Onumba.com —— Some will beg to differ, but differ all you want, there’s no denying that Nigeria is awash with an avalanche of business opportunities. Never mind the depressing bugbear narrative being shoved down our throats by those favoring the Jakpa craze. Please ignore them. They are the cheerleaders for the ‘West is the Best’ cabal uninterested in helping to lift up the floundering country. Yet they stand ready to skedaddle back quicker than you can say ‘I 
will go only when things get better.’ Well, I’ll be damned. Who on God’s round earth is going to make them better if we all detach ourselves from the onerous task of nation building?
But that aside, should social and economic problems in Nigeria deter Diasporan investments in the first place?
Well, there’s a school of thought fiercely opposed to it being championed by noisy individuals terrified of even their own shadow. These folks, many of whom never really embraced Nigeria as their cup of tea to begin with, now conveniently dangle from the rooftop the cop-out of insecurity, social malaise and the fragile economy as discouraging and retreating factors.
Yes, Nigeria is flooded with business opportunities
But others assess the whole situation through a vastly different prism, choosing pragmatic optimism over an apocalyptic trajectory of the future. This school of thought believes that Nigeria’s ragbag of problems and her burgeoning population offer precisely the exciting lure to go there and invest. It is no surprise, then, that this camp is where you find a drove of Indian, Chinese and Lebanese immigrants rolling up their sleeves and starting up businesses, fitting in nicely with their new neighbors and reveling in Naija life ——– the same Naija that uppity and privileged natives residing in the West and elsewhere love to trash as a god-awful place comparable only to the biblical Valley of Hinnom. But hey, to each his own, and as the saying goes, one man’s poison is another man’s Lagos suya.
But don’t take my word for any of that. Check with brother Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man from Nigeria who preaches the ‘opportunity’ sermon so often you would swear someone is paying him to do that. “Nigeria is full of opportunities,” he said recently, expressing that view even in the face of the insecurity there.
Hospitality guru Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, echoed the same feeling, saying, “There’s a lot of opportunities here in Nigeria, a lot, a whole lot.” If anyone is qualified to speak authoritatively on this, it is the Anambra State native who established the esteemed Cubana brand from the scratch, now boasting a legion of topnotch nightclubs, hotels and restaurants scattered all over Nigeria. It would be rank ignorance with a generous sprinkle of stupidity to disagree with these two business honchos.
So yes ——— Nigeria is home to a smorgasbord of business opportunities in critical spaces such as agriculture, restaurant, sewing, bakery, transportation, real estate, land banking, trading and others. In these areas, Nigerians, both at home and in the Diaspora, and now immigrants, are soaring to staggering heights of success that validates the sky is the limit aphorism. Heck ——- opportunities are so visible everywhere in Nigeria even brother Stevie Wonder wouldn’t mind showing you where they are.
But of all the business opportunities in Nigeria, there is one trending faster than you can say money: Church/Christian ministry.
It is a sprawling bread making factory. Unregulated, too. It’s no wonder a relentless crush of people ———false preachers, phony prophets, pimps, con artists, unemployed laggards, Yahoo boom leftovers and dangling flops in other ventures ——— is leaping into the plum theological space to set up shop. It appears everyone and their grandmother now claim divine calling into God’s ministry. But the truth is, one visible factor is fueling the stampede: to own and control their own lucrative religious gravy train.
Simply put ——– it is all about kudi, ego, owo. No more, no less. Heck, look around you. Nigerian cities, towns and villages are deluged with greed infested churches and ministries, all bearing crafty monikers, glib portmanteaus and cunning toponyms that are as inviting and seductive as they are misleading and deceptive. It is unhinged.
Needless to say, Christianity is big, big, big business, pay no mind to the preposterous pushback by these self-anointed and self-described pius men of God claiming they are all about saving souls. That’s straight up crap. If they are about saving souls, then I will sell you Brooklyn Bridge in New York for $199. In short, they are full of it. No ——– these are scammers, crooks, hustlers, rip-off artists and heretics and for sure saving souls is as far from their agenda as humans are from planet Neptune. For them, there’s only one agenda: to stash their bank accounts with lorry-loads of dosh by picking the pockets of their destitute, gullible, vulnerable, sick and mostly illiterate churchgoers who hold them in messianic awe.
This story has a PART 2 by the same title. It will say PART 2. Don’t miss it.
Now that I got your attention: Isn’t it about time for Nigerian justices, judges and lawyers to quit wearing that ugly and depressing blonde wig in courts and elsewhere? Please junk it. True, we inherited it from our British colonial master, but we don’t have to hold on to it decades after independence. It is time to toss it. Our people are severely damaged by colonial indoctrination it is not funny.
Contact Ike at: onumbamedia@yahoo.com
