In group photograph after a brief interation are:L-R Gboyega Adeoye,Chukwuemeke  Iwelumo,Abdullrasak Saidu,Dr.Oluropo Owolabi and Moses Kolosi.

 

There are men who fly aircraft, and there are men who make flying possible. Dr Olu Owolabi, born May 24, 1946, belongs to the second tribe, and as he turns 80 the entire aviation family stops not to count his years but to account for his impact, because his life is a ledger where every entry reads service.

 

He never sat in a cockpit, yet he charted courses for Nigeria’s sky. A commercial guru by training and temperament, he cut his teeth in the commercial department of Nigeria Airways when the airline was still teaching the world how to pronounce its name, and there, with a Higher National Diploma, a Diploma in Airline Management from Germany, and a PGD from the Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria, CITAN, he learned the brutal poetry of revenue, routes, and relationships.

 

London noticed. Rome noticed. New York noticed. He was the man Nigeria Airways sent when a station needed order, when numbers needed sense, when a flag needed dignity at foreign counters, and he delivered so cleanly that three-month assignments stretched to nine because competence is hard to release.

 

But his defining flight was not on a tarmac. It was in the ruins. When the task came to rebuild Sky Power Aviation Handling Company Limited, SAHCOL, the company was a question mark with broken wings. Owolabi walked in as General Manager, the peak position in that ground handling firm, and did what architects do: he saw structure in rubble. He designed its logo with his own hand, not as artwork but as an oath, then rolled up his sleeves for the yardwork that turns drawings into destinations.

 

With uncommon managerial skill he welded men into a team and welded the team to a purpose, until ramp agents, load controllers, accountants, and cleaners began to move like one body with one heartbeat.

 

SAHCOL rose, and the workers rose with him, because under Owolabi’s unrivaled leadership dignity was not a memo, it was daily bread. He took the company from unspoken to unhidden recognition, from salvage to standard, until the board had no choice but to name him Managing Director, and the industry had no choice but to call him a phenomenon.

 

He was never a cockpit person. He was the man who made sure the cockpit had something worth flying, the ground handler per excellence who understood that aircraft don’t make airlines, people do.

 

A Fellow of CITAN, he mentored without microphone, taught that profit without people is piracy, that turnaround time is measured in trust as much as minutes, that the best handling is the handling of hearts.

 

Yet the story of how Owolabi reached the pinnacle of his career cannot be told without the name of Dr Taiwo Afolabi*, Chairman of Sifax Group. When SAHCOL was privatized and the future looked like a sundown for the man who had bled for it, Afolabi stepped in and wrote the next chapter.

 

In Owolabi’s own words:  “Dr Taiwo Afolabi is an uncommon Nigerian with a very strong compassion for his nation, Nigeria. He renewed my hope at a .time that would  have been the sundown of my career. Here is a man who has the chance to keep his investment offshore but decided to use all his resources to build his own country.. He took over SAHCOL and gave me back the leadership of the company I grew, and nurtured. He gave me unfettered authority to manage the affairs of the now fledgling ground handling company.”

 

That act of trust did more than save a career. It saved a legacy. Under Afolabi’s ownership, Owolabi was restored as Managing Director and given the room to finish the work he started. The company didn’t just survive, it soared. Today, Alhaji Owolabi serves as Non-Executive Director of SAHCOL, still lending his wisdom to the company he resurrected.

 

And so at 80 the voices that know gather to bear witness. Comrade Abdulrazaq Saidu, Secretary General of the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals, ANAP, says, “Alhaji Owolabi is the SOP we never had to write. He showed ANAP that commercial sense and common touch can share the same seat. He built SAHCOL and built men, and at 80 he is still the manual we open when we forget how to lead.”

 

Chuks Iwelunmo, former Chairman of the League of Aviation and Airport Correspondents, LAAC, puts it this way: “We journalists chase scoops. Owolabi gave us substance. He took SAHCOL from the grave to grace, designed its face, and defended its name. He proved that ground handling is not ground level work when a giant is doing it. At 80, his story is still breaking news.”

 

Gboyega Adeoye, former General Secretary of LAAC, adds, “Some men hold office. Dr Owolabi held up companies. Nigeria Airways sent him to rescue stations; Nigeria sent him to resurrect SAHCOL. He was never in the cockpit, but he kept the whole aircraft of aviation from stalling. At 80, he remains our control tower for character.”

 

Aliu Mohammed, veteran journalist and public relations guru, concludes, “PR is easy when your principal is pure. Dr Owolabi needed no spin. He designed a logo, delivered a company, and dignified a sector. He is the ground handler who handled Nigeria’s image with excellence, and at 80 his reputation still boards first.”

 

Yet for all the applause, Dr Owolabi has asked for no drums as he turns 80, only prayers and supplications for Nigeria, for his children, friends, and associates, because the man who spent his youth lifting companies spends his age lifting a country, still on duty, still on his knees.

 

From the colonial dust of Kano’s first flight in 1925 to the automated warehouses of today, Nigeria’s aviation was raised by men who understood that the most important part of an aircraft is the team that never leaves the ground. Owolabi was that man. He was the commercial mind that funded flights, the GM who rebuilt from ruins, the MD who made men believe in Mondays.

 

So we do not celebrate a pilot at 80. We celebrate the man who made pilots proud to land. Happy 80th, Dr Olu Owolabi. You designed a logo, and it became a legacy. You took SAHCOL from ground zero to ground control. You taught us that the sky is sustained by those who serve beneath it. And to Aare Taiwo Afolabi, we say thank you for recognizing greatness and giving it wings again.

 

The aircraft may change, the handlers may retire, but the eagle you are never landed. Fly on, sir. We are still taking instructions from your tower.