Alabo Tonye Graham-Douglas is a household name in Nigeria. He was the Minister For Youths Sports and Culture  and Minister of Aviation during Retired General Ibrahim Babngida’s  regime. In 1999, he was also appointed  Minister for Labour and Productivity and in 2000, Minister of Tourism in ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet. At his Port Harcourt GRA residence last weekend, Sunday Sun engaged him in an exclusive interview  during which he reflected on his early life, lifestyle, family and other issues.  Excerpts:

Have  you ever  been betrayed by those close to you?
Yes, especially by  those who I  helped. They  eventually betrayed me and let me down.  I would say my  compensation  is that I’ve lived long  enough to be able to surmount betrayal.

 What are  your  challenges in life ?
No human being can  say  he doesn’t  have challenges. I started my career in the oil industry and after I rose  to the top, some intrigues and conspiracies began to surface largely because I was highly  favored by the  authorities. Some  myopic character saw me  as a traitor,  especially in those days when the expatriates were in control and before we came up with the Nigerialization of the industry.

So  what has life taught you?
Life has taught me to  be cautious and  steadfast . If  I have  confidence in somebody, I’ve learnt never  to betray that person. I’ve also learnt to be cautious of tale bearers. Today, people might say I’m their enemy. I’m not an enemy to anybody. If  someone  tells me stories about anybody, I call the person and tell him and as soon as the person explains I know what to do. I’m  very careful of such tell tales . My house is open to  everybody but I’m very cautious.

At what stage in your life did you become famous?
Right from secondary school. Then I went round the country.  I schooled at Abeokuta, so I’ve experienced the Yoruba culture . I had a lot of friends. I had my primary education at Government  School, Okesuna Lagos. I  attended Abeokuta Grammar School to do science after a brief stint at Baptist High School also in Abeokuta.   I made a lot of friends in secondary school.

What does Alabo mean?
Alabo means chief. I had the opportunity  of being the traditional head of my unit.  Everybody was answering chief  and I felt it was too common. So,  I decided that I was going to take the native interpretation of the chieftaincy, which means Alabo . I answered that name  on radio and television interviews I granted.
When anybody says Alabo, I like what you are wearing,  I tell them, I will send you  yours. Subsequently,  I  bought them theirs with  jewelries to match. You can say I’m fashionable and I love setting the pace in fashion.
Ibos dress like us  but they’re not as flamboyant. We embellish our dressing with studs which cost as much as $30,000 dollars.  They are made of eighteen carat pure gold and  with very expensive stones. They are also made of  rubies, sapphire and  diamonds. These are  things that make me  stand out and give me  dignity.

How do you unwind?
In school, I used to go to nightclubs a lot. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke but then we  were  good playboys.

What  are you doing now that you’re retired?
I enjoy  jazz  and contemporary music. When I  retired, one of the things I did was to have a nightclub in a hotel I built  here in Port Harcourt. I have  handed it over to my wife to manage, but she doesn’t like the nightclub, so the  nightclub is not there now. I had a casino and  cinema all in one place too . The nightclub was very popular.

Sir, you’re a handsome man. How do you cope with women ?
It affected my family  because my wives felt slighted.  I had a lot of good women friends, but as the years went by I got over it. Due to ill health I became very careful, reserved and cautious. My first and second  wives  could not tolerate it , but my present wife  doesn’t mind. Our parents were very devout Christians. My grand father brought  Anglicanism to my town, Abonema. He donated a very large chunk of his land to  missionaries when the church came over to this part of the world. That affected our upbringing, all of us. We are all achievers  in my family.

Really?
My elder brother is a doctor and was the first secretary of the Nigerian Medical Council. They were the people who set it up. He was a great surgeon at the Hammersmith University Hospital in London. He organized  medical services in Rivers State and was also the brain behind  the teaching hospital in Rivers State.
One of my brothers was the federal attorney general  during  General Yakubu Gowon’s regime.  He was first the attorney general to Odumegwu Ojukwu . When Ojukwu launched his  rebellion , he opposed it  and told him “We should try to keep Nigeria one. On that note  he resigned though he  was almost killed. When Rivers State was created, Gowon enjoined him to come and set up the Ministry of Justice.
Still another brother was the Chief Judge of the Rivers State . These  two brothers were Senior Advocates of Nigeria.  Today  in my family, there are over 10 doctors and over 38  graduates with the grand children. So it’s a great dynasty.

What’s your relationship with your children like ? 
I have 12 kids and  I trained all of them in England. They are like trained unionists. They love one another  very much and you can’t tell   that they are from different  mothers.
It’s just a blessing to me. One is working as a special assistant to a  federal minister and another one a special assistant to the governor of a state.
My daughters  are okay too. One is working with Central Bank of Nigeria  and  one is an actress and a  lawyer. My eldest daughter has four kids and  she is married to a Kogi man. She is now doing executive MBA at  Oxford University.

How did you meet your beautiful wife?
We both attended St. Cyprians Anglican Church in Port Harcourt. My office used to be close to the church. I saw her and I liked her. She doesn’t give me problem. I don’t give her problems too, but I’m strict. That’s all.

What advice do you  have for married  couples ?
They should be patient and  tolerant as well as be good friends of their spouses, especially as they advance in age. I’m 74. She’s just barely 50 years. I was sexually mature when they gave birth to her. That respect is there. Women have a role to play to keep a man like me. You must manage a house well. I’m a bigamist. I can’t eat alone even if  it’s  groundnuts. I have to share it. It’s been like that all my life. When I was at school, once my brother gave  me my school fees,  I used it to pay a friend’s  school fees.
One day, my brother asked me what happened to the money he gave me. I was a bit petrified to tell him. Eventually, when he heard of what I did, he was happy. From there on, he started paying my friend’s school fees. That was our  upbringing and my children have imbibed it.
My children and I  devote the first Sunday of every month to fasting . Anywhere we are, we fast and pray to God. We phone round to break the fast. It’s inculcated in their psyche and habits. God has helped us as a family.

What’s your favorite food?
I used to be a voracious eater. I love good food. When I travel out, I take my friends to the best restaurants.
I love going to restaurants that  have the best of cuisine but with my health, I’m  very careful of what I eat.
I have to curtail what I eat but my kitchen is still very vibrant. When I’m in Port Harcourt, Abuja or Lagos, about twenty people eat with me everyday.

What are your favorite books?
I like to read biographies of great people. You can see, I am a collector (pointing to his shelves) but I watch a lot of movies for relaxation. Perpetually, there is music in this house, my sitting room and bedroom etc.
Also, I love action movies but then I want to relax and not over excite myself.  I watch intricate plots which I find difficult to unravel.

Tell us about your childhood
I’m the last of my father’s children and I was a spoilt child. I had everything I needed in life  as a child. From the first day I was born to the day I graduated from the university , I had a very easy life  and I was given everything I wanted.