Why the Tech Revolution Is the Best Thing Yet to Happen to Nigeria

In a country where amassed fortunes are inextricably linked to the Nation’s political overlords, some players are daring to disrupt the status quo. Here’s their story.

Uriel Soberanes via Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/MxVkWPiJLs

When In 2016, the former president of Nigeria came out to say that he created 25 billionaires ( in dollars, by the way) and Africa’s wealthiest woman — Folorunsho Alakija was among them — It came as no surprise to the vast majority of the educated class; the wealthiest 0.00000012% owed their vast fortunes, not to hard work, not to being the best qualified, but to their political connections — close friends in high places.

When scrutinized further, these twenty-five billionaires are mostly connected to the manufacturing (cement), banking, oil, and gas sectors, which entails operating monopolies, the winning of oil block licenses (usually under opaque processes), import and crude swapping contracts, and doctoring the numbers and documents, when taking full advantage of a long-standing government policy of subsidizing the costs of fuel (a multi-billion dollar enterprise) for every day Nigerians.

It should also be pointed out that under the current and previous dispensations; the heads of government have always gone out of their way to support the expansion of the businesses of their plutocrat friends, domestically and…