Why Many People Are Poor – Omokri
Why Many People Are Poor – Omokri
Nobody needs an iPhone 17. They may want it. But they don’t need it. You don’t even need a phone. Until you understand what a need is, you will always go broke because you are using your scarce resources to fulfil your wants. A need is something that is an absolute requirement.
You need food, water, shelter, clothing, love, education, security, respect and the opportunity to pursue your own happiness. Outside of these, almost everything else is a want.
And there are some needs, such as sexual intercourse, that you control, in that you do not start having them unless and until you open the door. Which is why people, like me, have taught sexual abstinence until you marry. Once you start, your body will find it difficult to stop, which is why the Creator designed it for the institution of marriage.
When you understand this discipline, you will have better clarity on how to manage people, time and money.
Sadly, most people in our society do not understand the difference between their needs and their wants. Which is why you see people with expensive wigs, iPhones, designer clothes, and who went to a club or lounge the previous night, begging for loans to pay their house rent, buy food or settle their children’s school fees.
If you live by discipline, you will not need to pray to meet your necessities.
Many people living in multi-dimensional poverty are right now thinking of how to raise money, not to start a business, or to meet their needs, but to catch fun this Christmas.
Our desire for immediate pleasure is often why we do not have an eventual treasure.
Capital is not the problem with many of our people. We can always raise capital, even if it is small. The challenge is what we do with it.
For example, look at how many Nigerians were victims of loan apps before the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission intervened.
But here is the issue with that: All those people accessed the loan apps via their smartphones. That means they already had enough capital to start a small business in the first place.
How much did Mohammed Yunus, through his Grameen Bank, give as capital to help people in Bangladesh escape poverty? As little as $5!
Life is such that nature will provide you with enough to meet your need, but not your greed. But if you try to satisfy your wants before your needs, the same nature will humble you because you are not mature.
Look at it this way: If you cannot manage your need, why would God and man give you wealth and power?
You see that in society, where people breed and have children when they don’t have an income and accuse their relatives of being wicked if they refuse to help them raise their family.
Listen, you do not need an immediate family if you have no income. You need a job or a business. And it does not matter if time is going by and you are ageing. Let time go. Let age come. Those are not criteria for expansion. Growth in your family should ONLY come with a rise in your income.
If the Black Race can understand and implement this, we will end poverty in one generation. And with poverty gone, its evil twin, insecurity, will also go.
Reassess your life. Focus on developing a strong sense of self-esteem and self-respect so that your purchase decisions are driven by your needs rather than societal pressure.
I go back to what I started with-an iPhone 17. You don’t need it.
Recently, I spent time with Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the wealthiest Black person on Earth. He does not have an iPhone 17. Instead, he uses a regular Samsung Android phone.
A phone is a communication device, not a status symbol.
And as we end the year, if the most expensive thing you bought was a phone, especially one that you do not need, your 2026, should God spare your life till then, should be devoted to acquiring the discipline of prioritising your needs over your wants.
Surely, some people within your circle will start calling you stingy. But guess what? Only a beggar is an expert at identifying stingy people!
Reno Omokri
Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022. 21st Most Talked About Person in Africa, 2024.
