"The generation before mine, looted my inheritance and forced me to work in another country, where less qualified people get better jobs than my country folks because of the colour of their skins, of course I am not bitter, why should I be"
my cousin wrote this email and sent it to me and a couple of his friends, i'm posting it here as it touches on issues that affects all Nigerians/Africans.
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To some of you who have been asking me about investment ideas, this is where I get things of my chest. If you are of nervous disposition, this is where you should stop reading.
I read with interest the list of the richest people in the UK, guess what!, not a single African. There was even an Asian list. We know there are several Africans who have looted their national treasuries and are probably as rich as hell, obviously those of ill forgotten funds cannot be counted.
So, to my real reason for writing this, why are we not making money in the UK?.
1) We don't have the capital or the number of people to support our ventures
2) We never come together as there are too many 419ers amongst us. Like the people at home, several of us would rather steal from their friends than work honestly for their money, the result, we don't get anywhere at all.
3) We spend most of our time having great parties, without any plans for the future.
4) Unlike the other groups in the UK, we are completely divided and we will rather do our own little things, which normally gets us no where. If you are one of those ˜buy to let" entrepreneurs, before you start writing to me about how wrong I am, please take a few minutes to consider your options. If you are doing so well why are the banks making record profits?.
For some of you interested in properties, have you tried to buy abandoned or struggling hotels, old schools, a warehouses or public houses for conversion. These are property investments outside the reach of most people, but by coming together you can convert these buildings into apartments. Look at the scenario, a 200 bed former hospital on 80 acres of land, costing £2m, look at the potential when you convert a property like this, with land in short supply, you can convert the property into apartments, and use the land to build on, but you ask me how many people have £2m to burn, definitely not one of us, as individuals, but can you imagine if several of you come together and buy shares in a company, buy the building, renovate, sell some of the apartments, let out others, use the money to convert even more. Amongst us are probably the best brains money can buy, but yet divided we will get nowhere, together though, we are a formidable force.
Unless you can rent rooms in a house, its now difficult to make money from property in the UK.
I know some of you will want to rush off and start on this idea, e-mail me and I will advise you on what to do. I am doing same with a few of my friends, there are enough properties to go round. There are pubs and hotels in distress and there are so many "first time buyers" looking for cheap and affordable houses.
Several of you have attended all the start up business courses on "how to make money from no deposit" property deals. Please spare me the details, if you have money to waste, please continue to attend those courses, if those ideas are so good do you think they will be selling them to you. Can you imagine Richard Bronson or even the Donald Trump trying to tell you how to make money from business or properties?.
Don't even get me going about Franchising, I have analysed so many business plans, your chances of making money on several of them are so slim, the camel and the eye of the needle come to mind.
The only way to make serious money is hard work, nobody will make money and then give it to you. Its just not going to happen, mate. So my advise, get together with people you trust. There is no point in trying to make money by ripping people off, you will end up in jail. There is a lot of money to be made, save well, work together, and most importantly don't get ripped off, even legitimately.
The best business at the moment for Africans is in churches, its legitimate and the church ministers have flashy cars and justify everything about how you need to pay 10% of your earning to support their expensive life styles. The 10% in the bible was before the introduction of the current tax systems.
Your next question to me is why the heck are you doing this?. I hasten to say, I dislike people who take advantage of other people, whether a church minister, a government worker, the plumber who charges £300 for half a day's job or people selling "how to get rich quickly ideas".
If you think I am bitter, of course not. Due to some idiots back in my country, I and several of my country men and women and their children are languishing in strange countries as second class citizens, toiling away for pennies, doing menial jobs and getting insulted in the process. Should I be bitter?, of course not. The generation before mine, looted my inheritance and forced me to work in another country, where less qualified people get better jobs than my country folks because of the colour of their skins, of course I am not bitter, why should I be, our kids are now strangers to their own land and like the Israelites will continue to dream of the land of milk and honey. I don't want any e-mail from you IT consultants, doctors and dentists on £1000 a day telling me how rich you are, but I do want to hear from people who should have been on the rich list i.e worth £60m.
For anybody with Investment ideas, from buying a pub, properties, new business, franchising, tax etc I will analyse it for you, free. You may not like what I tell you, but i will give my honest opinion.
If you or your parents are one of the looters in Nigeria, please don't even try and contact me, it will get my blood boiling, same for 419ers.
My mission in life, is to make sure that we have one genuine African on the list of the 1000th richest people in the UK by 2010, at which point only people with £100m will be eligible. I am just tired of people telling me that if Nigerians are so dynamic, smart and hardworking why are they not on the "bloody list". Roller-skate ready and 4 years to go.
Signed
Ade
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Quote: "Money is called currency, because it is designed to flow through you. Money doesn't change you; it only reveals who you truly are." ~ Anon
get involved by sponsoring an African child today:
http://www.plan-uk.org/wherewework/westafrica/
3 comments:
Your cousin’s analysis is right on the mark! The truth is that that the picture painted in his mail can be seen anywhere there are Nigerian settlements in the Diaspora. But really, aside from the Jews and some middle-easterners, isn’t this the case with all nationalities?
On the investment idea, capital is always the greatest hindrance; starting small, being focused and selective is the only way to break into the big league in real estate investment. It is tough for anyone to drop their cash if there are no proofs that the ‘guys’ in charge can deliver; so building the name recognition is crucial- and it takes time.
In short, what your cousin has in mind can be done, and has been done by many; however, breaking into the league of the richest people in UK, even though a laudable goal, shouldn’t be the priority at this point.
I don't think the purpose of breaking into the league of richest people is necessarily a bad thing. Narcissistic purposes aside, this will do wonders for the black community, the Nigerian community. I think it would provide a much-needed incentive for Nigerians to succeed in business; after all popularity and glory are a language that most of us seem to speak very well. Surely this would mean that more people would abandon their stupid 419 ideas, and focus on using their education to make money. As a friend of mine says, it doesn't matter what the intention behind the deed is, so long as the good deed is being done anyway.
What I'm not sure is possible is getting a Nigerian onto the list in so short a time. Ah well, since we continuously tout our boundless intellect, there's nothing stopping us, I suppose.
Just discovered your blog, and am looking forward to reading your archives; be patient when I make comments on articles you wrote years back. And congratulations on your baby :-)
I am so much impressed with this article.I was very disappointed as well when i didn't find a single naija on the list of millionaires in the world.My target is that I shld be on the list b4 2010 with the work of my hand.
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