At
10:55 am this morning, I received a whatsapp message that read, “Lagos
State is pulling down Ada’s shop. So much for doing business in
Nigeria.”
I was in the middle of a meeting when I
received that message, but I immediately excused myself to make a quick
phone-call to clarify the text.
Unfortunately the voice over the phone
confirmed my fears, Ada Osakwe 2014 Forbes 20 Youngest Power Women in
Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow of the Africa
Leadership Institute and a fellow of the African Leadership Network
(ALN) was just told a few minutes ago that her store had been marked for
Lagos State government’s demolition.
And the Lagos state government came
prepared, they had a bulldozer, and polices officers armed with guns
ready to carry out the deed. You would think for a second that they were
destroying a criminal hideout.
At the back of my head I was hoping the
issue would be resolved. Maybe the landlord needed to pay the right
people and they would go away.
But then around 1:12 pm, I received
another image from our alumni’s whatsapp group. The store staff were on
the building trying to remove the NULI JUICE
logo from the building top in an attempt to rescue it from the
impending demolition. That’s when it started occurring to me that this
was quite serious.
Immediately I decided to drive down to
the store to see what I could do to help. And what I saw was really the
saddest thing I had seen in a long time. It was this picture…
And the Lagos state government came prepared, they had a bulldozer,
and polices officers armed with guns ready to carry out the deed. You
would think for a second that they were destroying a criminal hideout.At the back of my head I was hoping the issue would be resolved. Maybe the Landlord needed to pay the right people and they would go away.
But then around 1:12 pm, I received another image from our alumni’s whatsapp group. The store staff were on the building trying to remove the NULI JUICE logo from the building top in an attempt to rescue it from the impending demolition. That’s when it started occurring to me that this was quite serious.
Immediately I decided to drive down to the store to see what I could do to help. And what I saw was really the saddest thing I had seen in a long time. It was this picture…
The entire building and store had been
reduced to a pile of rubbles. I saw business owners wading through the
mess trying to salvage whatever they could find. Maybe a “door frame” or
an “electrical wire” whatever they could get their hands on.
And across the road was Ada. She was
dressed, coincidentally, in black, watching as a business with so much
promise … one that she had poured her heart and soul into for months
being buried in less than a few hours with nothing but a few minutes of
warning!
I remember the first time she told
me she would build a store in Lagos. The ideas she had, the passion and
the optimism, I saw fire in her eyes. She showed me pictures from the
Abuja store and showed me the app that allowed her watch
her stores 24/7. She was excited and I was excited, here was someone my
classmate who was going to do something different … something BIG.
When I heard the store was opened I went
down to see it, and everything was exquisite, the furniture, the
attention to details, everything just as she had described. I would
drive by the store often and there she was in the window at her computer
working, marketing and planning.
But now all that was gone. The dreams and visions “temporarily” reduced to a pile of rubbish.
And in the midst of the concrete waste a lot of people will gather to discuss legalities.
But for me I choose to discuss
“entrepreneurship” and what message the Lagos state Government sends to
its young and aspiring entrepreneurs …
For a country in the middle of a
recession, battling low unemployment and one desperately in need of
jobs. For that country to destroy a legit business employing people
without any warning to hardworking business owners sends the wrong
message. It tells people that the government does not RESPECT or CARE
about small businesses.
Because if it did this would never have happened.
A government that respects small
businesses and understands their critical impact to the Economy will
ensure that their businesses are not destroyed with just a 10 minute
notice. They would do more to protect their entrepreneurs so as
to encourage them create jobs. They won’t send armed police to break
down a building as if they were common criminal hideouts. They will
treat them with respect.
Today there was no sign of respect or
empathy. It was just coldness and today I felt really hopeless about my
future in Nigeria. Because I witnessed the birth and destruction of a
business in a matter of weeks. I saw a business buried right in front of
her owner.
The touch of sadness was palpable, the smell of hopelessness and frustration suffocating. I saw tears.
But I know one day (and this is really
cliche) things will be different, because our generation will be
in-charge and this generation that has failed us and still fails us will
get to see in their last few years what Nigeria should and could have
been.
And for every “Ada” out there, that has
gotten their businesses harassed, barraged, insulted, degraded and
destroyed by a myopic government, hang in there. They can destroy your
buildings, but they can never kill your IDEAS.
Okechukwu Ofili is an author, speaker, and blogger and a The Trent Elite Voice. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to his blog for more honest talk and as @ofilispeaks on Instagram for more sketches! To bring Ofili to your school or organization as a speaker simply go here. His third book How Intelligence Kills was published in December 2013, order it at http://bit.ly/intelligencekills.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
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