The Rise and Fall of Goddy Anabor – Nigeria’s First Magazine Publisher

Goddy Anabor was a household name in Nigeria during the early 90s. But this man fell from glory! Now the question is what truly happened to him? How did he make all these money? Could this be a case of karma for ill gotten wealth?

At the height of his fame and wealth, Goddy Anabor, the publisher of now-rested Heart Magazine, was the toast of musicians and Lagos big babes because of his generosity of heart and his large pocket.

When Goddy Anabor was asked about his fraud background and how he made money, “Goddy waxed philosophically that Yahoo is not a crime, rather, he collected from those who stole from his ancestor.” What a defense!

He invested the money gotten from his yahoo yahoo scheme by investing the money into various businesses including;

1. The Heart Magazine, a romance soft-sell publication that gave the defunct Hints Magazine a big run for his money. My generation grew up reading both Hints and Hearts magazines, as it was our first exposure to s#x and a platform that taught us s#x education and everything we needed to know about s#x.
2. Goddy Anabor founded a colour printing business that printed for the This Day Newspaper, the Punch Newspaper, and many other media publications.
3. He also had a security company and was among the pioneers, even though security guards companies have not become mainstream.
4. He was a big player in the real estate business in Lagos with over 100 buildings to his name.

Just one man did all this. But beyond all these companies, Goddy was rich in every word of them.

He once confessed that he had 3 billion naira at the defunct Equity Bank in 1990. That figure was equivilanr to 700 billion today.

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Do you know that foreign ambassadors, governors and other top politicians attended his extravagant parties, highlighting his unmatched status as a Nigerian socialite.

He was the only Nigerian socialite at the era who had foreign ambassadors posted to Nigeria attending his wild parties.

The Sheraton Hotel loved him as well; he was their biggest individual customer and always had guests staying over at the hotel. He takes turn sleeping with different women around major cities in the country then.

He once paid a bill of 86 million naira for his guests at that hotel. He was so big that he had a permanent room which incurs daily bills at Sheraton in the 90’s. This was at a time when the US dollar was 86 naira to one dollar.

He was a spender and could spend 1 million naira in one swoop without looking back. Most owambe (jolly parties) are not complete without him.

Do you remember top afro juju musicians in the country then? They are always invited to his parties. Shina Peters and Sunny Ade were his favourites.

He drove a lot of cars and had up to 59 cars in his garage, which include Bentleys, SUVs, and Rolls-Royces. He was the Odogwu of the 1990s as he lived life.

Today, Goddy, who is 62, can be only reminisce of the good days, as all he has now are memories of the lavish life that he once lived and the women he once slept with.

He is now a shadow of himself as he now drives a taxi in Lagos to pay his bills.

Goddy Anabor ‘Grace to Grass” story is a lesson for my generation to ponder. Stay away from yahoo and fraud lifestyle. Fraud does not pay.

It is a short-term solution and pleasure, and all that one will end up going down the drain, just like it was a made.

It was easy for Goddy to lose everything because he did not work hard for it; rather, he made it through fraud, which is the easy way. The only way to be wealthy and stay wealthy is to invest and be financially smart.

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