Facebook Q1 2021 revenue increased nearly 50% to $26.2 billion, while 5G phone demand and services doubled Apple’s profit to $26.3 billion, with record $89.6 billion revenue. As that happens, Amazon came with a bigger pot. Yes, the e-commerce giant posted $108.52 billion in revenue, or a 44% increase from last year in its first quarter earnings. Google will save more than $1 billion via WFH. From south to north, east to west, there is a great grand party for American tech.
Just imagine: Apple makes what Nigeria will spend as an annual budget (after all the borrowing and considering that execution is never 100%) in 3 months. Do not feel bad for Nigeria but be concerned that we have defaulted to this state of underperformance.
Yet, there is tomorrow. A moment of great leadership remains a promise.
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If you read what Nigeria did before, you will see greatness. Yes, if we have continued with the excellence of the early 1960s, we would be hosting our own Apple today. John Nwodo, the leader of Ohaneze, the Igbo pan-cultural group, was an SUG President of University of Ibadan in the heart of Yoruba nation. A former mayor of Enugu was a man from northern Nigeria who defeated all his Igbo opponents in the heart of Igbo land.
Sometime back, I heard the story of Mallam Umaru Altine, a Hausa man who became the first Mayor of Enugu Municipal Council in 1956.
The story of Malam Umaru itself tells stories — the story of the country we had, the story peace, the story courage, name it.
Fascinated by Mallam Umaru’s story, my good friend, Mohammed Shehu, sent me some details he got about him earlier today.
Mallam Umaru, who hailed from the old Sokoto province, was elected Mayor of Enugu two times! He was at one time Secretary-General of the Zikist Movement and was identified with the NCNC, a Twitter handle, @historicalnigeria, posted.
According to the handle, during election, NCNC decided to nominate Mallam Umaru at the Coal Camp, where he lived. He accepted the nomination, contested and won the election.
People pursued excellence (no tribal coating) until OIL CAME, and then, we folded! Can we rise again as a people?
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We are still pursuing excellence, albeit under a different construct. If the political leadership is failing, do we also need to fail our own people who have immense capacity to deliver world-class products and services?
We need to cure ourselves from the unbelief keeping us down. Whatever Facebook ever built, some of us are building a revolutionary platform that will obviously deliver more value than Facebook, if all the entire nexus comes to fruition. But it’s something that will cost millions of dollars, and if our own people can’t fund it, then a significant portion of value to be captured in the future will end up going outside.
We need to first believe that we still have people here who can build and deliver at the level of Google, Amazon or Facebook, but for these things to thrive, both financial and social support is a must; Americans powered both Apple and Amazon, Job and Bezos were just figureheads.
Until we drop sentiments and come out fully to back those who can deliver, we will keep running with handbrake on.
It’s about the people, government will always join the party once it blossoms.