Engr. Kazeem Mustapha Lusty is the Chief Executive Office, (CEO), Kontz Engineering Services Limited. In this interview with Muslim World Int’l Magazine, he talks about his growing up, his career as a security engineer and impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Can we meet you sir?
My name is Engr. Kazeem Mustapha Lusty, I work with KONTZ Engineering Limited. I was born to a father Mr. Hassan Mustapha and Mrs. Oluwakemi Mustapha in the year 1966. I grew up in Lagos, schooled and served in Lagos, I also work in Lagos. I have worked with several companies and presently with KONTS Engineering Limited, which I am the current CEO. I am married with children.
How about your growing up?
My upbringing was good. I had a lot of exposure; eventful and memorable timeline. I grew up in Lagos and attended Kosofe Baptist Primary School, later moved to Arowosogbe Primary School, then to Comprehensive High School, Agidi where I did my Secondary School. From there I proceeded to Yaba College of Technology where I studied Electrical Electronics Engineering and the same time was doing my Physics Electronics at University of Lagos. I proceeded to Federal University of Technology Akure for my PGD and Masters in Electronics and MBA from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and later moved to Lagos Business School and then Crafy University in the UK. So many other certification training that could enhance my profession and also some other certificate in the security and safety.
Were you born into a Muslim or Christian home?
You know one never choose where to be born. I was born into a home where my father was a Muslim and my mother was a Christian. And that gave me more exposure and understanding having both religions. We grew up as Muslims, trained to be a good Muslim and later I became a Christian during my university days, which after couple of years I reverted back to Islam.
Can you tell us what made you converted back to Islam?
Religion is a choice and people make choices based on the information they have at their disposure. My own was based on the information I have, in which I did a couple of research after my graduation. I did a lot of comparison religion, analyzing, evaluating of different types of religion. I enjoyed myself when I was a Christian, it was an interesting event. I even dreamt of working towards being a pastor. But a time came in my life I said I wanted to understand things more. I studied, did research and realized that I choose to be a Muslim based on my own understanding. And because we should respect people for their choices, I have chosen to be a Muslim, I enjoy being a Muslim and I am happy to be a Muslim. I enjoy Islam.
Some people do say religion is part of the problem in Africa, and many believers do things because their religious leaders say so. What is your take on this?
On the contrary, Religion is the solution to the problem we have in Africa. Ignorance is the problem we have in Africa, whosoever takes instructions or do things because they say he or she should do it, is ignorant.
So I feel religion would be our solution, because before you join a religion you need knowledge. A knowledge based religion is what is called religion, a religion that is based on they said I should do is Ignorant Religion. So if we choose any religion, we should ensure that we are knowledgeable about other religion we did not choose, so we can have a reason why we did not make those choices.
As long as our religion is based on knowledge, we would have a solution, unfortunately for us, all the religion that we have in the whole world, even from the devilish religion, came from the same generation and we have not heard in the history that these same people were killing themselves because of religion.
We knew Abraham was a God modeling person. We also heard in the history that Abraham’s son or so did not follow religion, but he was praying for them, he did not slaughter them because of that. Meaning he has done his own path to protect them. We also know that Mohammed (SAW) was born into idolatry; he did not kill his people. Also we know that he was saved by uncle that is an Idol worshipper that never accepted Islam. So why are we killing ourselves? I believe that the challenge we have is ignorant of religion. We are lazy in studying. It is important we understand things. Don’t quote a verse because your pastor quoted it. Read, do research about it, find out who revealed it, when and why it was revealed, what are the situations in that environment that made it happen. Because a verse would say don’t drink, it may actually not mean don’t drink, it might be because of a certain circumstance. So one need to understand clearly what the book says before following.
What is your opinion on politicizing religion in Nigeria?
Well, it is difficult to remove politics and religion because religion is what makes you as a person. Politics is what you accept as a rule of governance. So it is a bit difficult, unfortunately for us, instead of using both religion and politics to better ourselves, we are using it to extort and divide ourselves. We have changed the important things from better value to money and material gain which we do not need. Parents should imbibe morality in their children so that we can have next generation that is better.
The older ones should bear in mind that they came to this world with nothing and they shall return with nothing. So as long as you know that you don’t need to fight for what you don’t need, as long as we stop putting the wrong people in power, there should be a criteria that determines who and who are qualified for positions in politics. It is only this country that we put the worst of us in politics and the best in the wrong positions. So until we change our morality and ensure that we elect the best into governance, we probably will not get it right, because they can only give what they have. But if we put moral people in government, they will give good governance.
As a Muslim, an engineer and CEO, I believed you are always busy and you have to pray five times daily, how do you always make the balance?
As I said before, religion is a choice, if one has chosen something as a part of life; it is compulsory and important you abide by it. People would respect you for what you abide with. You cannot put God last, because it is the religion you believe that determines how you treat people, address and handle issues. We spent about four to five minutes to pray, the same time you use to ease yourself or coffee break, it is just a decision.
Being an Engineer, how has the journey been so far?
I would be sincere with you; I think the best I have chosen is to be an Engineer. I have always wanted to be one. Actually, I like to be a life saver, unfortunately I did not go into the medical line because during my younger age I disliked injections and blood, so I said let me go into Bio-medical Engineering, which I became a medical equipment into saving lives. One way or the other, I found myself into security engineering, still the same thing, what gives you joy is when you see that you have been able to impact live and add value, as long as you are contributing your own quote no matter how small, it keeps you going.
How about corporate social responsibility?
Corporate social responsibility is actually what impacts you more. We always think that when we do corporate social responsibility, we think we are giving. You are actually giving to yourself, because when you touch life, it gives you life, and it also indirectly gives you salvation and prosperity, open doors and let you live in peace. It gives a mentality that you need what you are trying to acquire. I have been in Rotary for so many years now, I was once a president of Rotary club of Somolu for two years, the way Rotary is club is touching lives Globally is something wonderful.
What is your advice to Nigerians, especially the youth who wants to make it by all means?
Everything still goes back to our morality. We have destroyed the moral of the next generation, but luckily it is not totally destroyed, because if we look at the generation and population we have in Nigeria, the youth are about 60% and Nigeria youths can control the world. Nigerian youths own the future if they manage it very well, they have to hijack their future from the old generation, not hijacking it is what is important, but ensuring that they are also ready to pay the price of quote. Because we have damaged morality and our youths has thought that the only thing that is called growth is to have money, false enrichment. There is a difference between having money and being wealthy, wealth is riches that is planted and grows continuously, meaning you have to invest continuously and grow the wealth. It is very important that we understand when you go to school, you are creating wealth. When you start implementing what you have learnt in school, you are promoting and adding value. You are promoting the world. So it is very important that the young generation should train themselves because some of our parents have failed in giving their children morality. The younger generations have to reborn themselves. You have to start competing with good value and make positive impact in the society. The whole world has improved. It is only Nigeria that has refused to develop. There are opportunities in Nigeria; there is nothing you bring into this country that would not sell. So there are opportunities but there are prices you need to pay to grow those opportunity. Nigeria youths should look more into these prices than look into competing those that have stolen wealth or have short time riches that cannot grow. They should plan and create wealth and become an impact on the globe.