By Nse Peter
Photo of closed factory
On Thursday, 14 March, 2013, President
Goodluck Jonathan had a well-publicized dinner with leaders of the private
sector in Nigeria. The event, beautifully tagged ‘A Centenary Dinner with Top
Nigerian CEOs’ is apparently part of the elaborate plans for the forthcoming
celebration of Nigeria @ 100.
There were more than 250 business
leaders in attendance.
And of course, the richest man in
Africa, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was there.
Femi Otedola too was there.
The only person that carried the Akwa
Ibom identity into that high profile dinner is a lady, Hon. Iquo Inyang, a
former House of Rep member, who went under the platform of Victogenuel Nig Ltd
which appears to be her private company.
Mr. Leo-Stan Eke of Zinox Technologies
was there, but Chief Don Etiebet of Data Sciences was not there. Mr. Nosa
Igiebor of TELL magazine was there, but Mr. Ray Ekpu of ‘NEWSWATCH’ was not
there. And the bitter irony is that there was a Data Sciences which had reached
the higher levels of technology business in Nigeria before the name Zinox even
emerged. What would you say of TELL which broke away from NEWSWATCH? We are
aware that NEWSWATCH may have slipped off Ray Ekpu’s fingers, but we certainly
can’t tell what has befallen Etiebet’s Data Sciences!
We have had a comforting history of
great businesses and business leaders in Akwa Ibom State; long before Etiebet’s
Data Sciences, we had had the Inyanettes, Utuks, Usoros etc.
But today, the story is negatively
different; these days we rarely come by business leaders from Akwa Ibom State,
why small businesses seem to be dying daily.
Hon. Edwin Thompson of Winmos Petroleum
left his once thriving business and got involved in active politics; he rose to
become the deputy speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly during Gov.
Victor Attah’s tenure. But today, what a painful story, that ‘Winmos’ who used
to be a role model for aspiring businessmen, is no more a heavyweight, neither
in politics nor business! Mr. Etuk of Asur Electronics is currently struggling
to find his feet again in the lucrative business of sales of assorted home and
office appliances after making some failed attempts at politics in his Etinan
Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State.
Akwa Ibom, who or what is destroying your
businesses and business leaders?
Good food for thought...Sad!
ReplyDeletegreed, that's what
ReplyDeleteI believe the major problem our business men have is that of 'failure to train and equip their successors on the ethics of business'. Most business men often handover their businesses to their kids, and often than not these so called 'rich kids' believe life is about lavish spending and extravagant life style, and the end up running down the businesses their fathers and mothers built through sweat, hardwork, prudence and frugality. I don't want to mention names, but the afore is typical of our pioneer business men, whose businesses have gone down the drain after their death. Also, if u look at the ones that are more recent, the likes of winmos and assur, I think business men need to understand that there have to hold onto their core competence, which is business. You need to be business minded to be a business man, and u need to be politically minded to be a politician. Running into politics as a successful business man, with the hope of making quick money is a mirage. As a business man, you need politicians to aid your business plans with favourable policies, but you must not be one of them. From the words of the famous italian political advicer paraphrased "business people should face their business and allow affairs of the state be run by politicians, but business people should keep politicians close, as there will always need them". In a nutshell akwa ibom business men, both established and aspiring should learn and understand the "business paradox" and its ethics, so that we can build lasting and suatainable businesses.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot celebrate past glories in 2013.There is time for everything.The business climate of today cannot support those companies mention if they are operating today.All we need is someone or a group of policy oriented people to invest their money in something other than oil and politics.
ReplyDeleteBased on the current Nigerian culture of bribery and corruption, it shall always be difficult to successfully run a business in Nigeria. Further compounding the problem is mixing business with politics and, unchecked power of government. Most Nigerians start a business and try to run it themselves when, they often do not have the knowledge and/or capacity to run a business properly. This is compounded by the fact that most managers hired to run a business end up stealing from the company till it is out of business. How many of the businesses started had a business plan? Remember that it is ONLY in Nigeria do people cheer for a manager who steal himself/herself to wealth from the company that they were hired to grow. Anyone who wants to be successful in business MUST stay off the mainstream of politics as much as possible because politics overflows with nothing but corruption, all the time. I fully agree with comments made by calabar tube because those two things are "get rich quick schemes" and not proper business plan, strategy, mission or goal. Lastly, state government should be focused on creating good business environments for private businesses rather than try to be everything with absolute power in the hands of the governor. Absolute power corrupts and the governor and commissioners are NOT Gods; they should be servants of the people, with the people as their boss. The corruption of the state government does not present a good environment for business whether government or privately run. It is a sad reality that until corruption in law enforcement, courts and politics is curbed, no substantial AKS businesses shall be viable for longer than 15 years at most.
ReplyDelete