By Inok Solomon
Chinua Achebe in His book “The Problem with Nigeria,” stated that, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” He somehow blinded creative thinking, but challenged the young generations to not only jump into conclusions rather to xray His statement and build more reasoning for our time.
Judge Troward, opened my thought line to xray if truly our problem is “squarely a failure of leadership.” Judge said, “if we regard the fulfilment of our purpose as contingent upon any circumstance, past, present or future, we are not making use of first cause. We have descended to the level of secondary causation, which is the region of doubts, fears and limitations.”
Then the words of my great Mentor, Robert Collier, further pushed questions into my head, He opiened that, “When you are in need and creditors are hounding you on every side, what they may do is not the important thing. They are mere secondary causes, the result of conditions or circumstances.” He advised, “You must get back to the first cause – SUPPLY.” And that first cause lies in the thought pattern, just as the first cause of a house lies in the thought pattern of the architect.
“There is nothing basically wrong with the (Cross River) character, yes! There is nothing wrong with (Cross River) land and climate or water or air or anything else, yes!” But Cross River problem is not the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to challenge of personal example.”
The problem with Cross River and indeed Nigeria is that, “We have been kept ignorant about the subject of money and how to make Money.”
All we hear is, “Money is dirty.” “People with money are greedy.” Businessmen are crocks.” “The love of money is the root of all evil.”
We are confused about money, even those who have lots of it. Robert T. Kiyosaki sum it up by saying that the confusion about money causes the majority of our world’s problems.
Look at it this way, most frightening and disheartening is that many of the people who handle large sums of money, bankers, stockbrokers, administrators and politicians, are often the most confused, yet pretend not to be.
If you doubt this, just look at the fiscal condition of our banks, savings and loan associations, government and businesses. It is hard to deny that where you find a lot of money you will also find a lot of confusion, greed, and unfortunately, evil.
Rev. Ike, a Southern Baptist preacher says: “it is the lack of money that is the root of all evil.” The first lesson we need to learn is that money itself is not evil. It is simply a tool, just as a pen is a tool. You can use a pen to write a love letter and also use it to write a letter or a memo firing someone. The thing that makes the difference is not the object, but the motives of the person handling the money.
I believe today, we have a leader, just as we have gotten leaders in the past. Their motives in using money take us forward or backward. Governor Ayade, our leader today, is putting so much in place to address the subject of money. That it is not how much money you have, but how well and productive you make the money be. It is no doubt therefore, that all His projects have common bearing, “teaching people about money and how to make Money.”
Why does our educational system do such a poor job of teaching us about money? Why did our teachers resist teaching about it, and why are our children teachers still resisting?
Why do people who should know better continue to support the old myths that there is something inherently dirty about money? Could it be that the people running the schools have never learned about it themselves? If that’s true, we desperately need to make some changes. Directly or indirectly, our continued ignorance about money is causing long term damages to generations of people.
The negatives critics in the state, the rumour mongers, the failed politicians and all should understand that the principles of making money are surprisingly simple. You don’t have to be intelligent or well educated to be rich.
Most of us know at least one wealthy person who is neither educated nor smart. Igbos in our communities are in large numbers. In fact, judging by the number of poor people with Ph.Ds, higher education must actually be a hindrance to financial success.
Governor Ayade is building a future Cross River, where people will know about money and how to make Money. TINAPA is all about spending money, but we must make money to spend money. The Garment Factory, Superhighway, Deep Seaport and others are all institutions of well designed lines to understanding money and how to control money.
A state where no civil servant salaries for a month, keep people jabbing themselves, is proof of poor knowledge about money.
