Nigeria’s “high rollers” return home in a rush of “reverse brain drain”. Meanwhile property prices for the elite reach US highs at the expense of bulldozing the poor to make way for $million homes for the new high rollers in business suits. This crew of new patriots are apparently abandoning regular power supplies and fresh water on tap for the opportunity to create their own lifestyles in Lagos and Abuja.
“I’m stepping away from that salary, that comfortable, stable environment where you have power all the time, you have water all the time. But here I can create the lifestyle I want.”
This is really great news, Nigeria desperately needs new entrepreneurs especially bankers and businesses to feed the mass of hawkers working the traffic jams of Lagos – is there some reason this group of mainly young men are dressed in rags with veins sticking out on their desperate sweaty foreheads or is that just a ruse to make me think they are living on the edge of life and therefore buy the heat warped DVD/CD for the equivalent of £1? Never mind that it is most likely a pirate copy – legalities are not an issue for anyone in this chain of events and I too am happy to buy at this rate.
“When you see the hustle on the streets of Lagos, all those traders selling all those products, you know the street works,” said Obi Asika, an Eton-educated entrepreneur whose own record label sells albums through market traders and street sellers. “You formalize distribution in Nigeria today, it’s a billion dollar business. Because everybody needs distribution. Everybody’s got products,” he said.
Meanwhile the property market is also booming and bulldozing the poor (including the hawkers selling the DVDs as above) to make room for homes for the rich (bankers and distributors) is all part of progress and the New Nigeria.
Tags:
Nigeria
Lagos + property
