Ferdinand

Corporate leadership, project management & team execution insights | MBA Candidate | multiple award-winner | Co-founder | sharing what actually moves the needle

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray Great, on YouTube?

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

One major reason many of Nigeria’s so-called “elites” seem oblivious to the country’s current realities:
They succeeded in a different Nigeria — one that still rewarded talent + connections + hard work with tangible results. Today’s Nigeria is structurally harsher, yet they often don’t feel it, or maybe they neglect it.

In their prime (roughly 1970s–early 2000s), pathways existed. Oil wealth circulated. Sectors like banking, telecoms (after liberalization), construction, and politics were expanding. For those with ability and the right connections, building companies, rising in institutions, or accumulating wealth was possible. Hard work was genuinely rewarded for the positioned class.

That era shaped their worldview: “We did it through hustle and smart moves, why can’t others?”
But the ground has shifted dramatically beneath everyone else.

Nigeria now has a massive youth bulge. Formal job creation has not kept pace. Millions of young people are underemployed or trapped in low-productivity informal work with no real ladder up. The number of quality employers that can absorb this scale is painfully small.

Infrastructure deterioration hits quality of life and enterprise directly: epileptic power forces businesses (and households) to spend fortunes on generators. Roads, logistics, and basic services remain unreliable or dangerous. What was already inadequate has become a daily tax on productivity and dignity.

Security threats have worsened the picture. Banditry, kidnappings, insurgency, and communal violence don’t just claim lives — they destroy investor confidence, disrupt supply chains, accelerate capital flight and brain drain, and make long-term building feel irrational for anyone without deep political cover.

The complexity of building and sustaining anything today is on another level. Policy instability, naira volatility, high inflation, multiple taxation layers, regulatory thickets, and weak institutions create a minefield. What once required grit and connections now often requires exceptional capital, political insulation, or luck most people don’t have. Many new attempts fail or stay small.

So why the obliviousness?
Many old elites are structurally insulated. Private generators, water, security, overseas healthcare/education, and diversified portfolios (often with state linkages) create a parallel reality. The daily struggles of power outages, joblessness, unsafe roads, and shrinking opportunities don’t land on them the same way.

Worse, they’re surrounded by trumpet-blowing sycophants and praise-singers — people whose job is to flatter, filter bad news, blame “external forces” or “lazy youth,” and never deliver uncomfortable truths. Echo chambers reinforce the comfortable narrative that “things are not that bad” or “we’re on the right path.”

Meanwhile, the youth — repeatedly told they are “the leaders of tomorrow” — watch as political parties, boards, institutions, and even many business leadership positions remain dominated by aging men (often in their 70s+) who show little urgency to genuinely empower or hand over.

This generational disconnect is not sustainable. A country with one of the world’s youngest populations cannot thrive when its key decision-makers operate from outdated mental models and insulated bubbles.

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@davebrownlive I don’t think it was a red card, the angle of the fouls that led to the interpretation of the degree of offense was bad. God a thing USA is leading 2:0 at 84 mins

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@Adikastakes Exactly why one would prefer the top teams to go farther at least make the competition a little more competitive towards the later stages.

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray Hahaha
Best time to watch lol

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@SamdGreat01 It was, there was a contact

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray Very cruel

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@klintoncod Football is cruel danmmm

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray The penalty na the last blow

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@AfamDeluxo Ike agwula dibia uwa

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@DavidHundeyin @kwakuasanteb Gradually believing in your theory about the African teams’ mentality! See Senegal

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@klintoncod Nothing, just football my brother

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray Ike agwula m

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@UnkleAyo Senegal is losing o 😆

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@c_mobike Them don score one o, ahhhh

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray They’ll reach Bruxelles tomorrow 🤣

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@footballwithray 🤣

[Ferdinand @ochorferdinand]

@__chinwe And to our managers too