A Call To Disrupt By Segun Oke

I am angry but thank God I can do something about what is getting me constantly mad. And I hope you would consider yourselves also able to change what you don’t want. We should not feel helpless and laid back to the point that we cannot do anything about our pain point until some lousy policymakers do! No, we should not.

In centuries past, cowries were currencies (legal tender), serving as a means of exchange without the needless involvement of an organized state. And life was orderly; though slow. But, as we made progress, we hoped that the state would make life more meaningful and efficient, so we submitted our rights to the state in expectation of the fulfilment of a binding social contract. One of which is the working financial system.

Our experience of recent weeks, cannot but compel us to ask whether we have gotten value for the rights and privileges we laid down for the privilege managers of the STATE and our economy. So much can be talked about, but let’s simply consider incidences of incessant bank collapse, loss of customers’ deposits without any notable repercussions to the bank owners, fraud, and this pitiable denial of access to one’s fund when most needed.

Is this a reflection of what the best of us can offer? And how do we explain these collective pains of queuing for fuel, queuing for cash, failure of bank transfers, the spike in the cost of fuel, the spike in the cost of cash withdrawals, and the spiral cost of fuel- all happening at once?

How so that we are continually made to look dumb, like people without intelligence and capacity for efficient systems by a handful of persons

Alas! this paucity of money (cash or electronic) and poor handling of the Naira withdrawal is nothing but shameful and inexcusable. Is it not needless the pain the ordinary people have had to grapple with on this issue?

I am convinced that, what we are seeing now is no reflection of our near best in Nigeria and not in Ekiti

Well, change-makers don’t just whine, complain and watch: they see opportunities in every crisis and step in to create solutions to advance their societies. And I am hoping you are one.

Before this crisis got exacerbated, many Nigerians have nonetheless struggled with access to exchange value for goods and services they exchange and this has largely dampened the economic growth of the nation, especially in rural and semi-urban communities: stalling the velocity of money and the speed of trade; deepening the shallowness of the economy, unemployment, and poverty. The result of this, is the unproductive concentration of our best in the few cosmopolitan cities, even when they are poorly renumerated with poor living standards.

Well, I am asking you to join me to do something about it.

This crisis calls for our well-meaning intervention.

I am determined to create a means of exchange of value and service in our local markets, buses and cabs, farms, religious places, and schools, with the use of technology but without reliance on the epileptic internet signal/service, prevalent outside the urban cities. And I am calling on you to join me.

Our strategic search is whether we can build a means of exchange of service and product in such a way that allows for reliable settlement, security, and speed and growth of workable derivatives to expand our predominantly rural economy. Our TESTCASE IS EKITI. I am also hopeful that you would find a valid compelling reason to use this for the push toward the economic restructuring of the nation without needless noise.

We have a right to sound financial service and good living- the right to live. I mean the pains we have all gone through in these last days must compel us to ask, what is the essence of change if it makes us poorer and inefficient?

MY CALL

I am asking you to please join a team of 12 young, ferocious, honest, and hungry changemakers who are determined to disrupt these deplorable systems, starting with finding commercially viable solutions to the above strategic concern.

You should be below 45 and have skills and experience in

1. Financials, cyber and banking laws

2. E settlement

3. E-coins

4. Telecommunication technologies and engineering

5. Artificial intelligence, Blockchain, and Ethereum

6. Advanced programming

7. Program management

8. Cybersecurity

9. Communication

10. International Finance

Please feel free to complete the form below for consideration for the selection

Segun Oke

www.linkedin.com/in/segunoke