The following was contributed by ASFL executive board member Ajibola Adigun

On Saturday March 7, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, hosted a Leadership and Liberty Forum under the auspices of the Students’ Union and the African Students For Liberty where students and young professionals gathered for a day of deliberations, debates and lectures on things to do to move the nation forward.

 
It was unusually late in the proceedings for a University renowned for its socialist ethos and the radical bent of her students before concerns about government’s failure to redistribute wealth through the taxation of Nigerian entrepreneurs like Aliko Dangote to renovate buildings such as the Adekunle Fajuyi Hall of the University, among other things, came on the agenda.

 
One of the participants passionately suggested various schemes he could better put Aliko Dangote’s money to. He would build more universities like the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), which her students affectionately translate the acronym ‘OAU’ to mean Oba Awon University, King of all Universities. He would set up committees to make sure that charitable donations going to building better schools and better health facilities are more than those that companies give to beauty pageants and musical contests. All these and more he would do because Aliko Dangote was making so much money from Nigerians and it was his responsibility to give back to the society. He wondered if anybody had heard of anytime Dangote endowed any university. What manner of injustice was that that a man sat down in the office and made millions of U.S. dollars while the laborers on the factory floor earned petty wages?

In one breath, he had given voice to the thoughts of people who worried about growing inequality. How could one person be so rich in a country of paupers? Couldn’t we, through the government, compel companies and individuals to give to the charities of our choice?

 
While it is difficult to praise all Nigerian entrepreneurs because of the tendency to rig the rules to their advantage through tariffs imposed on their competitors, it is unfortunate that we do not applaud those who, despite all of the challenges in doing business in Nigeria, find ways to succeed. And the only way they can continually be rich and successful is to find ways to serve the poor through the goods and services they make available. This mutually beneficial exchange of value is often ignored, sometimes capriciously, for membership in the committee to deliberate on how to spend the profits made.

This is why we should all be entrepreneurs. To earn the right to spend our profits the ways we wish if our selfish acts of providing goods and services for other people for profit count for nothing. To restate the immortal words of Adam Smith: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” And the regard to the entrepreneur’s profit incentive leads him into a life of service. As Ghandi says, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Businesses are charities too. Through the creation of jobs and provision of essential goods and services they engage in self-sustainable philanthropy. It cannot be said one time too many, albeit with its addendum as caveat. Businesses are charities too; but not all businesses are charities.

If Nigeria were ranked in the crony-capitalism index- a measure of countries and cities where there is an increasing trend of using resources to obtain economic gain without reciprocating through wealth creation- we would be up there with the likes of Russia and Ukraine, two countries whose wealth also come majorly from natural resources, and business and political interests are difficult to tell apart. This is why not all businesses are charities.

 
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, according to Forbes, has recently lost $10.3 billion due to a weaker Nigerian currency and no fault of his. So have a lot of Nigerian businesses who depend on a strong currency to keep their heads afloat. It is popular to write-off the losses of these entrepreneurs as if profit is the only reward for taking risks. More popular still is not appreciating the roles that entrepreneurs play in our lives. Like street magicians, the ease at which they perform their feats makes us thumb our noses at them.

Loosing oneself in the service of others through the provision of goods and services so good a lot of people are willing to pay for them is charity enough on its own. Going an extra length of donating part of one’s profit to charity is also enough drive to want to make profit. This is why we should all be entrepreneurs.