By Yemisi Suleiman

As Mr. Dan Okehi approaches the remarkable milestone of his 70th birthday on May 6, 2025, we pause to honour a life marked by extraordinary achievements, rich experiences, and profound wisdom. As the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Brickred Insurance Brokers, an esteemed international brokerage firm based in Lagos, Mr. Okehi stands as a towering figure in Nigeria’s insurance industry. His visionary leadership has not only shaped the industry’s evolution but also touched countless lives through his unwavering commitment to education and mentorship.

In this exclusive interview with Vanguard Allure, he reflects on turning 70, the enduring value of legacy, and the transformative power of faith and purposeful leadership.

 Congratulations on turning 70! What does that mean to you?

 Getting to the seventh stage of life is not an easy thing. In those days when people turned 70, we looked at them like very old people. But now,  I’m 70 and don’t feel that way, so, it’s an occasion to thank God for an assurance that I’ll get to 90 God willing. So, it is a thing of joy, not just to myself, but to all my children, grandchildren, friends and the church.

So, would you say that God has been good to you over the years?

Obviously, yes! God has been faithful, and He can be trusted. Right from the time I got closer to God and got born again, I realised that there is nothing he cannot do for those who are faithful to him.

You have four books to present as highlights of your 70th birthday. Why books?

As an academic, I believe it is time to leave some of my own legacies and things I have learned in the past to future generations, so that our knowledge will live on. Being a teacher/lecturer who has been involved in academics, you wouldn’t want the things in you to die  with you. You have to leave some of these legacies alive in the minds of people. I’ve written over 12 books but this time around, I ventured into writing three Christian books.

One of them is talking about Jesus Christ as the game changer of our faith. The second one is Heirs of Righteousness –for believers to know they are heirs or joint heirs with Christ and that they are also priests and kings unto God.

The third Christian book is on Grace, realities of God’s grace brought to man by the coming of Jesus Christ.

You are player in the insurance sector; how would you describe the Nigerian insurance industry?

The Nigerian insurance industry has not achieved the purpose we wanted for it. At this age, we started a race with the banking industry. There was a time in this environment that the insurance industry was ahead of the banking sector. In my book on transformational leadership, I compared both industries that are in the financial arm of the economy. They started the race together, but the bankers have gone ahead because they were open to environmental changes.

Today, the banking industry has gone through three transformations that have brought them to the level where they are now. The gap is so much that today, a tier one bank is bigger than the entire insurance industry.

Our industry today has been bastardised. Our pension arm has been removed because of the negative attitude of the founders of the industry.

You can’t compare the Nigerian insurance industry, with the insurance industry in South Africa, UK, or even in Ghana because those industries are intact. Both the life arm and general insurance arms are all intact, but in our own case, they have taken over our pension arm which now has an asset base of over 850 trillion Naira. That  is supposed to be an arm of the insurance industry.

So, what has been done to correct this?

Well, the issue is that the industry should realise what they have done wrong and sit up. There’s a new arm that is coming up now and with increased capitalisation of the operating insurance arm. Two, the industry should not allow their due businesses coming from the oil and gas, aviation, marine, to leave our shores for foreign countries. For instance, in oil and gas, we are still battling to underwrite 15 to 20% of the oil businesses going on here. They are mostly taken abroad because they believe the industry here has no capacity to write those businesses.

 But today, when you ask an average insurance technical person what to do to build capacity, they would tell you capacity will start from a regeneration of the capital base needed by the industry, getting appropriate technology, and turning around the human capacity base, to a capacity base that can help re-jig things here in Nigeria.

As you grew up, did you always envision a career in insurance?

Well, I wanted to become an accountant because from  secondary school, we were prepared to be in the commercial sector. So, that was why I read accounting, bookkeeping, commerce, economics and all the rest. I also wanted to be in the businessarea, business management, business administration and finance. I had three A- level papers so for my JAMB, I applied to read accounting.

Insurance was my second choice, but I was admitted to read accounting and I was posted to Ahmadu Bello University. I bought Ahmadu Bello University form and I was informed that all vacant places had been filled with their basic students who graduated from the school. This made me to rush to University of Lagos, that was the University of my second choice; on getting there, the accounting slot was filled.

It was then JAMB advised me to go to my second choice of subject. That was when I went to insurance and when I got there, I was lucky. They still had two chances, and they admitted me to read insurance. And as we were growing in the department, my aim was still to go back to accounting. So, after part one, I was preparing to get back to accounting, because I passed very well, but the head of department then called me and advised me to retain insurance because it was a new program and we would be the pioneers on graduation.

He advised me not to leave and I heeded to his advice and completed the BSC insurance program.

And he told me, “you will be ahead of all the people you are graduating with.”

We graduated after three years and after our National Youth Service, we were employed by Crusader Insurance Company, and we started a career.

So how did you evolve in the industry?

Three or four years after, we were ahead of our colleagues, that is, those that read accounting. After four years, I rose to become an Assistant Manager, and while the people that read accounting, for instance, were still struggling as supervisors. From then on, I moved. I moved until 1990 when I became the General Manager of African Development Insurance Company.

Then Chief Irukwu was the Chairman, and with him, we worked together and made the company one of the best. From there, I formed an insurance company of our own called Central Insurance Company, CICO, which became a flagship of the industry at that time. Guardian Trust Insurance Company was formed after this and it brought one of the biggest oil and gas deals in our industry, that is the Shell bonder, the FPSO that was first to be established in Nigeria. So, we became one of the best in the industry. I worked there till I retired, and today, I am a consultant and a broker.

 So, your decision to stay with the insurance profession paid off afterall?

Yes, it paid off and gave me the opportunity to come to the limelight very easily and because of the type of education we had, we became the best in the industry. We were qualified ACI London at a very tender age. At age 40, I had already become Managing Director, working so hard to be one of the best, which we are today in the industry.

How was growing up like as a child?

Well, as a child, I grew up in an average family from the Eastern part of the country. I was born in Ibadan, and when the war broke out in 1966, we all went back to the East. I was just nine years old in the midst of the war. So, there was a lot of suffering. We saw our parents struggle to sustain us all through the war, and we didn’t go to school for two years during the war in 1970.

We came to do our primary six examination and entered  secondary school from 1971-1975, and came up with excellent results from the school certificate in grade One. And from there, I tried to enter the university to read accounting.

Were you a daddy’s boy or a mummy’s boy?

I was a mummy’s boy! I have five siblings but I was the only son. So, my parents were very careful about me, but my mother took special interest in me because she was a very good Christian and made me to follow through the Christian background from my youth. She made me know that there was somebody called God who sits in the affairs of men, and they took me  beyond what an ordinary  child could know.

What does fashion mean to you?

 Fashion to me is how you relate with the society, how you want to appear for people to appreciate you.

You have a unique sense of style especially with your love for Kaftans, why Kaftans?

Well, that’s my unique way of dressing. I’ve been dressing that way for a long time now, and when I was vying for Senatorial position, the dress came out good.

What’s your taste in perfumes like?

I am a perfume person. I love a lot of good perfumes, good names, most of them have become very expensive. Each time I travel, I get a good stock that will last a while so as to come out clean, smell well, and let people perceive you to be on top of your class.

At 70, What lessons has life taught you?

Life has thought me that you need to be focused, do not take failure as a dead end, because you need to rise again. I told you, I formed a company called Central Insurance Company, and some inordinate people wanted to take over the company and even to take my life. I left them and moved on to form another company that came out to be five times bigger than what we had before. Don’t see failure at the end of the road, you must aim to be going higher and impacting and see any failing point as a spring that will take you to another level.

 If there’s anything you want to correct about yourself, what would that be?

To spend more time on community life. That was why I attempted to become a Senator, because I wanted to correct the ills that are in our society. I don’t know how that can be corrected today, because everybody is chasing money.