₦airaland Forum

Mr. Akin Alabi is a Nigerian politician, an entrepreneur, and an author. He is the founder of NairaBet, Nigeria’s first sports betting company.

In the book, How To Sell To Nigerians: Sell More of Your Products In The Next 30 Days Than You Did In The Last 300 Days, Mr. Akin shares his proven strategies and ideas on how to navigate the Nigerian market.


Understanding the rationality behind decision-making of Nigerians will sell your products or services faster, gain you more customers and have your own share of Nigerian market. Nigerian consumers are not regular consumers, they have special characteristics that must mastered putting your products and services before them.

The lessons are below:

1. Nigerians are impatient and don’t pay attention to details, so if you want to sell to Nigerians be ready for dumbiest and laziest questions from your customers. You will have to “over-explain” yourself to your customers and potential customers.

2. Sell quality products. Quality products give you confidence and earn you trust from your customers and potential customers.

3. Before you decide on what product to sell, you must be sure that it is a product people are asking and want to buy.

4. Nigerians love “awoof!” Create a business environment and strategy that make it look like your customers are ripping you off.

5. Do not put pressure on your family members and friends to patronize your business. They shouldn’t be your target customers.

6. Never put “NO Refunds” on your bio on social media. Putting it on your bio means your products cannot be trusted.

7. Nigerians love bonuses, so offer bonuses to your customers. The bonuses must be related to your products.

9. Offer your customers money back guarantee even it is for a limited time.

10. Nigerians love panic-buying. In your adverts, create a fear-factor. Let them know the negative consequences of buying from your competitors.

11. Learn how to write (or hire someone) a sales letter. That will boost your sales through advertisement.

12. Do not not sell a product you have not tried.

13. Nigerians love stories. Create a storytelling around your product. Stories sell a product faster.

14. Use Positive comments and testimonials on social media to promote your business, and use negative comments to improve your product or service.

15. Use influencers to promote your products if you have the resources. Or you can give some influences your products free to hype your product on their pages.

16. Create an enabling environment for customer-staff relationship.

17. Simply add delivery fee to your product price instead of telling your customers to pay for delivery. Your customers would not know they are the ones paying for the delivery.

18. Build a list of those that buy from you. Their emails, phone numbers, or other means of reaching their. Having this list makes it easy for your digital business.

20. Use lotteries and raffles to create awareness and draw a few customers to your business.

21. When you sell luxury products, offer luxurious customer relations. Treat people who pay for luxurious products and services like kings and queens before and after your exchange of products or services.

Counting the Tiger’s Teeth, An African Teenager’s Story by Professor Toyin Falola chronicles the Yoruba rebellion that engulfed the Western Region of Nigeria in the 1960s with astonishing storytelling on Yoruba tradition and culture, traditional religion, Christianity, Islam, and polygamy. The memoir, following his previous memoir, , A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt, was divided into three parts: the first part was about the Agbekoya rebellion, the second part was the germinating aggression of Christian and Islamic preachers against the traditional worshippers and their deities, and the last part was characteristics of the Yoruba societies, most especially the people of Ibadan. Although, it was to a chronicle of what the author saw during the Agbekoya rebellion.

Prof. Falola was a teenage participant in the Agbekoya rebellion that engulfed the Western Region from 1968 towards the end of 1969. The Agbekoya rebellion was fought during the civil war, the war between the Federal Government forces led by General Yakubu Gowon and the secessionist state of Biafra led by General Omidegwu Ojukwu. The Biafra war was fought between 1967–1970. As the Federal Government forces were fighting with the Biafra forces in the Eastern Region, the farmers were rebelling against the imposition and increment of taxes on them without corresponding services to their villages in the Western Region Government led by Brigadier Robert Adeyinka Adebayo.

Different accounts of the rebellion have been written, but none has been written by a participant in the Agbekoya rebellion. Prof Falola participated in the Agbekoya rebellion, not as a farmer with guns and cutlasses, but with pen, his mouth and legs which were telephone lines of that time for conveying messages from one person to another and one village to another. In the course of the rebellion, he lost his father, whom he fondly referred to as Paitor (a Yoruba version of Pastor). Paitor was shot and killed by the police in one of their invasions of Akufo, a village in Ibadan, looking for farmers to arrest.

The rebellion was called Agbekoya (Farmers Reject Suffering). Agbekoya spread across Ibadan, Ede, Oyo, Ijebu-Ode, Ile-Ife, Ilesa, Ado-Ekiti, Akure, Owo, and Ondo. Although, different movements during the rebellion had their own names, Agbekoya was the most popular name attributed to the rebellion, partly because the rebellion was championed by farmers.

So many lives were lost during the war. A King was killed, Olubadan of Ibadan was chased out of his palace, Soun of Ogbomoso was chased out of his palace, palaces were destroyed, some of the chiefs were attacked and injured.

To the farmers, rebellion was their last resort after petitions, pleas, complaints to the government officials, traditional rulers, and government representatives about their plights felt on deaf ears. They demanded for objects of modernity in their villages: electricity to light up their homes; medical clinics to treat the sick; good roads as they were enjoyed in the cities. Instead of the government to provide these services, those in authorities keep asking them to pay more taxes. The taxes were of two types: the tax to support the ongoing war between the Federal forces and the Biafra forces, and the the Western Region military government also increased their taxes.

The farmers did not say they are not going to pay taxes, they complained about the dwindling prices of cocoa, they were against the increase in taxes, the treatment of the farmers by the tax collectors who go around harassing farmers — men and women — in the rural areas. The complained about tax collectors harassing market women for not paying taxes, demanding bribes from farmers who are yet to pay their taxes; tax defaulters were sent to prisons.

The Western Region Military Government said the need to increase the tax was because development cannot be funded without farmers paying more taxes like other people in the cities. The farmers said no, that their farms were no longer fertile, and their was no corresponding amenities in their villages to warrant the increase in taxes.

From December 1967 to January 1968, the Ibadan City Council collected about £60,000; between the end of December 1968 and January 1969, it could only collect £194.

The military government was not ready to listen to them, the farmers too were not ready to listen to the government. They said the military government confuse their illiteracy with ignorance. the government said they needed education on why they must pay taxes; they sent people who would educate them on the importance of taxes. The farmers demanded for the provision of basic amenities in the rural areas, but the Military Government said that development was like a snake that crawls, if they could exercise patience, development would craw to their villages. The farmers knew they had listen to the same music from the politicians before the soldiers strucked in 1966, they were not ready to dance to any music.

By mid-January 1969, the Military Government in the Western Region created Justice Ayoola Commission of Inquiry, to probe what it called the tax riots in parts of the Western State. The commission was charge to investigate the causes of the rebellion. The farmers rejected the commission report arguing that the witnesses did not represent them but government.

The rebellion was ended when the Military Government of the Western Region agreed to reduce the taxes as demanded by the farmers. Although the government have planted moles among the farmers who later betrayed their colleagues in the movements. There was peace in the villages: no more tax raids, no more police, no more tax collection, and no more councils that the farmers said were in connivance with tax collectors.

In the end, some of the people that fought the military government on tax collection betrayed their own convictions Some betrayed their dead colleagues by some set up their own tax collection in markets and motor partks. They became the monster they fought agaisnt.

The second part i find fascinating is characterization of the people with their monikers to represent their personas: Obafemi Awolowo, the first Premier of the Western Region was Ojugo (the bespectacled). “Ojugo” — a face covered with glasses; Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first President of Nigeria, was known as Kikiwe (all books). He was said to be fond of using big words in the English language; Brigadier Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, the military governor of Western Region during the Agbekoya rebellion was called Irunmu (the one with the moustache); Chief S. L. Akintola, was Bamu because his face was beautified by the most elaborate scarification. People were called not by their formal names or by their titles but by their monikers. A woman who sells pap (ogi) is called Iya Ologi; pastor; A woman who sells pepper is called Iya alata.

The last part was the aggression of the Christian and Islamic preachers agaisnt the traditional worshippers and their deities. Most of the farmers were traditional worshippers, they paid homage to Ogun, the god of iron and consult Ifa, the diviner. Some of the people who said they were followers of these two new religions also relied on charms and incision made by babalawo. Paitor, the father of Prof Toyin Falola, was an example of hybrid spiritual acceptance by the Yoruba.

Unlike Paitor, Buoda Gebu, whose real name was Brother Gabriel, but corrupted to Buoda Gebu, claims to be the saviour and the light to remove the people of Akaran from the darkness of deities, and that only Jesus Christ was the way to heaven. He was arrogant and proud. Buoda Gebu never had a soft spot for the people whose religions were contrary to his own teaching. To him, anybody who failed to follow his way would be a resident of hellfire.

Just like Buoda Gebu, Alhaji Ajagbemokeferi, “someone who yells at pagans” was an Islamic preacher. He like Buoda Gebu believed that anyone who worshipped other god apart from Allah would end up in the hell, where ragging fire would continue to consume his body. Buoda Gebu and Alhaji Ajagbemokeferi proselytize their new religions with aggressiveness that left no room for forgiveness of the “pagans” until they convert to their religions.

The Yoruba people of the Western Region show that if many cattle unite, the lion will lie down. Although so many farmers died, but the message that the farmers sent to those in authorities — be it civilian or military — was that the voices of the people must count no matter what the opinion of those in power.

However, despite the farmers courage, they failed to realize their realiability on old weapons and charms cannot match the weapons of destruction of the government forces. There is no official records of the number of people killed during the rebellion. Based on the accounts of Prof Falola, it is clear that the number of farmers killed was high.

Counting the Tiger’s Teeth by Prof Falola should be one of the history books that ought to be incorporated in history curriculum in the Western part of Nigeria.

An Islamic scholar, Sheikh Muydeen Bello, in one of his lectures, said: “If you want to pray, make sure you use your mother’s maiden name because only she knows who your father is.”

Sex is as cheap as a plate of food. It is everywhere. It is becoming a shameless adventures for married men and women. No gender can entirely be monopolized as guilt just as no gender should be liable for victimization. Over the years, both genders have learnt that no gender has a monopoly on infidelity. Stories abound! Men. Women. Married. Singles. Young. Old.

Both genders perpetrate dark infidelity that produces kids out of wedlock. Although in Africa, women have been on the dark side of stories since women own the home, and men own the house.

Marriages have crumbled, relationships cut short, and love turns to hate because of cheating and adultery.

Historically, Men have weaponized, monopolized and arrogated their masculine privilege largely supported by the society to engage in extramarital affairs at the detriment and disrespect of their wives. Women have endured the pangs of pain that come with sharing their spouse’s privacy with intruders. But today, women are masters of the craft of adultery and Infidelity as their opposite gender. It is now a do me I do you free for all affairs.

Theories aplenty on why some men especially rich one cannot be faithful are skyrocketing. The Zaddies, (or Sugar Daddies)men who sleep with women — both young and old, married and unmarried because of their financial ability. What of women? They are called Sugar Mummy

When DNA test becomes cheaper — which will finally do as technology becomes more advanced and cheaper — more men would realize that they have been watering the seeds that germinate outside their farmland. Until then...

I do mind my business most especially when women are involved. You may say one thing and they misinterpret what you say.

imhere:
Why didn't you advise her, who knows maybe she would have seen reasons to swap

Maybe! She doesn't fry with firewood. She may have her reasons, but selling it once in a week is a disservice to her business because most of her customers do ask about akara and her response is always casual: "I don't prepare akara today"

Houseontherock1:
She may not be selling akara because she has difficulty sitting by the fire, inhaling the smoke from the akara fire continuously. With akara, you fry and turn continuously unlike moinmoin that takes one round of preparation stress. The smoke may be affecting her eyes as well. I'm sure she would have gone back to akara if she doesn't have a personal reason.

“Olowo ori Oko Àníké”, the one who pays the pride price of and the husband of Àníké. Àníké is an oriki, a cognomen for a woman in Yorubaland. It means someone who deserves to be cherished. Well, love it or hate it, Ibadan men don’t joke with their wives. So, if you want to be ‘ké’ (cared for, cherished), Ibadan Man is your plug. An original Ibadan man doesn’t need the help of “Aloma” or “Origin” and other aphrodisiacs to satisfy his wife.

A bearded and chocolate young man with an emerging protruding stomach typical of “zaddy” or Sugar Daddy. His name is a combination of Yoruba and Islam: Adewale Dhikrulah Adéyẹmọ .

Yoruba name, Adéwálé, means the crown has come home. The morphology :
Adé — crown
Wá- come
Ilé- home, house

The shortened form of the name is Wálé, meaning, come home. In the Benin Republic, Adéwálé is written as Adéálé.

Though he isn’t a prince but as an Omo Ibadan — through paternal lineage (a son of Ibadan), he has a right to the Olubadan crown like other sons of the soil Ibadan. The Olubadan (The king of Ibadan) chieftaincy title is not hereditary. So, any son of Ibadan is invariably a Prince

His Arabic and Muslim name is “Dhikrulah”, meaning, remembrance of Allah. The morphology of the name are:
Dhikr — Remembrance
Allah — The Creator of the universe, The Unmoved Mover.

The Yoruba variant of Dhikrulah is “Sikiru”. Many people call him Sikiru. As it is customary, Yoruba always have their variants of ‘foreign’ names for easy pronunciation. As a Muslim, he cemented the remembrance of his Creator by visiting two of the holiest sites in the world -Mecca and Medina — for a lesser hajj during Ramadan. Is he an Alhaji? I leave that to Islamic scholars.

His last name, Adéyẹmọ, means royalty, and crown befits a child.
The morphology of which is:
adé — crown
yẹ — befit
ọmọ — child

And last to his acclaimed much-vaunted pet name is ‘Mr Possible’. Only he knows why he chooses to be called that. Is it for motivation? I don’t know. Maybe it was a reference that it is possible to get the crown -and become Olubadan; after all, he was named Adéwálé.

Whether he will bring the crown home — by becoming an Olubadan — I don’t know. The probability is only high that the Olubadan crown isn’t coming home.

Maybe we can morph the prefix of Adéwálé — “Adé” — and suffix of “níké” from Àníké to make it “Adéníkę”. Àníké is a cognomen of his wife. Adéníkę is then translated as the crown 👑 is cherished or the royalty is cherished.

He was born during the regime of one of the brutal dictator in Nigeria. Do I still need to tell you his exact age? A Yoruba adage says, half a word is enough for the wise.

Above all, he hasn’t chosen the path of the Olu of Ibadan (the king or head of Ibadan) since the ladder to it begins with “Mogaji”, which loosely means family head. For now, he chooses to be the Olu of his household.

May your days be long, my guy!
Salam.

Recently, I learned a valuable lesson from two old women in my neighborhood. The first woman sells moin-moin every day but occasionally sells akara (like once a week) at night. While the moin-moin doesn't finish until 11 pm, any day she sells akara, her stock doesn't last beyond 8 pm. I don't know why she continues to sell moin-moin despite the low acceptability by her customers.

If people want to eat akara in the neighborhood, they either prepare it at home which is kind of time-consuming, or they will have to walk for almost 1km before they find someone selling akara. A lot of people (most especially family) prefer to prepare moin-moin at home, unlike akara.

I wanted to ask the woman why she continued to sell moin-moin while akara has been what the majority of her customers want. I do eat her moin-moin because I didn't have an option that was nearby.

Unexpectedly, another woman started selling akara - she specializes only in akara - not far away from the first woman selling moin-moin. As expected, a lot of people started patronizing the second woman selling akara. Within a week, the first woman selling moin-mon started seeing low turnout in her shop. People started patronizing the woman selling akara. Any time I passed in front of the woman's shop, I noticed that there was hardly someone wanting to buy moin-moin but you see a lot of people waiting in front of the woman selling akara.

In less than two weeks, the woman selling akara has won the hearts of many people, most especially the demographic in the street who are mostly young unmarried boys. The demographic is very important because most of the people who patronize moin-moin and akara sellers are young unmarried boys and girls, and old men and women who couldn't prepare these meals at home. I don't see myself preparing either moin-moin or akara when I know I am the only person eating it. Like myself, most people in my demographic prefer to buy outside.

The sales of the moin-moin seller have been badly hit by the akara seller who is now her competitor. I have been expecting the moin-moin seller be reawaken to the reality of her customers and look beyond her personal preferences to start seller akara every day. Alas, she is not even selling akara again. If she starts today, a lot of her customers would return because her recipe trumps the second woman selling akara. She knows her onion.

The lesson here is that, some businesses fail because their owners refuse to observe their users, ask their users about their experiences, and survey their preferences. For the woman selling moin-moin, all the signs were there for her that akara is the favorite of her customers, but she refuses to observe her customers. Sometimes, some of her customers would ask her why she didn't sell akara that day.

Experiences of people change over time, businesses must adapt their products to the dictate of the moment. Products must be flexible just as human preferences are flexible. Observe your users, talk to them, and ask about their experiences. This feedback is very important for the success and growth of your product and customer base.

I wasn't against japa. Migration is as old as man. But if the best among us in term of skills are japaing for greener pasture, there is fire on the mountain.

eepeepook:
Africa is a young continent. Of course young people will seek opportunities in better lands. This is no surprise. Asians do the same. There is no reason why we should act different.

Even development doesn't stop migration of people. That is why Nigeria is never even part of the top three migrant countries in the world.

Ohraykon:
Instead of running away when are we gonna fight our internal and external demons? Why are we cowards? Its obvious those two demons jehovah and allah are our greatest problems.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

nancy266:
Your writings stick out to me since the content is interesting and simple to understand driving directions. Even though I've read a lot of websites, I still like yours more. Your essay was interesting to read. I can understand the essay better now that I've read it carefully. In the future, I'd like to read more of your writing.

In 1999, two stowaway teenagers from Guinea, Koita Yaguine and Tounkara Fode embarked on a deadly trip to ‘Europe or die’ in order to escape terror leaders at home. Unfortunately for these teenagers, they died a cruel death in the landing gear of Sabena Airlines Airbus before the plane landed in Belgium.

In a letter that was found in their pocket, it reads “To the Excellencies and officials of Europe: We suffer enormously in Africa. Help us. We have problems in Africa. We lack rights as children. We have war and illness, we lack food. . . . We want to study, and ask you to help us to study so that we can be like you, in Africa schools”.

Had it been those teenagers made it alive, they would not had regretted their actions given the state of the continent.

Paul Collier captures it better when he says, “development is about giving hope to ordinary people that their children will live in a society that has caught up with the rest of the world. Take that hope away and the smart people will use their energies not to develop their society but to escape from it.”

Many African youths are physically living in Africa , but their minds are in far away Europe. Their fatherland is not ‘fathering’ their future; their beloved motherland is now murdering their dreams. Many are no longer at ease with the land they called homeland.

They have lost the passion, they have lost the hope in the continent.

There was a time “Barsa Wa Bala”, a wolof language, meaning “Barcelona or die” was in vogue in Senegal. The Senegalese youths believed it was better to die on the journey to Europe than under hopeless and unfavorable conditions at home.

Today, in Nigeria “japa” meaning to leave one’s home country in search of greener pasture in foreign land, is on the gyrating lips of many young Nigerians. People sell their property; they left their parents to loneliness and longing and family to “japa”. The race is to the Northern hemisphere . The energy is to secure a seat on the next flight going to Europe. Their savings are targeted to getting a visa. Some sold their property to Japa. Their prayers and fasting geared towards their visa application. They are investing half of their body features on securing a visa to Europe. It is now a blessing and a call to celebration to land at an airport in Europe.

What is worse: most of the continent leavers are skillful and energetic youths. For a continent that needs its resourceful and energetic youths to be a prosperous continent losing these youths without addressing the underlying problems is saddening. These youths have exhausted their endurance. They do not see their dreams becoming a reality.

A friend narrated an incident that happened in Ibadan, Oyo State. He said a woman after cooking handed over a plate of food to her child. The child asked his mother “Where should I put it?” The mother replied, “Go and put it in the toilet!” The child went to the toilet and placed the plate of food on the floor of the toilet. The woman surprised that his child did not understand the irony in her words, unleashed lashes of words and cane on the child.

Children are natural philosophers. Their curiosity and inquisitiveness are underlined by assumed ignorance. But these curiosities and inquisitiveness are largely suffocated and buried by basic schooling with their programmable class grooming and at home where they are expected to conform to certain established norms.

Children do not assume they know. The assumption of knowledge is dangerous. A disease that must never be allowed to set forth and germinate. They only assume they are surrounded by those who know better than them — parents, teachers, guardians and family members.

Even when they know, they will still ask. When they do not know they will ask. To them, everything needs to be questioned. After all, philosophy is about logic. critical thinking, questioning and curiosity.

But in most cases, what they meet from the society is opposed to what will enhance and cultivate their curiosity.

When I was an undergraduate, one of our lecturers, a Prof., would tell us that “If you ask me any nonsense question, I will send you out of the class”! We knew he meant it! He created a climate of fear for students who were in school to learn. Students who had questions to ask him had to first ask themselves if their questions would not qualify as nonsensical in the eyes of the Prof. His class thereafter was full of listeners, not students.

Society as a whole must be eager to accept the curiosity of children and ready to encourage their appetite for questioning and unravelling mysticism.

Afterwards, the same society wonders why critical thinking is becoming a luxury that a tiny minority possesses in our society.

Society kills curiosity in children and blames them when they come of age for lack of creativity, inquisitiveness and critical thinking. We shot them down for asking ‘too many questions’ as kids and got appalled at the manifestation of the disease that was planted in their upbringing curricula.

Recently, a friend reached out to me for pieces of advice on ‘Japa’ to an Arab country: Bahrain. He wanted me to offer him pieces of advice and connect him with an agent who is into the business. He was going there for work.


After minutes of listening to him, I told him, “ You’re earning a moderate daily income from your transport business; you’re with your family, why go to an unknown land risking your life and that of your family at home?” He replied: “You know, traveling is part of education. I believe that by working there for a few years, I would be able to save enough money, and who knows, I can go to Europe from there”, he stylishly said while observing my physiognomy.

I understood what gave birth to such lines of reasoning. One of his friends did something similar a few years ago. The guy first went to Dubai, one of the seven emirates of the Federation of United Arab Emirates before he traveled to the UK. He had told me about the guy at the beginning of our conversation. I wasn’t convinced. Why would you use another person’s journal to tell your own story?

Unless it is born out of necessity, traveling isn’t as juicy as you are made to believe by mere pictures you see on social networking. Living with your wife and kids can never be quantified with material accumulation. I am for traveling if the right opportunity comes, but traveling without thorough evaluations might be a dangerous adventure to begin with.

What fascinated me about my conversations with him was his honest answers to my questions about his decision to go to an Arab country. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and other Arab countries have been accused of human rights abuse. Unlike in Europe, there is minimal freedom for workers. But most of the people who go there to work were ignorant of reality until sunset at dawn.

I asked him about his daily income from the transport business, and he said he saves at least twenty thousand naira (N20,000) in a week after performing his financial obligations at home. That is N80,000 in a month after performing his family obligations. In a country like Nigeria, few people can boast of saving eighty thousand naira in a month. He doesn’t know that he’s earning much more than many people he sees and admires online. If you’re earning a moderate income, why go to an unknown land to start afresh?

Social media has made us live in a metaverse pall of lies. A man who has thousands of naira in his bank account is envious of his friend or a stranger whose only savings are clothes for the show of. The ones who would have loved to be living your lifestyle is the one you’re dying to be like.

To my surprise, I asked him if he knew how much his monthly take-home would be in his aspired abode. He said he knew. That got me worried! The reason is that simple arithmetic — pardon me, simple nursery math — is enough to discourage him from such a sojourn. By comparison, he’ll be earning handsomely better in his transport business with the freedom to do and undo than working in that country he’s going. I can’t monetarily quantify his closeness to his family.

He was adamant and I was flexible in my pieces of advice. While I did persuade him from embarking on the journey, I offered my moral and other support to him if he wished to go as it seemed he had made up his mind.

Lagos traffic is a burden most residents of Lagos State carried from the cradle to the grave. To these people, the hopes of Lagos roads free of heavy traffic never materialized. Many residents of Lagos sleep late and wake up early. Some workers go home only on weekends to avoid lateness to work. Workers who go home and leave far away from their places of work spend a few hours to sleep. Sleepwalking is commonplace in Lagos; passengers doze off inside commercial buses have been normalized.

Lagos has many problems, but bumper-to-bumper traffic is one of the many. A ten-minute drive could turn hours due to the traffic. The government is yet to provide a viable solution, but would tolling of Lagos Bus Rapid Transport, BRT, lanes reduce the bumper-to-bumper traffic?


BRT lane (image by Guardian Nigeria)
Tolling is a not a new thing in Lagos. Lekki-Ikoyi link bridge is one of the tolled roads in Lagos State. But how would the public react to the tolling of restricted roads like BRT lanes?

The Lagos BRT was established in 2008 as a Public Private Partnership to provide a credible transport system for the people of Lagos State. The buses carry hundreds of thousands of people daily. The lanes for the buses were specially created for the BRT off the roads. No commuter is allowed to ply the BRT roads or lanes. Even the First Person in Lagos State, governor Jide Sanwoolu never plies the roads.

Would applying market thinking to BRT lanes reduce traffic congestion during rush hours? The market has already established itself as the triumphalist in this era. Almost every aspect of human endeavor has entered the Market, market society has replaced the market economy. Most people may deny it, but every facet of human existence has been a subject of the market system. We have seen this played out in airports in Nigeria -just like in most countries, where first-class tickets are given priority over other tickets.

The former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, captures the burden of Lagos State traffic on its residents. Mallam El-Rufai said: “I don’t know how people in Lagos survive. Every day, four hours in traffic for five days…I don’t know if Saturdays and Sundays are enough for them to rest. That is why I feel that all those that have lived in Lagos for 20 years should just go straight to heaven because they have already lived in hell. Honestly, they have paid their dues so they should just be given a free pass”. Mallam El-Rufai was not sarcastic. He said what he saw.

Lagos traffic is merciless: day and night. The only hours these roads are free are midnights between 1 am and 4 am. Productive hours are spent in traffic; resting hours are spent on the roads. Although, Kizz Daniel was not referring to residents of Lagos when he said in his song ‘Buga’ that “wake up, no sleep”. It sums up the lives of many people in the state.

A mega-city like Lagos must desperately look for viable solutions to improve the urban transport system and reduce traffic congestion. Unlike advanced countries where mega-cities provide different transport systems, including subways and trains. A mega-city like Lagos in a developing country may not be able to afford subways. The Lagos State Government needs to be commended for the Blue Rail and Red Rail. It is one of many but more needs to be done.

This will allow commuters to buy their way out of the daily traffic and also generate revenue for the state government pulse. Traffic congestion can be reduced through the commercialization of BRT lanes. The daily selling of tickets to commuters for access to BRT lanes can be during rush hours in the early mornings and evenings for commuters to get to their places of work and home early.

The argument against the commercialization of BRT lanes would be that citizens should share the burden of traffic equally irrespective of their economic status and identity. Selling BRT lanes, critics will argue further to relegate the have-nots to the back of the lines. After all, public roads are for public use. The opponents of this idea will unleash their evidence against what they will consider unequal access to public roads as another way of empowering the affluent against the underprivileged.

They will further their opposition to this idea that those in positions of power would abuse it as they do daily on the roads. They will mention Politicians, soldiers and police officers among people who will abuse the idea. Ordinarily, affluent Nigerians with police escorts and politicians do not want to share the burden of traffic responsibility, they have no shame in public nuisance, they will say.

However, the supporters of commercialized lanes would say that selling rights to pass BRT lanes will generate more revenue to the state which may be used to provide public projects. To these supporters, this idea may not come to fruition in a couple of years to come, but it is a matter of when. The when, when BRT Lanes would be monetized for privileged and affluent individuals who have the money to bypass the burden of collective responsibilities.

On the other hand, these roads should be free for emergencies like accidents, life-threatening conditions and about-to-labour women. The lanes should be made available since these are life-threatening emergencies that warrant emergency. Trust Nigerians, some people will abuse it. No doubt!

Have you ever gifted your friend or loved one a book as a gift? When last did you include books as parts of the celebrant’s gifts? If not, you are not alone. Most people never consider books as worthy gifts to be presented to their loved ones. However, can friends start gifting books to their loved ones?

The rate of reading has tremendously reduced in our society. Ignorance is gaining more followers as manifested in comments on social media. Bookshops are closing down because of low patronage.

Reading liberates the mind and frees it from the shackles of ignorance. A reading mind is a living soul. Readers don’t age in sharpness of their intellect.

One of the ways to bring back reading culture and encourage reading is to include books as parts of birthday gift, wedding gifts, anniversary gifts and so on . Without uttering any words, a book as a gift is a message to the celebrant.

There’s no better way of awakening reading than encouraging reading. Maybe we should consider books as parts of the gifts we give our loved ones.

The ‘When We Read Campaign’ by Hilda Baci, the Guinness World Record Holder and Enioluwa, a social media influencer, to donate 5,000 books to Nigerian youths is a welcome development. Baci said “Reading enables a change in perspective. This is sometimes what is required to make an impact. The many opportunities ahead could become more effective by imbibing healthy reading habits.”

Why are politicians not interested in the gifting books campaign? During the last electioneering, one of the policies the People Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Umo Eno in Akwa Ibom, was to implement ‘Happy Hour’. The happy hour he said would be on every Friday between 5 pm and 6 pm when drinks are sold at subsidized prices in some designated bars or other such facilities in the state.

“Every Friday, I will have what I call happy hour for the state. And what do I want to do with happy hour? It’s simple. I want to create a business for people that have facilities. So, we declare that between 5 and 6, these are the bars that will sell drinks at a certain price,” he said.

Instead of donating and gifting books to the teeming youths in the state, the governor was planning to subsidize beer for the alcoholic section of the public.

How many friends gift their friends books as birthday gifts? How many? In fact, wine has become one of the popular birthday gifts people receive from their friends and loved ones.

You can start your Gift A Friend A Book Campaign. When next you are planning to visit a friend, go with a book. When your child is celebrating his or her birthday, include a book as part of the gifts.

There have been complaints about the dearth of reading among the youths. It is a global malaise, but how do we make reading habit-formation for kids who are innocent in this age of declining reading habits?

In this age of social media, most youths spend more time on social media than they do learning. But innocent kids who are yet to be connected online can be connected to the habits of reading and learning. Reading more will enlarge their vocabulary and increase their comprehension skills.

But how can parents encourage their kids to read more books? Can we use incentives to awaken their interest in reading?

In Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, A Feminist Manifesto In Fifteen Suggestion, written as a letter to her friend on how to empower her daughter, she argues that the best way to teach your child to read is by you as a parent to let your child see you reading. As she puts it: “Teach Chizalum to read. Teach her to love books. The best way is by casual example. If she sees you reading, she will understand that reading is valuable.”

Be the role model for your kids to emulate.

What if parents pay their kids for every book they read? Or you tell them that for every book they read, you will take them to a supermarket for shopping. By using this incentive, can we motivate them to develop a lifelong interest in reading?

Some will argue that the incentives will increase their appetite to read more books without accumulating knowledge because their minds will be at the incentive much more than they will be in learning. Their argument might be that once the incentive stops, the push in reading after the incentives are no more may not be there again. As such, reading becomes boring. They opine that reading should be what we do without any material attachment.

Others might disagree that we can use incentives to awaken their interest in reading and become voracious readers along the way. They will argue that by paying them to read, we are teaching them that reading has value. They opine that if paying them will motivate them to be a voracious reader, why not give it a try? After all, there’s nothing wrong with experimentation.

Chimamanda also didn’t close the door to the money-motivation scheme of paying kids to read. She says, “if all else fails, pay her to read. Reward her.”

When I was around the age of 15, my friends and I usually placed a bet on vocabulary pronunciation and writing. One person would say or pronounce a word he wanted us to write, and anyone who got it right won the bet. But did we learn anything impactful from such an exercise? I do not know! But what I know is that it led us to be interested in searching for vocabulary – nothing more, nothing else.

We didn’t care about the meaning of the word as much as we do for its difficult pronunciation so that our friends would not be able to get its writing. A few days after, we forgot everything about those vocabularies. We were not doing it for learning. We were after winning the bet. So the reason for our vocabulary research was not for the accumulation of knowledge but for financial gain.

One of my friends told me that he started paying her four-year-old daughter for every children book she read. He said after a year, he stopped paying her, but her daughter never stopped asking for more books. Although we disagreed on the modus operandi.

However, in our society today, the dilemma is moral bankruptcy. Most people do not know where corruption begins and ends. This is one of the reasons some people see paying kids to read as a corrupt practice that will erode the ethics of learning. They see it as a bribe to action.

Parents who pay their kids for books they read did so with pure intentions to get their kids to develop interests in reading and learning. But the problem is that the intention may be good, but the action might be corrupted.