How I made my money, fathered 30 children

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has revealed how he made his money and also built a house for his mother at the age of 15.

Atiku, who is one of the presidential aspirants in the All Progressives Congress, in his new book titled ‘My Life’, which he authored, said he bought a mud house for her mother in Ganye, Adamawa State.

He gave the explanation under chapter six of the book, entitled ‘Making Money’.

He said he recognised very early in life that he had a good nose for business and this made him to apply for and obtained a Federal Housing loan.

The loan, he said, which amounted to N31,000, was the equivalent of his salary for five years as a customs officer.

He said, “I was granted a plot of land by the Gongola State Government at Yola Government Reserved Area. I hired a foreman and began building my first house.

“With close personal supervision, the bungalow was completed on time and to my taste. I rented it out immediately.

“The rent I collected in advance on the house was substantial enough for me to purchase a second plot.  I built my second house and rented it out.

“I continued to plow back the rent into the building of new houses and within a few years, I had built eight houses in choice areas of Yola. I also built a new house for my mother and rebuilt the old mud house I bought for her in Ganye when I was a 15-year-old student.”

The former Vice President said property investment could be rewarding, because, according to him, returns on it could also be high depending on the location.

Kaduna, for instance, he added, was a good place to invest in property before the emergence of Abuja.

He explained that he built his first house in Kaduna with the rent he made from other property and that later, he bought six more plots and built residential houses and rented them out to individuals and institutions.

Atiku also added that of all the businesses into which he would venture, he listed what he described as a small oil services company as the most successful and most lucrative.