Purpose and Profit.

I have always had my ambivalence about the BBC Eye Report that I will discard in the interest of space. However, since I heard about Stranded: Exposing the UK’s Immigration Scammers—BBC Africa Eye Documentary, I vacillated whether I needed to watch it or not .

Waiting for an appointment somewhere, I decided to watch the documentary to save time, and I wasn't surprised, but I have a few thoughts:

As people, we need to ask ourselves if the modern capitalist model that people are critiquing every day elsewhere is a viable approach to us as a people.

How can we blend purpose with profit without exploiting the vulnerability of others?

Half of what people call business in Nigeria is not business but extortion, exploitation, and dysfunction made possible by political ineptitude and some defeated citizens. Some people carry that illicit conduct abroad.

Rainfall, someone carries you with their back to the other side and collects money, and you said it is business. Do you think that person will pray for better drainage if you already mentioned that business?

There was a time when hawkers were purportedly excavating holes on the highway to generate traffic for their sales.

In Nigeria, having money will not give you value; it would only subject you to further exploitation.

In Nigeria, get ready to throw money at a problem more than once. This isn't because the problem merits it, but rather because business ethics prioritize extortion over excellence.

What some people call banking in Nigeria might be called a scam. The bank charged me for ATM withdrawal and maintenance, and then the PoS agent collected their own. Last summer, I paid 200 to 300 naira for every 10,000 naira I withdrew from PoS, and half of the ATMs were not working.

I have always had compassion for the poor, but there is a dimension of wickedness and greed I saw in the summer of 2024 in Nigeria that made me question this conduct.

It was a cleaner who went away with the key to the female convenience so that she could extort, or the one in the international airport who thinks giving you toilet paper is a favor for which they must be remunerated.

It is the salesperson who quadruples the price of a product between buying money (using POS) and making payment. She told me something was 6k, and next she said 60k. I doubted my own sanity several times.

When buyers have remorse because they see a wide margin between what you sold them and how it is sold elsewhere, there was no exchange; there was exploitation. With room for context, of course, but even in context. I remember the day I and my sister-mum could not buy bottled water on the highland because my sister insisted she wouldn't buy the same water for 200 naira that was sold at the time for 50 naira on the mainland because the margin of profit was insane.

we need to ask yourself and ourselves, what is business?