₦airaland Forum

Ownership: we need a diversified basket of assets to create, build and sustain wealth

Financial freedom my only hope
F**k livin' rich and dyin' broke
I bought some artwork for one million
Two years later, that sh*t worth two million
Few years later, that sh*t worth eight million
I can't wait to give this sh*t to my children
Y'all think it's bougie, I'm like, it's fine
But I'm tryin' to give you a million dollars worth of game for $9.99
I turned that 2 to a 4, 4 to an 8
I turned my life into a nice first week release date
Y'all out here still takin' advances, huh?
Me and my nigg*s takin' real chances, uh
Y'all on the 'Gram holdin' money to your ear
There's a disconnect, we don't call that money over here, yeah

Over the last couple of days, I have been brooding over some enlightenment that I just stumbled upon. Our patent attorney emailed me our patent issue notice and I decided to investigate the difference between the inventors and assignee (again). I will reproduce below my findings.

In US patents, the inventor is the individual(s) who conceived of the invention, while the assignee is the party who owns the patent rights. The inventor is typically the one who has contributed to the conception and development of the invention, while the assignee may be the company the inventor works for, an investor, or someone who has licensed the invention. The inventor can also be the assignee, but they are not always the same person.

Summary: even if I conceived the idea, if I am not an assignee, I don’t have a claim to any royalty the patent generates. Damn. I could be the ONLY inventor listed on the patent, but the assignee gets to milk and own the commercial rights to the patent.

Last year, I needed to licence our product to some folks in Silicon Valley and so myself and one of our in-house lawyers were in San Francisco to tidy up the deal. We needed some external sounding board and so I scheduled a call with some respected folk in the Nigeria tech/investing ecosystem. That morning just before the call, my MIL passed – damn. I still went ahead with the call and this consultant said some scary sh*t. In the call, he talked about a friend who conceived an idea, got investors and when they sold to a PE firm, this guy was screwed – terms and conditions. Owner thought he was game but alas somewhere in all of the legalese he had shot himself and lost significant cash when they sold. I’ve never been scared.

Sometime in 2023, some white folks and I decided to explore carbon credits. They had contacts with some of the biggest HVAC manufacturers in the UK and Europe, farmers who had installed massive industrial grade heat pumps, large LED manufacturers, housing associations and very big renewable project operators in the UK. I had the tech platform to help extract carbon offsets using one of Verra’s methodology and had worked out 60 pages of mathematical models along with the software to thrash this out. We are also a Registry Account Holder with Verra. When we set out, we didn’t have any contract. The main guy was the monitoring officer (MO) for one of the government projects I had delivered and brought in the second guy.

The “gentleman” agreement was that I will handle cash, while they bring in business. Share was equal after deducting expenses. Then all of a sudden, they started requesting that I provide them with the models as they needed to present these at universities and to other large potential clients. Luckily, I had created three variations of the model – one for LEDs and two for heat pumps (residential and industrial grades). I sent over the LED version to them, and then we continued discussions. Shortly after that, they came back saying a better approach would be for me to white label my software platform to a business they had which they feel will get more traction than my business – they had registered a business with just two of them as directors (so much for equal sharing). No worries if I control cash. Then in one of our meetings, they let it slip that cash would not be handled by me but them – I would be paid by them. Their argument – my company was not credit worthy to receive such cash. I laughed! Then they came and asked for the second/third models. This was the meat, and I knew. If I gave them this, they didn’t need me again. Any average scientist could operationalise the model and they could go ahead and commercialise it.

I told them we now needed a contract. They went ballistic. Told me how my software was nothing without them. I calmly listed all the original agreements we had that they had changed and how a contract was the best option to avoid confusion. They asked me to send over a copy of the contract and also the models as some clients were urgently wanting to see it – hahahahaha, the long con.

Guess what – I almost sent the models to them. While our lawyer drafted the contract, I was conflicted. My wife seeing my confusion asked me to accompany her to the post office to drop off a parcel. She told me that I could send them the models if on return I felt relieved. We returned and I decided to stew over my next decision while I watched TV. Went to Netflix, scrolled down and saw a documentary titled – The Founder (story of McDonald’s). Watched it, stood up, sent them an email that they will ONLY get the models when we have a contract signed by all parties.

Sent them the contract some days later and till today, I am still awaiting their feedback!

We are in a funny world that is changing dramatically before our eyes. There was a time when 60/40 was a solid hedge. 2022 showed that both stocks and bonds could go down same time. Beyond this, we are seeing intangible assets making up significant aspect of valuation for countries and companies. In today’s knowledge-based economy. Many of the world’s most valuable companies derive the majority of their worth from intangibles rather than from physical assets. Intangibles contribute to wealth creation by enabling innovation, differentiation, efficiency, and scalability in ways tangible assets often cannot. In fact, one study of over 860 companies found that the fastest-growing firms invested 2.6 times more in intangible assets than slower-growing firms.

Apple Inc. – often the world’s most valuable company – is a prime example of a business built on intangible assets. Apple’s brand loyalty, software ecosystem (iOS, App Store), and design & innovation capabilities have created a virtually unassailable market position, allowing it to generate enormous profits. Apple’s total Property, Plant & Equipment (PP&E) was about $45.7 billion in 2023, which includes its corporate campuses, data centers, retail stores, and other equipment. Yet Apple’s market capitalization tells a striking story – investors value the company at roughly $3 trillion. Compared to a book value (shareholders’ equity) of only about $62 billion, Apple’s market value is nearly 50 times higher. In other words, over 95% of Apple’s valuation is attributable to assets and expectations beyond the tangible book assets. This gap is essentially the intangible value of Apple – the worth of its brand, customer loyalty, intellectual property, software ecosystem, and future innovation potential.

JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banks, offers a contrast where tangible and financial assets remain significant, but intangible factors also contribute to value. As a bank, JPMorgan’s business is rooted in financial assets (loans, securities) and trust (an intangible). On its balance sheet, JPMorgan carries substantial tangible and financial assets – about $4.36 trillion in total assets as of 2023, consisting largely of loans, investments, and cash. Physical tangibles like corporate real estate (branch offices, data
centers) are a small portion of this total, but still present (the bank owns many office buildings and branches, reflected in PP&E). These hard assets enable the bank’s revenue-generating activities (e.g. loans generate interest income), creating wealth in a more traditional asset-driven way. However, intangible assets and competitive strengths are far from absent in finance. Goodwill and other intangibles on JPMorgan’s balance sheet amount to roughly $50–64 billion (as of recent years). While these are not listed as assets on the balance sheet, they certainly add value. The proof is in the market’s valuation: JPMorgan’s market capitalization is about $700 billion in 2025, well above its book equity. Investors price in the bank’s earnings power, which comes not just from having lots of loans (tangibles/financials) but from superior management, brand, and technology (intangibles).

Tesla, the electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy company, exemplifies the “mobility” sector (automotive/transportation) where traditionally tangibles dominated, yet it has achieved a market valuation heavily supported by intangibles. By the end of 2023, Tesla’s total assets were about $106.6 billion, including factories in the U.S., China, and Germany, as well as cash, inventory of cars, etc. However, Tesla’s market capitalization – approximately $790 billion at end of 2023 (and over $1 trillion at various points) – far exceeds the value of its physical assets. The difference is the market’s appraisal of Tesla’s intangible assets and future potential.

I decided to also explore universities ranking and their ownership of patents as well as countries and it shows why the US continues to lead.

Our acquisition for tangible assets is great but will afford us limited utility in the new world. Folks, we need to rethink life. Many of the benefits from what we implement today won’t be seen in our lifetime, but we are sure that our kids get to have a seat at the table. Today, our people are being used to generate patentable ideas globally but only get to be listed as inventors. The assignee which is what matters are entities inimical to our advancement. This is no different from the relationships between boxers and their promoters. One gets to receive the beatings and part of the returns with another taking a huge chunk with no beating!

When the consultant I talked with hinted that he has not seen many Nigerians patenting their ideas, I laughed because for us, the cost we were quoted wasn’t a walk in the park. Each patent has cost us around $15k to prosecute. Who has that amount just chilling for something intangible?

He further mentioned that there was a company making over $1 billion annually from the sale of patents which they got from grant applications made by Africans to various bodies. Imagine that. The ideas that will solve our problems across Africa are today patented. How do we think we would break free? We saw a glimpse of this during Covid. They all refused to release the IP for the local manufacture of vaccines. Were it not for God, Africa would have been in slavery 2.0.

When Chinua Achebe wrote “Things Fall Apart”, it made sense for “Eneke the bird” to say that “since men have learned to shoot without missing, he has learned to fly without perching”. This was the level of understanding then. This was a strategy then, not today. You can’t beat the game playing catch-up. You beat the game by having a systems approach and understanding where the convergence point is through foresight. With foresight, you simply setup shop at the convergence point and make a killing as they converge.

I know we like ease – who doesn’t? We catch fun as we migrate from one developed country to another – who doesn’t want to have multiple citizenship and pass that down? We are excited when we purchase that new property – who doesn’t want to be a homeowner in “the abroad”? Who isn’t eager to work in a good company and earn megabucks and have money to “shalaye” regularly? We all like life. I love life too! Unfortunately, this time, it is not about us but the survival of our race.

The lyrics I quoted is from Jay-Z’s The Story of O.J. A breakdown of Jay-Z’s $2.5 billion wealth shows that the intangible aspect is at 58% or $1.45 billion. His brand alone is $1.1 billion. Ditto for Rihanna. Tangible aspect of her $1.4 billion wealth is $270 million with the intangible aspect being $1.13 billion (over 80%). Same with Kim Kadashan. With a net worth of $1.7 billion, intangibles make up $1.45 billion (over 85%). Elon’s $330-$350 billion net worth is only $6 billion in tangibles. Over $320 billion (or 98%) of Elon’s net worth is intangible.

The game has changed. How can we trap and retain IP within our community? How can we leverage our community in growing brands from within us to cater for us long-term? I know that many of us are scarred because of events that have occurred. I have been too, but it does not negate from the fact that that’s life. We can’t fold our arms and watch a whole generation perish because of a few bad eggs. Folks, I say this with pain – any youth who does not see themselves in a top 20 city in the next 20 months will be useless to humanity! This is not a careless statement. We are gradually being excluded from the new world. It seems our fate has been determined – to be the bottom feeders, the peasants of the world who will function solely for the pleasure of the developed world.

Today, a Nigerian youth in Gora, Nasarawa cannot comfortably make transactions overseas with his bank card. He will struggle to pay for hosting fees on Hostinger, Heroku, Azure, MongoDB, etc. In fact, setting up Azure $150k free credit services for startups will require you having a credit card. Where in Nigeria are credit cards issued?

Our priority should be to retain commercial streams for every of our IP from Nigeria. Those intellectuals forced to “dash” their IP to host institutions in the GCC and China (the major culprits here) or the very innovative businesses that are forced to apply for grants to bootstrap their ideas (whose ideas get stolen routinely and patented) need lifelines. How can we get innovative businesses in Nigeria access to $10k as quickly as possible with SAFE note to protect investors? I know the diaspora community can afford this times over. Many will fail – quite so. But the ones that succeed will compensate for any losses. We should be able to take ownership of patents from our creators and agree commercial agreements that guarantee them significant share from any accrued royalty. Vetting and managing these are the easiest things. We already do so for white-owned businesses that we work for.

Food for thought.

As I conclude I am reminded of this statement – “why tip toe through life only to arrive safely at death?”

What really motivates you?

I wish you a merry Christmas
I wish you a merry Christmas
I wish you a merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year

I recently had to start using medication because of elevated blood pressure – I will be fine. When you have to worry about staff salaries and sundry business expenses (for 12 months, this was £100k/monthly) with no hope in sight and then spend 12-15 hours daily for months working on product development and iterating, you get to acquire some unnecessary companions. I’m working hard to get myself rid of them.

I recall sometime back, and I was having a frank discussion with myself. I remember telling my heart that I was cool parting ways with it. I told it that I was so convinced that I could run my body without it and it just had to behave if it wanted to be part of me. My wife when I later told her of my brief meeting with myself concluded I needed help.

I mean I recall weeks where I slept on the carpet in the living room. I needed to be close to the designated space I work best from in the house. I had no choice. If I needed to wake up when my alarm came on, I needed to be as uncomfortable as possible. The carpet was the best solution. God bless my missus. She had to buy some inflatable contraption for me and was from time to time keeping me company there. She has a good heart.

In the midst of all of these things, one question that I have always been asked by my wife but for which I have never given her the answer has been – Chukwuka, what drives you like this? With all of the pains and difficulty and costs accompanying building, accreditation, compliance, research and all, why do you still work this hard? I mean I could take a consulting gig and be fine. I could sell our businesses and their IP, be a dollar millionaire and just be living on interest rate!

I will today answer this question.

I grew up in Deeperlife and as I matured, there was something about Deeperlife and later Winners and other notable Pentecostal churches that awed me. You see, these churches were global. With branches across nations all around the world, they had set up a network that allowed them to do something amazing – they could literally take someone from a village in Ebonyi State and transfer that individual and their families to Plano, Texas or London, UK. I mean, there is no other level of empowerment or opportunity for human fulfilment than that. This was something that was common among the MNCs especially the oil and gas companies. I mean, I left Nigeria to the UK for master’s same day my undergrad classmate also left for France for training with one of the major oil servicing companies as a new recruit. This has always fascinated me. A “local boy” from Nigeria could set up a church in Nigeria, expand it globally and practically move other “local boys” as pastors from one station to another. Nothing beats this for me.

I believe in human capacity development. I am always eager to see humans live fulfilling lives and access every opportunity they can and need for their fulfilment. In today’s world, mobility is the single most important factor for Nigerians to enjoy fulfilled lives. In my many travels, when I see young folks just expressing themselves and shining, I smile. This here is life – people living their lives confidently and with all the support needed to live fulfilled.

I thus work hard because I want to set up something similar for my staff. One thing I know for sure is that in the next few years, I would have achieved this. Staff being able to move from Nigeria to the UK or Amsterdam or Dubai or San Francisco within the business. Staff being able to attend executive training programs in Lagos, Stanford or London or Oxford or Paris routinely and paid for from their training allowance. Staff being able to earn equivalent competitive salaries irrespective of where they want to be based. Staff being fulfilled. I have no business with customers, that is the job of sales and marketing. My business is with the staff who have decided to partner with me on this journey. This is what I want to achieve for our business. I want to setup the ecosystem that will allow them grow, develop broad range of skillsets and command global respect. I want to provide them that platform. I don’t need it – their fulfilment is all I dream of. I want my staff well empowered and confident in their roles. I am working hard daily to set the foundations to achieve these tall dreams.

Why, someone may ask. It is because I want my staff to have this as a lifestyle so that when they leave to start their own businesses, they can take this culture they have imbibed from us and improve on it in their own businesses. I want to catalyse a chain reaction of business owners who deliver excellence in both products/services they offer and in the quality of opportunities and remuneration they provide their staff.

Some time back, some acquaintance was discussing with me and passionately advising me to get a house and a car. He told me of folks around and in church who had theirs. Sincerely, I celebrate them. As I write this, I don’t still own a home, nor do I have a car. My spreadsheet analysis shows I can’t afford either. When my wife passed her driving exams (I am yet to even do my theory test), she was adamant on getting a car. I advised her to do a spreadsheet analysis for 1 year. She came to the same conclusion as I did. We trek a lot (helps with weight reduction and fitness), use the bus (my wife is an expert on their schedule) and complement a lot with Uber. I hope to be in the comfortable position to afford these luxuries someday in the future.

This is my motivation. Building a global brand that will compete with the Octopus and Flexitricity of today but globally and give “local boys” and “local girls” the opportunity to be fulfilled people.

What is your motivation? Does it just revolve around you and your family alone? We have been blessed with an incredible opportunity of travelling to “the abroad”. Can we use this opportunity to unlock more opportunities for more folks (local boys and girls) back home. It will put a smile on the face of our creator up there.

Have a splendid evening.

Hey there: it will be fine, just bet on yourself

He saw the best in me
When everyone else around
Could only see the worst in me
I wish I had a witness tonight

I said he saw the best in me
(I guess someone will get this testimony)
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
Can I tell y'all one more time, one more time

I said he saw the best in me (yes)
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
I wish I had a witness tonight, all I need is one (yeah)

Hey, He saw the best in me
When everyone else around me
Could only see the worst in me
Does anybody have their testimony?

When folks wrote you off
Said you would never make it
What did he see?
He saw the best in me

Amid all the bruhaha surrounding the UK immigration system, one thing never to do is despair. Remember, they own the system and so get to determine what your VALUE is to them. This is key. It is their VALUATION of your worth. The worst thing to do is try and argue with them to rethink that – washing a donkey’s head is a waste of water and soap. As an employer of labour, I determine who I employ based on what I determine their VALUE is. We may advertise, interview and score. All that is USELESS. At the end of the day, the head of the department for which we are hiring gets to decide who he/she wants. I rarely override because you the manager will work with the person and give me the result I want. That is life.

The biggest bet you can make is on yourself. I may not VALUE you as much as you think you are worth, that is fine. What do you think you are worth? How do you create visibility to the world letting them know this is your VALUE?

A little over a year ago, we had completed the first phase of our current project and considering we were the smallest company amongst the 26 funded across the UK in the first phase, I was not confident that we could secure funding for the next phase. I recall having meetings with most of the other bigger companies pitching to sell them our idea if they will make us subcontractors. Imagine this – I was going to sell our idea to other people and help them build it simply because I VALUED us poorly. I assumed we stood no chance in securing follow-on funding – we were small and not viable as one funder had opined. Guess what, they all bounced me. One even told me that they were 3 years ahead of us and we should just hand them everything since it was certain we stood no chance against them. Another (a local council) told me to hurry up with our pitch as they had some other important things to do. Another told me they would think about us after the results were released. I was doing this because I needed to secure funds to ensure I could keep paying salaries across board and doing research. I figured we could secure £350k as a subcontractor in building our product for them!

As I write this, I feel like crying. The first phase was around £200k for which about 80% was funded by the government. For the second phase, the cost was over £1.4m for which the government would need to fund about 77%. Who would give our small business run by a black guy over £1m! to spend, and non-diluting? Guess what, we put together a humble team, submitted our bid and won! We won! The folks who felt they were 3 years ahead of us didn’t get funded for the second phase. Only 13 companies across the UK were funded and we were one of them! I recall receiving the email. I was out for a walk that evening and just around the corner I saw the email. I climbed the curb, read the email, saw we had won and literally knelt on the curb. I cried not because of anything but because God proved again that betting on oneself was always going to be bullish. I tell my wife every time we pass that spot that the day the council wants to do anything on that curb, I will pay anything just to have it preserved.

It's midnight and I’m reviewing the patent docs from our attorney before they submit our 3rd and 4th patents. I decide to peruse SharePoint to see what the business development team is doing. They need to complete our application and send over to one of the big 4 to review as part of our qualification process for a VLP. From thinking of securing £350k for survival, we were able to contract a major research company in the UK for over £260k beside other consultants and subcontractors. I didn’t even get to approve their first invoice of over £109k, the CFO did. That’s what betting on yourself can do.

We are a great force, but it only carries weight when it is in motion – this is why I have little respect for potential energy. We need to start thinking of creating the ecosystems that can allow us VALUE ourselves for what we are worth. Remember, there is no superior human anywhere, only superior thinking.

Let’s be real folks: life is leaving us far behind

(1 Sam 22:1-2) David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.
(2) And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

(2 Sam 22: These be the names of the mighty men whom David had: The Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite: he lift up his spear against eight hundred, whom he slew at one time.

(1 Chron 12:31-32) And of the half tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, which were expressed by name, to come and make David king.
(32) And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

Hallelujah
To God Most High
Hallelujah
To God Most High

Most High
God of Heavens
Most High
Ruler of the earth
Most High
King of Nations

I have decided to start this write up quoting from the Bible. I feel pained as a Nigerian migrant every time I see us bickering on petty issues relating to immigration. I feel pained folks every time I see us arguing on things that should never be an issue because we have rejected knowledge.

I always say this to my wife, and she hates it. I tell her, if I drop dead today, I’m dying a very fulfilled and wealthy man. This is because I have subscribed very much to the saying that “a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.” I have succeeded in setting up the foundation of an ecosystem that is enhancing the lives of folks within it and will outlive me as it grows, strengthens and begins to bear fruit that will impact humanity at large.

The Bible verses I quoted from are core scriptures that have mostly shaped my philosophy about life. Life is built on systems and an understanding of how these systems operate is critical to enable us channel resources appropriately. The beginning of any system development starts with design. You want to design a model that describes how inputs are modified to generate an output. Reverse engineering is the same thing but from output to input. Why is understanding of a system critical – it is so because it enables you to get the best result from your interactions with the system. If you have poor understanding of how a gadget you purchased works, you won’t derive maximum utility from your use of that gadget. This is why manuals are provided to enable you understand what happens within the system (the black box). This is established across all disciplines and domains.

As immigrants, we deal with a lot of systems. Immigration is a system. Behind the black box are a host of intermeddling equations governed by one key word – VALUE. This is why Global Talent Visa holders are not affected by the ongoing immigration rules neither are they or their spouses subjected to the very rigorous demands placed on immigrants on other routes. Another related system we deal with and closely tied to immigration is employment. Employment is a system. The black box again is governed by one key word – VALUE.

What is VALUE? Value is defined by the owner of the system, and this is where the problem lies. Immigrants don’t get to define what is VALUE to the Brits who own and manage their immigration system. Employees don’t get to determine what their VALUE is to an employer. The employer does. It is the dissonance in valuation between us and the system owners that creates the unnecessary debates we engage in and leads to the limited outcomes and wandering lifestyle that is now almost becoming our identity. Don’t get me wrong – immigration is part of civilisation and can be leveraged to enhance our lives, but we must understand how the system works and be able to leverage it to our advantage. When engagement in immigration is because of survival then we become fodder for the wheels of immigration. It will churn us till it extracts every ounce of value from us and then spit us out wasted, useless and unfulfilled. There are many Nigerian immigrants who have been spat out after being wasted by the immigration system. You and I see them daily and sigh oblivious that they represent who many of us will be in a few years.

I reject it – I hear you say. It’s okay, time will tell. That’s your future there – wasted, useless and unfulfilled. When you spend 30 years of your life to get ILR because you came in illegally or 20 years because the system has changed, what do you expect to do with the remaining part of your life? When you continuously can have your life upended by the system, how do you build security and certainty to setup the foundations for the empire that will guarantee longevity and sufficiency for your lineage? This is the daily travail of Nigerian immigrants – fodder for a system they lack the understanding of.

Few years ago, having a PhD and publications allowed you to earn a global talent visa in the UK. In fact, many Nigerians in Nigeria did and got it. In fact, PhD students in my lab then simply got it because they were research associates. Today, folks with PhD’s and publications are being denied global talent visas! The system is redefining what VALUE means for that role and many folks will be stranded. 2 years ago, getting a skilled worker sponsorship licence was quite straightforward. Fast forward to late last year and I needed to secure one – it took me 5 months, with 1 interview and ring-fencing almost £200k in the salary pot of our business account to prove we could pay salaries for the new staff! Now we have it and it is useless. If my staff will be subject to perverse immigration policies, they might as well come in with the GTV. Why the confidence – they worked within our system, participated in grant funded projects, have US patents (to be published mid-June), amongst other things. They will get the GTV and get their EB-1. It was our understanding of the system and its tendency to change stance that has influenced us in seeking attributes that are rare and will always give an edge. Almost anyone can have a PhD. However, the same cannot be said of a US patent. The cost (dear Lord), stress of persecuting (Father Lord) and the demand of novelty are critical inputs that stand patents from developed economies out. Beyond this, we are also ensuring our company continues to grow its reputation. We are authorised by the FCA. We have our ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications. We design and manufacture our own hardware and have them certified (UKCA, FCC, CE), have been funded multiple times by the UK government core agencies (with commercial launch planned for late May 2025), are completing our qualification as a VLP amongst others. I won’t write a support letter today for my staff with our letterhead and it will be put aside. I might be an “immigrant” but one with reputation. Why this – because it matters. The system places a premium on my reputation and what I have managed. My reputation also contributes to the overall VALUE that the system will ascribe to petitions for our staff.

I will plead with us as immigrants to start placing a premium on understanding systems and working hard to build ours to better leverage these other systems. Later this year I will have to unfortunately emigrate. I must because the next two projects I need to work on for our company (based on autonomous EVs and DSM for one, and the use of long-term flexibility to ease grid congestion for high energy demand users on the other hand) can only be done in San Francisco or Las Vegas (cities with flexible regulations for EVs and deregulated electricity grids). The patents for these projects will be filed within the next 3 weeks bringing our haul to 4 (2 notice of allowance received (approved) and 2 under review). This move will also involve a few of our staff based in the UK and Nigeria moving to the US. They will join me early next year by God’s Grace with their EB-1s not H1-Bs. I can write this without any cash back up for this move yet because the system we have will sort us out. Last night I concluded that life could be hacked.

Folks, as I conclude, let me draw from the last Bible passage I quoted. While other tribes brought thousands of warriors, the sons of Issachar only brought 200 men – men that understood the times. We are entering into an age where the contestation for most immigrants will be between irrelevance and exploitation. In such a time, being exploited is better than irrelevance. However, I dare say there is a third option – THRIVE. We can thrive only if we are ready to pay heed to knowledge. Why am I here? What’s the plan? Form partnerships and try things, fail, learn, and try. When I did farming in Nigeria, I used to rant a lot here. I lost over 100 million Naira. That was an MBA to me. I learnt valuable lessons that could never have been learnt anywhere. We cannot continue to be fodder for any system. We can equip ourselves to better leverage existing systems to our advantage. The Indians, Chinese, and GCC folks are doing it. Why can’t we?

We all become fintechs in time

I used to be in the world
But now I'm a changed man (Praise the Lord) yeah
I used to have five side chicks
But right now I only have one (Hallelujah) yeah
I used to drink Fanta with vodka but now it's just Fanta (ah Bleep martini!)
Me I used to fantasize about Amber Rose and Blac Chyna
But right now it's just BamBam
Right now I'm law abiding tax paying tongue praying soul winning uh
Bleep
Until I take you to church
I go love you too much 'til you beg me to stop baby
I'm a born again no fornicate again
I don't play no games never sin again

We needed to vary our authorisation and that meant going back to our consultants to discuss the costs and process. They came back with a proposal which put the entire process at £31k + VAT (including their fee of about £26k + VAT and licence fee of around £5k). On our end, manpower over 5 months to work on preparing our application was going to be £35k. I decided to stew over this for a few days, tinker with our finance sheet and ultimately agree. £13k + VAT needed to be paid once I agreed with the proposal (which I was going to).

From an operations POV, this was straightforward. We needed to have the licence if our marketplace was going to function (so we thought). This additional expense meant a further decimation of margins. I needed some headroom as times are getting interesting every day. This was going to be a 1-year process. While this was being pursued, I needed to start romancing companies with the senior licence (API) to make me an agent so we could kick off operations. If only I knew.

I am on my computer setting up Stripe for one of our businesses with the CEO and I stumble on some products offered by Stripe that not only allow me to operate a marketplace effectively but even do more. For months, we have struggled on operationalising the unrestricted monetised benefits consumers were going to earn on the platform (mostly from flexibility participation). The alternative was to allow a withdrawal from the marketplace to their bank accounts. I put a pause on this as I was not ready to go crazy. I already had too much compliance and risk reporting to do and didn’t need to top it up just yet. Now imagine my consternation to discover that Stripe allows for the creation of Virtual Cards for users. O Lord, O Lord, O Lord!

I have briefed the dev team, and we are game. We are doing research to know how it works and how it changes the UX on our platform. I have saved myself £66k + VAT (on £26k). I can now issue virtual cards to customers allowing them to be able to transfer their unrestricted monetised benefits to these cards and spend outside the platform, receive revenue from customers, deduct our charges/fees before making payments to merchants all using Stripe. I can broker finance with lenders for our customers as we are authorised, and life has never been beautiful.

I am now reminiscing about this finding and the effects are grim.

First, most of my partners and their businesses are dead. I am in partnership with a lender and their minimum capital requirement to act as a lender for our customers is £300k. For this, I’ll have countless meetings, we will deliberate fees, interest rates and RoI and safeguards and loss management. I will expend time and resources just to lend my money to consumers. Now here’s the kicker. Klarna offers their service without me needing to know them or make any capital available. Infact, Klarna will pay me upfront up to £4k for a single product, can offer my customers access to payments up to 24 months or the usual BNPL or pay in 3 instalments at 0% APR (ahem, there’s some transaction fees involved). In a short while, Klarna will be able to offer finance cheaper than my partner and kick them out of business. They do not appreciate how much disruption is coming. Ignorance is bliss they say, well, not in today’s world.

Second, agility is key. We started out as a software business, pivoted to hardware (with the software meant to operationalise the hardware), and now we are a fintech business (building business models on them all). We are in the energy space and will be the biggest flexibility marketplace globally. This is not a flex. Our target is 25MW/125MWh flexibility capacity by year end rising to 1GW/10GWh globally next year without building a single plant. We hope to achieve 10GW/2TWh by 2030 by God’s Grace. We are however realising that we are simply a financial technology business. We are creating business models to monetise demand response (DR). Having customers who can be flexible in energy consumption is what we are achieving through the hardware and the reward scheme. However, what drives this behaviour is the financial incentive. Our ability to create money from offering cheaper alternative to grid balancing or generation expansion is simply a financial problem – the engineering aspect is a boundary condition. If we didn’t have agility built in ensuring we could pivot as quickly as possible, adapt and adopt innovation, we would have built a failed product.

Thirdly, talented community matters. I am back to my usual whining again. We have suffered this long because we do not have a community of talented people in this field. I am not a finance person originally. We didn’t have community members to consult. Everyone we know in finance is just interested in their jobs that are now being deleted by innovation and AI. There are days I am going mental simply because I am burdened and have no one to talk to about the problems I am confronting. I take long walks talking to myself like a mad man just to let off steam. I write hundreds of pages literally just to depressurise my head. I would have been better off having talented folks to talk to. Mentors to learn from. Shoulders to climb. Damn, we are a lost cause as immigrants. I try not to sound like a broken record or mental nutjob to my missus – she has enough problems to deal with. Someone will say what of your CFO and COO? Well, it is hard to convey your thoughts especially when you are still struggling to understand them. Unfortunately, this has been the case. They catch up when I am clear. Navigating the cobwebs of confusion to clarity has been the struggle. Inside life.

Let me clear, what we offer isn’t pure rocket science but does not exist practically yet anywhere. Think about your flex programme but not via smart meters – our own smart devices – plugs, sockets, finger bots (for operating your washing machines and dish washers and tumble dryers in your absence) and our own app. We procure your fridge and freezers and washing machines and dish washers and electric kettles and electric heaters (EV chargers and heat pumps coming along) as assets for either dynamic or fixed compensation over a timeline (month, quarter year, half year, full year) and can sell these to NESO and DSOs facing demand and capacity constraints in real-time. This means we must become a VLP and get a host of other certifications and qualifications and 3rd party software integration. I have researched this since 2012. In fact, this formed the crux of my bachelors (virtual power plants), master’s and doctorate. The pool of folks I can discuss this at length with is quite limited globally within our community. I deliberately don’t want to work with non-Nigerians on this – I can use them as consultants but want to have that knowledge marinated within a community of people with my skin colour and from Nigeria. What we offer covers finance (we are authorised to broker credit for customers to buy our smart devices), hardware (we design, manufacture and certify our devices), software (crazy as we have to build patches between our own system using flutter and the firmware owner in CHINA built on Java, cloud services, and AI), and the electricity market (continuous research to ensure we can mitigate risks). The biggest concern has been ensuring that we are building something that can scale.

Fourth, ongoing consolidation will destroy us because we have no stakes in them. I will go for the licences still. We would go commercial (late April or early May), make sales and carve out the cost for getting the needed licence and go for it. We will build the services we hope to deploy from Stripe ourselves and get it setup. It will cost us a lot, but we MUST do it and keep on ice. Yes, humanity is back to its senses for a while with Trump coming on board. However, it is going to be worse soon as censorship will run wild while free speech gets attacked and controlled. Companies like Stripe will evolve into DEI run businesses using useless metrics to determine who gets to remain on their platform. We will also do the same for our servers. We will build and operate our own servers to handle at least 50% of our services. It will cost us a lot of money, but we MUST do it. Whatever we can get now, we MUST get it. Yes, we are becoming almost a vertically integrated business. It is a safer bet than having too many dependencies. I have learnt from Trump’s ordeal (a former US president – let that sink in) and how useless Twitter (now X), Facebook, Instagram and other businesses can become (even banks!) when they want to control the narrative to be better safe than sorry.

Fifth, contemporary education is useless. I am handling a consulting gig now with the folks I consult for stateside. The problem we are providing solutions to do not yet exist for another 18 months. To show how funny the problem is, I am forced to generate unconventional models to represent the system and mirror the Fault-Tolerant Flight Control System (FTFCS) in aviation to simulate redundancy. This is not transferred learning. My background of electrical engineering (BSc and MSc) and Computer Science (PhD) are mostly useless here. Of course it is heavy on stochastic modelling, Monte Carlo, Hidden Markov Models for probabilistic dependencies, Fault Tree Analysis, Bayesian Networks, etc. The problem formulation is first principles and that’s what worries me. Contemporary education seems lost or unable to develop our creative minds. Education as a process MUST stimulate the creativity of the student. That is the sole purpose of education. However, when it is focused on silos, it prevents us from understanding that events that occur in life are microcosms of themselves.

Sixth, career is dead and gone. Unless job prostitution, it is insane to expect to remain 30 years in a company. Well after the full transition to the dystopic world that is gradually evolving, people can be sure to remain long-term in a company – more as serfs (you know technofeudalism). This implies that as businesses are transforming, we cannot expect to continue to transform to stay relevant – it will wear us out. We need to build an ecosystem that can allow us maintain stability in an ever-changing world. No one says you should remain stagnant, but can that be more of a process-driven learning to improve on what we can do rather than outright ejection or a rat-race for the next certification which does not guarantee stability? Can we continue to add value as we upskill in a more nuanced and paced format than compete for employment/daily bread? We can only be afforded this luxury in an ecosystem we build. People get to have stability based on how eager they are to learn and upskill without the fear of being ejected. We can promote those most competent and updated but everyone gets to be taken care of. We need to think ecosystem. It is one of the wonders of life. Literally, immigrants from Asia (India, China, Pakistan, etc.) and Jews are leveraging this in driving wealth and prosperity for themselves.

Lastly, the UK is dead and gone. I cannot comprehend how a country can be sliding into uselessness and not know. I am grateful for the privilege of citizenship the UK has afforded me and the access that has brought. I am however disappointed with the distaste for ambition that is prevalent in the UK. It seems suffering and laborious work and conservative lifestyle is more virtuous in the UK. Folks will sneer at ambitious thinking forgetting that lack of such is inhibiting the UK’s ability to carve out a niche for itself in the evolving new world. You will hear of allocation for projects and wonder if the government is made up of peasants. The sixth biggest economy in the world and it sets aside peanuts for so-called ambitious projects. £12m disagreement and it is happy to lose £500m worth of inward investments from AstraZeneca (we need to start deducting from the so-called record breaking £60+ billion it claims it raised recently). In the midst of all these struggles, young and ambitious folks are unable to have the needed support to innovate. There is no doubt I would have been sorting out mails or working in a factory had we not secured non-diluting funding for our idea – I was never going to be a lecturer in the UK. Research was enough. What irks me is that there are folks with more brilliant ideas than me that will contribute immensely and positively to humanity but will never get funded because the UK government is unambitious. The “denseness” of the UK political class is creating a third world country in the UK. Forget the façade of London – the UK as a whole is done. What future does exist for young and ambitious people who want to try out new things? It is the availability of opportunities that has turned the US and China into wonder nations. Cheap loans, high risk appetite, tolerance for innovation, etc. is catalysing so much wealth in these countries. How come China with its style of governance is generating so much innovation and yet the UK with its so-called free speech is still wondering what LLMs are?

Well, it seems everything is ending in finance. At the end of the day, what matters most is that consumers get value, and we get paid. If it means us becoming a fintech then, so, be it.

I cannot wrap my head around the lyrics of this song by Blaqbonez ft BOJ and CKay – Good Boy. I can always find comfort in the comical and very relaxing lyrics from this song. The essence of this song is its misplaced usefulness at a time like this. It just eases in without ruffling feathers but is well suited to strike that balance between chill and reflection.

I'm a very different kind of somebody
I'm not someone that is into all those kinds of sweet boys
All those kind of nonsense things
I like a God fearing man a man that fear God
Now this is me this is the kind of person I am
I am not interest in that I don't have interest on that

Hey no I'm not regular ay (Bang)
You swear you on my cellular ay (Da dang)
I see a lot of boys want a snap of me of me
I no dey smoke marijuana oh baby
I no dey do fornicator oh baby
I no dey go kalakuta oh baby
I don't don't no ayy
As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many baby oh

I'm a good boy on a very good day
Me I no dey lie on a very good day
I'm still a virgin on a very good day
And I dey go church every other Sunday ay ay

The way I dey move e dey make her confuse
Dey with some girl whey dey tell me bonjour
Say I look so bad but I'm so good
Say I look so bad but I'm so good
Tryna get close to ya know say me I no dey smoke cigar
We told you we no dey smoke bana
We don't even smoke marijuana yeah yeah yeah
I no dey chance person for hold up I let them pass
As a good boy I gotta show example
You dey waste time if you try to fight me
Turn the next cheek if popo slap me
Oya jeje I dey give them jeje
Angelina sempe everything popping
We dey give them yenke
Oh

As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many baby oh

I used to be in the world
But now I'm a changed man (Praise the Lord) yeah
I used to have five side chicks
But right now I only have one (Hallelujah) yeah
I used to drink Fanta with vodka but now it's just Fanta
Me I used to fantasize about Amber Rose and Blac Chyna
But right now it's just BamBam
Right now I'm law abiding tax paying tongue praying soul winning uh
Bleep
Until I take you to church
I go love you too much 'til you beg me to stop baby
I'm a born again no fornicate again
I don't play no games never sin again

As you are looking at a good boy
We no too many we no too many
Say we no too many
'Cause you're looking at a good boy
We no too many, we no too many baby oh

No I'm not regular ayy
But for real I'm not regular
Look at what I do you can help me check the cellular yeah
All my music praise and worship promise you no secular woah
I no fit even tell you say I don do woman before
All my life yo I never ever drink alcohol
Gold chain gold chain gold chain
But I dey with rosary every second saying prayer to God
Thank God it's Friday it's time for night vigil
I no dey gyrate I'm more into soul winning
Dem boys dey for 57 but I dey the prayer level
Life is really spiritual, somebody gats to cast the devil
So tell me what you want oh baby shey you wanna go Santorini
How you wanna go renegade (Bleep with me baby)

That's what I like

Me I no dey lie on a very good day
I'm still a virgin on a very good day
And I dey go church every other Sunday ay ay
(Focus)

I rest my case on God!

The UK: a rudderless island finally tipping into oblivion

Donald Trump only took oath of office Monday (Jan 20th) and has just today (Jan 21st) announced an investment deal worth $500 billion into AI infrastructure. The deal involves an initial $100 billion with additional $400 billion coming in over 4 years.

I have said it and will say it – you get results ONLY when people that have defined metrics for results are in charge. If there is anything I have noticed from my years of observation of civil servants, it is that lawyers and doctors within their ranks are the worst administrators – they lack the mental capacity to manage complex systems. You only get a difference if they have run private practices.

No noise, no drama, no media blitz and $500 billion is pouring into the US over 4 years. Compare and contrast that with the contested £63 billion the UK claims to have raised in their so-called investment summit. Lord! Lord! Lord!

Think of all the startups that will be funded across the US (hello Silicon Valley). Think of how this and more will uplift living standards across the US. Already, Mississippi, the poorest state in the US by GDP/capita has a higher value than the UK. Very soon, it will be competing with London!

Rachel from accounting is somewhere in Davos trying to sell the UK as an investment hub based on a survey by pWC while men wey mount dey announce multibillion dollars investment into the US economy. Who survey help? $500 billion and no noise. $500 billion and no survey? $500 billion 1 day into a 4-year tenure? SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and OpenAI’s Sam Altman were there at the WH to join DJT in making this announcement.

Quoting directly from FT - SoftBank has ultimate financial responsibility for the new company, with OpenAI taking operational responsibility. Son will chair the joint venture. Abu Dhabi state AI fund MGX and Oracle are also providing funding for the project, while SoftBank-owned Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia are technology partners. Stargate aims to boost capacity to train and run new AI models. It will initially build a data centre project in Abilene, Texas — construction of which is already under way, according to the companies — before expanding into other states.

I will reiterate again, any Nigerian youth that is unable to find themselves in the top 20 cities across the US, China, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE in the next 24 months might struggle to offer significant benefits to humanity. My rephrasing means even the UK (London) and Europe are irrelevant.

We are in very strange times with happenings that will shock and awe watchers. The UK and Europe will see themselves ease into irrelevance without DJT stressing himself. We can shout, condemn and talk high and low – at the end of the day what matters to residents across the US is improvement in their standard of living and DJT is gunning for that.

Now think of what DJT’s threats of tariff will do in terms of inward investments in manufacturing. Think of production sites that will open. Think of quality jobs that will be created. Think of the massive growth that will be witnessed across the US. Folks, this is the news that drives the tailwind boost you see in the US stock market. Think of all the unnecessary bureaucracy that will be removed from crypto to finance to insurance to healthcare to self-driving cars to AI etc. This is the ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship and risk. Risk is back baby. Risk is back. Now watch as US begins again to crowd out everyone from VC funds. Think of IPOs that will soon start birthing to enable VCs exit.

Me, my business is how to cash out. How to cash out from the wealth that Trump’s presidency brings is my cup of tea. I’m not going to argue about his policies because compared to Biden, his is working and bringing in the greens from day 1.

Strange times indeed. May it favour us all. Ise!

Nowhere to hide: current job losses not even due directly to AI yet, more to come

My COO and I have just returned from CES 2025 and my oh my, what a time. I also took the time to visit the firm I consult for in San Francisco and my oh my. It seems in just 10 months since I last visited a lot has happened.

I come in peace folks.

I grew up to know careers as established domains with obduracy inbuilt. I mean even luddites didn’t have to confront change like we are facing today. You went to school, studied a course, got employed and was guaranteed stability for 35 years. All you needed to do was some CPD and voila you stayed relevant – whatever that meant. Our parents went that route.

Now, imagine my shock witnessing change like never before. Even jobs that were thought secure are no more. I laugh when people talk of handyman jobs – plumbers, electricians, gardening, etc. as being secure. Some years ago, folks said the same for taxis. Today, in Vegas and San Francisco, driverless taxis are now normal. I couldn’t muster the courage to try out Waymo or Zoox, I am still Nigerian. I didn’t even try out the Tesla Loop (Boring Company) – well Westgate didn’t have its own station operational then.

In an Uber heading to the Venetian Expo for a parallel session and the Uber guy was telling me how he worries about his job security as an Uber driver considering the certainty of driverless taxis becoming mainstay soon. He insisted he wasn’t interested in going back to school or subjecting himself to new learning and that began a conversation on existential threats. He was a great chef but was laid off due to Covid and at 56 he is considered old. We talked about robots now working as barmen and doormen in places on the strip. I told him of my experience in China with robots delivering my ordered food to my hotel room. We ended that discussion with me leaving with a business idea for post 50’s. I now need to secure funding to trial that idea asap.

While at a CES session on AI investing trend, Tony, the folk from Blackrock gave a description that awed me. Global spending is around $100 trillion of which labour is $60-70 trillion. Businesses must move funds to invest in AI infrastructure first and that will come from labour. Today, Meta is planning to replace all its mid-level engineers with AI by the end of 2025! Even in one of our subsidiaries back in Nigeria, we have just laid off almost a third of staff. We now have tools to make us more efficient and we need to build resilience, so staff must be laid off! Same in the UK! I was recently wondering if I wasn’t a hypocrite but then that is the business world, we must stay liquid to stand a chance at keeping that ecosystem alive.

There is no place to hide. It is not about working hard or trying to impress your boss – you and your boss are done. Why my rant this am?

We are lagging as a people in this new race. As part of our expansion plans, we have just secured standardisation certificates for our hardware across the US (FCC), EU (CE) and the UK (UKCA) with the UAE (ECAS) still outstanding. Two things have continued to stay true – only foreigners (mostly Chinese) continue to be the available serious consultants, and the cost is staggering (especially that ECAS). We are finalising our ISO certifications (stage 2 audit) as well as authorisation (regulator going ahead) and moving along with our flexibility trading licencing. What a time!

I am shouting that the more we delay pushing ourselves into entrepreneurship the harder and more expensive it will get, while crowding us out. Today it is very difficult for us as immigrants to approach fellow Nigerians with authorised firms and ask them to make us APs to enable us offer authorised services. There is paucity of Nigerian owned businesses that can be leveraged to run escrow services or offer credit brokering services. Their limited number creates scarcity within our ranks exacerbating our inability to offer competitive services.

Because I am forced to do all these things, something must give – health! Went for my full body health assessment sometime last year and the doctor casually remarked that I had elevated BP readings. Returned home with a BP meter and was routinely checking my BP to get down to a sensible range so I could make my trip to Asia the next day. Yes, our stack and foundation look solid, but it is coming again at a price. I paid one for my PhD and not sure I want to go similar route.

I skimmed the discussions earlier on Indians and laughed. Our views notwithstanding, Asians in general are businesspeople. We all ran away from Nigeria claiming hardship. Today, Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, etc. run the country. They are not competing for jobs like we are doing here in the UK, they are creating industries and running businesses and employing Nigerians in Nigeria! Go to the UAE today and see them (Indians) thriving and owning big businesses. The firm that handled our set up and accounting and residency in the UAE was all Indians. I visited them and was impressed. What business can we mention today that mostly Nigerians will be known for (don’t say fraud because we aren’t even ranked).

Today you talk of Tata, Infosys, HCL, etc. all multibillion-dollar companies based out of India. Indians anywhere drive GDP growth, drive admissions in top graduate schools in the UK and US and so are naturally employed into consulting firms, banks, investment banks, etc. It makes sense for KPMG to approach Tata for a gig with a team made up of Indians. You won’t approach UAE with a team that excludes their people. Put a Nigerian there (in management), and s/he will act as a gatekeeper. Indians can hate themselves but will recommend and employ themselves anytime, any day over another race.

All around, there is growing consolidation of businesses, and a new feudal system is emerging. You want to sell via Apple store, they take 30%. You want to sell on Amazon, they take a percentage. Uber takes up to 60% of the cost of a trip. I am more worried that our billing for accessing GPT-4 and newer models might grow significantly in the coming years. I can do nothing about it as the entry fee to that club is $100 million. I know that I would have been forced back to employment were it not for the grant we secured. The cost of setting up shop today is crazy. I can understand when folks deride my write up, unfortunately that’s life. I don’t have solutions to your problems, I am only documenting my journey as a traveller through life.

Back to reality, I must set sail incorporating some of the lessons learned. I am reviewing our business model now to see how to improve the value. I am reviewing what we offer to see how we can increase value for the end users. We are incorporating the use of shoppable videos on our marketplace. Our finance model might vary a little. We want to stay competitive.

AI is a horizontal technology with effect on all verticals – health, finance, law, education, energy, etc. As a people, we need to start deliberately forcing ourselves to set up businesses and try out things. We will fail at many but the few that will succeed will propel us far. Most of us are in religious groups and social circles with a network of associates having a range of disciplinary expertise. Why can’t we form businesses and try new things there. Just try. You already have domain knowledge – project management, logistics, finance, education, healthcare, etc. Bring that knowledge and explore how AI can improve just an aspect. Any transformation will be around the verticals.

Sometime ago, I advised that any Nigerian Youth that was unable to within the next 24 months leave Nigeria to a top 20 city in the world was almost certain of being useless to humanity and it generated some backlash. My recent travels and recent events have forced me to rephrase it – any Nigerian youth that is unable to find themselves in the top 20 cities across the US, China, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE in the next 24 months might struggle to offer significant benefits to humanity. My rephrasing means even the UK (London) is irrelevant. With Trump set to resume tomorrow, boom is expected in Crypto (incoming SEC chair, hello Saylor), payments (X to now start resembling WeChat), manufacturing (hello chips), AI, VC, etc. all of which are alien to the UK. I mean the UK does not even have an equivalent to anything. This is even more pronounced when you consider the uselessness of the London Stocke Exchange (LSE) and why companies are delisting and running to the US to IPO. Even Revolut made it clear – NYSE.

When I visited the Sphere in Las Vegas, I was not just blown away but intimidated. Humans created this. Now imagine growing up in that environment and seeing these things every day. Imagine growing up and living in such an ecosystem. You simply have everything you need to thrive. You get challenged every day to think creatively and be innovative. I was having lunch at the CES and when someone at the table heard about what we did, he was like you need to talk to this guy, he heads XYZ at Home Depot. Here in the UK, the accelerator we were paired with was more interested in how our idea was not going to work – fella, the UK is not even 5% of our target market.

With technology and innovation changing dramatically, you need to be in an ecosystem that is agile in setting up the necessary infrastructure for you to thrive. The US, UAE, South Korea, China, etc are places that allow this. Coresight Research released a shocking statistic that I’m still reeling from. Livestream E-Commerce market in China is predicted to hit $915 billion in 2025 (up from $779 billion in 2024) compared to $57 billion in the US (up from $44 billion in 2024). According to Coresight Research, 93% of Gen Z’s and 87% of high-end spenders are interested in interactive videos. I want to be in an ecosystem that allows me timely access to information like these that I can use in improving our business offering. The US and Asia (including the UAE) remain such places.

We need to be prepared for the future. We can only do this by implementing strategies today that allow us to control the fate of our tomorrow. If we have no businesses today, we cannot be at the table of negotiation tomorrow. We would be the menu for discussions in such gatherings. The Indians continue to negotiate for better travel opportunities for themselves because they oversee their fate.

I am pleading, let’s start something with our folks in our little corner. Enough of all these talks of degrees and titles and certificates – it is becoming obsolete and meaningless. It is the businesses we create that can give meaning to them. I hold a PhD and worked for 5 years as a researcher including 3 years in a top policy think tank here in the UK – all na wash! It is the business I am doing today that has given meaning to that PhD. I am bringing to life all those papers and creating a business model to return value to end users and it is beautiful. If I want to be a professor tomorrow, I can set up an Open University and name myself one – pastors without PhDs own multiple universities and give these titles out, even Regina Daniels can influence such in the university her husband owns (Lord see my life for outside).

As I conclude I cannot but reminisce about the recent layoffs in our sub. When we prepared the budget for them last year, we isolated their core staff focused on their own products and cut their allocation by 50%. When the MD stood adamant, I told him he could resign. Go and earn more money to do what you like. How he achieved the cuts in staffing to meet the reduced budget cut was not my business – that was his job. That experience is no different from what will start happening in 2025. 2024 was just dress rehearsals. We can manage this for tomorrow if we start something today.

Money rules the world: money is what will change our course with strategic positioning

Almost nothing material is needed for a happy life, for he who has understood existence - Marcus Aurelius.

What a time to be alive. I have acquaintances who have been unable to secure visas to the US and Canada even with their PhD’s and work employment. They live in the same Nigeria as Portable (Habeeb Okikiola Badmus). While Portable has been able to visit the UK, UAE, Turkey, the US and Canada, my erudite acquaintances with degrees, employment, and scholastic achievements have been denied such access.

I come in peace.

I have begun my musings this morning to set the stage for what may be considered polemic or mad rantings. When Marcus Aurelius pontificated his philosophy, he was in an age where knowledge was golden. Being knowledgeable was enough to deliver you from a lifetime of servitude. Society was structured as a feudal system. Labour was not a commodity that could be easily sold except in specific instances. You mostly lived as a serf rewarding your landlord with a significant portion of your harvests. We are unfortunately back to such today. You literally have no service for which you pay one off lifetime fees. I remember when software was bought and paid for one-time with updates provided as complementary for life. Today, you pay for everything for life – SAAS. You rent outlook services from Microsoft, you rent Netflix and Amazon and Apple, you rent your mobile service and broadband service, you rent your right to buy/rent a space in a community (council tax), you rent your ability to watch the news (TV licence), you rent your right to live in a country and be rewarded for your labour (taxes and NI), you rent electricity, you rent water, you rent the right to drive a car (taxes and insurance), you are practically spending a significant part of your income renting monthly – the so-called techno feudalism.

We are even incentivised to work harder (on the farmlands) to ensure we can continue to reward our feudal lords (Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, internet and broadband service providers, the government, insurance firms, energy firms, water companies, etc.) through credit scores. I now firmly believe that this world is a simulation, and we are all in a matrix. I mean we have moved from feudalism to capitalism and back to (techno)feudalism. How did we not see it coming? Suddenly, a TV is an empty box without internet. Even the government that is supposed to be an arbiter is scheming new ways of extracting more rent from us.

The emerging economic system is funny but very troubling. In today’s world, knowledge is now a commodity that is traded in the market. Knowledge is no longer the thread that holds the fabric of society together. It is something that can be bartered! I can exchange my corn harvest for your knowledge. If you doubt this ask Wole Soyinka. It is this reason Portable can be recognised and given the privilege to travel overseas while my knowledgeable acquaintances are denied such opportunities. Portable has been able to setup an ecosystem that allows him extract rent from his “craziness” and “music”. When you stream his music online, he gets paid something. When you attend his shows, he gets paid something. When ads are placed on his music online and watched by you and me, he gets paid something. It is this relevance of his that companies see and pay him to advertise their products to convince you and I to patronise them. My acquaintances with all the degrees still depend on a landlord to give them land to ply their trade while Portable is buying “lands” and hiring knowledgeable folks to develop them while extracting rent via his ecosystem.

This is why I have so much respect for folks who ply their trades on OF. They understand the evolution of the world’s economy and human needs and have setup an ecosystem to extract rent from you (not me). I do not support the depravity of OF but I must commend intelligence at work. No embassy will see Portable as a potential absconder because they see his ecosystem and the rent he extracts. They know he has money and has strategically positioned himself to be a landlord. They respect this and give him his visa. His next US visa renewal I guess will be via drop box. My educated acquaintances will continue to languish back in Nigeria because they lack this understanding. With his money, Portable can be anything. He can run for LGA chairman tomorrow and win it. You think I am lying – ask Seyi Tinubu.

Back in the diaspora, I laugh. There was a time everyone was a data analyst. Later everyone became a business analyst. Later it was cybersecurity. Today it is project management and AI. I have seen some people’s names online, and I am like wtf. BSc, MSc, MA, PGcert, PMP, Scrum, BA, CISS, CISP, MMM, YYY… We can’t continue like this. Certifications are important but first things first, we need an ecosystem. If our investments in such qualifications are to enhance our ecosystem and build resilience, then that is worthwhile. But to polish up ourselves to be better slaves in other people’s ecosystems is unsustainable in the long-term. When such roles are no longer available, what do we revert to?

We can be like Portable. Let me extract some advice for us from his song Apostle.

Members donated bulletproof car for the pastor
And the same pastor got attack by who
By unknown gunmen
Security wey dey guide pastor o
Dem no get bulletproof car
Members wey dey follow pastor o
Dem no get bulletproof car
Only pastor and family
Dem dey use bulletproof car

Bulletproof car saved the pastor
Not the miracles

The lesson is to have our own bulletproof car. While we are working in the ecosystem of others and donating our all to them, we should remember that one day, unknown gunmen will come and if we don’t have bulletproof car, na die be that o.

We must start being strategic. Society will never value us if we have no value. I laughed hard when I saw that report from the migration advisory committee (MAC) that claimed that immigrants contributed 20x more than natives and Nigerians were on a rampage. Nothing is as fraudulent as statistics. Let me elucidate. According to MAC, “… skilled migrants on work visas contribute approximately £16,300 in net fiscal impact (tax receipts), which is 20 times higher than the £800 contributed by UK-born adults.” The implication of this statement is quite dire. First, it establishes the fact that UK’s immigration policy is set to strangulate and impoverish immigrants. No be who pay more tax get money pass, ask Donald Trump and Warren Buffet. There is a reason for IR35 formulation and revision. Second, it evidences the fact that UK natives are vast and adept in the art of tax avoidance (and even evasion) which is a privilege that immigrants cannot have for at least 5 years. The fact that Nigerians were excited about the findings of MAC was also troubling because it made me realise that we were more interested in comparing di*k sizes than even building wealth.

We cannot achieve Marcus Aurelius’ vision if we do not have wealth as a collective. Wealth doesn't matter anymore when we have it in abundance. The pockets of rich Nigerian immigrants do not skew the statistics. We need to realise that starting now is even late, but we just must start. We are a very knowledgeable people. Why should we barter that all our lives for corn. If Portable can be smart in setting up an ecosystem to extract rent for himself, why can’t we do the same? You work in the NHS, what stops you from identifying problems there and working with a team of like-minded people to develop something to address that problem and commercialise it if it works? You work in finance, what stops you from identifying a pain point, assembling a team of like-minded people and attempting to solve that issue with commercialisation as the end goal. It is not rocket science, we just have to do it. The world has changed but we can ensure some level of resilience if we start today. The goal is to build an ecosystem that helps us generate wealth that enables us to push our values and ideals to the level of national discourse. The goal is preservation of our kind, ensuring that they have options and choices tomorrow, thus guaranteeing their place at the table of decision-making.

The call therefore is for us to be more strategic in how we pursue growth and fruitfulness in 2025. First, we must be intentional about ownership. If you own nothing, you have nothing to build upon. Second, we must plan. Never be afraid to take risk. The lord in Matt 25 took risk by investing in those servants. God has taken risk in investing in you and I (health, life, knowledge, etc.). Also take risk in investing. Invest in that training, that business, that venture, that person, that process, etc., just invest. Third, we must learn to delegate. Delegation means we can leverage people’s abilities in expanding our ecosystem. Fourth, we must be result oriented. Never make an investment without having plans to generate results. Never be shy or afraid to demand results.

Because we are eager to be fruitful, there is Grace available to make it possible. John 15:2b (2b) … and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. The result for fruitfulness is more fruitfulness. So get ready to explode fruitfully in 2025.

In John 15:1, Jesus presents us with a strategy that deviates from what he had proposed for us in Luk 13. In John 15, God serves two functions – the owner of the vineyard and the vinedresser. Jesus serves as the vine – the tree, while we serve as branches. Now this gets more interesting. The fruitfulness of this vineyard is dependent on the branches bearing fruit. The whole world is one vineyard owned by God. He also serves as the vinedresser because fruitfulness for God in this case is not a function of scaling the number of vines but the fruits from the branches. Now, we as branches cannot adopt God’s model of having only one vineyard. As branches, we can birth more branches which in turn can bear more fruit. However, birthing more branches to bear more fruit means we are creating sub-vineyards with each sub-vineyard having a branch (acting as a vine) and expected to bear fruit. There is only so many branches we can monitor and so we need to appoint vinedressers to help monitor each branch we birth to ensure they are well taken care off and can bear fruit. This is a very complex and multi-dimensional concept Luk 13 and John 15 both paints. In fact, this system when viewed from the Kingdom perspective of expansion becomes clearer. It is our expansion that invariably expands God’s Kingdom. The success of God’s expansion drive here on earth is tied to our success in expanding.

Third, he appointed a vinedresser. This is strategic and deviates from John 15:1 (1) I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. While in Luke 13, the man appointed a vinedresser, God, the Father is the vinedresser (the husbandman) in John 15. We will delve into something deeper shortly but Jesus teaches us the power of delegation here. God is omnipotent and omniscient. We are humans and have limitations. If we are to scale, we must learn to have multiple vineyards, plant many fig trees and have many vinedressers.

Fourth, he demanded fruitfulness. The man was not afraid to demand fruitfulness from the fig tree and was even ready to proceed with cutting it down if it was unable to bear fruit. This aligns with Matt 25:19 (19) After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. The Lord here had before embarking on a long journey given his servants talents (based on their ability) and after a while on his return reckoned with them on results obtained.

First, the man in question owned a vineyard. Ownership is very crucial in building wealth. When you own nothing, you have nothing that can serve as leverage. Elisha had to ask the widow what she had. In 2 Kings 4:2 (2) And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil. If she owned no oil for multiplication, there would have been no basis upon which multiplication would have occurred.

Second, the man in question planted a fig tree. Because he owned the land, he could make long-term investment on the land. He did not allow his ownership of the land to be enough, he went ahead and planted something. He did not behave like the servant who was given one talent and went and hid it (Matt 25:18 (18) But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money). By planting a vineyard, he was setting himself up for multiplication.

Every new year presents us with an opportunity to reset. We take stock and inventory of events over the last year. We assess strategies and examine results to benchmark efforts with outputs.

However, our environment especially religious circles, has precluded us from a very important art – the art of strategic positioning. Every December 31st, we are gathered in religious rituals lacking an understanding of what is expected of us.

I will this morning however draw from two passages in the Bible to provide context as to God’s expectation for us every new year. Yes, you heard right, every new year.

In Luk 13, 6-9, we read:
(6) He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. (7) Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? ( And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: (9) And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Here we see Jesus introduce us to 4 unique things and a strategy we can adopt.

Just to reiterate why we need to start and up our game.

Only systems will help us defeat poverty as immigrants

As I conclude documenting my thoughts over the last few days, I find it imperative to reminisce about some of my experiences and the futility of wasted efforts especially in a wrong direction.

You know life is dispassionate – it lacks empathy and takes no prisoners. Earlier in the year I was stateside on business and my MIL passed. Few hours after the news, I had to jump on a quick call with a consultant. We needed to make some quick decisions on IP licencing and this call was me getting extra data to inform my decision to either licence our IP to a US business or not. This wasn’t just about lawyers, we had them, but I was the one to make the call. I knew what it had cost us, the future potential and all. The loss notwithstanding, life needed to continue.

What helped during this period was the presence of systems. Same day, my network was with my missus, bundled her to a family friend’s house and looked after her till I returned. They drove her all the way back home when I returned and all I did was say thanks. She had company all through that tough time, while I continued business. When the burial time came, it was another system that went overdrive ensuring everything went as planned.

I cannot forget years back when my missus was coming to the UK and a member of that network called to ask for her flight details. They paid for her flight and drove with me to the airport to pick her up. Picked her up, brought us to their house, fed her local food and drove us home. This is a professor – he is not jobless but understands the power of the system and network we have built.

Why this long narration? I have come to realise painfully that no one cares much about me than my network. What I have become and will be tomorrow is a function of my network. This network has allowed me to leverage their reputation in securing projects. They have provided jobs to members and friends of the network; they have provided me a platform to build and thrive.

This week we are hosting one of Nigeria’s erudite vice chancellors for a guest presentation here in the UK. This VC was responsible for positioning my academic journey. He introduced me to my PhD advisor. He published my first ever journal paper as an undergraduate! It is that system that he fed that is hosting him. I am happy to go round town carrying his bags and all – he understands the power of a network.

Earlier this year prior to signing a contract with a client, they setup a committee to review our costs. The wages we quoted according to the client were quite high. In their own words our lowest quoted rates were equal to salaries of permanent secretaries. Our accountant and I faced a panel of 5 to defend the high wages. We ended up convincing the panel that we had even taken a pay cut.

It was at this moment I realised something – what you think you are worth is useless. It is what your network or system is willing to pay that matters. I appraised different roles and priced the roles at competitive rates I determined was ideal. I determined that, not even the consultants. Because they were my network, I ensured they got the best. I defended their rates, stuck to my guns, brought in our accountant for extra measures and the deal was sealed.

I recall now reading Chinua Achebe’s book – There was a country – and somewhere he said something along these lines – we trusted the government with our future. It was the government that told us what to do. I have redesignated roles for staff simply because they asked for it. The business is a platform. My job is to position you as a valuable member of our network via that platform to be a high-flyer and take that and move upward.

It is that network that has made Nigerian immigrants lead processes to obtain certifications and authorisations for our business. You won’t find such opportunities elsewhere. In other businesses your role will mostly be support – the engine keeping the system functional. It is that network that has created upward mobility for our consultants. I have had the privilege of losing very qualified staff in our Nigeria business to bigger companies. Folks paying double our rate or even quadruple and for some in forex. Yes, it is painful to start recruiting replacements, but hey, I enjoy that. It means we have been able to equip people with skills and remuneration that make them attractive to serious businesses.

When we expend our energies in building businesses of others outside our network that see us as stats and numbers, we fail to grasp the knock-on effects long-term. First, we cannot compound wealth. Wealth compounds when folks can join efforts together over time. Nothing beats investing our prime ages on our own thing and as a group. Of course, as Nigerians, we have our own traits and attributes that are inimical to the success of such systems. However, we have no choice. We either change and realise that at some time in future, we become expendable, or we continue till we get laid off. The second thing is that we fail to realise that our future is insecure if our offsprings have no safe playing spaces. I have had members of my network reach out for employment/internship opportunities for their wards or relatives in our business area and it was all concluded on WhatsApp and on weekend.

Our kids will ask us hard questions and we will look like foolish people when tomorrow our failure to appreciate the need for an ecosystem of Nigerian owned and managed businesses results in lack of opportunities and career growth for them. How many of our kids will be able to access vocational training easily tomorrow especially in prime areas? How many of our kids will be able to access opportunities in AI, cybersecurity, research, etc if we don’t have businesses in our ecosystem offering that? Who do we think will offer employment to our kids that will enable them to thrive and lead successful and prosperous lives?

I am simply saying that it is us that will create the environment that will sustain us, enable us to thrive, support upward trajectory for us career-wise and guarantee the future of our race. Our race is endangered, and we do not know it. You think paying a mortgage or rent or being able to pay your fees is a problem now, wait till when you have worse problems and on a larger scale but only peculiar to us.

Today, we are like nomads moving from one city to city escaping expensive cities and looking for cheap cities with jobs (an irony indeed). Today, we are very much invested in care jobs, and we think it is for survival? Today, we are naturally seeing an increasing congregation of Nigerians up North in very poor cities with high crime rates. This is us, not yet our kids. What future then holds for these kids? Someone thinks when we work hard, we would be able to provide a secure future for our children. That they would grow up to be professionals. I look and laugh. Which ecosystem will allow them such? Many Nigerians are heading back home as universities lay off staff. Many businesses are cutting down employee numbers because they cannot sustain the cost of overseas staff and we don’t see a problem?

As I conclude I must reiterate that life has no emotions. The future of our race as Nigerian immigrants is bleak. We stand a chance only by thinking systems and the time to start is now. Please start something, anything, just start. It makes no sense for someone on PSW not to own a business – it cost £12. It makes no sense for dependant husband or wife not to own a business. Sell me puff puff using your business. Sell me your services using your business. Just start somewhere. I am not worried about our impending future collapse and recolonisation as a race, I am worried about the innocent children who will have no difference in life outcome when compared to their mates back in Nigeria.

Please note this is not a financial advice. This is just my experience and thoughts, and you should always seek professional advice.

jedisco:
My question was simple. Most Nigerians arrive on a visa- means for at least 5 yrs, they are tied to an employer. They would earn similarly to people in same roles and in line with the wider nation. After mandatory expenses, how do they raise £300k to 'take risk'?

Secondly, that exchange of value occurs by different means not only traditional buying and selling.

When you say 'make money', what do you mean?

@jedisco, I do appreciate what you pose as a question. My write up seeks to address three issues – temporally document my mindset, encourage Nigerian immigrants who can to actually take entrepreneurship seriously and build an ecosystem on the one hand, and encourage Nigerian Youths to seek every legitimate means possible in both leaving Nigeria (especially to the top 20 cities worldwide within the next 24 months) and building skillsets that can be traded/useful to the ecosystem built by those before them, on the other hand.

I have seen students here in the UK on 20-hrs contract earn £400/day in consulting and move on to £600/day during their post study – they are under 30 and some have relocated out of the UK. I employed some of them. They could do that because two things worked – there was an ecosystem known to them, and they had skillsets that could be traded within that ecosystem.

So, what you pose as a question from my perspective is a symptom that clears off when the ecosystem is in place. I am thus advocating for Nigerian immigrants who can actually take steps in actioning this, take those steps and urgently. For the students, learn problem solving and be able to transfer your learning. When both parties play their game right, raising such funds to take bigger risks within those students is no longer an impossible feat.

The futility of labour and the growth of the intangible economy

I digress

When I wrote about the fact that Nigerian Youths will be unable to offer humanity any value if they fail to find their way outside Nigeria to a top 20 city within the next 24 months, I did read some write up trying to contradict that based on hope.

Just yesterday, scores of kids were reported to have died due to stampede at a Christmas event in Oyo State. Nigerians organised an event for about 5,000 families – no planning permission, no risk management, no security, no assessments, no project management, no provision for onsite medical services etc. The kids are dead, and nothing will happen. Can we also talk of countless youths who have disappeared and have ended up in shallow graves and pits?

Some weeks back, it was reported that UCH had their electricity cut off for 17 days. Yes, 17 days. I can’t imagine how many people may have died from that incident. Imagine poor parents watching their newborn babies in the neonatal ward die because there was no electricity to power the incubators.

I even watched a video recently seeing a Nigerian Youth get butchered live in Ibadan. It was chalked off to clashes between cultist groups.

People are talking about fulfilment overseas and the Nigerian Youth is struggling to even be alive (EndSars comes to mind). Even in the abroad, youths born in poor homes are set up for poverty and you think the Nigerian Youth has any hope?

Someone talked about setting up ecosystems and all. You must get your own network and encourage them to act. For me, the turning point was some years back when a bank requested that I get reference letters from businesses with owners not related to me, and my network couldn’t assist. After sorting out the bank, I got our lawyers and ensured every one of my network set up at least 2 businesses. Reference letters should be a WhatsApp request, and I have it in minutes. Today, that network includes our lawyers, accountant/audit, software specialists, subcontractors, etc. It is easier to get services and spread payment over longer periods. I can get advice in real-time without needing to pay consultation fees. Everyone is happy. There is some form of a local economy there.

Back to my thoughts

One of the interesting reads you will find me with this period is the book titled – Capitalism without Capital (the rise of the intangible economy) by Stian Westlake and Jonathan Haskel. Another that I would be spending time with, in the new year (God willing) is Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. I refer to these books because they help paint the picture of intangible wealth/value and the migration from feudalism to labour being a commodity to the rent system (reverse feudalism).

Gone are the days where hard work (working hard) and labouring mattered. If that is your route to prosperity today, your poverty will be amazing. The VC world has shown how knowledge can be valued and make people millionaires overnight. You conceive an idea, generate a pitch deck or MVP and voila investors hand you a term sheet and you are game. That alone has generated millions of millionaires. Many of us are familiar with stock options. You join any average tech connected company today and it standard that you are given stock options. Think of Revolut and Nvidia and a host of others and how much wealth their staff have made simply because they were employees and had stock options in those companies.

So, what has changed?

It was Myron Golden who painted this picture, and it made so much sense to me and I will share it here. There are four levels of value. The first level of value is implementation. Everyone almost starts here. Wealth is spiritual (intangible, infinite, abundant) and at implementation, what you have is your physical strength and time. Your pay is a product of your hourly wage and how much hours you work. You want more, you work more. The commodity you trade is your physical strength. The problem here is that you can only work so many hours, and you can only do so much at this level. Working longer hours does not increase your rate. Time is limited, your strength is physical and can only stretch so much leading to a natural cap on your income and “wealth”. Athletes, skilled professionals (lawyers, doctors, etc.) all find themselves here.

The second level of value is unification. This is just implementation with a multiplier. So you are here as a manager and lead a team of people. Same as implementation but managing more people. You probably have some years under your belt, or you have got better running shoes (more degrees) and “experience”. Again, no wealth generated here. Physical strength X Time X multiplier impact on salary (due to better running shoes) – remember Veronica in the online comic.

The third level of value is communication. Now wealth starts getting made here. It took me a while to get this but now it makes sense. There is a reason why Steve Jobs rocked – he was a great salesman. Look around and think of CEOs and COOs and CSOs and even CFOs. They are great and excellent communicators. Communication is a higher spiritual activity because you try to convey something to people. What you use here is your mouth or the power of writing to change mindset. Remember Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf. Income here is ballistic. These guys have floors literally in the $tens millions.

The last level of value is imagination. Now these are the HKs themselves. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Reed Hastings, Marc Randolph, etc. They imagined things and created whole new economies. Reason why Elon Musk can hit $400 billion in net worth and on track to $1 trillion. Think about that, Elon Musk currently has more value (valuation) than Nigeria and one-third Africa’s valuation!

We have got to play this game and big time to even stand a chance of securing our offsprings. No time.

The brevity of time and the ruthlessness of "good" statistics

I divert.

@jedisco, as per your question on raising money – let me offer this. If you have a product or service that you sell and can solve any problem a small software/hardware business like ours faces (excluding HR, accounting, communication, project management, etc.), if it is comparably priced and under £1.5k/year, I would purchase and get two of my network’s businesses to also purchase. Now, if you had a network of 5 people each selling something, it begins to make sense how such funds could be raised. The bottom line is this – if you don’t have anything to sell of some value (relative to people), you can’t make money.

To give you some context, our software stack is the usual – talentHR, Microsoft for Business, Slack, Click Up, Cliq, Notion, OrangeHR (another sub), etc. Nothing serious. What we need now are AI based tools to manage compliance – tracking and notifying PoC when checks are due, etc or other problems we don’t even know exist. If it is AI-powered then even better, you can add a premium.

Back to my thoughts.

As Nigerians, we like hope. We engage with hope and it drives us. Don’t get me wrong, hope is good. Even the Bible admonishes that hope maketh not ashamed. However, that same Bible raises two very crucial points – the importance of time (there is time for everything) and the need for work (faith without work is death). While hope should keep us alive, active and eager to try again, it does not obviate from hard truths.

One of such hard truths is time and its fleeting nature. I have seen the impact of buying back time and the luxuries it affords one. When I completed my PhD, I still had 2.5 years of time remaining (assuming 4 years for a PhD). These 2.5 years enabled me try and fail and learn. By the time my colleagues were finishing their PhD’s years later, I had won a couple funding and built capacity in project management, grant applications, recruitment, team management, report and deliverables writing, and tested product development. I have also been able to offer my network similar opportunity – roles, training and development, travel, increased salaries and profile, etc. That ecosystem today has generated excellent opportunities for us in managing way bigger projects and now preparing for the launch of our flagship product.

It took only 1 person to buy back time to build an ecosystem that has allowed others to scale my limited ideas. I would never have earned or had access to what I have today were it not for that ecosystem. It didn’t just happen, it took time. Today, that ecosystem has enabled me to bring to life all I have been working on since undergrad – demand side management. If I didn’t finish my PhD early, I would never have had the opportunity to try, fail and learn. When I speak of what I do today, never assume it was spontaneous, it took time.

As immigrants, we have lost time and so we find it risky to make such investments now. It is better we think to be safe in what we think works now than try new things – I am just laughing remembering the book, “who moved my cheese”. We don’t have a choice than to start now. Yes, we have run out of time, but can we start something today. I will in my later epistle talk about labour and value and how inversely related they are in today’s world.

Secondly, is the issue of “good” statistics. I was very intentional in qualifying statistics because of the popular saying – “lies, damned lies and statistics”. I currently as a side hustle function as the chief AI officer for a US AI start up (they are in stealth mode so village people can forget knowing them till they raise). You will think I write code, no. I function as a solutions architect. I possess very rare skillsets and competence in first principles (engineering, computer science and policy), and I have experience in building products which made them approach me. I am also friendly with the CEO as well as a few other staff of the company. Now, don’t get me wrong – the folks here who are Nigerians are like the top 0.1% of Nigerians – Stanford, MIT, UPenn, etc. They are running a company of over 15 staff with angel investment and are also generating revenue. Working with them has made me attend meetings with some global c-suite executives pitching our solutions. I can have these opportunities because someone in my network built an ecosystem. They are also leveraging our successes as part of theirs, and the cumulative impact is amazing.

I am not denigrating immigrants, just stating facts – there is so little our current approach will do to help us build the ecosystems that will enable our offsprings thrive. The stat is simple, most of the wealth going forward will be created in the major cities of the world. What will take our kids there and thrive are the businesses we build today. It is those businesses that will equip them to function in the new world.

I could write lengthy stuff, but the summary remains the same – hope has no role to play in helping us combat the poverty facing us as Nigerian immigrants. We need to start thinking systems. If we don’t the poverty later will remind us daily as we see our offsprings recolonised and utilised as fodder for keeping the system running and as sport for the major players.

The worst kind of life to live is one of regret – hopeless and aware that things could have been different. Life is brutal, so also are the stats.

Contextualising the UK: motivations to own and run a business at scale

Don't mind me. I like to document my thoughts as they come and this is part of that series as 2024 comes to an end.

It is not uncommon as a migrant to look around you here in the UK and feel that air of satisfaction. I mean, this hits home a lot more when you open Nairaland and you see the tales of woes that abound in Nigeria. You shake your head feeling satisfied that you made the right choice. “I have left those unfortunates in Nigeria”, you muse forgetting that you are ending up exactly like them or even worse – you just don’t know it yet.

I am a hopeless optimist but even I know that Nigeria as a country is “dead and long gone”. We need not bother anymore about the country catching up or achieving much, that window is passed – we would be colonised and used as fodder (manual labour) for the new world emerging. We missed the opportunity of harnessing our youthful population in driving global transformation in manufacturing, software development, AI, climate, creative arts and fintech. We may see attempts at patching things here and there – it won’t matter, we don enter express. I have this to say to a Nigerian Youth – You will have almost no usefulness to humanity as a Nigerian Youth if you have no chance of living in the top 20 cities globally within the next 24 months. Please note my premise – Nigerian Youth. Ask yourself, what hope lies for a youth in Somalia, Sudan, DRC, Ukraine, Syria, Libya? What contributions can such youth make in the global space in areas such as climate, space, AI, finance, technology, etc.? Don’t mention Ukraine and cybersecurity please.

To those of us here in the abroad, especially the UK, we find ourselves in almost the same predicament as a Nigerian Youth today who has no hope of escaping Nigeria. The supposed differential we think exists in opportunities here in the UK when compared to Nigeria creates the impression that we are in a far better place. There is also the notion that with hard work and diligence, we would in no time become super achievers. Of course, you get some validation for this when you get a “good job”, buy a home on mortgage, and you get that car and make that holiday trip to Paris – what more do I need in life?

Nothing is farther from the truth than the above notions. First, hard work in today’s world is useless – don’t even argue it. It is the level at which you add value that now matters. Anyone who thinks that working hard will make them successful in today’s world needs to rethink things. In fact, the harder you work, the poorer you become. Second, the UK is a country of limited vision and ambition. To many of us leaving Nigeria, the UK seems like a utopia until you realise how small the UK really is and why we must begin to think global.

Why this take this early morning? The earlier we realise that our community in this abroad is being decimated financially creating a very sure pathway to a recolonisation of some sorts for our children the earlier we can start thinking of doing things differently. We need to think strategically and fast to ensure we can preserve the future of our offsprings. Today’s world is ruled by wealth. That is why the UK, Europe, and the US will continue to make concessions for countries like China, India, Russia, GCC, etc. because these countries have wealth both within and outside their countries.

Have you heard of Nigerian investments in the US, Europe, GCC, Asia etc. Of course, you will have 1 or 2 outliers. Now compare that with the scale of investments by nationals of the GCC, India, Russia in Africa, the US, UK, Europe, etc. This is what brings them respect. This is what ensures that their offsprings will thrive and be successful in tomorrow’s world. They have used their wealth to buy access for their offsprings. They have created parallel ecosystems to enable their offsprings accelerate faster and build competence at the highest levels. They have leveraged their wealth in buying a seat at the table of decision-making. They are now equals to any comparable western nation. Little wonder, you see them having easier travel access and acceptability globally.

Nvidia, a US based company is today worth about $3.2 trillion. The UK as at 2023 had a GDP of $3.3 trillion. The LSE has a total capitalisation of $4.7 trillion. If Nvidia were a country, it would be at par with the UK (in terms of GDP). Were Nvidia to list on the LSE, it would “own” the LSE. Minimum shifts in its valuation will cause structural impacts on FTSE 100 ETFs. Take out London from the Uk economy and you begin to see a 3rd world country emerge. Today, London has a GDP of over $0.7 trillion and a per capita GDP of $80k. After that, the next is Manchester ($0.125 trillion, $43k), Birmingham ($0.11 trillion, $37k) and then Leeds (£0.09 trillion, $39k). Compare that with the US with cities such as New York ($2.3 trillion, $114k), Los Angeles ($1.3 trillion, $98k), Chicago ($0.89 trillion, $93k), San Francisco ($0.78 trillion, $164k) and Dallas ($0.74 trillion, $97k). Even Pittsburgh with a GDP of $0.2 trillion and ranked 30 has a higher per capita GDP than London ($82k versus $80k).

I do not disparage the UK – never. This country has given me more than I deserve, and I will remain eternally grateful to it. However, there is so much to live for. The dynamism in today’s world and shifting geopolitics and even changing economic systems necessitate for a very aggressive and expansive approach to doing things. The bar to even live averagely is now beyond the reach of many. What pathways our kids will follow and their socioeconomic standing in society will be determined by the wealth of their parents, the skills of the kids notwithstanding. Understanding the pivotal role we as migrants will play in the positioning of our kids means we cannot settle for less. We need to be very strategic and aggressive in how we do things to create a fighting chance for these kids.

Our kids are not welcome in the ecosystems created by the west. Their places have been determined – the engine wheels that will keep the system running. The few that will “escape” will be used as poster kids to their kiths and kin to behave well and stand the chance of one day enjoying such privilege. I have encountered 1 or 2 of them and they are a nuisance – they act as gatekeepers. It is this system that fuels the backstabbing and animalistic hatred we display against one another. The insufficiency of opportunities creates scarcity and fuels bad behavior amongst us. We serve as sport to the other folks who are amused by our wrestling and ass licking because we want to have access to such privileges. When there is abundance, many of our bad behaviours will disappear.

It was Bishop Oyedepo who in one of his earlier messages to CU students quipped – “don’t look for a platform to be relevant, create one. In the time you spend looking for a platform to be relevant, you would have created one and built relevance for yourself.”

I can create my own ecosystem and decide who plays there, who I partner with, etc. This is what we should be doing. Enabling our kids play in such systems from young ages. Seeing us run small businesses and grow them. Seeing us fail and win. This is the system our kids should be growing up in. It is also the ecosystem that will stimulate productivity. The dissemination of technology and upscaling of our services become easy when we play in an ecosystem. Our kids get to learn about communication, negotiation, building networks, relationships, etc. Our kids cannot continue to be sport for the west. Our parents served them, we are most likely serving their kids (our equals) and are prepping our kids to serve their colleagues.

Our kids need to think big – not just about being an astronaut but owning a space company. They will get that thought when they have been born in a home where business is second nature. They need to be risk loving. They need to be comfortable failing. They need to understand how to navigate the business landscape and understand the role of experts in decision-making. They will never be taught any of these in school. You the parent must create that environment for them. They need to be able to manage resources and deploy them effectively. Where else to learn that than in the ecosystem we create.

Our hard work is great but will not suffice in the emerging world. Again, if we cannot create that ecosystem we can as well conclude that we have determined the future of our kids – fodder for keeping society running; sport for the west.

dustydee:
Welcome back. I was thinking about you some days ago and wondering if you have left nairaland finally. I agree with your points and I have been thinking of setting up a business in the field of AI consultancy but do not have the courage and self belief yet.

Life moves so fast. If you have the skill set, please go for it. You don’t even need to worry about the infrastructure as Microsoft will finance your first $250k of cloud infrastructure (Azure) enabling you use ChatGPT and other connected services. That space is exploding in ways not imagined and only our creativity will be the limiting factor.

I like your crypto based carbon exchange. I have some level of crypto/blockchain experience and happy to be involved in bringing the idea to life.
As you have suggested, it is a good idea to share our skillsets and perhaps someone might benefit from it.
I am into process/business improvement and digital transformation and do blockchain and crypto on the side.

Great. We are finalising the first phase Jan/Feb 2025 without price volatility – aggregators create orders and users fill if happy with the fixed price. After March, we hope to move to real-time pricing and then build the crypto platform on top of the carbon credits and DSM potential the platform portends. Will be nice to explore potential partnership there.

Title of my brief this evening - Can we broaden our discussions: life has changed and is leaving us far behind

I have been away from this platform minding life and business – building an ecosystem is hard work and time!

I have recently had cause to scroll through previous pages here and I must appreciate the breadth of discussions. The OGs continue to help as always and bants continue to get thrown as usual. Nairaland still remains a melting pot for Nigerians.

However, for the last 18 months, I have suffered terribly from two things (information asymmetry and the absence of a sustainable ecosystem) that have both forced me to begin to rethink a lot of things about how I build and develop business. These sufferings I argue stem from two things I have noticed are very common in our community as Nigerians – a culture of hoarding and limited ambition.

First, I have suffered from serious information asymmetry which meant I have expended huge funds utilising consultants who are not Nigerians in navigating the landscape. This has mostly been around regulation (pursuing authorisation both in the finance, energy and ISO spaces). Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing. What is worse is that money left our business to foreigners whereas there are Nigerians I believe who either have these skillsets or run businesses that can offer these services. I even know of one who I chatted up today on consulting for us in getting PCI DSS and the feedback justified why I will continue to use foreigners in the interim. I want to pay you to get the job done and the feedback is lacklustre. It was like I am not expected to have such. I will be reaching out today to a couple of firms to get that sorted for us – another loss of revenue to our ecosystem. I am practically weeping because my experience working with our manufacturers in China and consultants in UAE and even some of these Caucasian run consulting businesses here in the UK makes me wonder if we as Nigerians don’t want to succeed.

The second thing I have suffered is the absence of an ecosystem of familiar people on which I can build on. As a business, I have no reason to pursue financial authorisation. However, being unable to secure long-term partnerships and my long-term assessment of feedback from people I approached made me rule that a major risk hence the need to pursue that. As a business set up primarily to offer software solution in the energy space – carbon credit arbitrage from DSM and trading flexibility (we are literally building a trading platform to trade flexibility outside of smart meters), I have no business in hardware. That should be something owned by another business that they sell to customers and that I can build on. Unfortunately, I have also ruled that a major risk to prevent that aspect of the value chain cutting me off customers tomorrow. This means new manufacturing contracts to design hardware that caters for different continents, conformity tests, product design, circuit diagrams, packaging, countless emails and travel! As a business, it should have been a lot easier outsourcing my legal needs to a Nigerian-run legal firm here in the UK. Unfortunately, my last experience with a Nigerian lawyer here in the UK means I have to set up one that is in-house. When your heads of legal (finance and non-finance) either have a side gig at Oxford or worked at a leading European Fintech then you know you are toast. What about IP, we have to use US law firms to pursue patent filing and copyright protection. Thank God there is at least a Nigerian in one of the firms. These things are not meant to be so. This is what I love about the US and Chinese ecosystems (that does not include Nigerians).

I have done the numbers and all I can say is unfortunate. With regards to hoarding, I shiver. Folks I consider kin will see opportunities that will be beneficial to me and them in the long-run and keep mute. I’m younger than most so naturally I will supersede them – same way I expect younger folks than myself to exceed my achievements. However, our limited ambition means we don’t mind sacrificing long-term benefits if it will make a fellow Nigerian fail. Last night I concluded with my wife that scarcity and deep-seated jealousy is our problem. Reason why even at our parties we continue to exhibit such alien attributes in a declining country of abundance.

Why my rant this evening? If I continue like this, our businesses will fail. We are lucky to have secured funds to setup for our global rollout. We can achieve more, if we focus on what matters to us. Can we within this platform encourage anonymous discussions on Nigerians and what they do? I want to know of Nigerians who can handle accounting in the middle east – I will ditch the folks I’ve signed up with asap if I get a better deal. I want to know of Nigerians who can handle compliance or digital marketing across the UK, Europe, North America and the Middle East with budgets that are affordable (make sense) and with an attitude of seriousness. I cannot forget an experience I had some months back. Our BDM set up a meeting with a company to interview them for our marketing campaign. The rep perhaps felt that an all-black team didn’t deserve his presence and so turned off his video for the entirety of the call. That was the last time they heard back from us. I have recently held back on signing off on a report from another so-called top research organisation here in the UK because of the shoddy job they have done. By the time I am through with them, when they see a black business, they will “jump and pass”. I may be black but as a researcher and scholar, “I hold ground”.

Folks, as Nigerians we are powerless if we don’t own and run thriving businesses. Forget your high paying job, it is the businesses owned by Nigerians that gives us a voice in society. However, how can we ensure we have thriving businesses that can enable us to generate an ecosystem that enables us to keep wealth within our community. I know the health and care visa folks made a mess of things. Can we move past that and talk about the things good Nigerians do in their little corners so we can patronise and utilise them?

Today, I cringe about all the software we have bought for HR, accounting, compliance, communication, project management, etc. Some I just see the debit and am like what is this? If Nigerians had them and they were suitable for use here, I would be buying them. I want to scale from buying African food to patronising Nigerian owned businesses in marketing, consulting, research, audit, compliance, AI, etc.

Today, Nigerians cannot setup businesses easily in the UAE. If we had Nigerians owning businesses in strategic sectors, that won’t be the case. Today, for our staff to visit China, our manufacturers need to obtain letters from the government backing their own invitation letters simply because they still have a single nationality – Nigeria.

Time is moving very fast and severe structural change is coming. In our business, 99% of our staff are Nigerians. We have one very excellent chartered engineer who is European. I can enforce this because I am majority owner. Same thing with other businesses. I want to go into the city and enter a Nigerian-run finance business and see Nigerians just excelling. Please, can we broaden our discussions to include talks on this. I recall reading here of someone who was exploring building a currency-exchange business based on crypto. Next year, we would be exploring launching our own coin based on the carbon credits we generate from arbitrage. That would be a partnership worth exploring for me.

As I conclude, I recall an event held in the city in 2022. Two of my businesses had won funds in climate finance out of 30 funded across the country and we needed to attend a meeting with the Oxford folks and finance players (the major institute is based in Oxford). I have never felt out of place in my life. We were only 6 blacks in that meeting. Three from my end (including myself), two from my friend’s end who also had 2 of her businesses winning funding and 1 other guy who works with a major finance institution in the city. I vowed to avoid such meetings in the future. We may think such events will help us get networks. I laugh. My experience partnering with white-run businesses has made me realise that it is safer and better to partner with your kit and kin than with foreigners. You will appreciate this when trouble arises. Only your own will bring out their necks and reputation to defend you. I want to join in building such networks.

adekzy:
I never mentioned any tribe in my post, so stop trying to claim any unnecessary victimisation and cutting deep nonsense.

GEJ sold oil 🛢 at over $100/barrel, with excess crude oil account, yet Baba still borrow to pay salaries for months, so what is there to learn?

They all belong to the same category and i am not holding brief for any of them.

This is not true. Please try to verify data/statements like this from online sources which are most times free. Thanks.

Lexusgs430:
It's not all traders on Etoro, one copies ............ Some of them are drunken sailors, navigating a ship........

You check their risk score and types of assets they trade ...........

When copying, best to leave funds long term ......

Traders have colour coded stars on their profiles, black been the best aka Pro ........

Some rookies too are good, hence reading their profiles........

I have no forex trading skills, but someone I am copying is a professional forex trader...... I can see the pairs he trades, I simply copy and paste too on my personal portfolio, and close trade when my target is hit....... Collect my money and re enter position with same capital, less profits ...........

You should also spend some time on technical analysis (TA) - basic knowledge. It helps to validate the trades you copy. Charting helps as it literally predicts the future most times. Also check out Gregory Mannarino (a youtuber) and J Bravo (another youtuber). Helpful insights.

Tobexin:
Most of those quotes are mere fictitious quotes! You click in trade and no one pays you.

Anyways my rate still remain highest in town N720 no commission! Would be launching my app soon and getting my FCA approval !

FCA approval will be a plus. You could start off with HMRC AML and use that as leverage for FCA. Smooth though and far-thinking. Respect!

justwise:
Now this is painful to read..was hoping to get a new passport rather than applying for visa or TC to travel for my mum's burial, i have been monitoring this passport issue since last year as i planned to see her early this year sadly she passed away few days ago. oh well...

Sorry about your mum's demise, please do accept my condolences.

In case of other times, Nigeria still remains the better place to get a renewal all year round. I got mine renewed early this month under 24 hours with no drama.

Lexusgs430:
Are you indirectly asking Tina to drop her ALH.......

She no be Alhaja ó.....

Clarity it is sir, just Clarity I seek

Tinadear:
Hey,
Please if you know any tall, God-fearing Nigeria brother in mid or late 30s in the UK seeking for a beautiful God-fearing tall/short/medium Naija babe as wife.... I am here.

Inside life!

He should be tall while you are - tall/short/medium?

Strange times though.

Terrence99:
Thanks.
That reminds me, the current FIRS Chairman doesn't have ICAN. He's using ANAN which is basically diluted ICAN for dummies.

No, you are kidding?

I assumed and never did check or seek to know. Yeah, we do have a lot of dumbed-down heads of parastatals across Nigeria. What's unfortunate is seeing brilliant young minds (the very few of them though) answerable to very mediocre bosses. Nothing kills motivation/drive like that.

Terrence99:
Oponu, you incompetent fools in FIRS wanted to apply for stay of of execution pending appeal, you wrote a letter to the court. Is that procedure gotten by writing letters? Dumb fools. Your entire legal department of FIRS should be sacked. That is what happens when you use tribalism, favouritism and political loyalty to recruit lawyers. Shebi FIRS is fond of underground recruitments, You fools will learn the hard way. You will learn by force that government work is not for blockheads and misfits.

There are 4 things you don't recruit with tribalism: your lawyer, your doctor, your accountant and your pilot.

As for the North, better start looking for how you wil tax banditry and kidnapping. By the time the South is done with you, you will be begging Nigerian Breweries to establish their factory beside the Sultan's Palace.

Fixed that for you.

Midnight musings: you would own nothing and be happy

Let me start this morning by remembering Sampath’s retort to Kulfil in Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard – “No , I do not want an egg he said, I want my freedom.”

When I stumbled on the article in the Telegraph with caption: Parents demand final say over whether children get Covid Jab, I was not surprised at all. Why? Systems have never collapsed at once. Remember Animal Farm, rights do not all get taken at once. There is a gradual erosion of our rights here and we are unaware because of the many distractions they load us with. Between working flat out to eke out a living to pay those bills and living within the confines of increasingly stricter regulations, the government is right under our nose inserting itself deeper into our lives, eroding our rights and furthering its end goal – “to own it all”.

“C’mon Chukwuka, don’t be a conspiracy theorist, the government is doing this for our safety, it’s all for the greater good.” This is the typical response I get from some folks within my circle. According to them, the issues of mandates, vaccine passports and other emerging crazy government policies are all for our safety. I remind them of what Benjamin Franklin had to say that “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”, and their responses are either – “the government knows best” or “the times are different”. I remind them that I am not sure I want to trust characters like Matt Hancock or Sajid Javid or Boris Johnson or Michael Gove or Dominic Raab or Priti Patel or the other clowns that characterise this government with making decisions that affect me or even pets considering their miserable and utterly disastrous track records that show FAILURE. I’m told most times to take a “chill pill”. I rest my case.

When the World Economic Forum (WEF) in one of their promotional videos announced that “by 2030, YOU would OWN NOTHING and be happy”, it wasn’t greeted with much angst because people look at the end rather than the process. I will remind you of a popular quote by Martin Niemöller –
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Today, we can easily chart and observe the path on which these clowns are madly driving their agenda. What is painful is how we are all complicit in wilfully helping them achieve an aim that is at variance with what we stand for.

One of the greatest tools this government has employed has been distractions. You see, when parents have little kids and have difficulties pacifying them because they have had maybe a fall, what they employ are rounds of distractions. They could make a clown face or create some form of distraction for the kid to take their minds away from the pain and soon those little kids are off chasing the distraction. In the UK, we are provided with daily loads of baloney on BBC that I sometimes get vexed for subscribing. J Cole puts it very succinctly in his song “Problems” –
There’s nigg&s dying everyday man we don’t make the rules
Instead they talking ‘bout some thunderstorm, cyclones
Timmy got his bike stole
Top story: Tiger Woods be f$@%ing all these White Hoes

While the BBC is either informing us of irrelevant news items that are perhaps best suited for clown stations or deliberately providing misleading news leads, we are unaware that the BoE is massively monetising government debts which in turn is increasing money supply and leading to massive inflation. We are unaware of the issues surrounding the broken supply chain or the NHS or the collapsing and shrinking economy or the massive decimation of household wealth (mostly for the middle class) among others. We are unaware of new government policies being brought in daily to wage war against citizens all in the name of safety. Today in Scotland, 4-year-olds can now change their sex without their parents’ consent - #Distractions!

While distractions are being employed, the government along with corporates are also employing the power of THREAT. You see, as immigrants, we are ready to do anything required of the law to keep our residency. I’m not here advocating for one to be a rule breaker but drawing your attention to instances where your desire to retain residency rights can be exploited to further decimate your freedom/rights/liberty. In France, New York, the USA (federal workers), even Edo State and emerging countries/states/regions worldwide, we are seeing governments using vaccine mandates as tools for determining our ability to socialise. We are told that having the #clotshots would be our only way to freedom – When did I become caged in the first instance? In recent times, we have started seeing corporates like CNN, BoA and others coming up with draconian policies mandating staff get their #clotshots before a particular date. In instances where your residency is tied to your job, how do you walk that tight rope between your survival and your liberty? Someone says, “liberty be damned” and I’m like really?

I could go on and on talking about the increasing monetisation of government debts by the BoE leading to increasing money supply, crazy asset valuations from property to equities and it’s fallout – increase in the cost of goods and services. I could highlight the rise of institutional investors buying up property with cheap money gotten at almost 0% interest rate and the rise of fascism in the UK. Folks, we are at war and the earlier we know it the better.

As I conclude, I can’t but help relish these lines from Bella Shmurda’s banger (Ginger me). Never in life have I been scared of even my circle. Here on Nairaland, I have read arguments by folks that people who refuse the #clotshots deserve to be “ostracized” from society. I have no doubt these are the same folks featured on Mark Dice’s liberal lunatics California round where people literally sign “petitions” to have folks who have refused the #clotshots arrested!

Oluwa shebi iwo lo ye
Oluwa shebi iwo lo mo
Shebi iwo lo yee shebi iwo lo mo
I don't know what to say my brother
I don't know what to say my sister
I'm careful about those who call me brother
Some many times I've seen brothers killing brothers

Folks, we are at war here. There are no demilitarised zones. You have got to know that Adolf Hitler and King Leopold II didn’t come from Africa or Asia, they were from Europe (as it now is). We are gradually entering into totalitarianism. Today, you can’t leave Australia with the military conscripted to facilitate lockdowns. Today, the government in New Zealand can enact lockdowns at the snap of a finger. Today in Germany and France and Italy and Spain, lockdown protesters are suffering severe beatings and harassments like it was Nigeria. Today we are hearing talks of social scores (common in China and used to limit individual’s freedom), central bank digital currencies (CBDC) etc. Our governments have left governance to creating a stratified society where they come up with metrics that determine what we can be and not be. Today, we are hearing of climate lockdowns. As an academic, I attend meetings and regret wasting my time acquiring that knowledge. I’m asking you to quantify the fallout of a policy initiative so we don’t build unrealistic utopias and can place limits on expectations, and you are speaking English about unintended consequences – finesse in the use of language you call it? I must also highlight that most academics are useful tools and accomplices of governments drive towards totalitarianism because of their hate for capitalism. They love big governments (socialism) and forget that the end of socialism is communism (you will own nothing and be happy)!

Damn. I’m at loss of what exactly it is the future holds. I’m just scared and confused. I’m looking around and folks think it is alright and that everything will be fine. “Calm down, Chukwuka, you are overthinking this thing”, is what they tell me. I remember Baxter in Animal Farm and shake my head. Ah, I can’t get these lines from my head –

Somebody ginger me ooo
Ginger me oo ginger me oo
Yeah somebody ginger me
Ginger me oo ginger me oo
Yeah somebody call my name
Ginger me oo
Tell me say it's gonna be fine Ginger me ooo
Somebody do something Ginger me oo
Ginger me oo