In the wake of the last Anambra state election, all the Anambra big billionaires doing business in Lagos were summoned to an emergency meeting by Lagos state governor, Jide Sanwo Olu.
The purpose of the meeting with these men, which includes Obi Cubana, Ned Okonkwo, E-Money, and so many others, was the fact that our landlord, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was interested in capturing Anambra through Andy Uba, who was the APC candidate in that election, so he needs their assistance and influence in achieving this ambition.
After hearing the governor out, it would have been a cardinal sin to say no to him, but they did not commit to the plan; rather, they said they would see what they could do before dispersing to enter their Rolls Royce cars parked at the Lagos state government house garage.
It was a festival of Rolls-Royce cars that paraded at that meeting.
The guys summoned did not openly campaign for Andy Uba.
They did not even campaign for anybody because they didn’t want to get into trouble and be in the bad books of the eventual winner; rather, what they did was donate money to the three leading governorship candidates in Anambra at that time, of which the present governor, Soludo, was one.
Why did you share this story?
I’ve seen that a lot of people are angry and openly complaining that their favorite Igbo businessmen did not campaign for Peter Obi on their social media handles.
Let me explain what happened.
It’s a big crime and an offense for any businessman who has properties and investments worth billions of naira in Lagos to be openly partisan.
It is a big crime that is punishable by destroying your business.
Obi Cubana has billions of naira’s worth of investment in Lagos; it would have been suicide and foolishness on his part to have openly endorsed Peter Obi on his Instagram page, for instance.
Sanwo Olu will come after him with everything he has, and he might even revoke the certificates of occupancy of his Cubana nightclubs, and there is nothing anyone can do to help him.
No court in Nigeria will save him from the wrath of the Lagos state government.
This unwritten rule is why Dangote had no personal presidential candidate during the last election.
He supported all of them by donating equally to their campaigns.
Tony Elumelu shared pictures of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his house after he was declared the winner by INEC, which made it safe for him to share the pictures of his visit.
He could not have done that before the announcement stage.
He called him the last man standing when it was safe to do so.
This unwritten rule for billionaire businessmen doesn’t work in America, where their top tier billionaire businessmen are free to support their own candidates without attracting the wrath of the government.
Elon Musk is supporting Republican candidates.
Michael Bloomberg is a Democrat who funds the liberal party.
I’m not sure that any Republican president can go after Bloomberg’s business.
The difference between Nigeria and America is that America has robust institutions that protect these partisan billionaires, which Nigeria does not have.
A president can destroy Dangote in one day with his power; that is why Dangote stays out of the political arena and politics, just to protect his investments that he spent all his adult life building.
It was on that basis that Obama once said that
“Africa does not need strong men; rather, we need strong institutions.”
And he is actually right.
The C/O of AIT’s property in Rivers State has been revoked by Emperor Wike.
AIT’s only offense is that the owner, Raymond Dokpesi, is partisan because he supported Atiku against Wike’s wishes, so their building in Rivers State must come down.
This is the kind of diabolical politics we play in Nigeria; hence, most billionaire businessmen choose to stay away by only donating to political parties and watch from the sidelines.
I run a very small business, but my performance coach has been putting pressure on me to quit writing about politics and focus on my business.
Yesterday, we had a meeting, and she was very scathing in her feedback, and I just had to make a promise that I would stay away from politics because it is actually distracting.
Before you whine and moan that E-money did not support or endorse Peter Obi openly on his Instagram page, just put yourself in his shoes and see how the shoes pinch.
Being in his shoes pinches hard, as he has a lot to lose if he does that.
