"My worry now is with our people who go to the National and State Assemblies as lawmakers only to become pitiably broke a year after they have left office," Nwoba Chika Nwoba writes.
There are many businesses to invest money in and one will become very rich in a matter of months. The issue is just capital and knowledge of the kind of business one should engage in.
One of such huge income-yielding businesses is "production". Anything production yields much money in a matter of months. It doesn't necessarily demand a huge capital sum to start. Another is the media business. Just like food, everybody needs information daily to keep going. It yields many cash returns.
One can recruit experts who will now be running it for them. One mustn't have expert knowledge in some of these businesses to be able to go into them. Engage experts.
My worry now is with our people who go to the National and State Assemblies as lawmakers only to become pitiably broke a year after they have left office.
What do they do with their money? Even if they have some godfathers they service, I am very sure a House of Representatives member can still save up to N5million after expenditures in a month. I am very sure of that. What about the money they make from oversight and racketeering? Aren't they aware that there are businesses N50million can establish and in a year, they can get an extra 50 million naira if not more than that? How can a man or woman who gets up to a million in a month be broke after getting that for four and more years?
From my findings, I have realised some of the things they do which make them insolvent easily:
1. They don't work hard in the National Assembly to source money outside what they get officially monthly. They are satisfied with their monthly take-home and don't join others in ploughing the forests to make more money.
2. They fall into the hands of mistresses, and girlfriends who use charms on them and make a lot of money from them.
3. They always think the money will keep coming. They don't look for other things to invest a part of their earnings in. They keep spending and spending.
4. They don't build people who in return can assist them should they go broke soon. The highest offer they give is civil service employment. It takes years to have a civil servant in a non-lucrative sector save money to assist someone else. A civil servant earning N200,000 for instance won't be able to support a broke former lawmaker with an N1million. Where will they source it from? You see these lawmakers raising their shoulders high for getting a job for someone in a redundant government agency. You ask if it's not human beings that work at FIRS, NIMASSA, NNPC, DPR, Customs, CBN, oil companies etc. Why share motorcycles bought each for N450,000 when there are trades N500,000 can establish for one person and make that person a millionaire in a year time?
5. Instead of getting a house to live in and reducing costs, they move into hotels they can be spending 2 million nairas monthly. They feel the money will not finish soon.
6. They fall into investment scams. And it's outsiders that give their money to invest for them in ghost establishments. It's not as if they don't have people who can be trusted. They cut off all connections with their people and begin to mingle with outsider packaged "big boys". Soon, they get scammed and they will not be bold enough to say that they were scammed.
7. They fall into the ditch of the next election. The Fulani boys at the party national secretariat working with the chairman open banks on their heads. These young unlettered boys milk them dry and later disappoint them and nothing happens. Must one attain the second tenure moreover when one notices it might cost one all that one has earned? They even sell their properties to secure a second term which most often doesn't happen.
8. They don't work for their people. Nature can't be cheated. I have never seen a workaholic representative who has gone broke. You sell a goat in the way you bought it. You can't disappoint your people and expect success in return.
9. They don't connect with people who are into real businesses. They continue to mingle with their fellow politicians some of whom now see their weaknesses and cash in on them by telling them they would introduce them to the owners of the party and the Aso Rock cabals. And once they have started putting in their money, they'll continue to put in until they wear away.
10. They feel they have arrived. They feel no one can outsmart them in the next election. They begin to put their money into a crisis, setting their communities in crisis and joining issues with people they should not join issues with. They begin to intimidate people they should assist so they could be helped tomorrow. They turn themselves into enemies of the community.
The solution is for our people to stop being desperate about the next elections. They have to start empowering their people. 10 people given real empowerment in a year is a better deal than 100 people given envelopes. They have got to stay away from women who come from other places. They can be dangerous. They have got to invest. They have to be wise and stop being complacent. They should be ready to fight to get what others are getting or even more. They should zero their minds over the possibility of second or third tenures. Thinking so much about it makes them lose all they have earned.
Some people have good business ideas but money to start up isn't there. But the unavailability of money isn't the issue. The issue is trying to own everything and jettison the importance of going into alliance. There are people who have the money but they don't have lucrative business ideas and knowledge. You have the idea but without capital? Then, go into search of investors or those who can own the business with you.
After all, Obi Cubana wasn't the owner of Odogwu Bitters. Someone else owned it. The producer cashed in on the popularity of Obi Cubana immediately after his mother's burial and went into an alliance with him. When Obi Cubana noticed the brand was moving and gaining wide acceptance, he paid off the young man and acquired the production and product.
I don't hoard, hide knowledge. You teach others, from their responses you could learn new concepts that'll help you to broaden your knowledge and versatility. Go into alliance. You can't do it alone. No big enterprise doesn't have investors whose monies keep it growing. Idea is locomotive; if you keep it within you for quite a long time without utility, someone else might come up with something that resembles it and then render your own null and void. Our people instead of seeking alliance rather seek help. You don't need help to visualize an idea. You need alliance.
Nwoba Chika Nwoba is the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ebonyi State.
