Doing anything in Nigeria is at your own risk & a lot of young people don’t factor these things when wrangled up in startup ambitions. Remembered my conversation with @asemota while sipping on wine, 2am, in Accra, he said “knowing when to walk away, is as important as starting”.

His fave movie quote “Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner”.
My dad told me a story about this couple in church who bought lots of land in Lekki phase 1 when it was very cheap &

Underdeveloped. Years after, the community reached out to them to renegotiate & reallocate some land back to the community when they realised the value but they refused. After back & forth, they went to the couple’s house & butchered them with machete at night while they slept,

Dumped their bodies in a bin bag, the kids escaped. Never came back, case was closed. Land redistributed back to the former owners. We see these sort of things in movies, but it happens. Most movies are reflections of certain realities. Unfortunately,

Most people think running a business is about building products/creating services, raising funds & paying salaries only. It’s about taking territories, negotiating with gate keepers & fighting several final bosses, there are no happy ever afters, just more money & more battles.

I did a tweet about stealing 5-10% only with conscience. Just found out that someone that was arguing with me in the Dm about tweeting such “sends a wrong message” was arrested for stealing over N30M from her place of work. Doing business anywhere in the world has its risks,

Understanding how systems work, navigating these murky terrains is how you win. Nigeria is a jungle’s jungle & the system is unforgiven/brutal. I tweeted one time “If we have steady electricity in Nigeria, some billionaires will go broke”. These are the risks you are up against.

This is one of many examples. This also happened to a startup that wanted to solve the power problem in Nigeria. 7rs of iteration/personal investment, they showed me a working prototype, I was blown away. They wanted me to handle commercials & raise funds
https://twitter.com/samuelotigba/status/1173862236126875648?s=21 https://twitter.com/samuelotigba/status/1173862236126875648

Asked about their plans navigating the system here but they were too optimistic, I told them to move to Ghana & work their way in. They stayed, some powerful men got wind of their 1st demo presentation & tried assassinating them. They shut down & dusted CV. These are the risks.