₦airaland Forum

meine:
How will you ensure that the hired uniformed security or private security won't conspire to kidnap you?. Haven't you heard of soldiers and policemen teaming up with kidnappers to operate?

These private securities are not the solution, poverty needs to go down drastically for crime to go down.

Poverty is not the cause. It is greed and pure wickedness. And this sense of entitlement Nigerians always have. That once you're doing well, it automatically becomes your responsibility to take care of them, and that they also have a right to enjoy your money.

Evans the kidnapper had accumulated millions of dollars from kidnapping yet he never stopped.
Hushpuppi was not poor yet he still continued engaging in fraud.
Our senators and politicians are not poor yet they still loot.
We've seen bank managers engage in fraud and even assist in kidnapping people.

One way to minimize this risk of kidnapping is not to showoff and keep a low profile if where you live isn't that secure. A businessman I know who lives and does business in one of the small, least important, poorest states in the south west. He can boast about being in the top 1% of earners in his state and among the top 3% in Lagos. But he still drives an old, small Toyota corolla and lives in a rented apartment with other tenants. When he wants to enjoy his money, he tells his neighbors he's going to the village. From there he flies to his mansion and cars on Lagos Island. At least, it's much safer there. When he's done, he'll wear one squeezed, tattered shirt and one dirty bag, enter uber to the airport and off he goes to his state.

If you see him at home in his state, you can't think of kidnapping him. Instead, you'll be feeling pity for him.

Donbrig:
Very sad situation in Edo state, the late commissioner was well loved by all, we gonna miss him. Once you attain some certain level of affluence in the society, never ever joke with your security, you could employ some good and well licensed mobile police men or build your own private security outfits.

In Nigeria today, once you become rich or successful, the masses will indirectly see you as the cause of their misery and tag you enemy of the people, with so much hate and disgust, it doesn't really matter if you are a politician or a business man. Watch your back always and be cautious of your movements all the time.

Investing in your own security outfits to keep you alive in a rugged and dangerous environment like ours today is also a wise investment.

As in... People are wicked.

This fear of kidnapping has made me become the sole financial officer of my company. I had a CFO and accountants before. I noticed that when they see how much revenue the company is making, they'll be grumbling and murmuring among themselves. As if I will swallow the whole revenue for myself, as if I won't buy raw materials and pay salaries from it, forgetting that my profit from the revenue is less than 10%.

So I had to let most of them go. The few I have left handle only handle basic day to day transactional accounting which involves relatively smaller sums, so as not to trigger their greed. When it's time to compile accounts for the week or month which will involve larger sums, I do that one alone. For more complex accounting (since I'm not an accountant by training), I outsource to accounting firms in far away cities.

Before the accountants with their grumbling go and inform the rest of the staff of the revenue we are making (without mentioning that my profit is less than 10%), and then they come together and plot to kidnap me.

As it stands now, the Indian managing director and I are the only ones with a full picture of the finances of the company.

DexterousOne:
I think I got a lil fond of the country

You know
There are many beer brands
And each one of us have favourite

It's the same for the citizenship by investment thing

There are a couple of them
And we all have our favourite.

And yea
Some of them have reduced the money small sha

It's for one to keep working hard and accumulating the money... once the time is set, our expat life then begins.

That citizenship by investment thing is something that one who seeks international footprint should look into (and if you can afford it o)

There is a country I was told I could get their citizenship with $20 grand plus one year of residency there
But I dont like the place like that...

But some rich folks from Nigeria are going there to settle too.
Like me, many of them are fed up with the madness

Ok.
Please, what country is that? If the requirements make sense, I might consider it.

I'm not getting the passport to relocate though. It's just to make travelling easier. So I can wake up anyday and decide to travel anywhere same day, all I need to do is get an airline ticket. I've missed opportunities in the past just because I had to spend weeks applying for visas. And to avoid the maltreatment experienced by holders of the Nigerian Passport at foreign airports.

My family and I are staying put in Nigeria. Opportunities abound in this country. For me, abroad is for vacation and higher education, and anyone who goes to study abroad has to come back home to contribute the knowledge he or she got abroad to the family business. I see so much potential down here.

Take a look at this topic that made front page few days.

https://www.nairaland.com/6021726/juju-scare-should-quit-job

Like what we were discussing the other time.

Salary: 35K per month
Daily Allowance: 2K daily (40k- 48k per month)
Yet, he's stealing 50-60K weekly (200-240k per month) from his employer, and he said he's not the only one. Imagine they are up to 4 or 5 engaged in this act. The business is loosing N1M to theft monthly.

And the owner will be thinking buhari or village people are the reason her business isn't doing well, not knowing its the witches and wizards that she employed.

Nigerians are wicked. If this business fails now, you'll see the theives shouting "No job, No job". When they've killed all the businesses that were supposed to create jobs.

Another surprising thing is that such theft has even been normalized in the society. He said it so proudly, without a single iota of shame, and apart from one or two people, the majority of those commenting didn't even say anything about the theft. They're telling him to pray, and even him after stealing is still claiming to be a Christian. Another irony is how Nigerians can be so religious yet so wicked, evil and fraudulent.

Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria.
The reason most Nigerians haven't stolen billions of government money is simply lack of opportunity.
The population of Nigerians waiting to steal is greater than the population of those currently stealing.
The only reason Nigerians are angry at corruption by politicians, is because they're not the one benefiting from it.

It shall never be well with that OP. Hopefully, that his leg injury will turn into cancer and kill him. Bastard.

DexterousOne:
Tho like I said before
I get to travel from time to time
But I am still principally based in Nigeria

One thing I promised myself is NOT to be an illegal immigrant anywhere
So overstating a Visa is out of it

I'll rather do things the proper way.
I started out with Express entry but University Of Lagos is still yet to sort out my transcripts (testament of the uselessness of Nigeria) two years running

So I don lose interest in that one
Was looking forward to processing the UAE 2 year residency visa option
Its something I can readily afford
But then
Some delay and them covid has removed my mind from that side for now


I am also looking towards picking one of those citizenship by investment passports in the Caribbean
Afterall most caribbean countries are black majority countries, and if I am holding the passport, or staying there, I wont look out of place, cos I am in a black majority country
That's the opposite of a black man holding a Chinese passport (if that is even possible)
That will shock anyone

But the wahala is that the citizenship by investment is quite pricey
And naira devaluation is not helping matters either

There residency by investment, then waiting it out for sometime before getting the passport is also on the table and is kinda cheaper
But I dont have much time for that lol.....

And no
I dont take offence
I'm not the typical Nigerian who is hiding his affairs because he is scared of his shadow
I discuss my affairs freely with no fear whatsoever

I'm also planning to get this Caribbean citizenship by investment. Was planning to do it this year but covid19 and naira devaluation will push it further.

Why did you go for St. Kitts? I'm going for St. Lucia. It's cheaper at $100,000 and still offers access to most of the important countries (UK, Switzerland, EU, Singapore, HK etc)

Grenada seems to be a better option to spend $150,000 on rather than St Kitts. It offers access to UAE and China in addition to UK, Schengen zone, and the rest.

Hopefully, these Caribbean countries will reduce the cost of their citizenship programs to get more applicants and revenue to cushion the economic effects of this pandemic. Some have already started offering covid19 bonds for citizenship.

Remember the discussion we had here the other day about how the fraudulent and corrupt mindset of Nigerians ends up killing businesses that are supposed to create jobs and improve the economy.



Copied this from Twitter.
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So I am doing a Strategy course and I want to tell a story about how Enviroments impact Strategy. When Uber came to Nigeria, they had a world class strategy. There was one flaw in their Strategy, it only worked "Ceteris Paribus" Unfortunately Nigerians are not normal.

So one of the strategies was to encourage New riders/Drivers to Sign up. Lets start with the riders. Whenever a new person signed up on Uber they gave a promo code. Typically this was between 1000, and 3000 naira. Sounds good right?

Nigerians, started multiple signups. So if I (hypotethical I please) wanted to go out, I would create a new account. Ride free. When I get there, I would create another and ride back. Also free.

Uber tried their best to mitigate this fraud, tried to limit it phone numbers. But like Oga Pantami said each one of us has 4 lines, even if you don’t. New sim 200. Free ride 2000. Net profit 1800. So they started locking phones to 3 acccounts per phone.

That was the riders o. Now to the drivers. First there was the signup bonus. Basically everytime you introduced someone to driving on Uber, Uber paid you 40,000 naira. I am not going to lie this was part of my motivation. I made money.

Tap your neighbour and say Nigerians. Oya sanitize your hand let’s continue.

So first and foremost there was the issue where people would sign up and not drive. When you get the money you share them. Uber now said no problem. They would only pay after 20 trips.

People would register, drive the Trips, collect the Bonus and Stop Driving. You also know In Nigeria we had the fleet Option, so I would hire a driver, register him and on every driver, make 40k. All in all stress for Uber.

Final Strategy for today, I am tired. Incentives. Part of the plan was to undercut local taxis, so in Abuja an Airport to Town trip was between 4-5k. Its been like that for years, Uber came and said we will carry this route for 3500.

So to encourage Drivers, Uber now said okay. Please go, if you go rider will pay you 3500, we will then give you a matching bonus of 3500 making the Trip 7000.

Beloved, eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither had it entered the heart of Uber the kind of Fraud that happened next. Now you remember the earlier rider fraud? So a Driver, creates a new Rider = +2000 Requests himself to the airport, Cash trip, 3500 = -1500 paid =7000 Round Trip = 14000. An enterprising Fraudster can do 10 Roundtrips to the Airport in a day. That's 140,000. Without picking a single person. How much do you earn? Fink About it

Uber tried everything. Geofencing the Airport. Not allowing people request from the same spot, everything. They had to remove the incentives. Essentially what I am saying is Nigerians are special, factor that . Till another episode of 'Tales from Uber' Grace to you.

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Copied from Twitter.

XiaoLi:
Increasing poverty is making Nigerians more corrupt, it is a proven fact that people are nicer and happier when they are comfortable, a brother that i have really helped had to dupe me of 30k in getting a cook when i wanted to visit Nigeria, cook charged 70k but he billed me 100k..this is what financial insecurity can cause..many Nigerians living in Nigeria are like this

A their will always steal, whether he's paid 20k a month or 1 billion a month. If "financial security", politicians and senators that earn hundreds of millions will not be stealing, bank managers will not be stealing. Just look at hushpuppy, after amassing so much wealth that can make him and his future generations financially secure, he still chose to steal more.

A thief will always be a thief no matter how much he's paid

9jatriot:
Really, we don't want to quarrel with you, what we just want to know is how to handle the HR and people problem as it relates to business. Just give us a blueprint of what works for you or perhaps practical suggestions.
We can start with the example of the guy that says the staff were stealing eggs and killing the chicken in his farm, what could he have done differently for example, that is what I am particularly interested in.

Yes, practical examples. Especially when you have poultry farms in different locations and you can't be everywhere at the same time. How does one handle such?

DexterousOne:
Healthcare and education is also subsidized in most of Europe


Tertiary education in germany for example is free for international students in germany (well most of the programs)

How do you think it will be for the local students


For France

The annual school fees in the uni is about €300 for public unis
That's applicable to foreigners too.


UK has NHS
Even tho tuition fees na die

It's the USA (another agbaya country) that has a wack health care system and a crininal tertiary education system


Just setting the records straight sha

Let's also mention the high taxes charged in those countries which fund those free public services. How many Nigerians pay taxes? The few that pay, what percentage do they pay?

Anyone can shout "Nigerians pay tax" sha, but statistics don't lie.

Nigeria has one of the lowest tax-to-gdp ratios in the world at 4-5%, France is at 48%, Germany is 44.5%. Even our neighbors with similar socioeconomic demographics collect more, Benin is at 15.4%, Cameroon is at 18.2%, Ghana is at 20%, Togo is 15.5%.

VAT in Nigeria is one of the lowest in the world, it has been 5%, only recently went up to 7.5% for some goods. VAT in UK and France are 20%. VAT is 12.5% in Ghana, 19.25% in Cameroon, 19% in Niger, 18% in Benin, 18% in Chad.

GonFreecss1:
Exactly this! This is analogy mirrors my philosophy.

An average Nigerian issa thief! Let us not lie. That is why many businesses die. You can’t even leave someone to run your business for you. They will embezzle your money.

Instead of Nigerians to admit to our own selfishness and try to change. We are still here.

I can relate very well with your second paragraph.

I run a manufacturing business and a trading business.
The biggest challenge in my manufacturing business is not power, or infrastructure, the biggest challenge is getting honest staff. Everyone we hire is appears to be on a mission to steal as much as possible. Inflated invoices, recording less than the actual number of units produced. The worst part of it all is that all the fraud we've uncovered is not done by a single person, it's usually many staff who collude with each other, from production, to sales, to finance, even top management. There was a year I overhauled management 3 times in a year. But I've found a solution sha, I now use Indian management. So competent, so honest and so straightforward. I thought they were expensive at first with all the visa fees, accommodation, house staff, but now that losses due to staff theft have been reduced to a minimum, and efficiency increased, the Indian management has turned out to be cheaper than the previous Nigerian management. Now, all sensitive positions involving money go to Indians. Nigerians are only allowed in non-sensitive positions. I used to criticize companies like Dangote Group that hire so many Indians when there are many unemployed Nigerians, but now, I understand their decision.

My biggest challenge in the trading business is the same, getting honest staff. The form of trading occurs in the open market, and involves staff having access to huge sums of money running into a few millions. I know how much I pay to security companies to provide escorts for the staff, not to prevent robbery, but to ensure that the staff go straight to the bank to deposit the money after the day's sales and not disappear with my money. This money spent on security companies is even enough to be declared as profit. We have to spend on CCTV, biometric scanners and other things that wouldn't not be needed if staff weren't looking for the slightest opportunity to steal.

It got so bad at a point that my main criteria for employing staff was no longer conpaetency but honesty. At least, competency and skills can be learnt, but once you're dishonest, you're dishonest.

We always complain of the economy and how they are no jobs. I know people abroad who would have loved to set up job creating businesses in Nigeria but they can't because they can't get any trustworthy person to run it.

I know people in Nigeria with so much money, they want to start factories and other job-creating businesses but they can't because they are occupied elsewhere and can't get any trustworthy person to run the business. So instead of investing in the real sector and creating jobs, they'll just buy treasury bills, while the thieves are shouting no jobs.

Many big businesses would have been born in Nigeria if we could engage in partnerships, but we cant because you can't trust anyone. This is one advantage the Indians and Lebanese have over us in Nigeria. They can pull resources together and do mega-business, unlike Nigerians that because only one person must do everything since we can't partner, end up with small, tiny businesses.

Start a poultry and they will be stealing your eggs. Some will even go
ahead to be killing the chickens so that they'll be allowed to take them home.

Start an entertainment/viewing/game center and they'll be pocketing
your money. On the days you're around at the business, the money
realized will be x10 of the money realized when you're not around.
Because they're eating your money.

Lease out a vehicle to a driver to use and watch as he'll finish you.

Start a restaurant, the same thing will happen. More than half of the
total food ingredients will end up in their personal kitchens.

Even ordinary provisions shop, they will find a way to steal.

You'll see them with that their evil, wicked saying "na where person dey work, na there e dey chop, na e make dem dey callam workchop/workshop"...... Just imagine, justifying theft at work.

And you'll see these people point their crooked fingers at politicians when they're not any different. I usually say the reason most Nigerians haven't stolen billions of government money, is simply lack of opportunity.

Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria.

GonFreecss1:
Nigeria vexes me a lot, but I had the privilege of going to a federal secondary school and university at very affordable rates. Paid 10K for school fees in Unilag. Affordable hospital bills too.

Are these systems perfect? No! They are not, but these systems are here because of the sacrifices of some in the past. Instead of my mates to pay it forward, all we do is conveniently complain via social media about how horrible the country is. Even those who got scholarships to the overseas via those schools above. They didn’t pay anything forward. Did nothing. Just yap, yap and more yappity yap.

If a father and mother don’t provide enough, shouldn’t the kids help by doing chores? Cooking etc or at least it helping with parents business?

Nigerians bask themselves in Negativity and excuses and expect miracles. Imagine many of we young peeps growing up to age 50 and still complaining about how bad the country is. Meanwhile, we would have forgotten that it is us that were ruling, and had 20 years to play a our part we never did play. A cycle of Negativity and e go better.

You're 100% right

Till today, I still appreciate that Nigeria gave me the opportunity to attend medical school with less than $100, without taxing me to death or putting me neck deep into student debt like other countries. Even though I no longer practice, I always find time every month to donate my medical skills to the society as a way to give back to the nation, because if I was made to pay the true value of that MBBS degree, I wouldn't have been able to.

I've worked in government hospitals where people pay 10K for caeserian sections, and yet will say Nigeria has done nothing for them, ceasarian section that if I'm to do, only the cost price without my "workmanship" will cost near 100k. My fellow doctors who got MBBS at less than $100 will go to UK or Canada, be doing better financially than the indigenous doctors there, and be insulting Nigeria, thinking its their prudence that put them in better financial standing than their counterparts from other countries, not knowing that it's because those doctors are still busy paying back hefty student loans for the same degree Nigeria gave them for next to nothing.

The fact remains that there is no problem with the land called Nigeria, there is no problem with River Niger or Zuma Rock. The problem of Nigeria is the citizens, nigerians. Those leaders we insult are also from amongst the citizens, the SARS that abuse their power are also from amongst the citizens. They didn't come from another planet, they are our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and neighbors.

If you take all Nigerians to Dubai and bring everyone from Dubai to Nigeria, in less than 4 years, Nigeria will turn to Dubai and in a few months, Dubai will turn to Nigeria. Before you know it, the Nigerians in Dubai will be begging for visa back to Nigeria. That should tell you something about the kind of people we are.

GonFreecss1:
Nope. Wrong statement.

It is meant to be “instead of people to contribute their own quota to help, they are busy complaining”.

I am tired of all this negativity about Nigeria. What do Nigerians actually do for the Nigeria they complain about?

Also, that things are bad doesn’t mean people shouldn’t promote or talk about the good things.

You're right

Constructive criticism is good, but what we see with some so-called nigerians and Nigeria isn't criticism but pure, undiluted hatred and bitterness.

emmanuelewumi:
Blacks have less than 20% of South African wealth. Blacks are not in charge of the economy, commerce, finance, business and Investments in South Africa.

Nothing tangible about Rwanda.


Ogun State and Rwanda have about the same GDP

I'm always surprised at how Nigerians love to hype this Rwanda. It's
even an insult to compare Ogun State to Rwanda. Ogun State's GDP
per capita is over thrice that of Rwanda ($770). Even Yobe, Zamfara and the worst states in Nigeria have higher per capita GDP than Rwanda. Rwanda just invests in good PR, showing off the few good parts of the country, unlike we Nigerians that love to wash our dirty linen in public. The only manageable city they have is Kigali, so they concentrate all the nation's development in that one city, unlike Nigeria that spreads development across 36 state capitals, the FCT and so many other secondary cities in these states. And yet as small as the Kigali is, it can hardly compete with several state capitals in Nigeria. Outside Kigali, you hardly even see tarred roads in that country. Yes, they are progressing, but they are still far behind Nigeria and so many other African countries.

Nigeria is strongly lacking in PR. Yes, we have bad parts, but we also have good parts too. Other countries have good and bad parts too, but those countries will hide their bad parts and show off the good parts, but we in Nigerians will bring out our dirty linen to wash in the market square, and then act surprised when other countries disrespect and insult us. A friend of mine once took pictures at an oasis in the desert. Crystal blue waters, surrounded and palm trees and desert sand dunes with camels. When I saw it, I thought it was Dubai or somewhere in the Middle East, only for him to tell me it was in Yobe State. I was shocked to the bone. He told me the name of the place and I did a Google Search and surprisingly, I couldn't even get good pictures of the places, just less than 5 low quality pictures. We won't show-off such beautiful places, but if I did a Google Search about potholes or any other bad thing in the state, I will see thousands of HD images and 4K quality videos.

Please, does anyone have info or link to info about an estimate of the total amount of garri produced/consumed annually in Nigeria? Trying to do some market research for a planned venture

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The University has an Art Museum on campus. It's the Shyllon Art Museum.

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School cafeteria

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