IGBO BUSINESS DOMINATION IN OIGBO BUSINESS DOMINATION IN OYO TOWN
Omo Iya Kunmi, the concern you raised yesterday about Igbo businessmen buying up family houses along major roads in Oyo and dominating business generally in Oyo will be answered this way:
1) Igbos are Nigerian Jews. They are great hustlers, shrewd and determined. I guess in Igboland, the wave of expectation for a male child especially to be financially successful is very high. How many Oyo males can seek to earn a living by hawking meat pies, stick meat, pull carts or have the determination to start a business with #50,000?
2) I know of a very wealthy Igboman in Oyo who is in fact the No 1 in property acquisition in the town (among Igbos). He sells motorcycles, spare parts and generators. One day, I went to his shop to buy a generator. After the deal was concluded, he himself carried the generator to the roadside where my vehicle was parked. He did not wear starched clothes looking pompous on a puffed seat. He wore a shirt with tattered polo and works his socks off everyday (not that he doesn't dress well when the occasion demands though). Meanwhile I had known him since he was an apprentice in a shop opposite Catholic Church, Asogo, several years ago. He is a self-made man. I don't think he is worth less than #300 million now.
3) The average Oyo businessman who is worth up to #5 million will most likely no longer stay in his shop or office. He don turn to "Megida". He will leave his shop for the 'boys' to manage while he saunters around in clean automobiles.
4) We have knack for ostentatious lifestyles in Oyo. "Afe aye" it is called. Males and females, we love to be spick and span. Many will read this piece who are supposedly unemployed but still spend around #100,000 yearly on new clothes and fashion assessories. Meanwhile, an Igboman will look to turn #100,000 to #300,000 within a year. He may have just two shirts, two jeans and two Sunday clothes. I know of people who prefer to 'invest' serious money in personal luxuries when the money would have given them solid footholds in life.
5) We, unlike Igbos, don't take business risks. That is why someone will invest #20 million in a filling station that employs just 5 people when an Igboman will invest the same sum in ventures that will have a greater number of employees or beneficiaries.
6) About family houses being sold off to Igbos, I think that has to do with individual family set up. If a wider family is so fragmented that members cannot co-develop family property, the next option is sale particularly when poverty stares them in the face.
We need to have a different orientation to the issue of employment, entrepreneurship and investments.
May God guide our steps.YO TOWN
Omo Iya Kunmi, the concern you raised yesterday about Igbo businessmen buying up family houses along major roads in Oyo and dominating business generally in Oyo will be answered this way:
1) Igbos are Nigerian Jews. They are great hustlers, shrewd and determined. I guess in Igboland, the wave of expectation for a male child especially to be financially successful is very high. How many Oyo males can seek to earn a living by hawking meat pies, stick meat, pull carts or have the determination to start a business with #50,000?
2) I know of a very wealthy Igboman in Oyo who is in fact the No 1 in property acquisition in the town (among Igbos). He sells motorcycles, spare parts and generators. One day, I went to his shop to buy a generator. After the deal was concluded, he himself carried the generator to the roadside where my vehicle was parked. He did not wear starched clothes looking pompous on a puffed seat. He wore a shirt with tattered polo and works his socks off everyday (not that he doesn't dress well when the occasion demands though). Meanwhile I had known him since he was an apprentice in a shop opposite Catholic Church, Asogo, several years ago. He is a self-made man. I don't think he is worth less than #300 million now.
3) The average Oyo businessman who is worth up to #5 million will most likely no longer stay in his shop or office. He don turn to "Megida". He will leave his shop for the 'boys' to manage while he saunters around in clean automobiles.
4) We have knack for ostentatious lifestyles in Oyo. "Afe aye" it is called. Males and females, we love to be spick and span. Many will read this piece who are supposedly unemployed but still spend around #100,000 yearly on new clothes and fashion assessories. Meanwhile, an Igboman will look to turn #100,000 to #300,000 within a year. He may have just two shirts, two jeans and two Sunday clothes. I know of people who prefer to 'invest' serious money in personal luxuries when the money would have given them solid footholds in life.
5) We, unlike Igbos, don't take business risks. That is why someone will invest #20 million in a filling station that employs just 5 people when an Igboman will invest the same sum in ventures that will have a greater number of employees or beneficiaries.
6) About family houses being sold off to Igbos, I think that has to do with individual family set up. If a wider family is so fragmented that members cannot co-develop family property, the next option is sale particularly when poverty stares them in the face.
We need to have a different orientation to the issue of employment, entrepreneurship and investments.
May God guide our steps.