An active Ant is better than a sleeping Elephant

I have been hearing that Nigeria has a lot of hidden potential since I was a child.
I have heard it so much that it is now like a cliché.
Another cliché is that we are the giant of Africa.
These titles are accurate, but we have not been able to capitalize on these opportunities to make significant progress.
Our case is that of a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Or an active ant is better than a sleeping elephant
In this case, we are the sleeping elephant.
You’d need to be a hopeless optimistic to still see these opportunities amidst the chaos that we go through every day. Not just day to day life but also on social media.
But the facts are there
Nigeria is one of the leading oil producers. We have rich oil deposits; we have huge gas reserves. We have arable land and we have precious metals.
We have Lithium!
So regardless of the decision that the world takes as regards climate change, we should be all right.
We see all these information on paper – but the sad reality is that life is not lived on paper but on the streets. And the streets are not smiling.
If you pay attention, you will get enough negative stories to push you into depression if you are not careful.
But in the midst of it all, there are some glimmers of hope.
Hope.
That’s the only thing that can keep you going.
Because with hope, you can strengthen your faith and belief in better things to come.
I was talking to a mentor last week after being frustrated by people that we owed money and wondering why things are so tough. He told me that Nigeria is for those that are not waiting for things to be done for them. He said, if you are that kind of person, its best for you to Japa.
“But you are not that kind of person Usman. You are one of us. You make things happen”
I wish I could make my account balance happen.
This is coming from someone that left the UK to set up one of the biggest and most innovative real estate companies in Africa. I was encouraged.
I think that it is important to surround yourself with the right set of people. People that understand your struggle. People that believe in you and encourage you to do what you set out to do.
It is tough no doubt but people are making it happen and those people do not have 2 heads.
I follow some YouTube channels that celebrate developments in Nigeria- channels that share the stories of Nigerians that are doing great things amidst the chaos. I have discovered that apart from being inspired to keep moving, it also helps with my mental health.
Last week, an entrepreneur friend of mine called me to discuss partnership/ collaboration in our businesses. This is one lady that has been on the grind for close to a decade. She is playing in an industry that the world takes seriously but one of those that Nigerians have refused to pay attention to – COFFEE
The joke we share is that one day, she will be the Queen of Coffee in Africa and I will be the King of Tea.
Princess Adeyinka Tekenah is the CEO of Happycoffee. An indigenous coffee brand.
Globally, coffee is a $104bn market. Cocoa on the other is about $43bn
Global revenues from Coffee in 2022 is in excess of $400bn
The potential is staggering but as usual, we only see it on paper.
If we pay a fraction of the attention that we give to cocoa to coffee, we will unlock significant value.
According to the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), a United Kingdom-based organisation, Coffee is a source of livelihood for more than 12 million households in Africa.
Over 38% of the population of Burundi, 23% of Tanzania, 22% of Uganda, 17% of Côte d’Ivoire and 14% of Ethiopia, for example, depend on coffee farming. However, Nigeria has not been recognized since the crop production has, for over two decades, been on a downward spiral.
There are two coffee varieties in Nigeria – Arabica and Robusta. Arabica is grown on the Mambilla,Taraba State; Jos, Plateau State and Obudu in Cross Rivers State.
Robusta is produced in Abia, Osun, Ondo Ekiti, Kogi, Edo, Plateau, Kwara, Ogun, Oyo, Benue, Delta, Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna, Lagos, Rivers, Ebonyi and Enugu states.
In 2015, miffed that though Nigeria grew coffee, people were drinking imported products, Princess Adeyinka launched Happy Coffee.
From the pop-up café, the company started bagging its house blend, which is freshly roast coffee from farmers. She is among a new breed of entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on coffee. They are betting that wealthy Nigerians will cultivate a cafe culture that can also spur consumption of local crops. She is supporting research across the industry supply chain, from the farm to production.
I think I will not be out of place to say that we are the source of our problems.
We so badly want Nigeria to get better but we hate everything Nigerian.
It like stabbing one’s self and crying out at the same time.
One time, when we were in one of the markets activating for our baby food, a distributor boldly told us that he doesn’t deal in local baby food. He only sells foreign imports. The Irony is that the same dealer will go on social media and lament that our FX rate is unfavorable and that there are no jobs.
I digress but you get the point
Princess Adeyinka has taken on the challenge of opening up an industry with potential. What we SHOULD do as Nigerians is support her by buying her products. We are working together to roll out a product that will revolutionize the coffee industry in Africa
You can support her by making sure that Happy Coffee is an option for guests in your homes and offices. We must not just buy Happy coffee; we must promote it and give constructive feedback. This is how countries grow indigenous brands to become multinationals.
This charge is not for just Happy Coffee – it is for all Nigerian brands that are produced locally. Brands that source their raw materials locally and employ Nigerians in their factories.
That is TRUE Patriotism.
Patriotism is not about going on social media to rant and lament / publicize the negatives of our country.
When you buy from a local brand that manufactures and sources its raw material locally, you are not only reducing the pressure that imports put on our foreign reserves, you are helping that brand keep its doors open, creating jobs and empowering local farmers that grow the raw materials.
I have heard people say that Nigerian products are substandard – A very valid argument indeed but the truth is, most standard brands today started with substandard products. They relied on the patronage and feedback of customers that believed in them to improve by investing in R&D. Why should we be different.
Don’t just buy from a local brand, give them feedback that will help them improve.
Enough with all the lamenting and complaining. We need to start doing what needs to be done to see the result that we desire.
For the purpose of this piece, I have deliberately left out politics and leadership. I am not blind to the fact that leadership plays a huge role in these things. We can fix leadership with our PVCs and by holding our leaders accountable. We do not need our PVCs to patronize and promote local brands.