In this exclusive interview with JustNet News, we sit down with Dr. Segun Musa, a man whose résumé reads like a global roadmap. With over 35 years in the transport business, Musa is not just a seasoned planner and security consultant, but also a trained career diplomat, accidental politician, and passionate philanthropist. From building logistics empires across four continents to training Nigeria’s security forces and launching a foundation that touches lives, his story is one of relentless drive, visionary thinking, and deep-rooted commitment to national development.
EXCERPTS
We have heard so much about you. Who is Dr.Segun Musa?
My name is Dr. Segun Musa, is a transport planner, is a security consultant, is a trained career diplomat, is a politician by accident, or let’s say former politician by accident, and is a businessman. I’ve been into the transport business for over 35 years, and I run a business that I can call international business in about four continents of the world.
So, could you briefly talk about your businesses?
My business was established in 1999 and with time it metamorphosed into limited liability in 2005. And since then, we’ve been trying to improve on what we do, as well as expanding our corridors.
In 2007, we established a Ghana office. In 2008, we established the Abidjan office. In 2010, we established a UK office.
In 2011, we established a Philadelphia office in the U.S. In 2012, again, we also established South Africa. In 2014, we established Paris in France. And this year, we just established a China office.
So presently, we are on four continents of the world. And we want to cover the entire continent.
Are they all functional?
Yes, some of them presently are not functional. Ghana is functional now. Paris is functional. China is functional. But at the time, the U.S., Abidjan, and South Africa, for now, were not that effective.
What cities in Nigeria do you operate?
Yes, we are in all the parts of Nigeria. We are in Abuja, we are in Kano, and we are in Lagos.
What is the focus?
Our focus is Importation. Yes, we are in those four integrated supply chain logistics, supply chain management. And we also have some other subsidiaries that are also into other businesses.
You said you were a politician by accident, or former politician, could you elaborate on this?
Yes, in my 35 years in business, I’ve played about 25 years active role or advocacy role in transport policy in Nigeria. And I feature regularly on virtually all the media; the electronics, the news, and print media.
A lot of people used to tell me that it’s not enough for you to be featured in the media, propagating transport policy in Nigeria. All you need to do is to be actively participating in politics, where you can use the platform to promote, to lobby, and to propose most of these ideologies. And that was what brought me into politics.
That was why I actually contested for the House of Assembly, and when it didn’t work out, I also contested for Local Government chairmanship, trying to use my Local Government because of the strategic positioning to create that case study. Networking the road and creating a lot of traffic potentials within that corridor, because the proximity of the corridor to the airport and to the seaport is very strategic. There are a lot of people we love to emulate in terms of preparing a kind of holistic transport integration within that Local Government.
So that was my intense dream, and when that didn’t work out again, I now contested for governorship of Lagos State. And interestingly, because Lagos State is strategically positioned, it is a pace-setter state, and it’s also a mega city. So I thought probably if I had the opportunity to represent Lagos State, it would give me the opportunity to actually showcase the potential in the transport system and transport integration in Nigeria.
But it didn’t work out, so presently what I’m doing is using my business and my companies to create awareness on the essence of transport policy in Nigeria, and how to improve the transport infrastructure in Nigeria. And that’s what I’m doing presently.
Could you talk about the Foundation?
Yes, I have a Foundation. The Foundation came about when I was contesting for governorship. I was on a TV station one day; TVC, and somebody called me and said, ‘Dr. Musa, must you be a governor before you can impact positively on people and in your state’? And that really touched me. And I said, okay, this is the truth, because I don’t necessarily need to be in politics or in government before I should be able to have an impact. That is what I’ve been doing for years, and I don’t necessarily need to be in politics to do that.
And that’s why I took it up as a challenge and said, yes, I’m going to develop a Foundation that will cater for the less privileged and to also promote good ideas as well as community development. And that’s what I’ve been doing since then.
What year was that, sir?
That was 2019. But we started the Foundation or created awareness of the Foundation about two years ago. A year, two years ago, we created the awareness of the foundation. And that’s what we’ve been doing.
We’ve touched lives. We’ve donated books. We have classrooms we are constructing in a School. Lots of classrooms we are constructing.
We have other things we are doing like medical outreach, supporting surgeries and other things. All these we are doing through the Foundation.
What’s the name of the Foundation? Dr. Oluwasegbu Maladimusa Foundation.
I also know that you’ve been offering training. Could you talk about that?
One of our companies is GTP Academy. Through the GTP Academy, we train the state actors and non-state actors free of charge. So far, we’ve trained Nigerian police traffic division from the rank and file to division to area. We’ve trained them through the academy. We’ve trained them in master classes. And we also offer them certificates approved by ITF. And our training is always top-notch. Because we organise them in 5-star hotels, we provide their breakfast and lunch.
We’ve trained the Police. We’ve trained in Civil Defence. We’ve trained the Federal Road Safety. We’ve trained in LASTMA. We’ve trained the vigilantes.
We’ve trained immigration. We’ve trained the Nigerian Labour congress. We’ve trained at TUC. We’ve trained the management of Lagos State University and a good number of people. And for this year, we’ll be training the Nigerian Army. We’ll be training the Navy, Air Force, Customs, NPA, Shippers Council, and NIMASA.
I think those are the people we’ll be training this year. And these are all free of charge?
Is the training narrowed to any particular area of the economy?
Yes, presently we train them on emotional intelligence as it relates to their area of specialisation.
Not that it must be Transportation?
No, we also have the intention of training on transport. But for now, we want people to understand the impact of their emotion in society and how it can be properly managed for their own good and for the good of the society.
Could you talk a bit on your stay at the airport as the NAGAFF Chairman?
Yes, I actually served as a chairman at the airport from 2007 to about 2015 thereabouts. I spent about 12 years as a chairman of NAGAFF Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos Chapter.
Normally, the constitution allows me to stay for two tenures of 8 years but after my 8 years, the constitution was actually amended just for me to go for another four years. And that was why I was able to serve for 12 years. And after serving for 12 years, I was seconded to Apapa Ports where I also served as interim chairman for two years. And after I served as interim chairman for two years, I also moved.
I was nominated to represent the industry in ECOWAS under trade liberalisation, Lagos Abidjan Corridor. And there, I emerged as the President of Nigeria in ECOWAS in charge of Lagos Abidjan Corridor projects. And under my leadership, I have the Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturing Association, Transport Union, NGOs, students, farmers, and a whole lot of non-state actors under my leadership as the President of ECOWAS.
But my role at the airport was just to change the dynamics of the airport. When I emerged as chairman at the airport, the first thing I did was to change the narrative. Before then, the government used to see the freight forwarders at the airport as a nuisance, as miscreants. And they were looking for ways to push them out of that gateway.
When I emerged, I was privileged to engage the federal government at different fora for them to understand the impacts and the role we play in the commerce and economic sector of the country.
And that was why the government created the room for us to have ideas, exchanging ideas, and cataloguing discussions about how to develop the potentials in that corridor. And since then, I was actually identified as representative of the industry in Nigeria in every government engagement.
Until I left, I was always the one that was being called upon by the federal government and agencies any time they have anything to do within their region. And during my tenure of eight years, I changed the dynamics. I emphasised on training and capacity building.
At least, I organised the first of its kind conference, a two-day conference, a short event, which nobody has been able to do till today. And I was able to introduce a lot of training programmes on capacity building, exposure of members, and promoting ethical standards in the industry.
Actually, I was able to manage a lot of crises during the 12 years. There was a particular time the government wanted to use the entire space we’re using as freight forwarders at the airport. And at the same time, they don’t want to give us the opportunity to have a space as actors. So I created the discussion with the government, did a bit of protest, and eventually, the government listened to us and gave us a piece of land along the road that we built as a Secretariat; that was initiated by me.
When some consultants came to introduce what we call cargo tracking notes at the airports and wanted to be collecting $1.01 on every shipment that arrives in Nigeria, I was the one that engaged and we put a stop to it, because that would have discouraged the inbound shipments into Nigeria.
I also played an active role when the Lagos State government wanted to start collecting off-landing charges the way they are doing at the seaports. When they initiated it, and wanted to start collecting it at the airports I actually put a stop to it.
That’s why up to today; we can only see them at the seaports.
Already, they brought their cubicles, where they were collecting the charges; I ensured that they took them away from there. A lot of things that would have actually destroyed the potential within the business corridor of the airport, I was instrumental in pushing them away.
I have a robust interaction and relationship with all the major actors within the airports. During my tenure, the airport was relatively peaceful. At the time we had an issue with the customs that the airport was shut down, I was also very instrumental to the reopening of the airport, because I was the one that was actually engaging more before the airport was reopened.
Could you talk about your level of participation in NAGAFF? And then, would you say that all these freight forwarding associations, NAGAFF, ANLCA are really achieving the aim for which they were established?
I was a Chairman of NAGAFF at the airport; I was a Vice President in charge of aviation logistics, before I emerged as the Deputy President in charge of all the cargo airports in Nigeria. I would say, yes, the association is trying their little best, but actually the association can do better. Initially, I think the challenges that the association is facing are complex.
Most of the leadership parties have an inferiority complex in engaging the major state actors. If they can have that boldness to engage, I think it can further assist the association and also the actors. And you can only engage when you have what to say.
When you don’t have what to say, it will be difficult for you to engage. So I think part of the problem is you must know your onion so as to be able to know what to say. If you don’t know your onion, it will be difficult for you to know what to say.
So engagement becomes difficult. So I always implore most of the actors that please acquire knowledge and build your capacity so that when you’re engaging state actors, they will give you that recognition and that respect. Because they will be able to comprehend you better and they will know the kind of value you are bringing on board.
So initially, I think that knowledge of engagement and pushing relevant discussions is one of the major problems of our association. And some of them see association as a source of livelihood. So once they are executives, they see that it is the easiest way for them to enrich their pockets.
And because they are doing that, a lot of them have compromised their integrity. And when you compromise your integrity, directly or indirectly, you’ve compromised the integrity of your association and your followers. And definitely, it will reduce your relevance.
And you won’t be able to have that kind of respect that would have been accorded to you.
What’s your level of participation now? Is it a case of, I’ve done my bit?
I’m still actively involved directly and indirectly. Whenever government policy comes out that affects the industry, I always give a superior alternative. It is just that I have to give more attention to business now because the responsibilities are increasing and the association does not pay my bill. Rather I pay the bill of the association along with my own personal responsibilities, so I should be able to give more attention to business. Because what the association requires of me at my stage now is financial support as well as intellectual support. So the source for that financial support must be guided by jealousy.
What significant role did you play at the establishment of the Sam Mbakwe and Anambra Cargo Airports?
I was part of the committee for the establishment of both airports, although I played a limited role in Anambra Cargo Airport. I was instrumental and one of the major actors for Ilorin Cargo Airport. And most of these Cargo Airports, if most of the advice I gave during their establishment, as well as their construction were actually followed, some of them would have been viable by now. Unfortunately, some of our people don’t take pride in saying yes; we have our own international Cargo Airport where people can actually fly from, to international communities, without looking at how you make it to be profit-making as well as viable for business.
So the ingredients that will make it to be viable are not actually integrated into the plan.
You have been a recipient of many awards, how do you feel about this?
I think when you serve without counting cost in return, when you serve humanity and you serve your community, your business selflessly, one or two people will acknowledge it.
And when they acknowledge it, anywhere they are talking about recognition, they will be glad and willing to recommend you. So when people recommend you, that is when you begin to see statements like ‘I heard about you or a committee sat down and did a thorough check on your background and realised you deserve this, you deserve that.
But awards generally put me on my feet that I need to do more. They don’t define me per say.