. In the choir then, I could climb the highest octaves. I was about fifteen years then and in secondary school. Since then I have been invited as a song leader at different occasions.
A: When did you start making your own music?
A: I released my first album in 1995. I waited that long because of economic circumstances. I was just content with being a music director in my Church, without access to commercial production. Then we had only a few gospel singers like Brother Lazarus of the “Voice of the Cross”. Onyeka Onwenu then did not come across as a gospel singer but there was one of her tracks “kene Jehova” that could pass as a gospel song. I could have been one of the foremost gospel artists in Nigeria if I had gone commercial from 1977. But I let off after I got married. My husband was a bit reserved about my being so much in the spotlight and he did not see the need since we were comfortable. However recently he has acquiesced to my pursuing my musical inclinations though on an exclusive scale. Up to this moment, I have released twelve albums and my latest is titled “Future will tell” and “Onye Ije”.
Q: Do you hold Concerts?
A: For now I have agreed with my husband not to do public performances but I go to churches. Presently, I am part of an annual event in Benin which is similar to the “Experience” called “Night with the King”. I was there last year and would also be there this year.
Q: What about your other business pursuits?
A: I am the managing director of a micro leasing company. The business is basically about empowerment and providing startup capital for entrepreneurs, of course at a profitable margin.
Q: Any peculiar challenges?
A: Some make away with the equipment, like the kekes. Some others fake a theft. But we now track the kekes and involve the Police when necessary. There is also the issue of insurance. We do captive insurance ourselves. But when the lessees don’t pay after due warning, we can repossess the equipment under the leasing laws in operation in Nigeria.
Q: Any political ambitions?
A: No, I am not into partisan politics for now.
Q: How prepared are Nigerian women for political leadership roles?
A: We are not there yet. There is still the need for more advocacy and sensitization; to encourage more qualified women to come out. There is the family and also financial challenges to contend with. They would also need the support of their spouses.
Q: How do you spend your leisure?
A: Singing, travelling and reading. I just finished reading the Paradigm, a book comparing the ancient and modern world.
Q: How did you meet your husband?
A: We met while I was working in Ogwashiukwu then in the defunct Bendel State. I was working in New Nigerian Bank which was owned by government while he was working in the Ministry of Commerce. The bank as usual then was used for paying salaries to government workers and the practice then was that they normally send in a representative to collect the money in bulk. There was not so much fear of robbers then. On the faithful day my husband’s office cashier was overpaid by seven hundred and fifty naira. The rule then was that any cashier who incurred a shortage would be suspended instantly, and the staff in default was a family man with three children. I pleaded with the branch manager to give us a little time to sort it out. I was also able to analyze and trace the overpayment in no time. We discovered that the receiver was from the ministry of commerce and the person having oversight of that particular department was my husband to be. He was barely two months on the job then but he applied wisdom in confronting the accountant to refund the excess. In the course of these transactions, my role in the matter was related him.
The next day, he came to the bank and we met. Our eyes locked when he came, and I said to myself, “what’s this guy up to”. Later I sighted him with one of my church members around my house. We exchanged greetings and he promised to check on me. That same evening I was sitting outside my house when I heard him asking after me. That is how we started and within six months we were married.