And it gets even more annoying when I see young Nigerians nursing hatred against each other because one set is #TeamNengi and the other is #TeamLaycon. I mean really? This is what Nigerian youths are fighting about? Chinedu Echeruo is a young Nigerian who made a billion dollars selling his app to Apple. Sadly, there are no #TeamChinedu in Nigeria!
Our youths have not formed #TeamDangote, or #TeamElumelu, or #TeamOtedola, to ask to be mentored so that they can grow in business. Instead, they form #TeamNengi and co, just to discuss big buttocks and big other body parts that I cannot and will not mention here.
This is the same way our youths idolised Hushpupi and ignored the many young Nigerian entrepreneurs who were creating jobs for them, like Ayodeji Adewunmi and Deji Oduntan, who were forced out of business in Nigeria, when the Lagos state government banned commercial motorcyclists, thus rendering their business Gokada, which was employing hundreds of thousands of our youths, obsolete. No protest. No marches. But, let the Nigerian government ban BBNaija, and you will see the mother of all protests!
The focus of our youths is what won’t add value to your lives in the name of #BBNaija! Big Brother originated in Europe and has since died a natural death there. Now, Europeans are focused on reality shows like Deal or No Deal, and Dragon’s Den, that promote industry, while Nigeria is stuck in yesterday because of our love for debauchery! Other than Nigeria, which countries still do Big Brother? The world has since left that debauched show behind. But not us. Rather than copy what will bring progress, we like to copy what breeds degeneracy!
And it seems the inept government of President Muhammadu Buhari is quite happy to go along because the show distracts the attention of the public from their maladministration. See how they have cleverly increased the price of petrol to N150 per litre in many parts of the country, because they know that the minds of our youths are preoccupied elsewhere. Oh, what a pity. What a pity indeed!
Before I end this piece, let me take a moment to praise Tony Elumelu, the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, who has devoted his life, since leaving UBA, to philanthropy and the grooming of young business leaders, through his Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Through the Blair-Elumelu Fellowship Programme, Tony Elumelu is grooming Young Africans to strengthen Africa’s economy by developing the private sector to be the driver of Africa’s future growth. And it is working. It is working big time!
In proof of this, just go on the Tony Elumelu Foundation website and click on the success stories tab. It features a long list of TEF success stories amongst African youths across the continent. Tony Elumelu is the type of leader we need in Africa. One who climbs on the success ladder, and then lowers it down for others to likewise climb. God bless him.
I urge other successful Africans to please emulate Tony Elumelu by giving back to society in a systemic and sustainable manner, and not just sporadically and episodically. Recreate more of yourselves in your continent.
Africa has the lowest level of intra-regional trade, because we still see ourselves as strangers. Whereas 68% of Europe’s trade is intra-regional, Africa has an abysmal 18% intra-regional trade. We need people like Tony Elumelu and the debonair Strive Masiyiwa, to groom a new generation of African youths who have the capacity to think Africa and not just their countries. Young men and women who can take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to increase African intra-regional trade to the point where it is at least 50%.
Africa cannot grow rich selling more commodities to Europe. Our wealth will only come when we add value to our agricultural and allied products and trade with each other, to achieve continental food security, and then sell the excess to the rest of the world.
But to do that, we need a critical mass of young entrepreneurs, who have the education, discipline, and vision to lead that change. And that is where people like Tony Elumelu, Strive Masiyiwa, Pat Utomi, and others come in.
Reno’s Nuggets
Dear men,
Any woman you meet, who within a few days of meeting her calls, emails, or texts you to say that she “urgently” needs any amount of money, is a hardened manipulator. Do yourself a favour. Delete her number and forget you ever met her! You don’t need a needy woman. You need a needed woman. A woman cannot be needy and needed at the same time. Such women have different numbers stored on their phones that they fleece with the ‘urgent’ scam. Their bad habit will follow them to your house if you are foolish enough to make them your wife.
Source: This Day