Where Are The Builders?

 I remember watching a documentary titled "The Men Who Built America some years ago. It was a hit on the History Channel, and it was centered around characters like Andrew Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P.Morgan, and Henry Ford. I learnt a lot from the documentary, and I also went ahead to buy books on these characters. There has to be something unique about building generational wealth when you know for sure that you are racing to the end of your finite lifetime daily, and at the same time, you are building wealth that would outlive you. Rockefeller single-handedly transformed America from the use of whale oil to the use of petroleum. He built a lot of railways, which he used to transport his oil all over America. He built a monopoly so tight that the American Congress eventually had to step in to break it, allowing other players with different ideas to enter the oil and gas business.
 Till tomorrow, most nay-sayers remember the monopoly, but they forget about the transformative power Rockefeller's vision brought to the nation of America. It takes men of vision to build a nation. 
Vision building is a risky venture, but the impact is way beyond just the money to be made. When you build a vision around industrializing a nation, you will face a lot of resistance. Those who don't see the vision will wonder why you cannot let things be as they are. Must things change? Who told him things are not fine as they are? Some people will only preach and teach about change, leadership, and development. In countries like Nigeria, where we all know the right thing to do and talk about it, but nobody bothers to do it, talk is golden. It takes a different kind of mindset to move beyond talking to building. While Dangote was building his refinery, I asked one of his staff members about the progress. The staff member said, "That project will never see the light of day. That man has ventured into a project that will ruin him. Instead of him to keep riding his luck with cement, fertilizer, and sugar. He kept pushing his luck until he ran out of luck." Most Nigerians believed at the time that it was a scam, and some were very sure it would never work.
 Someone told me the government will never allow it to succeed. All the people who spoke against it did so based on past experiences and a display of their lack of faith in a Nigeria where things can work. When the refinery was eventually commissioned and people saw the evidence of it, they changed the narrative. They said he will end up creating a monopoly. Lazy minds criticise what better minds took time and effort to build; this has always been true of human nature. True builders are inspired by what others are doing, and it spurs them on to do more. Dangote said in a recent interview that he was in China, and when he heard another business owner speak on his investment and projected profit for the coming year, he felt ashamed, as if he had not done anything. That is the spirit of a true builder. A friend wrote to me yesterday and asked me why the church in Nigeria is not following in the footsteps of Dangote in developing Nigeria through capitalist ideals.
 He said Nigerian Christian leaders kept building new and bigger churches. I told him he was making the mistake many critics are making by comparing two different things. Pastors may reside in a nation, but they are building structures on earth for another kingdom entirely. If a pastor builds a hospital, schools, recreation centres, universities, and churches. He does not do these things as led by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of love and light. The man or woman of God at the helm of affairs in a church or ministry is only focused on empowering the members and preparing them for the Kingdom to come. Asking him or her to then turn his attention to secular things is wrong. Some American politicians once approached Billy Graham to ask him to run for the office of the President of America. They said they had done their research and statistics and discovered that he was the only one who would win with a landslide. He turned it down because he knew what they were seeing and what he was doing may align in the short run, but the rules of engagement in the world of Adam and the rules of engagement in the World of Jesus are very different. I ask that we stop taking the lazy way out of conversations by blaming the same set of people all the time. Nigeria is beginning to respond to the laws of productivity. The economy is getting better. We (Dangote) are exporting refined oil and supplying billions of liters to the world. We are exporting cement and fertilizer to the world. We are experiencing record growth in the stock exchange, and investor confidence is at an all-time high. It is time for people who have the means to invest in Nigeria.
 Dangote is playing the Rockefeller role. We need a giant in steel. We need a giant in electricity. We need a giant in transportation (That sector is crying for reformation, investment, and modernization. There is a lot of money to be made if done right). We need a giant in the blue economy and tourism. We need a giant in the automobile and technology. We need a giant in the health sector. We have seen that the government has no business in business! Three refineries built by the government with record losses over fifty years,  one built by an individual with record profits, while also solving many headaches for the country. What Nigeria needs now is not social media criticism and name-calling. We don't need cheap money made from criminal enterprise and fraud. All those who embezzled funds under past governments and those who are embezzling funds now, can you please form an association, put the funds together, and spend it on Nigeria? We have the population, we are teeming with young people, and we are innovative as a people. We need our own J.P. Morgan. We need our own Henry Ford. We need our own Andrew Vanderbilt. We need our own Carnegie. We need legacy builders, long-term thinkers, and bold industrialists. I am not all talk, too. I promise I have giants in the renewable energy sector and in commerce. I also have three giants in the financial sector. The earlier we begin to build, the sooner we will complete this phase and take over the sectors. If we don't build, others will and when they do, we will be reduced to crying foul and claiming monopoly. Heaven has always favoured those who do, not those who refrain from doing! 
-GSW-