₦airaland Forum

ibkgab001:
Another Jumoke in the making

‘I later noticed that the rooftop of my cab was painted orange, which meant Painted Abuja taxi (PHC) while others blue, and some green with white stripes connoting their various companies,’ she revealed, adding that where she registered as a taxi driver, she was asked by several people whether she was actually going to drive it herself.

‘They were nice to me and I even got a pass twice and didn’t have to pay for the monthly sticker. All I had to do was show the note from their chairman and the boys on the road let me go,’ Asakpe said. She understood it was their way of encouraging her.

So far the experience has been interesting for Asakpe. Every day she gets to meet new people. Virtually everyone that enters her cab wants to engage her in a discussion. How did you come about this job? Why are you doing this job? And she enjoys responding to these questions because how she started-off is a story to tell.

But amidst the excitement sometimes comes challenges, particularly when her car sits at the mechanic’s and there’s no way she can work and it continues to gulp money for a couple of days.
Again, while most of the people around her are supportive, some discourage Asakpe. ‘I will get you a job,’ and ‘you shouldn’t be doing this’. But Asakpe only smiles.

Asakpe is presently studying to be a chartered accountant and plans to get more cars and empower women interested in the business.

‘There’s a lady already who is interested and keeps asking me to get a car for her,’ she intimated. So Asakpe wants to run a transport company that is strictly female in the future. She has realised that there’s no job that’s strictly for men, after all, there are men who own restaurants, cook, and make women’s hair.

‘Funny enough, men are supportive and are my biggest fans,’ she said, adding that she discovered it’s untrue that men don’t like independent women as some women claim. ‘I get more suitors now than i got when i was a hotel manager.’

Asakpe’s typical day as a hotel manager involved resuming work at 7:30 in the morning, particularly when she was studying for a particular examination. ‘Those days i have to work for 24 hours, which it means i work from that time of the morning to 12 midnight and then i sleep there in the premises and resume the next day at same time,’ she said.

Now her work schedule has changed and is more flexible. She drives out at 7:30 am and scouts around for workers, ‘because that’s the peak period, till 10am or 11am.’

When Asakpe started, she parks her car and sleeps off at noon, but soon discovered she could still make more money after a single experience. Overtime she has made friends with some of her customers and takes a break at their place of work. Ideally, her closing time is 5pm, but when some of her major customers are in town, she works late.

‘I had a customer recently and worked till 9pm,’ she revealed, adding that most times such jobs require her to drive them to a meeting and park while they are inside. So in this case she charges by the hour. Most times because they are her customers it fluctuates between N1,000 and N1,500. She thinks this is fair because she waits and her fuel is not used-up. And staying in a meeting for five hours by any customer automatically earns her N5000.

So Asakpe makes about N100, 000 in a month, with 80, 000 being her profit. A graduate of Accounting from the University of Nigeria, Enugu, she keeps her records clean and knows what she earns on a daily basis.

It all started when Suzan Asakpa’s employer revealed the plan to slash her monthly salary from N80, 000 to N70, 000. ‘That was my wake-up call,’ she narrated, after all she was already getting bored with the job.

She had worked for three years as a manager in a hotel in Abuja and felt she deserved an upgrade. But it wasn’t coming. To make this worse, came that revelation of a salary slash. At that moment Asakpe decided she needed to be her own boss and prayed for a business idea.

When she got on the phone to her father in Lagos, they talked about what she wanted to do. He was
excited when he learnt she wanted to drive a cab herself. It was not long before he gave her a call from Cotonou and asked her whether she would prefer a manual or automatic. He had actually taken a loan for that.

When the car was sent to Abuja, it was already serviced and everything had cost N720, 000. ‘But I am going to pay him back,’ Asakpe revealed, adding that she had already got N500, 000 so far.
So by October, 2015, Asakpe was already in business, but not before some preliminaries.

Before the vehicle was sent to Abuja, she had asked around and knew what she needed to do. So when the time came she took it for a paint job. Initially, she had not wanted to paint it in the traditional taxi colours, but was advised by a taxi driver to do so because it’s the law. Asakpe had complained to him that painted taxis were not allowed to enter some places, but he insisted that at least they still get access into most.

I was in Enugu and went to Ogbete market to buy red oil and discovered the price skyrocketed. Usually, I buy 10 liters of red oil #2,800 but it went up to #3,500.

When I asked the elderly woman why the price went up, she said, "nwa m, okwa asi na dollar tinyere ego" (My son, they said that dollar has appreciated).

And I was like, "mama kedu nke gbasara dollar na mmanu igbo, (But Mama, What has dollar got to do with igbo palm oil) that u get from ur village" and she replied, "ihe nine tinyere ego na Enugu, asi na dollar adiro" (Every thing is now expensive because of dollar)
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Thats the ugly situation of our economy today. Our economy is regulated largely by external and foreign forces.

We always blame the leadership but it is us (Me and You) who actually messes this nation up. How does dollar affect palm oil which this woman harvested at home and processed and then brought to the market.

I also visited a friend's fish farm and he was telling his workers that he will increase the price of fish per kilo, I asked why and he complained of dollar increase. This is a man who gets fish feed from a nearby brewery.

Even my landlord has informed us that our house rent has increased because of the dollar. Yet we all blame Buhari when its is us who is messing up the economy.

The greatest saying of all times for me is from Nelson Mandela who stated that Poverty is Man Made. Why are we always opportunistic and willing to prey on each other. we capitalize on the disadvantages of another to enrich ourselves. this horrible.

The climax came when my wife came home from church last sunday and informed me that Ukochukwu (Pastor) said that people show now be sowing seed in foreign currency so that God will reward them in foreign currency. that those who give god Naira will be blessed in Naira but if you give God Dollars, Then you must reap in Dollars.

Brethren, Where do we go from here?

Stella Dimoko Korkus Exclusive - Ooni Of Ife Remarries!

The Ooni of Ile Ife Oba Enitan Babatunde Adeyeye Ogunwusi has taken a new wife because his first marriage has crashed due to irreconcilable differences....

Have you noticed that Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II has always been on his own to all occasions and even on his official coronation on the 7th of December 2015 there was a distance between him and his wife Adebukunola Ogunwusi?...well thats because Insiders allege his union to his ex wife was already so strained that both were no longer in talking terms as at when the Ooni ascended the throne.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3427456_titi_jpegd79e1a107dee9a6c338484178d17ae4aOLORI WURAOLA

Ex wife?Yes, because i hear the Marriage has fallen apart and cannot be salvaged.My sources inform me that ''Adebukunola never assumed the role of an Olori and never moved to the Palace,she left Ile-ife town as soon as the Coronation was over and has not been back there or seen with the Oba eye to eye...''

Reliable information from the palace is that the Ooni is an extremely happy king now cos he's about to be joined in Matrimony to Wuraola Otiti Zynab Obanor and the duo are in love.Wuraola from Oluyare Compound, Iremo Quarters in Ile- Ife But a native of Benin City.

Ile- Ife and Benin Kingdom Uniting?Wow!

The New Olori is from Royal Brass Casters guide family -Ine n' Igun and Her forefather Ezhoe from Oluyare compound, Ile Ife was requested for by the Oba of Benin - King Oguola from the Ooni Of Ife. Ezhoe left his son - Ighueghae who naturally became the head of the family after his father left back to Ife from Benin. Hmmmm strong ties between Benin and Ife and about to be re-ignited with this Marriage.


According to Stella Dimoko Korkus sources,Their union is already 95 percent completed, just for a few other formalities to be concluded within a few weeks.

Wuraola is relocating from the diaspora to take on her role as wife and Olori to a Powerfully Popular King,Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi,Ojaja II...