PROFILE
Fowosere Saheed popularly known as ‘Gafo”, a prominent night club owner, Socialist and business man from Ogun state, Ijebu Igbo precisely, was in an interview conducted by Ayeni Abidemi, started his elementary education from Methodist primary school, and also graduated from Ogun State university(OSU), now Olabisi Onabanjo University(OOU), and we are privileged to him with us.
THE INTERVIEW
We warmly welcome you to Jetheights Services; we are an IT Solutions, Advertisement and Human Resource company, currently operating in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya. We currently own and effectively run more than 16 websites which are fully operational and gaining massive momentum. Now, this is Stars Connect Studio a subsidiary of Jetheights services, Stars Connect network is a programme that brings together entrepreneurs, business owners, inspirational speakers, pastors, and leaders in the society, upcoming artistes, NGOs, people giving back to the society and the world at large.
We conduct interview sessions in our studio to find out everything we can about their journey to stardom, we hope to bring together stars who can be of benefit to one another or who can synergize with Jetheights in other to impact the community. By doing this we can reach out to everyone in the society especially the youth in order for them to make good use of their youthfulness and channel their energy towards positive and productivity activities.
Could you please introduce yourself to the Stars Connect community?
Gafo: My name is Fowosere Saheed, popularly known as “Gafo”. I am a business man, basically I run a night club and I do hotel business, so that’s me.
Tell us about your educational background?
Gafo: I schooled here in Nigeria. My primary school was here in Ibadan in Methodist primary school, I left that one for Methodist high school, then down to Ogun State University (OSU). I studied Mass Communication. I graduated 2005. I hope to further more.
I think from one of the interviews I read about you, I learnt that you love entertainment and have been into it right from secondary school. Can you expatiate on that?
Gafo: I have always been a socialist all my life, it has always been about entertainment, right from secondary school club, and then I was a PRO of my club then in school. In my university days I was lucky to be a club boy as well, then I was a club chief, I started my life in this same club business before I invested in mine.
Are you fully based in Nigeria?
Gafo: Basically, I will say I base here. I lived in London for a while, I wasn’t really based there I just go there a lot. For a period of time I was there for about one year or so. But now I am back home fully.
What motivates you to open a club in Ibadan?
Gafo: I was born in Ibadan here, all my life my thinking was how to make Ibadan grow. Thank God that I opened a club in Ibadan 6 years ago, that year I was the only one in ring road. If you look around now you will see lounge, bars, clubs, pepper soup joints and so on. It’s just a way of developing Ibadan as a town.
Fear factor in business is always an issue, especially because of finance, how did you manage yours?
Gafo: There is no business you do that you won’t face one or two challenges but the thing is when I was about to open my club I thought of that investment a lot and obviously I already had an idea of the volume in terms of millions and I was very close to that, so by the time I was doing it there were just minor challenges but at the end of the day we were able to scale through. So it wasn’t bad, if you plan yourself well you can invest in anything as long as you put your mind to it.
What makes your club unique?
Gafo: Ibadan is quite small but I will tell you that if you have your style there’s no way you won’t scale through. The competition is quite large at the moment, but if you know what you are doing, and try to do your best in your business definitely the challenges will just be minor. But there is no way the competition wont affect you; no one can say that, but at least on a scale of 100%, I believe 70% is a pass mark.
That is encouraging sir. Tell us about your club’s time schedule and mode of operations?
Gafo: We open every day, 7days a week! We all know Mondays and Tuesdays to be a slow day but we just open it for people that love to come on those days. We have a special night that we run and we’ve been widely known to be the best on that day, its Wednesday nights, that’s our major night, it’s the ladies night. Then Fridays is “thank God it’s Friday” a “fabulous” night. Then Sundays is another lovely day, we do barbecue night, we give out free barbecue to everyone, and we give out complimentary champagne to ladies.
You seem so very popular in Ibadan, is your fame attributed to your club?
Gafo: I have always been there before the club business. My family is large, from a polygamous home; my dad is well known in Ibadan. My friends call me Gafo and that’s my father’s business name. Then personally I like to make friends, meet people and I think I have good human relationship with people so things like that will make you a bit famous.
Why do you love renovating your club yearly?
Gafo: What we sell in our business is constant renovation. Because by the time people come to your place today and after one year they still see the same picture, they get tired of your club. So what you need to do if you run a club or a lounge is you keep giving them different faces. The picture of what you see today might me be different from what you see tomorrow. Constant renovation is what we do.
How long has your club been existing?
Gafo: Wow! Infinities club has existed for sometime now; as a matter of fact we just clocked 5years.
What is the driving force behind everything you do?
Gafo: Maybe the good will of people. I like seeing good people around me; it “gingers” my spirit and lifts me up in a way. I love beautiful faces, I love people doing well. Things like that lift my spirit up in a way. I will say that is it.
Are there any other businesses you run?
Gafo: I do Hotel business too. I have a Hotel; it is called First Infinities Suites, we use that to support the club business anyway. Apart from that I do buying and selling, and invest my money.
Any Political ambition in the future?
Gafo: Well, I will say yes because a lot of people come to you to give you offers, I am from Ijebu Igbo, and anytime I travel home the elders in my hometown always speak to me about politics. So in the nearest future we should be part of them.
Word of advice to potential club owners?
Gafo: For you to go into club business, the first thing you have to understand is, you have to have very good human relationship because it is a business of personality, your appearance, the way you talk, the way you mingle with people and at the same time you have to be very careful. What really kills the business is too much familiarity. So I will advise anyone going into the business to be friendly and at the same time strict. Don’t put too much familiarity into the business.
Thank you very much for honoring this interview, we really appreciate your presence here today.
Gafo: It’s my Pleasure.
