In this interesting and revealing interview, Mrs Yinka Lawson, wife of Mr Kolapo Lawson, CEO of Lawsons Corporation, Chairman, Agbara Estates Ltd, Acorn Petroleum among other companies answered Poised Corp questions on important issues such as religion, marriage, wealth etc
Have a nice read
(Pics inserted is Mrs Lawson and husband Mr Kolapo Lawson)
Have a nice read
(Pics inserted is Mrs Lawson and husband Mr Kolapo Lawson)
Poised Corp: Why did
you set up a farm?
Yinka
Lawson: I didn’t set it up the farm it
is owned by Grailland.
Poised Corp: Tell us
about Grailland.
Yinka
Lawson Grailland is a community of
adherents of the message. The Grail message explains creation
tells us about the laws of the
Almighty, the truth.
So the farm
is set up as a support for Grailland its 100% owned by Grailland, I just happen to
be at this point in time the
person helping to run it, there are so many capable hands.
Poised Corp: Tell us
about yourself.
Yinka
Lawson: My late parent gave birth to
five of us, two of my siblings have passed on. I am an Electrical
Engineer. I am married to Mr.
Kolapo Lawson and we have six children.
Poised Corp: You
studied where?
Yinka
Lawson: Duke University, North
Carolina, USA.
Poised Corp: That was
when?
Yinka
Lawson: In the 70s, quite an
experience, I was the only lady and the only black in my year, I followed my
late sister. She also did
engineering, I am the second, she got an African Scholarship.
Poised Corp: Its not
common seeing females study engineering what was responsible for you
both studying engineering?
Yinka
Lawson: My father worked as a
Director at NEPA, actually what I wanted to do was mathematics but my
father said I should have
a profession.
I also had an
aunt who also was an engineer, she worked at Shell.
Now you have
more females studying engineering unlike those days my major was engineering and
my minor was computer science. It was very
interesting it had a lot of mathematics.
Poised Corp: You are
originally from?
Yinka
Lawson: I am from Ondo town but
married to Lawson.
Poised Corp: So how
did you meet your husband?
Yinka
Lawson: That’s private (laughs)
Poised Corp: So you
came back after graduating?
Yinka
Lawson: After graduating I worked
briefly at NEPA. I chose not to be a career person and take
care of my children.
Poised Corp: Your
family is renowned for business.
Yinka
Lawson: Yes my father in-law, Chief
Adeyemi Lawson, my husband Kolapo Lawson being the only son took
over from him in business.
Poised Corp: From
studying electrical engineering to getting into agriculture,
what is the connection?
Yinka
Lawson: Did I choose agriculture or
agriculture chose me? Well, I have always been interested in food.
When my children were
growing up they schooled abroad and we lived abroad.
I
did exhibitions in Europe on African works when I came
back I started doing Aso Oke.
I was
talking to someone someday and we were talking about agriculture. The agriculture I
really wanted to do is getting
youths into agriculture doing training programmes maybe I didn’t meet the right
people they didn’t want to get their
hands dirty.
Poised Corp: Tell us
about the exhibitions you did in Europe.
Yinka
Lawson: I did African designs, my umbrellas
were sold at the Royal Academy of Arts at the African Exhibition.
Poised Corp: Going
back to how you got to the farm...
Yinka
Lawson: Grailland has a farm in Jos
and were looking for whom to manage it and my husband also wanted
a business to take care
of this place. I was talking to another friend and we were
talking about agriculture, giving people land
to cultivate,
train them but that didn’t work out so
I decided to go
ahead and we set up the green houses. We produce tomatoes, onions...
Poised Corp: Why are
the plants shielded with the green houses?
Yinka
Lawson: To control the environment
so they produce better yield.
Poised Corp: Your
market?
Yinka
Lawson: We supply Shoprite,
restaurants, hotels and shops.
Poised Corp: Do you
still do the Aso Oke?
Yinka
Lawson: Sometimes some friends come
and say no no so I just do the minimal.
Poised Corp: On the
farm?
Yinka
Lawson: This is still a pilot we are
still expanding, we have a lot of land. All over the world agriculture
is the future because the population is growing.
We grow
organically because we don’t want to damage the soil
for the next generations like you. So we are very conscious.
Poised Corp: So
talking about sustainability for the future...
Yinka
Lawson: My father told me that if you do something and it brings you momentary gain it is of no value . No matter what
you do have the next generation in mind.
Poised Corp: And that is evident in your family (Lawson)
where there is successful wealth sustainability.
Yinka
Lawson: My husband is a very big
believer in building something for the future, for posterity.
The whole of
the Grailland was built by my father-in-law and he brought the Grail message to
Nigeria. He found the book
in Austria, he read it and he said this is what I have been looking for, he
contacted the headquarter.
Poised Corp: Before
then he goes to church?
Yinka
Lawson: Yes
Poised Corp: The
Grail message; A lot people are like is it Christianity or?
Yinka
Lawson: It is a combination of the
truth, it’s a Christianity because it’s a follow up of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It’s like you are in school,
from nursery to primary and to secondary.
Grail
message is based on three laws; (i) Law of reaping and
sowing: You can’t plant yam and expect corn or pawpaw. (ii)Law of gravity; anything
that is heavy and dense
will fall and anything that is light and pure will rise (iii) Like attracts
like; birds of the same feathers flock
together, you don’t see a tiger in a pack of lions. Thieves
will be friends of thieves.
Good people will walk with good people, hardworking people
walk with hardworking people.
Poised Corp: The rich
walk with the rich.
Yinka
Lawson: I don’t know what you mean
by rich, everybody is rich. If you have material thing you are a
custodian of this wealth and
you use it for the honour of the Creator. We are all rich when
you look at it.
Poised Corp: Yes I
was just making reference to one of the laws that ‘like
attracts like’.
Yinka
Lawson: Yes the ‘rich people; the custodians of the
wealth will meet other custodians the important
thing is that you use
that wealth to the honour of him who gave it to you remembering that it is not
yours, so wealth is not about how
many cars you have or how many houses you have or
how many jewelries you wear.
Wealth
is about how you have furthered creation, you
are a guest. Creation is the work of the Almighty God
and we are just custodians.
If you go to
my house and I say you shouldn’t go there and you say you must, I will throw you
out of my house, that’s just the
way it is.
Poised Corp: Who owns
the farm?
Yinka
Lawson: Its 100% owned by the Grail.
Poised Corp: Your
most important values?
Yinka
Lawson: I pray every morning that
the Lord should show me the step to take in furthering the
fulfillment of my purpose.
There is no
human being here on earth that doesn’t have a purpose. There is no one that the Lord
hasn’t endowed. He endowed
all of us and the endowment; the gifts: I have to use it properly until
I move on and if you move on which you
call die, it’s like taking off a garment to wear another garment
in other plane in another creation. It’s all what the Grail message has opened my
eyes to.
Poised Corp: Before
you got married, what were you practicing?
Yinka
Lawson: I was an Anglican and I went
to catholic school I was already convinced about the Grail message because
if you read it you
will be convinced.
Poised Corp: How do
you keep up with the busy lifestyle of your husband; Mr. Kolapo Lawson?
Yinka
Lawson: There is always a balance.
One has to give in for the other. I see to my horror now two career
people no matter how much
you try to balance it is not easy, someone has to give in.
I saw the
stress he was under and he is still under and I decided
to give in to take care of the family.
Poised Corp: So he is
still very busy till now?
Yinka
Lawson: Yes when a bird is flying, to remain up, it has to keep flapping and that is one thing the
message has taught us.
When people
retire they die quickly so it is continuous activity but there has to be a
balance between ennobling your
work, spiritualizing it and that will give you the balance. I
chose not to be a career person and my children have turned out well
and I’m grateful to Almighty. I have 5 sons
of my six children and they were schooling in England and we lived there.
Poised Corp: You seem
to like nature.
Yinka Lawson: From the Grail message now I’ve learnt
how things grow. I’ve learnt that there are nature
helpers in the environment that are not visible to everybody
who grow foods and if you keep the environment as natural as
it is they stay there, they help
you grow the things.
You
see how our farm is growing, I feel the beings all around
and when I come here I feel an inner peace.
Poised Corp: There is
serenity here.
Yinka
Lawson: Last week a Chinese lady
came here she said she couldn’t believe this kind of place exists
here. She was taking photos,
she said she will bring her friends.
So the
balance, the peace. Yesterday we saw a deer coming out,
we see squirrels, rabbits...
Poised Corp: Its
ideal for a tourist/relaxation center.
Yinka
Lawson: Its
more than relaxation, it’s a place for inner searching, when
you come here you can ask yourself what life is all about and you will get the answers
you realize that life can
be beautiful.
We need to
recognize that human beings are like shavings of a coal very small in the whole
essence.
Poised Corp: But the
Great achievers have great impact.
Yinka
Lawson: The impact is minute when
compared to the whole universe. For example somebody
thinks he is big in Nigeria and
he gets to India nobody knows him. Even Jonathan or even Buhari if he goes to
some places where they haven’t heard
of him and he talks they will ask who are you? And that’s even in this plane,
everyday science discovers there are
many more planets.
Poised Corp: So with
this knowledge there will be no pride and greed and
all...
Yinka
Lawson: Yes, we will know that
whatever you do it’s the Almighty permitting you.
Poised Corp: But
everyday living entails competition and strivings for survival of the fittest.
Yinka
Lawson: The message has taught us to maximize anything that comes your way but make sure you do
not hurt your fellow
human beings but sometimes you see absolute wickedness.
People
plotting to bring down other people just to get up but
they don’t get up, it might look okay for a while but it will crash.
If we work
together the whole place will be beautiful if we support
each other, it’s doable, on Grail we have tenant farmers, we teach them how
to cultivate and we sell to the end
users.
We give them
the seed and we know expected production.
Poised Corp: That
means the youths can partake.
Yinka
Lawson: Yes, you met the two young
people there, they are agronomist, they both have two
degrees. We are hoping to go
for exports; vegetables, tomatoes. Canning them doing juices... I mean processing
and adding value. I’m hoping that
in 10 years you won’t recognize this place.
Unfortunately,
the oil has ruined us, one of the things I told my
children is that there is no disgrace in getting your hands dirty, the only
disgrace is if you are lazy.
Nobody
should be poor, the Lord has blessed us with so much so you must get
involved, nothing is below anybody. One
of the most interesting thing I noticed about the agronomists
is that when the workers are working they join them.
Poised Corp: Your
advice to youth starting out in life
Yinka
Lawson: Two countries that I’ve
stood out in my mind amongst the countries I’ve visited are India and
Israel. The reason is because
a lot of their industries are based on cottage so youths should not sit around
waiting for that big company to
give them a job, a car, think of something you can do and start
it up , I read about people starting something and big companies buying them
up and giving them shares and so on.
Poised Corp: So what
challenges do you face in the business?
Yinka
Lawson: Sometimes we have lazy
workers, sometimes we produce things and we can’t sell all of it
so I’m beginning to look at the
storage. Last week we had the water pump broke.
I was
reading an article by Diezengoff (the company that produces
the green house) and it said that one of the problems of Nigeria farming is too
much water for the soil, erosion
and things like that.
I believe
that no matter the challenge we can overcome it. Once
you get into something it should be your intention to develop it.
My daughter
(Nibi Lawson). is a chartered accountant and she works with her father, she
started producing natural hair
care products because she too is concerned about our health
and about the chemicals we put on our body through the hair, she wakes up up
mixes her things before going to work
so there are too many possibilities.
I see a lot
of people saying they can’t find a job, there is a lady
that produces plantain chips and is doing well. Its only a
lazy person looking around for somebody to give them one big contract so we
have to be out of the box.
Poised Corp: So who
are your markets?
Yinka
Lawson: We do Shoprites, hotels, restaurants,
individuals etc. it doesn’t take that much capital to
start it.
Poised Corp: Could
you remember your NYSC experience.
Yinka
Lawson: It was in 1976, the camp was
dirty. I think something should be done about the environment.
Poised Corp: Your
observation of today’s youth.
Yinka
Lawson: I see youths who want to
make it big immediately. I think youths should have a 5 years plan, 10
years plan it guides them.
You should be
able to start small.
