The past two weeks have been very challenging for Nigerians, not the least entrepreneurs. Whether you?re just thinking of starting a business, or you?ve launched one and are still grappling with growing it or you have one that is up and running smoothly, everyone of us is affected.
And you must have asked yourself this inevitable question: What does the rest of this year have in store for me with a beginning like this?
The way you answer that important question will determine your final outcome at the end of the year.
Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, taught me how to answer that question correctly years ago. One of the many famous aphorisms in his book says: ?Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.?
That maxim taught me that when events that we consider negative or unfavourable occur in our lives, they often lead us to better opportunities. Such opportunities, however, are not always apparent at the time we are reeling from the impact of the unexpected setback.
And what has happened to majority of Nigerians from the breaking of the dawn of the first day in the New Year is nothing short of a rude shock that left unsavoury taste in the mouth.
All of a sudden, despite all your careful plans and frugality in the month of December to conserve your money, so that you won?t be broke before the next pay is due in January, you found yourself out of pocket within days into the New Year.
It was a bitter pill to swallow. And I?m not surprised about the spontaneous angry response of the population to the oil subsidy removal policy. Unlike many who have argued that the timing was not right, I doubt if there will ever be a right time for the kind of massive hike that was imposed on the pump price of fuel on January 1.
The answer, in my opinion, is a well-articulated and well-publicized phased removal. That oil subsidy must be removed, in view of the widespread abuse that has bedevilled its retention, should no longer be an issue for debate.
But rather than remove it at once, we should set a time-table for its removal. We could set a target of one year for its total removal and take away a certain percentage from it every quarter until we do away with it altogether.
The advantage of this approach is that the government will be able to deploy the palliative measures it has in place to cushion the effect of the subsidy withdrawal while the populace will also get use to the free lunch they will no longer have.
However the matter is resolved, the sudden withdrawal of the oil subsidy has given Nigerians the opportunity of knowing a lot more about what is going on in their country. That is one of the great benefits of government?s good-intentioned policy that went sour.
For me as an individual, I had a rare privilege of seeing, up close, people that I?ve long suspected their patriotic zeal to be fake and self-serving.
I watched with disbelief and horror how every kettle in the land was calling the pot black.
We all came out into the open in large numbers: failed politicians, failed pastors, failed lawyers, toll gate billionaires, failed fathers, failed mothers, dubious entrepreneurs, indolent youths, those whose silence was only golden because their hands were soiled, hired writers masquerading as journalists, compromised and outrightly biased news media, the any government in power crowd, befuddled government appointees, arm chair critics, fence sitters, those without a clue about what all the noise was about, civil society campaigners whose books stink to high heaven, profiteering market women et al.
We were all out there, grand-standing, pontificating either in public or in privacy. What a spectacle we made for the rest of the world! I wish we had thought of charging just one US dollar per person to take a peep at us. We probably would?ve been able to balance our books from the proceeds. That?s just a thought from one whose mind is always thinking entrepreneurially.
Here is something for all of us to consider. Let us just imagine for a moment that the Governor of Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was right when he said by 2015 Nigeria might be broke if we continue to plough through our national purse and blowing away our money like a drunken sailor the way we are doing now.
What would you and I do at that time? Plainly it will be too late by then. And I?ll never ride in the same vehicle with those who tell me that we should get there first before we know what to do. I?d rather do something about it now if I can than wait to discover the horror that lies ahead.
All of a sudden, everyone is clamouring for corrupt Nigerians who are stealing our money to be brought to book. How sincere are we to see that happen? I?m not persuaded that we are ready for that. If we were, we would never have allowed the only Nigerian in recent history to stand against corruption and put his life on the line to be disgraced out of office the way Nuhu Ribadu was.
Who in his right mind, seeing such example, would want to step up to the plate and tackle the job as Nuhu did? Someone would tell me that he was fighting someone?s agenda. And that leads me to ask the question: Is there any system that will produce a consensus corrupt Nigerian fit for prosecution?
I doubt it. We shall always have divergent opinions about why it was a particular individual that was picked up for prosecution and not another one that we suspected of committing the same crime.
So if we are truly committed to cleaning the Augean stables, then we must agree that the only criteria we require to prosecute a corrupt Nigerian is the evidence that he committed the crime and not whether he?s the only one that had committed it.
I mean, why don?t we demand that all armed robbers operating in the country be rounded up first before the ones we already jailed faced the law?
Still talking about cleaning the Augean stables, I really liked the way our House of Representative members hurried back to Abuja to wade into the Oil Subsidy Removal palaver. It was a courageous and commendable move.
But what I find puzzling is that why hasn?t the same Reps find it expedient to work on the Petroleum Industry Bill [PIB] that has been touted as the mantra that will guarantee that there is transparency in the oil sector?
And why couldn?t the National Assembly repeal such outdated laws that make it illegal for a state to generate and distribute electricity if it has the means to do? Nigerians, don?t let us kid ourselves, we really have a lot of problem on our hands.
I go back to the question: What does the rest of the year have in store for you? Perhaps I should tell you what it has in store for me.
First, I know that this year will end well for me. How did I know? The Word of GOD says so. It says in Ecclesiastes 7:8 ?Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.?
That Word stands sure. I believe it. It?s my expectation. And, according to Proverbs 23:18 my expectation shall not be cut off. Proverbs 24:14 also confirms it: ?So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.?
So what about you?
I know there is a huge opportunity lying somewhere from what has happened in the last two weeks. I?m already digging for that golden gem. It?s buried deep somewhere. Soon I will find it.
I hope you?ll do the same. Be diligent in your search. There is a reward waiting for you. It?s well with you!
