₦airaland Forum

Fellow youths!
Whether you know it or not, the future of this Nation (or even if it breaks up into smaller Nations) is in our hands as youths. Today, we too easily blame the oldies for having messed up things for us. We recount history and we point accusing fingers. Tomorrow, we shall be old and our children will do same to us UNLESS WE REALLY STAND UP TO CHANGE HISTORY NOW.

I want to tell you fellow youths that we are too advanced now (or we should be) to allow the oldies remote control us. Whether you are (alphabetically)Efik, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Urhobo, Yoruba or whatever, you are still a kid if you cannot stand on your feet but instead depend on - and so teleguided by - the antiquated political class. We sometimes take sides with politicians from our parts of the country against people from other parts. That is the height of foolishness and see why: The entire ruling class in Nigeria have been selfish from day one. We are not fortunate enough to have REAL ROLE MODELS - people who really paid a price for our sake. Not as the South African youths have in Nelson Mandela for example. Instead, the entire political class, out of selfishness from day one, has taken decisions and made policies that have worked against you and me even as we are reading this.

So, instead of turning against one another, let us realise that we have a common enemy in the ruling class and all its extentions. But instead, we still allow them to remote-control us by using money and religion as baits. Let's realise that we are mortgaging our future whenever we do so.

There is this story of a local thieve who went and stole a goat belonging to a farmer named Terungwa. He went and prepared peppersoup with the goat and brought some in a dish to Terungwa and Terungwa was all thanks. How foolish he was! And that's what the ruling class does to us all. They have stolen a lot that would have made your and my life better than it is. Then, they sometime give us just a little out of the booty and we go hairwire for their sake and are ready to die or kill for them. Poor us!

Today, Emmanuel Macron is ruling a first world economy (France). While he was being sworn in this year, he was only 39. But here in Nigeria, 39- even 49-year-olds are content to die or kill to advance the political career of some old thieves somewhere. Shey na juju them do us so?

Let us spend more of our time and our energies working to be independent of these people instead of fighting one another. Let us make SACRIFICES to be free and for the sake of our children born and yet unborn. The earlier we do this, the better for us. Let us make the ruling class depend on us even financially. The advantage we have over them in this regard, is our young creative, progressive ingenuity. Today, corporations like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and yes, even Microsoft are ruling the world and youths like us have put them together. Let's think and grow up please.

I was on Facebook today when a girl posted an image lamenting the rate of hunger in Nigeria. I responded that "if u dey hungry na u do urself. seek and u shall find" and she posted back asking me "Ok, I'm seeking now. Let me find. I study management. Employed me". It occured to me that many graduates in Nigeria still carry the old mentality of "I'm waiting to be employed". Then, some say they want to start a business but they don't have money.

The above experience is what inspired me to write this post. In the spirit of helping to make Nigeria better, I wish to show Nigerian youths why they don't need to spend their great intelligence on complaining and blaming Government. Instead they should spend it on self-help. As a matter of fact, there is no Government that has done well in Nigeria. They have all contributed their quotas to working against YOUR destiny as a Nigerian youth. So, it's very foolish for Nigerian youths to fight and hurt one another for the sake of the political class (In fact, expect my post on this with reference to the recent quarrel between Arewa Youths and IPOB). Meanwhile, back to business: How to start a lucrative business this weekend without a dime as your start-up:

Do you have people in your location who are hosting such events as wedding, child dedication, anniversary, etc in near future. Go to them and offer to design e-cards for them (You don't need to know how to design; I will tell you how). Tell them why they need e-cards: 1. Paper cards have become outdated. E-cards are what fit the current prevailing culture. They are meant to be distributed via social media, email, phone (MMS) and more. 2. And, they are cheaper. If you just design one, you can distribute them to as many people as you can. 3. E-cards enhance your image. Not many people have started using them. So, e-cards will make them classy and their events memorable.

You need to design something really beautiful for them so that you get referrals through them and have good reputation. But if you don't know how to design or how to design like a pro, what do you do? Look for someone who can (Like yours truly. See sample images attached to this post). Discuss business with them. Then, go to your prospective client and discuss business. Add your profit. Get advance payment from him/her and pay your designer. You have made money. Chikena!

Before a month you will have many people knocking on your door. So, why should you go seeking a job that you are paid N50,000 a month and you are made to feel little everyday? And you don't have time for yourself? And they sometimes tell you "no money this month"? And prices of things get higher while your salary remains static? Please, think.

There is no doubt that there are so many ideas and talents wasting across the land space of Nigeria because of lack of funding. This difficulty has been aggravated by the fact that the credit facility in Nigeria is poor. But the real problem is that most Nigerians are not willing to make minimal effort.

If you have an idea but your problem is funding, I advise you to read this piece by TWAPIN eMagazine (see attached photo).

I’m almost sure everyone here is familiar with that famous joke, in which an American asked a Nigerian, “is it true that you Nigerians answer questions with questions?” and the Nigerian retorted, “who told you that?” Lol!
I once read of an interview granted by a Coca-Cola CEO in a distant past. The journalist asked him, “why does Coca-Cola still need to spend so much on advertizing every year after becoming the most household global brand name?” The CEO asked back (he must have been a Nigerian), “what would happen to an electric train on a high speed if you switched off the power supply?”
“I guess the answer to your question is obvious” said the journalist. “The train will crash suddenly and completely”
“Cool” said the CEO, “you answered right. Coca-Cola is that train and advertizing is her power supply”
What lesson can we take from this? This is it (again we answer a question with question): If Coca-Cola, with all their global popularity, still considers advertizing so important, then no business can reasonably toy with it. Advertizing is the power of every business. In this article, I want to show you a new set of advertizing technique to help you make more money in your business even while the recession lasts (Sorry, are we still technically in recession? Well all I know is that the economy is down, but YOU can be up).

Every Nigerian Has Got A Business
I am supposed to be here talking about how EVERY NIGERIAN can make more money; am I not? That’s what the title promises at least. And that’s what I’m doing. But why did I suddenly begin to talk about businesses instead of individual Nigerians? Well the truth is that every Nigerian has got a business except that some (or many) seem not to know they have. Let me explain:
“The rule for making money has never changed since the coin was invented in Asia Minor: Just find a need and fill it”, a saying goes. According to the American clergy man Robert H. Schuller, “anybody who succeeds is helping people. The secret to success is: find a need and fill it; find a hurt and heal it; find a problem and solve it”. But then, if making money – and not just Heaven – is your aim in solving a problem, you surely want to be paid. So, to the above wisdom of the sages, permit me to add this: how to make money is to find a way to get paid solving people’s problem and that’s what the word ‘business’ means.
Everyone has got a problem he can solve better than others. That’s what we call talent. I call it your God-given business. If you want to be wealthy and happy, that’s what you must do. You discover your own God-given business by looking inside and asking “what good can I do better than many?” That’s what you will be doing for many and be getting paid. That’s your business.

But I Don’t Have Money; What Do I Do?
Many people are going to the grave with great talents that never benefitted anybody. Why? Most of them will say “I had no sponsor; my talent needed financial support and I never had it; I came from a poor background, etc”. Well, excuses are the easiest products to manufacture. When it comes to sponsorship, my answer is “seek and you shall find” (Mt 7:7). There are many ways to raise money if you really have something to offer (see TWAPIN eMagazine www.twapin.com.ng for example) but you can’t take advantage of them by just sitting out there and complaining of your many woes as if you are on the Planet alone.

Take Advantage Of the Phone Culture
Once you have discovered a problem you can solve better than many (ie. your business) and you have discovered those who have those problems (your prospects), the next step to the money is to find a way to let those who have the need know you can fill it. That is advertizing. And today, the most effective advertizing is the one that takes advantage of the phone culture that is sweeping across the entire globe. As Andrew Liszewski noted a few days ago with reference to the recent iPhone X launching, “PC and laptop sales have been on the decline because more and more consumers are using their phones as their primary device” (Gizmodo, September 19, 2017).
The success of that your business as you saw above, depends on the effectiveness of your advertizing it. Why? Even if you have the best products (goods or services) but those who need it do not know you have it, you might as well die of poverty. And it is a loss-loss situation because those whose problems you would have solved also suffer without the solution only you would have provided. And, with the phone culture that is upon us today, the most effective adverts are the ones that target people’s phone. You might run a radio or TV jingle and your prospect is somewhere else at the time. You might place a billboard and he’d drive by without taking notice. You might buy a space on the news page but he doesn’t even read them. But, if you send it to his/her phone, it meets him wherever he is and he cannot ignore it.
A good medium for phone-based advertizing is Whatsapp. But most people either are not registered or do not have phones that run the app. This now leaves bulk SMS as the mobile advert platform of choice. There are many bulk SMS providers in Nigeria but the one I recommend most is BBN SMS (www.sms.bbnplace.com).
To make a real impact, go ahead and design an advertizing that targets peoples phone via bulk SMS. You may also want to consider this (it’s very effective as you will see):
o Ask yourself where are my prospects? Are they international, nationwide, only in my state or in my town? For example, if you run a food restaurant in Surulere, it would surely not pay you much to inform residents in Kano. You should rather target your adverts locally. But if you sell an app that helps Adroid phone users solve some problems, you can target Android phone users nationwide and even internationally.
o Collect phone numbers of your target audience. If they are in your town, collect from your town. If your state, collect statewide. If nationwide, do the same and so on.
o If your goods or service is new and needs some persuading your prospects, create an online pitch page like that of TWAPIN eMag cited above. If you can’t do it yourself, I can help you. You can get it all done with your own domain name, expert content and design at a very low price. If your product is old and already known, you may not need this: for example, if you sell cooking gas or fish.
o Then send your SMS telling your prospects you offer so and so goods or services and place your phone number for contact. If you have a pitch page, you should direct them to your pitch page instead. See an example SMS for a regular product: “GOOD NEWS!!! You now have an expert plumber at FESTAC Town. A trial will convince you. Call 080xxxxxxxx.” Then, see a sample SMS for a new product: “DO YOU KNOW there is an Android app that helps your baby to learn how to read at three? Try it for free at www.xyz.com.”
o Sit down and start enjoying the fruit of your effort. Bye bye!

So happy to know.

LordIsaac:
I hope the ɓeareɗ gangstar ɗiɗn't use her....

You could have a clue there. But let's not conclude on that yet. Please. if you have been accused falsely before, you will always be careful not to do that to others.

The world and her many mysteries! Wow!

Her looks made you forget to say 'busty girl'. She's not yet a lady except you don't believe she's 16.

FORGIVENESS. Easier said than done. No wonder it's soooooo rewarding if you dare to pull it off.