You Must Make Money Here!

I attended a night vigil in church some months ago, it was a special one dedicated to praise and worship. There were musical performances by Cobhams, Tim Godfrey and the Xtreme crew, Funmisax and other gospel act and there were some comedians too. One particular joke by one of the comedians got stuck in my head. He said (in their usual funny way), when one of his ‘brothers’ came to Lagos and after a short period came back to the village with so much money, he questioned him how he made so much money so fast and if there was a place in Lagos where they fetched money. His brother was actually staying in a shanty but was on a certain day, ‘fortunate’ to have seen some robbers hiding stolen money somewhere under a bridge and made away with the bag of money, but the brother just told him he picked a bag of money under the bridge. So he made up his mind to come to Lagos to pick his own bag of money from under a bridge.

That was how he kept searching from under one bridge to another till he saw a bag on a certain day and made away with it without checking its content. To his utter disappointment, the bag belonged to a lunatic as it was full of containers of used creams, perfumes, used hair attachments and other similar rubbish items.

As funny as it may sound, this guy’s experience is happening for real in Lagos!

A lot of people are in Lagos looking for a tree where money grows so they can pluck some for themselves. Some are waiting by the lagoon, canals, beaches in case an angel comes to stir it like the pool of Bethesda in the bible; they are hoping to jump in first so they don’t even care about the health risks of leaving in  such places.

Lagos may be the land of opportunities but good opportunities will be seen only by those who open their eyes to see it, stretch out their hands to grab it and make the best of it! If a person remains in this town (that has gradually become a mega city) for as much as five years and his or her life hasn’t improved substantially, I think it would be most appropriate to try somewhere else. There are lots opportunities for a better life in other ‘smaller’ towns in Nigeria. No individual must stay here and be feeding from-hand-to-mouth and occupying useful space to others when he or she could go live in Markurdi, Awka, Ilorin or Uyo and have a good healthy life.

Beside, God may not have said Lagos is your land of prosperity because if He did, I believe He would make the lines fall in pleasant places for you. I am a testimony to that and God is not even done yetJ. Remember, Abraham had to move out of his father’s land before God showered all those wonderful blessings on him. Also, because Isaac obeyed God by not moving to Egypt but dwelling in Gerar, God blessed him and made him prosper even during famine so much that the Philistines (a whole nation) envied him (one man).

I have heard some people say “I didn’t come to Lagos to count bridge”, I have just one question for them, “are you very sure you are not only counting bridge in Lagos?”

If you are, I advice you stop now and locate your true promised land that will flow with milk and honey for you. If you are not counting bridge, then you must make money here in Lagos. Make it!