Sunday, 29 January 2017
THE ECONOMIC COMPLAINANTS WHO ARISE BUT REFUSE TO SHINE: THE BEACON OF FINANCIAL FREEDOM.
Most of us are so comfortable being 'economic complainants' rather than 'economic actors'. We scream, bark, bleat, grunt and compose nauseating tirades against the government, We yell all the time, criticising the corrupt leaders, growl at bad administrators, and so on and so forth all day, that we never get the time to do anything useful to alleviate our own miserable economic and financial situation. Brothers and Sisters, why not let your complaints be converted into actions? Your arguments in the newspaper-stands, offices, parks and corridors should be converted into analysis of your own financial creativity and discipline. Your yells should be converted into actions like buying a small board and start teaching pupils in your street the subject(s) you know best for a token. Let's start from there. Never despise little beginnings they say. I see young and old men at the vendor's arguing and speaking voraciously and tenaciously for long hours about our national problems, especially the despicable state of our economy and how 'Buhari is Slow' and I swallow hard. Mr. Man, how fast are you in handling your own economic life and your family's? Men and women who should be tirelessly working, creating wealth, creating employment and battering & shattering poverty wait all day for the government to salvage their sad situation. Let me tell you the truth, the government, politicians and public office holders are busy with other things that are more 'important' than you, the common man like you and I are not their cup of tea. We are of less importance than there pets at home, their dogs especially. Some dogs eat assorted and imported food items worth up to 5,000 naira daily in case you don't know. My sister, how much food you don chop today? We can all analyse all the problems brilliantly, however, only a very few would fantastically profer and explain the solutions but none will ever lift a finger to personally contribute to its solution(s). We have all become wailing-wailers, and mere analysis-activists instead of playing our own parts in alleviating poverty and helping ourselves. This is where we need self-help. Not when a thief who steals a loaf of bread is caught! Let us indulge in a wild and fierce economic jungle justice! By this, I mean we should not seek anyone's permission or approval before we flood the path of entrepreneurship and self-employment. You should argue within yourself and convince your damn self that you can earn extra 'big' cash on your own, with your own brain and hands, with your own creativity. A money which will make the salary you earn from your normal day-job an 'extra cash'. You can argue about 'the shameful state of the Nigeria Economy' till the cows come home. They were kvetching about it in 1990; theyʼll still be kvetching about it in 2090. And trust my instincts, and yours, nothing will actually 'change', except the print design of the naira. At least, not soon. Not tomorrow. And we have to eat tomorrow! Abi? The wide path of being an Economic Complainant is an easy and dead path. Itʼs a path well trodden, and not a place where one is going to come up with any new, earth-shattering insights. It gives you the 'opportunity' not to think, the 'opportunity' to be lazy, the 'opportunity' to avoid any personal risk whatsoever, and the 'opportunity' not to be industrious and productive and still be hailed for your vast knowledge of the problems of the country. It would earn you respect at the newspaper stands and motor-parks but never at your home or at the garri-seller's which you have been owing for months and avoiding desperately where your financial muscle should be flexed to earn respect. Empty accolades! Don't get me wrong, I am not proposing a total apathy to social and political criticism and analysis. I am only saying, talk is cheap, which you'll agree. Even looters like Femi Fani-Kayode and Dino Melaiye can do that so well and earn the respect of many gullible Nigerians. Everyone can yell at the government via social media for personal aggrandizement. Almost any idiot can tweet about the 'evil' effects of the removal of subsidy even if he knows nothing about the economics involved in the whole saga. Let us add action to our struggle. By action, I mean wealth-creation, some call it entrepreneurship. It simply means, look for a problem or a need or a vacuum in your environment or society, solve or provide for or fill it and get paid in return. Is there anyone in your street or community selling liquid wash? No? Start selling. Is there anyone selling sanitary pads, soaps and deodorants in your hostel or on you floor? No? Make haste and start providing that. My brother, no one is selling ties, tie-clips, and cuff-links in your block? Don't dull, start today, right away! At this juncture, financial arms is the only thing that can help us to win this fight against poverty and malnutrition. And our destiny lies in our hands. Get up today, and go fry some akara and sell them in the neighborhood or roadside, make your akara very excellent and exceptional by adding little amount of crayfish to it for a mind-blowing and tantalizing taste. Learn shoe-making and start making some nice shoes and sandals today. Be an apprentice at that tailor's shop today and be a cool fashion designer in a year or less, then learn cute and crazy designs on the job. Get a mild loan of 2000 naira and start selling delicious moin-moin beside the vendor's today and let people enjoy your exceptional culinary skills. If you can afford it, employ someone to do same at the next bus-stop. And like that, and like that, we are all getting armed to take over. Street ti take over! We Africans need to start thinking and start solving our economic problems ourselves; self help is the only way out. Get up today and create wealth. Be an economic actor instead of being an economic complainant. Get up, arise, and shine! Abayomi Ahmed ©2016
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