₦airaland Forum

As a young Nigerian, you may be familiar with the concept of "black tax" - the financial responsibility to take care of your immediate and extended family members. This concept has been around for generations and is still widely practiced today. It can be a difficult burden to bear, especially for young people who are still trying to establish themselves financially.
Periodic Billing from family members. How do you cope?

It's important to remember that financial stability is a journey, not a destination. While it may be challenging to navigate black tax as a young Nigerian, it's important to stay focused on your long-term financial goals, communicate openly with your family and community, and practice good financial habits.

essentialone:
As a young Nigerian, you may be familiar with the concept of "black tax" - the financial responsibility to take care of your immediate and extended family members. This concept has been around for generations and is still widely practiced today. It can be a difficult burden to bear, especially for young people who are still trying to establish themselves financially.
Periodic Billing from family members. How do you cope?

so you want us to know u just listened to apostle Femi Lazarus.

Iseoluwani:
so you want us to know u just listened to apostle Femi Lazarus.

are you too from Galilee?

essentialone:
are you too from Galilee?

yes

essentialone:
As a young Nigerian, you may be familiar with the concept of "black tax" - the financial responsibility to take care of your immediate and extended family members. This concept has been around for generations and is still widely practiced today. It can be a difficult burden to bear, especially for young people who are still trying to establish themselves financially.
Periodic Billing from family members. How do you cope?

you are just stingy. there is nothing like black tax.

abba190:
you are just stingy. there is nothing like black tax.

it has nothing to do with being stingy.
,
Too much of everything is bad.
When such requests becomes persistent, consistent, and frequent, it becomes a black tax.

abba190:
u should thank god for choosing u among ur family members. keep helping them and god will continue to help you.
here is my opay in case u wanna show me some love

Why

5ThChild:
Why

Ask am well

It is only a poor man. someone coming from a poor home who, just because he is now somehow economically stable, or maybe a Yahoo boy that just got money, will walk into a restaurant, order a portion of food he cannot finish, and walk away leaving almost half, sometimes 80% or even 90% of the food on the table in the name of “big boy.”

Those attitudes, you don’t see them in truly rich men. It is always someone from a poor background trying to prove one point or the other.

Now, from my personal experience, something happened yesterday.

In fact, I had two separate experiences with two different individuals in a public restaurant a fancy one, as you may call it.

But before I get into that, let me explain something to you.

The wastefulness you see on the streets is mostly among those who do not have.

When you see people who look like they have money wasting food, most times they are poor people who just arrived.

If you go to a rich man’s house, before they make food for you, they try as much as possible to know the portion you can finish because they don’t want waste.

That is why you will hear a poor man leave that house and say the rich man is stingy.

If they don’t ask you, they will serve a small portion first, and when you finish, they will ask if you want more.

If you do, they will make another portion for you. Because when you waste food in their house, it triggers them they get very angry.

But poor people will tag them as stingy.

Let me come back. Before I share yesterday’s experience, let me say this.

the last time I spoke about something like this, some Yahoo boys came to my comment section to say all sorts of rubbish because they are mostly involved in this kind of behavior.

So last week, while we were playing snooker, a guy walked in, ordered food white rice and stew with enough meat. This guy picked out only the meat, didn’t eat up to 10 spoons of the rice, dropped the plate, and went back to smoking and drinking.

He’s someone I know, so I asked, “Oga, the food no sweet?”
He said, “The food sweet.”

I told him, “Omo, you no really wan chop. You just dey form.”

I didn’t say much after that. I just folded my arms and watched him. Even the lady who served the food came for feedback, and he told her the food was fine.

Someone beside me tapped me and said, “Leave am, na so he dey do. Most times he will just order food, pick the meat, and leave the rest.”

And I kept asking myself this place serves food by portion.

Why not ask for a smaller portion and buy extra meat if that’s what you really want?

I kept quiet.

Then on Sunday (yesterday), I went out with my sisters and my wife. My wife and I arrived first before my sisters joined us. We saw a young guy eating, and I tapped my wife and said, “Are you seeing this?”

He finished eating, but half of the chicken was still on the plate, the rice was halfway, and even the Sprite he ordered was half untouched. The girlfriend he came with wanted to pack the food, but he refused.

In fact, they were making videos with the leftover food on their table.

I believe they wanted to post it to show other fellow poor men and Yahoo boys that this is their lifestyle. Like, “we don’t finish chicken… chicken is nothing to us.”

That is the mentality.

And if you ask me how I know they are poor, I’m also coming from a poor background. You can always tell.

You know a rich kid when you see one they are quiet, calm, and humble. When they go to a restaurant, they don’t chase extravagance.

They order what they need, eat, and leave. Except it’s a special day, they don’t overdo. They don’t have any point to prove. This is a life they’ve been used to from childhood.

But some poor men many of them never even had access to certain things growing up.

Some of their families may not even eat chicken regularly, maybe not even during Easter. So now, they want to prove a point to other poor people by ordering more than they can finish and leaving the rest.

While we were still there, a man drove in with an SUV worth over 15 million naira. You could tell this is someone who has been in wealth for a long time. From head to toe, you could see class.

He came in and ordered food. You could even see hunger on his face. He ordered two portions.

This man ate everything finished his plate, finished his drink, used his serviette properly, and even cleaned the chicken down to the bone. If not for where we were sitting, he might have even cracked the bone.

Less than three minutes after finishing, he was already on an international call, speaking fluently with Westerners.

And I just sat there, folded my arms, and asked myself what is really wrong with some of our people?

This is a man who has maintained wealth for a long time, yet he values what he has.

Now, let me say this clearly Yahoo has caused more damage to society than good.

The level of drug abuse you see today—many of them are involved. Out of every 10 you see, about 8 are into drugs pills, cannabis, and all sorts of substances.

In fact, in many places where they learn this Yahoo, one of the conditions is that you must smoke. If you don’t smoke, they will introduce you to it.

So when you see wastefulness, my brother, look deeper it’s not wealth, it’s a mindset problem.

Let’s stop glorifying waste. Being a “big boy” is not about how much food you leave on the table it’s about discipline, value, and character.