This is part 2! The previous post had Strategies 1 to 8.

9. Stay away from Dollars, Pounds and Euros as much as you can

Truth be told, the American Dollar, British Pound Sterling and the Euros have an embarrassing way of humbling the Nigerian Naira. Their respective current exchange rates says it all. And so, common sense demands that you stay away from them as much as you can. When you go online-shopping, for instance, an item tagged $50 or £30 is quite an amount when converted to Naira. If you ain’t making a foreign trip or speculating, why not steer clear bureau de change; why not let your domiciliary account be; why not make do with local online shops, the likes of Jumia, Konga, and OLX. As much as possible just stick to Naira, so that your money can truly count. At the end of the day, of what use is it paying more in Dollar what you can pay less in Nigeria? It just doesn’t make sense.

10. Stay away from imported products as much you can

This is difficult. Given that Nigeria is import dependent; next to everything in this clime is imported! But I insist: stay away from imported goods and services the much you can. Put differently, explore local options. For instance, instead of using the boutique, why not tough it out with your tailor; instead of buying Ford or Chrysler, why not buy “Innoson” or “KIA”? As long as this hard time lasts why not let antiques and other articles of ostentation be? Must it be Rolex, must it be Apple? Of course, you don’t need a prophet to lecture you on how both exchange rate and importers’ excessive is a cause for concern. Two ways forward: patronize local options or imported low-costs – from non-dollar and non-euro countries especially.

11. Eat smart while eating right

Some folks just eat and keep eating – all day! They eat the first round of breakfast at 7am, then eat round two by 11am, and then they’re having snacks by noon. And they’re off for lunch as soon as it clocks 2pm, and then again at 5pm. 7pm is supper, and then 10pm is yet another eating. Truth be told, and without mincing words, it all costs plenty of money – everyday! Of course, this is economic suicide; too off for this hard time!

12. Alcohol is as tricky as it is expensive

Alcohol is such a great marketer of itself. It just has this interesting way of seducing one into drunkenness and then keeps one drinking till one passes out! Aside this trickiness, alcohol is also pretty expensive; the higher the alcoholic content the more the price. And so, this really is a bad time for undisciplined alcoholic intake as it has the capacity of sucking one’s purse dry. Although a little alcohol is fine, the real problem lies with the definition of the word “little.” Is “little” one tot of whisky or one bottle of beer? Whatever “little” means to you, just don’t forget that alcohol is as tricky as it is expensive.

13. Make much lesser calls; astutely manage browser data

Certain stories should no longer be told over the phone, like furnishing a loved one with the full details of how one’s day went. That’s really turned into a luxury lately. If the day went fine, then fine! The rest of the gist could come later during a face-to-face chitchat. Yes, we get to pay for “airtime” never “ear-time.” The bottom-line is that making of calls should be regulated, and one way to do this is to cutoff recharging from one’s bank account. You can trust that it is pretty fun punching some codes on the phone to get airtime Vs buying recharge cards with cash. On the other hand, the browser data consumption of the average smart phone user is gone gaga! Online all the way! Asleep or awake, the browser data just keeps reading… It is time to put some checks to our browser data usage. Simply turn it off when not in use, and usage should be minimized.

14. Budget and scale to preference

The place of budgeting and ranking one’s needs and wants in order of priority is all-important at a time like this. For God’s sake, why should one spend more than he earns? It just doesn’t make sense. One not only has to cut his cloth according to his size but has to be pretty good at doing so. Of course, one shouldn’t just jump at things at the open market; a budget should dictate purchases. Yes, financial discipline is the word. In line with scaling to preference, certain things have just got to wait!

15. Work harder and smarter – earn more!

What is better than working really harder and smarter? Simply, the best antidote to this hard time is to earn more; make more money than you can spend. That’s it!

Indeed, it’s squarely the case of surviving any way you can. And to say that times are hard here in Nigeria is to overlabour the obvious. From the hike in fuel pump price, the all-time high naira-dollar exchange rate, to the crazy cost of food items, Nigerians are dying for better times.

While we await better times, we can do the following to stay afloat, lest we sink beneath the waves of the turbulent Nigerian economy:

1. Realize that every Naira counts; accord money some respect!

What is N1,000,000 if not N1 x 1,000,000; N5 x 250,000; N10 x 100,000; N20 x 50,000; N50 x 20,000; N100 x 10,000; N200 x 5,000; N500 x 2,000; N1,000 x 1,000. The point here is that every Naira counts, and contributes to the big financial picture. One thing I love about those who’ve made money is their respect for money – not love of money. And so, handle that N10 with respect by insisting that the bus driver hands it over to you; I mean your ‘change’.

2. Beware of bank charges

You can be sure that both the central bank and commercial banks are struggling to survive the hard times too. And so they come up with this and that policy to get their hands deep into your pocket – Kobo by Kobo, Naira by Naira. You must resist them as much as you can. Watch those bank transfer charges, watch those SMS alerts, watch those ATM charges… Adopt strategies to beat the banks to their own game – on your account. It’s game time! Play to win. For instance, let the person asking you to make a transfer shoulder the bank transfer charges; N105 counts, remember. And try as much as you can to stick to your bank’s ATM.

3. Let drycleaners alone; do it yourself.

When you do the math, you’ll realize that drycleaning costs you a fortune every month. It’s really so much. Inasmuch as I’m not asking you to launder your suit and other special fabrics all by yourself, I’m saying you should be able to wash and iron a good part of your wardrobe and cut yourself that cost. Fact. Now, many people make recourse to the time argument, as to why doing their laundry by themselves is a challenge. But I know a certain bank manager who does it 4am to 5am – the drycleaner does his specials. It’s called financial intelligence.

4. Use public transport

Unfortunately, many have come to think that doing a public commute to and fro work is one of the symptoms of broke. This is laughable. It’s called cutting cost. I can understand that the Nigerian transport system is not as efficient and reliable as those of London and New York, but we can make do with it from time to time to cut cost. When I rode BRT in Lagos, I realized that one could really save time and money doing a public commute. Why not try…

5. “Cheaper by the dozen”

That’s the name of a movie actually – full of lessons on cost effectiveness. For me, the difference between buying 1 box of Irish Spring and 3 boxes together is N100, and N100 counts! Why not buy in dozens and save cost on the long-run. Buy next to everything you frequently use in dozens, and particularly from low-cost grocery stores. The secret behind Shoprite’s prices is that they buy directly from producers; they cut out middlemen. Leverage on that arrangement.

6. Trek! Trek!! Trek!!!

If your workplace is a walkable distance from home why not walk; if 80% of the congregation trek to church why not mingle. Must you drive? Of course, trekking saves both money and gets us exercising. Trek! Trek!! Trek!!! It’s called adaptation not symptom of broke. To visit a friend down the street, trek. To go shopping in a nearby market, trek.

7. Buy yourself a bicycle

This one is for those who can risk cycling. The fine thing about the bicycle is that it needs next to no form of fuel. Simply inflate the tires, jump atop it and peddle your way on. It cuts cost and not only burns but churns down calories.

8. Run the generator only 3 hours a day

In Nigeria, there is a sort of unofficial competition between neighbours with regards the running of generators; which is louder, and which will run longer. Funnily enough, that was in the old dispensation. In the new dispensation, where fuel has joined the league of articles of ostentation, 3 hours is just fine. In 3 hours, one can charge all chargeables, iron clothes, see a movie, cool a drink, etc. That is even PHCN fails. On a hot night, instead of running it all-night, why not simply take your bath, throw open the windows (while minding security and mosquitoes) and enjoy a noiseless sleeping atmosphere.

…watch out for Part II

While on national service in faraway Ondo State, Nigeria, I saw something that has kept me thinking about something. What I saw was this: a so-many-years-old grave was dug up to exhumed and transfer the bones of the deceased to another site. Why? Because the land that bore the grave had just been sold, and the buyer possibly didn’t think he should keep both the magnificent tombstone sitting atop the remains of the deceased that stood conspicuously on the newly acquired property. Or, perhaps the family decided to give him that much from the money realized from the sale of the land. Like I said earlier, this experience has left me thinking ever since then, even to the point of this writing. Why? Because whoever erected that tombstone, that magnificent tombstone, didn’t see this coming; there definitely won’t be another tombstone on the new burial site.

There is yet another story to the same effect. A king decided to erect a magnificent monument of himself in the village square. That monument was not just magnificent but imposing, awe-inspiring and resplendent. And he had erected this monument in the hope that generations yet unborn would remember that there once lived a great king. True to his thinking, for the 100 years that his statue stood atop the acres of the village square, successive generations learnt about such a great king that he was. On the 100&1th year, a Trunk A (federal) road plan ran across the square and right through the monument. Your guess is as good as mine; Julius Berger pulled it down without a second thought. And the memory of the late king went with it.

There is even yet another story. A certain politician reasoned that the best legacy was leave his bloodline rich forever. And he did attempt to do that; he bled the public coffers under his watch dry and stashed away mouthwatering figures in different foreign accounts. He didn’t stop there; he went on to buy pieces of choice property worth billions of dollars in next to all the ivy cities on the planet. Guess what? His second generation suffered from the problem of too much money = senselessness. And his very undoing was that the guy that signs the check in this particular generation fell in love with Las Vegas – the capital of gambling. Little by little, and like the odds were never in his favour, he burnt every single dime of that so much money and got the empire crashing down. And that was it! Nothing to remember the guy who chose to immortalize himself on cash.

True to these stories and many others that will ever remain untold, people have sought to leave a memory of themselves in the ‘wrongest’ of ways.

Realistically, we’re hardwired for legacy. There’s this way we go crazy about wanting to be remembered when we’re no more. And we equally know that nobody remembers us just for memory’s sake. No. We’re remembered for what we leave behind, and this is called LEGACY. It is for the reason of legacy that we can immortalize ourselves. From the preceding stories, we can already see, albeit wrong, the different ways in which people leave legacies – monuments and wealth.

On the flip side of it are those we can’t afford to forget, because they changed everything forever. For instance, as long as we say “July” and “August,” we’re remembering Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, both men of great legacies. As long as we write A.D. and B.C., we mention the name of the greatest man that ever lived – Jesus Christ. We remember Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Augustine, Aquinas, etc. because of their breathtaking contributions to the expansion of the frontiers of humanity’s knowledge-base. And their memory has been around with us like forever now.

What about Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte? What about Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Michael Faraday? What about William Shakespeare, Chinua Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi? What about Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie? These men, and no offense to women, gave their very best to the betterment of humanity’s lot.

Seen thus, there are many ways to leave legacies, but some of them just don’t work. And, by this blog post, I wish to call to our mind the necessity of choosing our legacies carefully. Instead of erecting a monument, why not write a book? Instead of stashing money away in a Swiss bank account, why not donate a library to a university.

On the whole, the best way to leave a legacy has always been:

It is in the very nature of the crowd to be unreliable. For instance, the same crowd that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna was the very same crowd that led that same Jesus to the cross with chants of Crucify Him. Again, the same crowd that hailed Caesar for leading Rome to many military conquests was the same crowd that honoured Brutus, Cassius, and the rest of the conspirators for slaying that same Caesar on the Ides of March until Mark Antony roused them to mutiny. Yet again, the same Nigerian crowd that clamoured for change and expressed it eloquently at the polls in their choice of the Buhari-led administration is the same crowd that is “destructively criticizing” the very same change it clamoured and voted for.

The crowd also has the notorious reputation of being a force to reckon with. In this regard, majority, they say, carries the vote. And we see this play out in all settings where voting is called for – especially at the polls and houses of legislation. In this light, too, the crowd may constitute a frustrating force; tyranny of the majority it is called. Remember the case of blind Bartimaeus, whose repeated attempts to reach Jesus was repeatedly frustrated by the crowd that journeyed with Jesus from Jerusalem to Jericho. Thank God Bartimaeus knew better than they and had the day by his breathtaking persistence.

On the moral front, the crowd has a way of deciding what is moral and immoral, and she does this by casting the popularity vote. The definition of indecent dressing, for instance, has evolved over time in response to fads and fashion. Here, the popular gradually becomes the acceptable, hence the normal. And what follows is that those who insist on the old order are branded nonconformists, anti-communal, non-cooperative, etc. And the crowd can go the extra mile of seeing to it that the one who swims against the current or opposes the new order is bought over – if buyable, frustrated – if persistent, or eliminated – if insistent. The Jesus-Caesar examples always stand out. And this is the backdrop against which this age-old saying leans: If you can’t beat them, join them. Simply explained, this saying advises that we throw in the towel whenever the crowd proves to be insurmountable on a particular issue; join them.

Come to think of it, who are they? Have you ever dared to inquire into the composition of a typical crowd? What, for instance, was the composition of the crowd that opposed Bartimaeus? Aside being loud-mouthed, arising from its being a commonwealth of many mouths, what credential did they posses that qualified them to shut him up? In my candid estimation, they weren’t qualified one bit to shut him up, given that they didn’t even know Jesus enough; the same crowd that would desert him when he later gave an unpopular teaching – that his flesh is real food and his blood real drink. Imagine the sort of crowd composed of fanatics, zealots, illiterates, celebrity-worshippers, spies, etc. It is safe to say that there was no time when that crowd was qualified – individually and collectively – to shut Bartimaeus up.

And so, why join them if you can’t beat them? Who even told you that they are unbeatable? Who are they, even? We can already learn from the story of Bartimaeus that as simple as persisting long enough can see one through to not just beating the crowd pants down but also winning them over to one’s side.

Finally, Henry David Thoreau gives us a formidable way forward with the crowd. For him, and for me, and possibly for you, “Anyone who is more right than his/her neighbour constitutes a majority of one.” Yes, the crowd is definitely a “quantitative majority,” but you surely can beat them pants down by being a “qualitative majority” – a majority of one.

Be so good at what you do, be so convinced about your opinions, so much that you move the crowd. You may just not even need to beat them; move them!

Bill Gates, the richest human being on the planet, once said, “Life is unfair. Get used to it.” Yes, this is true, and even much truer. Life can as well be nasty, messy and brutish. What do we say about being born deformed, for instance, and why do bad things happen to good people? Why on earth would a strong lion go hungry on a day that lazy baboons are feasting to their souls’ content and even going home with takeaway? To say the least, it just doesn’t make sense; not even one bit of sense. To these and many other questions bothering on the unfairness of life is one simple answer: grace.

Grace means unmerited favour; it gives sense to that which doesn’t make sense. The reality of grace also accounts for why some people get things on a platter of gold, things that some others can only get by the might of their arms and the sweat of their brow. In one word, grace confers an unfair advantage – to whomever it chooses! Else, why would Nigeria be so endowed with natural resources with the likes of England having so little? Of the many virgins in Israel – the average Israelite was a virgin – why was the Angel Gabriel sent to Mary in particular and not another? Even the measure of grace she got is enviable, “Full of grace” or “Most highly favoured of God.”

There is a peculiar form of grace that is of particular concern here, one that my friend John Bosco chose to call the grace of second chance. And this comes into play when those things that naturally happen once get to happen again for some people, affording them, as it were, the chance to act differently for the better or to correct an already-made mistake. Put differently, the grace of second chance avails one the opportunity to rewrite the record. For instance, first impression is supposed to be made once; some people get a “second chance” to correct whatever bad first impression they had made, or even to confirm the good first impression they had made. Why this is a big deal is because most people don’t get to be availed this grace; they just get tagged or branded this or that based on the first impression already made – and they live and die with it. Another example: having spent his entire life in sin, the thief who hung by Jesus on the cross got a second chance to make heaven, and he did make it – in one day!

The problem with second chance is that it is very unreliable. And its unreliability rests on the very nature of grace, whose recipient is whomever it wills. This implies that it may never come to “Mr. A” and may always be available to “Mr. B.” Else, how come a particular thief is never caught until he repents and possibly becomes a pastor, and the one that went stealing just once in all his life got shot dead; how come a particular commercial sex worker of 10 years or more experience is without an STD, turned a new leave and got herself good man for a husband, and a virgin in the neighbourhood got pregnant on the very first outing and remains a single mother ever after; how come a man and his wife remarried after their divorce, and the other man and his wife got a second divorce in their respective new marriages; how come a man gets a second chance to rebuild his business after a colossal failure, and the other man got a perpetual date with poverty?

The way forward: ignore second chance; live as if it doesn’t exist. Come to think of it, is it any wise to bank on something that is unreliable? It is like taking a gamble on something, which opens one to the chance of winning or losing. No doubt we are wont to hoping for the win-case scenario, but what if what repeatedly comes knocking at our door is losing?

By extension, I advocate that we throw in our very best to anything we have to do every single time we have to do it. We should do this in the hope that, one the one hand, we would have little or no need for second chance, and, on the other hand, if we do have need for the grace of second chance and it doesn’t show up to our rescue, we can strike our breast and confidently say, “We did our best.” For instance, whenever we have to make a first impression, we should so make it as if that first impression were our last impression; we should put in our all to it. If we did put in our best, we would most likely make a great first impression. If it turns out a bad first impression, then one of two things would happen: the unreliable second chance comes to our rescue or we simply content ourselves with the fact that we gave it our best shot.