I cherish women because they will give you what you want - Fred Ajuzie.

Fred Ajuzie, is the Chief Executive Officer of Pat Fuse Ventures Limited. He is a two time Apapa chapter chairman of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).

Fair in complex but blunt in speech. He bares his mind on any issue without fear or favour.

His knack for prosperity drove him to resign from his clerical job in Port Harcourt to take a career in freight forwarding. Even though it was a risk many would not dabble into, he took the risk and eventually paid off.

In this interview, he told us other parts of his life not known to the public.

Excerpts.

My name is Fred Nnam Ajuzie, I am from Umuahia in Ukwani Oboro Local Government of Abia state. I had my primary and secondary education in my village and proceeded to IMT, Enugu where I had my OND.

My favourite colour is white but I stopped using white so much because as someone growing older, if I continue using white all the time, people ascribe it to occultism and I feel uncomfortable with this.

So, I decided to have other colours of clothes instead of white throughout.

To me, white signifies purity.

I stopped taking my favourite food because I am growing old. My favourite food was fried plantain and egg sauce but I no longer take it because of cholesterol.

Now, I don’t have any particular food. In fact, I don’t eat anything from morning till evening every Thursday.

What I normally take now is tea because I like tea.

I am a Christian, and I work for God. I am religious, I have gone for pastoral training and leadership training. I am an elder in the church.

In whatever you are doing, don’t deceive yourself because you cannot deceive God, you can only deceive yourself.

You have to be upright in anything you do.

As a young man looking for means of livelihood, I worked in many places including Water Glass Boat Yard but the major one was when I came into clearing in 1984.

I came into clearing when I met one man bringing in goods for us where I was working as a clerical officer in Port Harcourt. He was very young and driving a car and I asked what type of job he was doing that he had gotten a car at that young age. He promised to introduce me to it and I put in my resignation letter immediately without knowing that I was going to face fire. He introduced me to another man called Emmanuel who was driving Volkswagen then. I went to his house very early in the morning, he was sleeping with a woman because he liked women and I patiently waited for him. When he came out, he said what’s your name and i told him and he asked me to go and wash his car which I did. He liked me immediately because I was a handsome young man then and nobody would not like me then. I started working with him from that day but I only worked with him for three months because I was eager and inquisitive and there were some clips he had shown to me that I know could sustain me.

From there, I entered vehicle to Ana and I was given a job to do and I came back to do the job. Then next time he saw me, he saw me with a car.

How do you handle women that hover around you?

Women issue is a normal thing. Any man who doesn’t like women has a problem in his life. God created women to make life better for us.

I am a married man with children. I am a husband, a father and that’s all; but anything like having concubine, I don’t do it. I did it when I was younger but I cannot be seen to be doing that now.

I don’t employ men, I employ only women, all the men you see in my company are either my siblings or friends. I cherish to employ women because they will give you what you want. As long as you make them comfortable, they will deliver. There was a time I had nine girls in my employ and people misunderstood it but behold, all the nine girls married from my company.

How did you become a member of NAGAFF?

I don’t like anything association. When I was in Port Harcourt, I was a member of ANLCA where I contested as PRO with Prince Shittu who later became President of ANLCA and I defeated him and I became the PRO then in Port Harcourt but then I had no licence. I later moved to Lagos and I forgot about association

I didn’t come to Lagos to do clearing but to do another business but when the business did not flourish and I had no money with me any more, I went back into clearing job and a friend accommodated me and I later came to Apapa from Tincan and when I was introduced to Austin Kelly, he said I was a sharp guy and he gave me a tag and letter that I should work with Oforbike and Co and that was how I came back into association but I didn’t spend much time with them.

In 2009, when NAGAFF was going to be ten years and wanted to go for elections, one of the members, Prince Anene Obums and one other person walked to me and said NAGAFF was going to clock ten years and was going for elections and would want me to come and contest because they like my kind of person. They disturbed me and I said I would give it a thought. I had never been to NAGAFF village at that time and the founder did not know me, even though I knew him, we had not met one on one. Obums told him that this is the man we want to contest as first NAGAFF chairman in Apapa and founder said I like him too. That’s why I like him, he doesn’t discriminate anyone. I like him till tomorrow.