One day I was having a
conversation with a very successful business man in Nigeria and he asked me if
I had ever ventured into a personal business before. I told him I had and that
was in 2005 when I ran a café centre in Lagos. He asked to know how much I
started the business with, how much I made at the end of every year and why the
business folded.
In 2004, I got a loan from my
dad to run a café centre in Lagos. My dad was able to give me 1.5million Naira
which I started the business with. I had two staff members in my pay role and
paid them ₦50,000
each every month. It was an exciting time in my life, seeing little me set up a
business which was fast rising and became a household name around the place.
The café attracted all manner of people ranging from the working class who had
one delivery or the other, to retired
people who just wanted to surf the net on latest happenings around the world
and some times, reply mails from their children or loved ones. The café also
had the “street boys” who came to their own business, students who came to
apply for admission and a host of others. The café was really booming and on
daily basis I made close to ten to fifteen thousand Naira depending on the turn
out for that day. Just when business was hitting its peak, rivals struck! New
entrants into the business decided to maneuver by tipping the men in black to
raid my café in the name of arresting internet fraudsters. They did this
repeatedly for a month and before I realized the tactics, I lost my customers.
People stopped coming to my café in order not to get embarrassed by the cops
and so gradually that business died.
After
narrating this story to the man, he asked what I learnt from that experience
and after sharing, he shook his head and said “you are to blame for your
current level in life. Do you know you would have been multi-millionaire if you
had continued in that business?” he asked. For some seconds I felt this man
didn’t pay attention to my story. How would I have stopped the police from
storming my café? How would I have known it was the hand work of my rivals? Why
would I have even bothered? I mean I was just a very little kid trying out some
new things. For me, it was not a do or die affair and I already was impressed
with my achievement. So why would I even bother? I thought to myself. “Many of
us do not know our rights, many of us die in silence and are quick to blame the
government or the next person for anything that happens rather than ourselves”
he said. “In Nigeria, when we take decisions we look down rather than look up”
he added. The fear to take the bull by the horn, the fear to step out of our
comfort zones, the fear of the unknown.
Most
times, these bankers should be blamed for their predicaments. Why would you
want to remain in a place that deprives you of your happiness and life? A place
that makes you feel less than who you really are? I am not advising all bankers
to resign; someone needs to do the work but all I am saying is that your life
is yours to live and nothing whatsoever should deprive you of that. Many times
bankers are sacked from their jobs and in only 6-12 months we see them and wonder
at how well they are doing. Why wait till you are asked to go? Why don’t you
start thinking and working on other options so you can always have something to
fall back on when push comes to shove?
You
bankers out there, you have a right to fair treatment at your work place, no
one and I repeat no one has the right to live your life. You should make your
voice heard, speak! When you are maltreated at your work place. You are
supposed to be a professional, you are supposed to be seen and envied and not pitied.
The Nigerian labor law has your back, the social media is there to make your
voice heard! And if you apply all these media and you don’t get the desired
result, quit your job! It is not the end of life.
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