I was recently called to approve of a very handsome advertising offer
from the D. Group in a magazine I edit. It was really good money. I told
the online magazine to politely reject the offer. It will be better we
stay broke and poor than partake in his filthy wealth and lose our
principles and dignity, I told them.
On one condition can we accept to run his ads — if he promises to
reduce the extortive price of cement for all Nigerians by just 20%, we
will run his ads for free for him for one whole year.
Nigerians have a problem. We praise and appraise anyone with wealth
without realizing and questioning the source of their wealth...whether
or not it is from our inheritance and stolen from our suffering and
dying parents. This sycophancy and celeb-worship renders us — as a
society — hopeless, worthless, denuded and condemned to a second-class
life of misery, begging and poverty.
To explain my position, I here present the 10 secrets to being a successful Dangote, the true edition:
...The problems Nigeria faces today with the oligopolistic cabal were
faced by the United States earlier in its history with the Robber barons
and the rise and wars of the labour unions. One only hopes and prays
that Nigerians wake-up now, and Nigeria will not be saved from its
Robber barons by a tortuous and arduous, bloody and luck-dependent
process as happened in the United States. If you know our government is
evil, what do you call the cabal—who literally own the evil government
and work behind the scenes to ensure the government protects their
interests and their ventures to our permanent detriment? These same
cabal were behind our worst dictators and again selected, sponsored and
have been behind our terrible politician regimes including this one...
1. Get a powerful government friend, preferably the President. Aliko
Dangote got Obasanjo. Not his second term but since his first term at
the head of the government. It was during Obasanjo’s military rule in
the 70’s that their partnership was kindred and Obasanjo first gave
Dangote sole-importation rights.
2. Ask your government friend to give you sole importation or
manufacture rights. Dangote first got this through Obasanjo in the
seventies. Choose an essential commodity, not a luxury. Choose food,
cement, roads, cars, mobile phones/internet, anything Nigerians cannot
do without so the government can impose your monopoly on the people and
they will have no choice. A dollar-a-head multiplied by 168 million
Nigerians. Voila! World billionaire!!!
3. Ask your government friend to also give you zero-barest minimum
import tariffs on all equipment and materials you wish to import.
Dangote practically owns his own ports.
4. Next, get your government friend to promote and secure your company
to be the only ‘business’ allowed to manufacture and sell whatever
product you are engaged in. Cement, rice, etc. Dangote according to
reports admitted that the Nigerian government once got him to import so
much rice, it crashed the local market. Do this and you are on your way
to your first billion.
5. Secure your position by sponsoring and collaborating with all
governments, military or civilian. When it comes to politics and
political parties, as Dangote does, sponsor both sides, whoever will
take your dirty money; so whoever wins, your oligopoly is secured.
6. Privatization: Buy state assets at a fraction of the price from your
government friends, who are by now secret investors and share-holders in
your business. Have the government refurbish these assets for trillions
and sell them to you for one-tenth of the price.
7. Kill Competition: Now that you have benefited immensely from the
generosity of the government and nation, have the government permanently
ban all competition. For instance, ensure that there is now a very high
tariff on the import of cement so no one can compete with your
monopoly.
8. Be ready to blackmail. Anytime a competitor successfully imports even
a single bag of cement, close a small branch of your company and
announce in the papers that 1000 workers were laid off/sent to rest
because the import of that bag of cement 'crashed prices' and so there
will be an unemployment crises. Dangote loves this one. Anytime Yar’Adua
or other President pushed him to reduce his exorbitant prices that
defied the laws of supply and demand, he quickly temporarily shuts a
plant down to blackmail the president with the fictitious unemployment
crises.
9. Set your prices triple the price for that commodity before you got
involved and triple the global average price. For instance, sell your
cement at $12/bag when everywhere in the world it sells for $4-5/bag.
Even imported cement sells for $4-5/bag in Nigeria. But since your
monopoly is protected by your politician friends in power, you are free
to set your prices as you like to crush and deplete the masses of their
money while declaring double quarterly profits for your government and
foreign share-holders…as Dangote always does. People will believe it is
the cost of doing business in Nigeria. Fool them, though you know that
every other businessman who likewise does business in Nigeria, competes
with global costs, keep declaring your double profits, enjoying cheap
labor, free land and no tariffs. Get rich by making your countrymen
poor.
10. Keep it running: Stay out of direct politics; do not make the
mistake of Abiola. Stay on the sidelines, be the one to choose and
sponsor candidates into the parties; publicize yourself as a charitable
employer of labor. Keep sponsoring political candidates with back-door
deals for them to handover the nation's oil wells, resources, land and
the people's pockets to you. Help politicians invest and launder their
money.
Two Islamic hadiths that Dangote wannabes can relate to:
Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet said: A time will come upon the
people when one will not care how one gains one's money, legally or
illegally. (Bukhari)
It is reported by Jabir that the Prophet said: The flesh and body that
is raised on unlawful sustenance shall not enter Paradise. Hell is more
deserving to the flesh that grows on one's body out of unlawful
sustenance. (Ahmad).
The Dangote business model some are understudying can never make a penny
outside Africa. Check his money making ventures—all are local. In
America it takes ingenious thinking, brilliant ideas, discipline and
skills to become a renowned millionaire. In Nigeria it takes shrewdness,
dirty bloody money and corrupt connections.
Unfortunately for those who have been reading the recent out-pour of
press by Dangote, supposedly teaching them how to be successful
entrepreneurs: know now that your ‘teacher’ is your worst enemy. Dangote
will block you from establishing any business in Nigeria. We all will
ultimately soon be his glorified slaves (employees) until and unless a
true Nigerian civilian or soldier leader breaks the cabal monopoly. Our
current administration as with those in our past, is more evil than is
easily seen. We do not notice and there is little press when they lock
us in binds to be openly robbed and extorted by the cabal. The
government never supports healthy, necessary competition to protect the
interests and prosperity of the masses; and the cabal are so heartless
they will usurp every advantage given by the desperate and insensitive
politicians they bought into office.
Till we are delivered or deliver ourselves from the claws of these
government-partner monsters, we must all say no to the cabal. We must
avoid their goods as much as we can and patronize competitors even if
their prices are a bit higher. It will pay in the long run if we do so. A
little hunger today will secure food for our children tomorrow. This is
our only chance.
by Dr. Peregrino Brimah
http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something]
Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian
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