They didn't anticipate how much of gunpowder they were powering into the barrel when they were smothering the tenets of patriarchy - until they had to face the barrel.
New age men have now decided, they don't want to be head of the house anymore.
Everybody should open wallet.
I don’t blame you guys; I blame us.
The fact that you people believe we are stupid enough to believe that a man created an agency on his own, gave himself an office in the federal secretariat on his own, created a CBN account on his own, submitted a budget, and got billions from that budget when the Ministry of Health received 36 million all on his own is what I find really, really annoying.
I hate what you guys are trying to sell to us.
My mum owns a primary and secondary school somewhere in Akeja, Ogun Sate. There is this man, Papilo, a supplier who handles FMCG products in that area. He comes Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Sundays are for my mum and other school owners stocking up for students during break.
He is not the only one. They are everywhere like that.
One thing I know is that most of these sellers don’t pay him immediately, They pay on the next supply day or after a week. Sometimes it stretches to 3 supplies before payment clears.
I've watched him argue back and forth with customers who say no money yet. He still gives them all or little. I've seen this for over 15 years growing up. This is the practice across every informal market in Nigeria. This is Africa’s informal supply chain.
Papilo knows all his customers. He knows their children’s names. He argues, negotiates, and finds a middle ground. No App or AI can replicate this.
Papilo now runs plenty of small kekes distributed all over Akeja and beyond.
In African businesses, relationships aren’t just nice-to-haves. They are part of the infrastructure. And this is where the majority of our builders get it wrong.
A techie once went to get bread at a store and stumbles on a sole distributor supplying them wines. He thinks “so this is how these get their stocks” he goes home to google the numbers and sees millions of retailers, no central database, orders on phone call, cash payments, manual records. He sees the classic Manufacturer → Distributor → Wholesaler → Retailer chain and he goes “yes! This is a gap. This is untapped. I can build this on an app”.
Actually, he is right. But here is what he missed;
The supplier extends credit
The wholesaler knows who always pays at each time.
The sales rep knows whose child just got admitted into university.
The delivery driver knows which shop opens late or earlier
None of this can fit in an app database because they are the everyday circumstantial reality of Nigerian business owners. Your app can’t document this.
A retailer doesn’t always buy from who is cheaper. She buys from who’s delivered consistently for years. The one who lets her pay next week. The one who picks up the phone immediately there is a problem.
See your app can calculate credit just fine. But the distributor knows Mama Olomi missed payment because her shop flooded last week. That context is the business in this part of the world.
You will think funding fixes this but marketForce had $42M and still died. Sendy had $27M, Medsaf had $7M.
Your investors will push you to the usual playbook; free delivery, discounts, cashback, promotions, etc and growth will look incredible at first but the moment the subsidies disappear, you will start to compete with relationships using economics alone.
Then you’d realize your capital didn't buy survival, it brought speed to a broken model. Somebody say Reality!
Now let’s look at the ones who didn’t die. They simply mutated.
Sabi moved into traceability/export infra. OmniRetail leaned into embedded finance.
Sendy’s co-founder built TABB on trade credit data.
Rather than say we’re replacing distributors, they became the operating system behind the distributors helping them;
📍 Manage inventory
📍 Collect payment
📍 Access financing
📍 Discover retailers
📍 Forecast demand
📍 Coordinate logistics
This is the lesson for anyone building in African informal market.
Don’t ask How do i remove the middleman
Ask, what valuable job is the middleman doing that technology can make easier?
Don’t compete with the market woman, equip her. Build the layer she can’t build herself (credit history, verified supply chains, payment infrastructure, etc).
This is because Africa’s distribution problem was never about apps vs humans. It’s about who controls the trust layer. Build that, not the marketplace.
@blocstreets
The rich man raises his children to be leaders, they're taught to question everything and to always stand up for themselves,
The poor man raises his children to be servants,never to question authority figures,and the teachers at school reinforces this by oppressing them daily.
We once played this tug of war game at my gym. Men vs women. The women kept winning to our bewilderment. We kept wondering what was going on, until we finally discovered that these ladies tied the rope against a pillar on their end. So it was basically us vs gravity. Fear women.
Helping people is a gamble.
A few will be grateful and remember you for life.
Many will ride on like you only existed for that moment.
Need has a way of making people humble temporarily.
People will come to you when life has cornered them... cry... beg... make promises from a place of desperation.
But once life gives them space again, they can make you question yourself. Painting your kindness as foolishness.
But that is life…
We become bridges in people’s lives, and they will cross through your sacrifice, your support, your love, your presence…
And after crossing, it's Au revoir.
Painful, yes...
But understand this, being good is not a business where every investment brings profit. Even your good can K.I.L.L you...
So be GAMBLE AWARE.
Build yourself to be ready for the worst type of pain… because it will come and surviving it depends on how you build your emotional and mental strength today.
We all have a story... The weakest and most used version of me came when I practiced forgiveness without boundaries.
Expect surprise from anybody, including those you think can’t surprise you.
Switching is real.
Never build your life on assumptions.
People change when their interests change.
People change when your position changes.
90% of the time, these people were part of you... friends, family, people you once defended with your whole chest.
Time reveals what emotions hide. And that is life bringing you back to the drawing board to:
1. Learn who to tell your plans.
2. Learn who to celebrate with.
3. Learn who to keep at a distance.
The goal is to become aware.
Have a good heart, but don’t be careless with it.
Anybody can surprise you... Both the quiet ones, the close ones, the old ones, including the ones who promised they never would.
So stay awake...
And when this hits you, keep these 3 things in mind:
1. Adjust your access.
2. Protect your peace.
3. Keep climbing.
Life will not stop because of your pain, or grief... So by every means, you must keep finding your way, even when life is lifing you.
She experienced a fraction of what men deal with every day and couldn’t handle it.
The very thing she killed herself over is what many women casually describe as ‘he just went to work.’
Nigeria is the only place where a politician can fail spectacularly and still have supporters explaining why the failure is actually a success.
Such idiocy must end in 2027.
#TinubuMustGo