[Applause] last Tuesday the jebu people of State in Southwest Nigeria celebrated the 2024 uua Day Festival it was a get together of Who's Who among the Jabo including those living in the diaspora who SP spared no cost in making their way back home to celebrate with their Keith and King the festivities feature different groups paying homage to the par ruler ofu for his purposeful [Applause] leadership well we told you about the special guest in the house this morning and he is Faruk oraga the managing director of NG clearing and a former member of the derivatives product advisory committee of the Nigerian Stock Exchange it is great to have you on the morning show great to be here thank you good morning Mr R morning my name is Steve can I steal some Ste You' been waiting the man see I don't I don't think you realize what you've done you've brought brought back first of you brought back a slang that has been away for a while and like a lot of people I don't get no I mean but Ste is something that I Get Growing Up used to see and now it's come back you never heard of Ste before okay but now you are the you you the brand ambassador of Ste but honestly your grand entrance on the on horse back was a was a highlight of the O DEA Festival it went viral last people you read on Google like actually went to the top 10 searches in Nigeria people actually trying to find out who exactly is far here farar first I want to know what inspired your choice what message were you aiming to convey and who is Faruk oraga in your own words um I think I've always been a bit of a controversial person um but we'll not go into that but I think from the moment I was diagnosed with cancer in February 2014 um it's an incurable form of cancer so your priorities change you don't know how much time you've got you line up your list of priorities for me family first you know because I don't know how long I'm going to be around um but by God's grace I'm 10 years I'm counting and I'm not about to since I've been crowned king of stees I'm not about to just go like that anytime soon um so it's UDA has evolved over the years um I've been doing it for over for 15 years um within my family the oraga family my grandfather uh Mayo rest in peace was the main Rider going back to the early 1960s he died in ' 67 so we only had one Rider then my uncle took over and he was the main Rider from 67 to 84 then my uncle joined then too and it's only in the '90s and then in the 2000s we started to and you know it's it's a big it's a family Affair it's not about one individual so and it's a very expensive Venture you got to get the horses their tires everything so he also brings families together because you're going to have one cousin who wants to ride but he can't afford a horse and you're going to wear the same outfit so if you got you know you can't just you know you have to be considerate for other people or you support them so for us it brings the family together I had cousins coming in from I had my niece flew from Milan I had my nephew dams who rode with us dami who came in from from England um it's the bringing in of bringing all the family together but for me it's just an expression of who I am you know I didn't choose the clothes the family chose the clothes they already they started arranging clothes now for what we're going to wear next year so whole you know for your own I'm I am not a member of really the only group that I'm a member of is called The Heritage group and it is a group that was formed by cab aala okay he selected a certain group of people people and said you know you you know he's our grand Patron our clubhouse is in the palace and he's brought one or two people because reg reg is a heavy thing you have to be back Inu every weekend every the meetings here and I have a primary job which is also very important because that allows me to afford the medication that I have been using and um one thing I realized before because I was I was a senior executive at the exchange back in the early 2000s and um I'd say prior to that I had 5 million let's say I had 5 million friends right when I left the exchange in 2010 my 5 million friends went down to 1 million you know how it is when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 my 1 million went down to 100 100 so it's very important and that's a very important lesson so it's important that you you take what you take from that you hold your friends close yeah keep your you know keep your feet 10 toes down all the time okay be yourself as long as I don't hurt anybody people talk about my tats um I've had tats for years I'm very particular about it um I try and make sure I don't have a tat on my face you know it's they my sleeves cover them when I'm on a corporate mode what I do in my own spare time I mean up until last year I lived on a beach for 4 years I lived in Lagos on a beach as my primary home wow for 4 years I did not have a home in Lagos at all um I I didn't worry about security because I don't do anybody I just live my life um this is a total shock to me the camera cameraman got it he nailed it you say I nailed it I didn't nail it the camera na it that's I'm coming to Mr I mean a few things stood out I mean we're looking at your picture you know everybody is looking at the picture you know the the attire first and foremost the dark glasses go you know the the the the the wrist watch the seagar you know and the horse riding were all those curated that's one and then the tat the tattoo is there a connect to uh surviving cancer because that's part of your okay I'll show you something uh there's the famous tattoo well I got tattoos everywhere um just so I show you if you can read that one oh it says I leave each day as if it were my last so don't judge me carp wow that says only God can judge me wow there's a message I got my kids up here I got another son up here I mentioned when I had so many friends I got ride or die you can see it there ride or die it's there so this was not curated this was these have been there for years um the outfits are chosen by family members who you know that's what they want to do it's not my thing I just get told bring your money for your clothes this is what we're wearing um the entrance we have a um I am one of my grandfather's oldest grandchildren and if you look closely among the one or two light-skinned guys as well yeah but I look exactly like him so one of when we leave the palace we go around town and it's a great feeling when people see older people see me they don't know who I am but by looking at me they just know I'm an oraga to put into perspective I've been stopped on oxus street before in England excuse me are you Nigerian yes are you euroba yes from IU yes I am are you an oraga yes who's your father because the person just saw me wow saw my grandfather and then was trying to figure out okay which one of who who's your father so um um I tend to be in the front somewhere near the front my cousins and my nephews want to throw horses up and down I'm too old for that you know I fall off and I'm also because my cancer is bone cancer I come off I break a bone it'll never set properly as you can see so I'm not going to do anything contact so I try not to do all that stuff but um the only thing that's really curated is I got to be near the front and also because three me used to be two now three members from each family allowed to woke up right so I am in the front the display the guys who want to show their prowess on horses are doing their thing while I go up I get my prayers I prostrate as people keep on asking me this time around the governor says and gave me an envelope that's that that's that white envelope that I won't tell you what was inside it was an invitation so um I let the family do it the um a lot like I said we all come from all parts of the world uh majority of them are actually n jable so he also drags us home because it means that you want to see your cousins you know U you get close to your cousins me help me do this do that so it's it brings family together but in terms of curation there's an element of creation to it like I said they're already thinking about what we're going to wear next year but other than that and sometimes you just get caught up in the moment anyway you with the best laid plan sometimes you just got a freestyle and um so be it and you know was a perfect storm on on Tuesday and um I wasn't prepared for this I can tell but I thank God great well we thank God and and you said that you are battling an incurable form of cancer um I was I I also I counsel cancer patients um I've been counseling cancer patients for a while um I was diagnosed with multiple maloma which is cancer of the bone in um 2014 February I had a transplant uh a Bor Mar transplant in August 2014 I've been in remission since I did chemotherapy every every day uh 21 days a month for8 years and I don't do chemotherapy anymore I've put on a bit of weight I'm living my best life I'm back working because it was difficult to take a full-time job when I was doing all that um and uh that gives me a lot of fulfillment because you know I people call me and say oh my brother's sister's uncles's got cancer and it's it it's it messes your mind because you think oh my God and um I I see it all the time I bounce in and it's always the same question you know the patient is saying do you you have they say you have cancer I said yes what kind of cancer I said you know multiple myomas what do you got oh breast cancer or prostrate well compared to what I have yours mine is Champions League you you're playing division 2 and the first thing they ask is why are you so happy I'm live you know and as long as you're in the game you can win the game every day is a blessing like I showed you I leave each day like it's my last um I'm very passionate about my work in financial services I'm very passionate about getting a cancer message across some of you may know I run marathons to raise money for cancer Charities um just to give people hope because I know how much it meant to me when I was really you know feeling the pain and one or two people just gave me that hope it's funny I got Hope from places I least expected and from those that I expected some of them I got nothing but that's life and you learn your lessons so cancers made a I say this to somebody now this is going to sound ridiculous I'm 58 and I say to you now if I could live another 20 years I would say being diagnosed with cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me wow it changes my perspective on life I don't sweat the small stuff MH if what I'm there for I'm there for it cancer um counseling cancer patients trying to improve access to Better Health Care I'll do that all day long just I'm there um I'm glad I can back I'm back working you know I work for a great company they've been very supportive of me what do you do then what do I do um NG clearing is a financial infrastructure company uh um we manage risk collateral we C settle derivative transactions my main shareholders are your financial institutions Stock Exchange CSS and about six or seven Banks but because that is new to most Nigerians it now means we have to go back to creating developing products for the Nigerian Market you know people just think oh shares equities there's a lot more to it so we work very closely with the stock exchange trying to create products for the man in the street which is going to be very important as you know there's a banking capitalization coming on um so we hope to see a lot of activity there and they're going to be new products they going to be some Futures uh created by the stock exchange on the back of some of these Banks so we're trying to deepen the Capital Market if the government's going to have a chance of meeting his goals um you're going to need more products just than the basic shares and stuff like that so in a way Mr President I'm working for you Minister I'm lawyer I'm trying to develop the market and um these are things I'm passionate about but like I said I mean it's very important this new found Fame will not be a distraction definitely you know and uh that's it I'm just me well I mean honestly like just listening to you your the your entire story is very inspiration and I think it really does speak to like you said you just not sweating the small stuff and just taking life as it is but I want to you kind of really back into Ooba because what this has done has really put a spotlight on the festival and the culture in itself um and I want to talk about how um we can I guess um ensure that cultural festivals like this remain relevant and continue to thrive in the face of modernization and globalization in what ways do you believe the Ooba Festival can help you know continue to promote the Nigerian cultural heritage especially among the younger generation because it looks like that those are the people that are losing their connect with their culture well uh you're absolutely right the Ooba festival and there are lots of festivals lots of deras in the North in the laori all over the place these festivals Pro are showing a lot bringing a lot of our history a lot of our culture to our kids even my son my oldest son is like Dad I'm there I said A friend of mine I said someone flew in from me land my niece is an international DJ she DJs all over the world she told her she's the child of my older assistant she said I'm coming Mom Dad and she came in she was there through the whole thing however if we're going to reap the benefits of such festivals it puts a lot of pressure on the government because if you're going to have people coming in I'm heing UNESCO wants to make some of these festivals you know Heritage what if you're going to bring people let me talk about for example if you're going to have people coming to eju or you want more people to come to eju for this Festival someone's got to fix infastructure the roads need to be fixed we might need to provide some more talking about thead the roads will need to be fixed because you're not going to invite people from across the world and then they're going to come off the express way and then start doing a you know uh there someone's going to have to fix that that's right the the roads within Eble would need to be fixed or improved yeah accommodation we're going to have to have places for these people to stay so you know it's it's a double-sided coin sometime on the one hand we got we can reap the benefit There's an opportunity but this opportunity will be lost if the people don't if the the the the people responsible don't um put certain things in place but it is a great opportunity which can grow I mean you saw the you saw I mean OJ is a fantastic I mean these guys when you got hundreds and hundreds of people dressed in attires they they Source shoes just even from a commercial perspective it can help boost the local economy and if we get it right like most things if we can get it right it will change the face of the cultural cultural tourism in Nigeria absolutely but if we get it wrong the moments Gone Forever you know you only get one chance to make a first impression that's right so you know you get it right boom now the pressures on even pressure on for us in the families pressures on for E indigen the state government and any other state governments or groups that have similar festivals that they want to but it's not just going on internet and saying we're going to do this you now have to put things in place for for the next one because if people come next year and they have a bad experience they're not going to come back they move on to the next they go to Brazil uh New Orleans and so on and so forth so it's an opportunity um a great opportunity and also you know tourism is an opportunity it's a potential Revenue generator for the Nigerian government we have you have you know um Lumar down the road you have all these you have shrines you have all kinds of places that people can visit so you know for those in power it's an opportunity to do the right thing and if you now rope that in the with what we do at the stock what Stock Exchange does and what we do in financial services there's certain products that can be created to help you finance some of these I have to push my this is what I do products you know if the if the powers that be the government state governments local local government do the right thing there are products that can be created to fund some of the infrastructural requirements that are needed to boost this to boost it's over to the powers of B we're here you know they're listening they're listening yeah because I actually want to know what type of product because when it come to funding our infrastructure we've had some controversial things with pension previously and and things in in terms of funding infrastructure projects in Nigeria what type of products can for starters I mean we have for the accommodation side you have things like already you have real estate investment trusts so people can package things like real estate investment trusts they I created them while I was at the exchange in 2008 they're there there's about only three but they that is a real estate product so all of a sudden it's almost like bringing a whole lot of airbnbs together so this is me just that's the basic form you do that all of a sudden you can provide accommodation for potential inflow of guest to or wherever you're having in your your Dera you mention bonds you can you can create bonds for anything um as long as there is a potential Revenue flow coming from that so you know we can go as far as structuring something that's backed by tourism oh yeah you know we can back that by tourism if the worst comes to the word the state can give it a guarantee yeah the state can give it a guarantee absolutely Bob's your uncle as they so it's there it's just being able to bring people's attention to the possibilities that are there the capital markets is looking for products is looking to grow to be able to meet the government's agenda these are the kind of opportunities that are there and there lots of houses I'm not going to plug any house because I'm a neutral um I'll plug the stock exchange yes because they're going to be the basis for some of these things um and U people like you know companies like NG clearing I got an Open Door people even now people have been coming to me say F can you talk to us about this I I meet International investors I go on tours with with financial institutions I'm a neutral I just need to be able to channel volumes into the Nigerian Capital Market and if the volumes come to the Nigerian Capital Market my my company eny clearing is there we'll be able to create things around it so um I'm not plugging anybody but um the opportunities are there and um it's a great chance and hopefully the powers that be somebody will pick up the phone and say Faro you said something on AR rise this morning come and talk to us about it and U my colleagues and myself at NG clearing uh we're ready to move anytime you know purely neutral just to bounce ideas working with the stock exchange bounce ideas then it's up to the individuals because Stock Exchange is not the one that you know they can create the products but it's up to the investing public to bring the necessary Capital but you got capable people at the ngx you got capable people at NG C we're good to go this is a great opportunity to bring another type of product to the market I wonder who's going to take up the bait great I mean um good thoughts brilliant thoughts good vibe um but but I want to take you back to one of the interviews that you granted previously you know that that also went viral which they've dug up yes before because you didn't have any I don't think you had any tattoos in that video I had but they were here okay it wasn't a full sleeve yet the full sleeve started coming out after my after my well I think the First full it I didn't just go full sleeve just buam Bam Bam Bam then I'm now looking for space you know so don't be surprised next year you might see a tattoo on my leg or something but please go on so so two things for me um you you touched on it a bit earlier um about beating cancer how can that be done is a possible is it beatable that's one and then the second point is I I think I picked something that you said in that interview I'm not sure if I heard you correctly but I'd like you to clarify on that did you say something about never fight your ex-wife something like that oh my God okay right I tell you this guys um my ex-wife is she's a wonderful person um I get emotional she's a wonderful person uh she's a doctor um maybe I didn't I was a bit of a a bit of a rascal but I always she always looks out for me always and um I was not feeling ill I flew to England for her birthday how many people go to their ex-wife's birthdays well I do and I flew to her birthday and I had remarried then so I already had a second wife oh but I'm single now um the Ste isible and basically I went for her birthday and she said to me come before you jump on the plane I was flying back to Lagos that day just come let me do a quick checkup and a week later she was on the phone crying and she said uh I got the results of your test I said what test she said I got the results of your test and she said um the results uh indicate that you have um a high there's a high possibility of malignant activity activity I'm like what's that so you got cancer is it me and that's how it started I was lucky I was stage one I could have gone on for another 2 3 years and then by the time I found out it would have been too late and it would have been different a different matter so that's the uh bit about the XY what was the first question again is cancel cancer listen I've beaten it I'm in remission the chances that it will come back when it comes back I'll deal with it but until then I'll live my life um you got to be determined anything in life it's some people get it handed to them on a plate good for them and even those that get handed to them on a plate they may not appreciate it if you want something enough you go fetch it you go get it um like I said after I I I was doing I was doing chemotherapy 21 days every month I do three every day for 3 weeks take a week off for my body to recover yeah and then do another 3 weeks a week off and I did that for 8 years wow and I know also had friends May the souls rest in peace who said Faruk ah this chemotherapy is too painful I'm not doing it m they're not here so what I'm saying is if you want something something enough you walk over hot Co to get it and as long as you've got that frame of mind anything is anything is possible God willing another they may this I read this week they found a cure for cancer that they take some plasma so I still have a Fighting Chance you got to be in the game to win the game absolutely so you know never no matter how bad it is and the other thing I learned no matter how bad it is for you there's always somebody who's in a worst situation so grab what you have with both hands make the most of it and um you know leave the rest to the almighty thank you fantastic thank you Mr thank you thank you so much I mean we wish this would go on and and and but we will wait till next year to Jud but of course you've got your company to run I'm sure company comes first Absol let do something listen if if I can do what I'm hoping if if o if this incident or this Photograph can bring more publicity to the tourism sector and all these festivals and the Capital Market can capture that then my company benefits Stock Exchange benefits we all benefit absolutely up to us to make I'm there I'm ready I'm there thank you pleasure thank you so much thank you so much I really appreciate [Applause] oh