Edward

Online journal
Fiction or not probably
Too lazy to proof read my tweets before posting

[Osaretin Victor Asemota @asemota]

I used to be ambivalent about "Eat the Rich" ideologies and thought they were just humorous until 1998, the day Abacha died. I was at Apongbon in Lagos, driving a second-hand Mercedes E-Class, and behind a guy being mugged by rioters and waiting for my turn.

I had never known a fear as bad as that since I was born. The guy in front of me was stabbed and bludgeoned simply for driving a nice car. My car behind his own was nicer. I had to do two things: come out of the car and run, or run through the guys.

I saw an opening on the side and rammed through. They panicked when they saw me coming, and I could somehow weave my way into Marina. I stopped at the UBA building, where armed guards were posted, for a while before making my way back to Ikoyi against oncoming traffic. It was a chaotic day, and I survived meaningless mayhem.

Abacha was a dictator; everyone was afraid of him, including the rich guys. The rich guys were even more afraid of him as he seized their companies and took their wealth. He even murdered people like Kudirat Abiola, and his goons once attacked Olorogun Michael Ibru. I didn't understand why poor people who were celebrating his death were attacking those who also suffered from his tyranny.

This is the part of human behavior that scares me the most. When people are in pain, they go after convenient enemies rather than their true adversaries. The guy who was being attacked at Apongbon in front of me was a middle-class guy going back home from work. He had nothing to do with Abacha's tyranny. He almost paid for it with his life because he was an easy target.

This is why I believe it when they say that "Eat the Rich" is a myth. The poor will feast on the middle class first, while the rich escape. The poor are also likely to be weaponized by their truly wealthy adversaries to prevent the middle class from ever aspiring to become as rich as they are.

Yes, Femi Otedola and Dangote are very rich, but they are openly doing things that benefit the economy. Those you should fear and those whom people never see are those who are not doing anything to help the average person, but are weaponizing them to hate others.

I see Femi, Aliko, and even Tony more as hostages. They were wealthy before the current crop of politicians came into power and will likely remain so when this regime has done its time. I admit that they have a lot of flaws, but they are playing a survival game just like us, and people are attacking them like the mob at Apongbon.

These men are not raising money through government corruption but through institutions like Afrexim and others to build infrastructure that would benefit all of us and also keep them rich. That is the beauty of capitalism. They provide the platforms for others like them to build even better entities.

I didn't know how scared the rich in Africa were of bad government actors until I tried to raise a VC fund from local LPs in 2018. None of these guys had their liquid wealth in Africa. They kept the assets in safe havens where the governments could not impound them, as Abacha did in his time.

If you want to eat the rich, I can guarantee you that the corrupt politicians are tastier than the rich capitalists.

[“TUNDE” @OTUNBA_TIZ]

I can show you 500. 😂

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

The biggest failure of my Nigerian parents' generation was their complete inability to pass on any ideas or ideology of subtance to their children.

The ONLY thing they taught their children was "Jesus" and "Muhammad". And those unfortunate children have grown up with Christianity and Islam making up their entire personality. They have nothing else upstairs.

Ask the people from that empty-headed generation any question that requires actual thinking or philosophy, and watch how intellectually empty their reply is.

"How can I succeed in life?"
>50 y.o. Nigerian dummy: "Fear God, pray everyday, don't expose your private parts, read your books in school, Fear God..."

"How do I find and keep the right partner?"
Elderly Nigerian grave-dodger: "Go to church every week, pray endlessly, maintain your fajinity, and fear God..."

"How can we fix Nigeria and make it somewhere people don't need to run away from?"
65 year-old Nigerian oxygen hoarder: "The whole country needs to pray for divine intervention to torsh the hearts of awa lidaz..."

An entire generation of olodos who raised even worse dummies than them, but somehow all believe that they did the world a favour by birthing children they had nothing intellectual to pass on to. Everyone else in the world who couldn't pass on economic capital to their children could at least pass on intellectual and moral capital.

All that these cemetery-evading dumbos passed on to us was "Fear God, pray, develop a neurotic obsession with your sex organs and everything that has to do with them, pray, and fear God some more." This is the inheritance we were supposed to build into our competitive advantage in a world where serious people live?

Damn.

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

A technology as proficient as this should not have an unsophisticated means of identification for your clients in Nigeria.
I know other countries do not struggle this much in setting up their starlink after spending so much.
Please fix this

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

My brother got a starlink and has been stuck on the verification process. Apparently his current face doesn't match the face on the NIN database.
Checking online I realised that other Nigerians face this problem.
I believe this should not be the sole means of verification.

[X Freeze @XFreeze]

Starlink is now more affordable than ever

The Starlink Mini is now just $199 at major retailers. That’s a 67% drop from its launch price and It’s portable, powerful, and now priced for the mass market

SpaceX is also offering free or near-free terminals to distribution partners

"we’re trying to make Starlink more affordable to a broader audience

The lower the cost, the more Starlink can be used by people who don’t have much money, especially in the developing world" - Elon Musk

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

I'm just happy to be alive at a time when you have to really work hard to not see who the actual criminals messing up the world for everybody are.

They've spent so long successfully creating boogeymen and red herrings for the whole world to waste time and energy fighting over, like "Islamic terrorist", "tyrannical African strongman", "ghetto Black criminal", "Latino gangster" etc.

Meanwhile it was one tiny group of white people in London, Paris, Washington DC and Tel-Aviv who were the entire spectrum of terrorist, criminal, brutal dictator and gangster tormenting the whole world all along.

And now the evidence is in the open everywhere. "The US government trains and supplies drug cartels" is no longer a "conspiracy theory" - it's now a picture on Twitter.

If you like, don't decouple from this diseased western parasite civilisation and find value in your African self in your African land. Continue chasing their "investment" and "grants." Continue immigrating to their dying countries. Continue worshipping their racist God. Continue taking their economic and political instructions. Continue taking their "education" seriously, and continue carrying their diseased ideologies on your head.

When you eventually wake up, your morning will be brutal.

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@shredwithQpid Clinton hw far you still dey cod?

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@Aunty_Akanke @educatedtug01 Lol change is constant and people deserve second chances even though some more than others.
We shouldn't only think of mercy when we are the ones making mistakes.

[Ayo Shonaiya @AyoShonaiya]

When Agbero saw the bounce, his body language changed 😄

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@smileedibles420 Let's talk on WhatsApp
I'll like to get this today

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@smileedibles420 Literally tried that
Can't for some reason

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@smileedibles420 Owerri still available

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@Oma_shades Find anyone?

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@Whoiskamssssi Did you find? I need😭

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@mystiqueedibles Brownies in Owerri?

[Edward @TENSIONPROOF]

@Ozynaeringo @MkoTheComedian Still available for Owerri?

[𝙲𝙴𝙽𝚃🧃 @dfwcentt]

I no stingy,

My mama gats chop belleful before you buy wig, no vex.

“God bless you my son” better pass “awwwn”

[Sizwe SikaMusi @SizweLo]

The alpha male in his natural habitat

[Nsikan @CkanJohnson]

I know this feeling. Not the loss of it exactly, but the moment you notice it’s gone.

For me, it happened at the gym. This girl asked if I was done with the machine, and I just nodded and walked away. Didn’t even say the words. Just nodded. And I caught my reflection in the mirror across and barely recognised the person staring back.

There used to be a version of me that would’ve said something, anything. Made her smile, asked how her workout was going, and existed in that moment like it mattered. But I was already thinking about my next set, my macros, and the work I had waiting at home.

I grabbed my water bottle and thought, 'When did I become someone who just nods?'

What I think happened is we started carrying the future differently. Not in the dreamy way we carried it when we were younger, when everything felt possible and distant. But in the accountant’s way. We began calculating the cost of things that used to be free.

Talking to strangers used to feel like play. Now it feels like time. And time is the thing we’re supposed to be strategic about. We’re supposed to be building something. Moving toward something. So we perform this math in real time: Does this conversation serve my goals? What is the ROI of charm?

And the terrible thing is, we’re not wrong. We do have things to build. The weight of that is real. It changes your posture, literally and metaphorically. You start moving through the world like someone with somewhere to be.

But here’s what I’ve been learning: the self-awareness that makes you focused also makes you self-conscious. You become the kind of person who watches themselves in conversations, who edits while speaking. You catch yourself staring instead of seeing. Calculating instead of connecting.

My uncle told me once, when I asked why he seemed quieter than he used to be, “I got tired of performing.” At the time, I thought he was just old. Now I wonder if he meant something else. Maybe what looks like losing your spark is actually just being more selective with your light. If maybe you don’t lose the ability to make people laugh, you just stop seeing it as your responsibility.

I don’t know what happened to you. But I know what happened to me. I became someone with a plan. And plans have a way of making the present feel like a waiting room. You stop improvising. You start thinking of spontaneity as something you can’t afford.

The only thing I’ve figured out is that the goals we’re so busy serving might actually need the part of us we’ve put away. The ease. The play. The version of ourselves that didn’t count the minutes. Because the person you’re becoming isn’t supposed to be smaller than the person you were.

Sometimes now I make myself stop. At the gym, in the elevator. I make myself inefficient with my attention. I ask the unnecessary question. I laugh at the small thing. Not because I’m trying to get my rizz back or whatever we’re calling it. But because I’m trying to remember that I’m not just a project under construction. I’m also a person here, now, in this moment that doesn’t need to be optimised.

I still see that girl at the gym sometimes. We nod at each other now, and that’s fine. But I think about that moment. How she asked a simple question, and I couldn’t even find words. Perhaps I’ve been confusing warmth with performance and presence with productivity.

Personally, you didn’t lose anything. You just got heavier. And now you’re learning how to move with the weight.

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

The technology may already exist, but that doesn't mean that Nigeria has it. CFM International, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, GE, etc do not share the patents or blueprints behind their jet engines. They only share generalised information and basic operating principles. So as a recipient of that generalised information, you might "know" how a jet engine works, but they will never share what metal alloys they used to make their engines, their design specifications to make it fuel efficient, wind tunnel testing data, safety testing data etc. In reality, you are not much closer to having that technology than a farmer in the 16th century. All you have is the ability to rent temporary access to it by paying money to the manufacturers and their designated maintenance companies.

This means that every jet engine in Africa is foreign-made, and all significant maintenance involving proprietary knowledge on those engines is usually done abroad, which means vast amounts of USD must be spent regularly just to keep Africa's airspace running, and the US government can ground almost every plane in Africa if it likes by issuing sanctions that prevent engine manufacturers or maintenance firms from doing business with African airlines.

That isn't theoretical BTW. It's exactly what happened to Russia in 2022, when NATO sanctions against Russia made Russian Airlines unable to access spare parts and supplies to keep their Boeing and Airbus fleets operational. And that's why Russia accelerated its indigenous Yakovlev MC-21 program, which has created a fully homegrown alternative to the Boeing 737 with indigenous engines, body, and avionics.

Just because a technology exists and you have access to it does not mean that you have the technology, especially when it is a complex technology like aircraft engines. You're basically just renting space on it from the technology owner, and if you have a geopolitical disagreement with the owner, it can lock you out and return you to the stone age at any time. That's why countries often need to "reinvent the wheel."

If Nigeria ever becomes a wealthy and important country in the future, US trade sanctions are 100% guaranteed. To prepare for those inevitable sanctions, multiple technologies that we are currently renting must be fully localised. Not that they impose sanctions and then we realise that we can't build roads anymore because the technology to drive bridge pillar piles into a river bed was something we were just renting from white people. That's why Ziko's jet engine is important. It won't power a passenger aircraft anytime soon, but it provides the technical foundation to even begin that project.

If your country has no Ziko's, then you don't own your country. All of you are just tenants of richer countries.