S3 Ep. 219 Gatekeepers of Influence: Unveiling Power Dynamics and African Narratives

Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good everything. How are you? Yes, I'm excited. I was about to say are you this excited all the time? Well, I am. When I'm in this space for your information, it excites me because it is one moment, one happy moment. You know, I know that things will come out good things. But before I go on, how are you ? Mm-hmm? I will ask that question. It's not being rhetorical now, but sincerely, you know, asking because I care. Part of the reason why we are here is because you are there. All right, I'm fine myself, I'm beautiful, I'm great, I'm good. I'm grateful to god for this opportunity, this wonderful opportunity that we are here doing this. Okay, it's been an amazing season, an amazing period. I know you're wondering what are we going to be doing today? I'll let you in. I want to talk about what I title the gatekeepers, not your gate man, the gatekeepers. And the minute you hear gates, what comes to your mind is either protection, boundaries, something on the other side. Well, before I go into all of that, a lot has been going on globally, you know, and and there's this, what I call it shifts in so many things. Trump came in as the president of the United States and made some pronouncements. You will understand when we get into it some executive directives, or you may call it decrees and all of a sudden everybody, a good number of us here in Nigeria, those of us in diaspora, are all complaining and all of that. And the other day the Labour Party in the UK, the black lady, the Nigerian woman I think her name is Kemi or so came up with her own idea and everybody's like. But I just told myself hello, guys, it's Claire, go and build your own. Yeah, that's what they are all telling us Go and build your own . And if you cannot build your own and you want to be part of another man's, then you will subject yourself to that man's idea construct narrative. It brings me to what we want to talk about today the gate keepers, and I'm going to read this scripture. Yes, I'm going to read the scripture. I get a lot from. You know the bible, my quiet time. This scripture is taken from daniel, chapter 4, verse 17. A good number of us who are bible students. We know the scripture. Yeah, you can read it from any of the versions, but I want to read from KJV and maybe take NKJV. This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whom so ever he will and set it up over it, the basest of men, hmm, the decree of the watchers. So that's why I got this from the gatekeepers and I'm going to begin this episode with a story and I'll tell you as we. You know progress in the discourse and all of that. You come to appreciate why I'm starting with this story and where I'm going with the story. The earth is a narrated entity. Everybody sees it through the lens of bias. Dear buyers, you interpret it. That's how we see the world. There was a time in the United States of America that was when the railroads were. You know, transportation, communication evolved and the railroads were discovered as a result of steel. Then in the United States the commercial capital was Philadelphia. You know, when I mentioned this to my wife once, she was like I thought the financial capital of America has always been New York. No, it's not Philadelphia. And a lot economic boom. The banking system, the modern banking system, you know, was born and you know trade going on and all of that. But over a period, someone came from the UK, what we call now the United Kingdom. He came up with his own style of banking and he wanted to change the narrative and he wanted to pull the financial capital of, in my opinion, the world from Philadelphia to New York. Who's that guy? Jp Morgan, you've heard about him, you've heard about the bank , jp Morgan and Chase. Yes, so he came into it. I don't want to go into all the nitty-gritty and all of that, but the long and short of the story is that he succeeded in beating you get me beating the Philadelphia dogs if I were to use that word, the wild dogs in the fight and he pulled the financial capital of the United States of America, you know, by extension the world to New York, and that was how the Wall Street was born. Jp Morgan, uh-huh. So why did I read that scripture ? Why did I read that scripture? Why did I go through that scripture? Yes, that scripture is in the Old Testament. Daniel, the prophet, the philosopher, the economist, the political genius, got this revelation the world walks by the clock of time and there are those who have come to understand seasons and when it is time for something. They stand up. They courageously stand up and pick up this piece of time or what is about to happen, and they begin to interpret it. And in their interpretation, they change the narrative of the world, the concepts we come to know. That was what JP Morgan did and again we are in that season again. You just see things happening globally and you see few names. We are in that season again. You just see things happening globally and you see few names who are more or less like the puppet masters, if I want to use that Because they understand it . So they are the gatekeepers. Yes, would you call them gatekeepers of time, would you call them gatekeepers of the seasons? You know, lately we've been talking about time and seasons if you've been following us on this show because it's time Now in Africa we have a lot of us who complain yeah, we do. We complain a lot about the West . We complain how this, how that, how we imagine, and blah, blah, blah. But the truth is the gatekeepers. They control the show and I took some time to look at Nigeria, africa, but Nigeria, and I came to realize we have some gatekeepers. We do Names like Ngozi Okonjiwala, Names like Herbert Wigwe, the late Dangote, names like, name them. We know a couple of them, but there's one I want to talk about on the show today. Who, tony Elumelu, for your information, he didn't pay me to do this. Who, tony Elumelu, for your information, he didn't pay me to do this. It is part of my how do you call it? Study. Yes, part of what I do, my research. Now, these names I've called somehow. When you look at them closely, you come to see how they have come to understand the financial systems of the world, how energy flows. Sorry, I'm going through my phone because I want to pick out a thought. Yes, I've seen it, excuse me. They excuse me. They understand how the financial systems of the world works. They have come to like master it, the concepts, the economic principles, the Harvard Business School, the models and all of that. They've come to so understand it that they've broken the codes . And now they are in that place of control. They control. I looked at his life, tony Elumelu. I looked at him closely, the school he went to, for your information, his school in Nigeria, unn. Almost all of them Habat, wigwe , even Pitaobi. The school, as in their elementary, was here in Nigeria. Then maybe they went abroad to pursue some masters or professional whatever, but the basic. So a Nigerian mind is so powerful. You know I don't know if I've said it on the show before, but I know I've written about it before the earth will be boring without Nigeria. I've said it before, I'm not joking about it the earth will be boring without the Nigerian mind. And one of these minds, estonielu Melu, schooled in Nigeria. I mean, the air we breathe in Nigeria is what he's breathing. He eats, or he still eats, gari , pandaniam and all that. So the question is how does this mind work? This is how it works. The gatekeeper he has come to. You know, the gatekeepers this is me describing them have come to know that they were born for a reason, they came into this world for a reason and that reason cannot but be lived. So, whatever they do primary school, kindergarten, university there's this guide. Pk Kunle Shorio puts it this way. Yes, I listen to him, I follow him closely. Also Puts it this way Dreams like somebody tell you I am dreaming or I had a dream. You don't dream, you don't have a dream. Dreams, have you? What do you mean by that? Yes, it's like. Dreams are like entities, timelines. They want to happen. So they look for vessels, minds , who have the capacity to capture the dream and interpret the dream. And by interpreting the dream, they change times and seasons. They are not really changing times and seasons, as it were, but they are effecting the change. I hope I'm not confusing you. So if you look at the life of these people, their timelines of their lives maybe they're 50 years, 60 years, check every 10 years of their lives, you come to see this thing they do. You get me this activity so, and I was discussing with my wife and I asked her this question what comes first, state or being ? What comes first state or being ? What comes first state or being ? You know the world is full of nouns. Nouns, I mean english. The english language will tell you a now is this, a now is that . But if you look closely, most of these nouns metamorphose into verbs Doing. I hope I'm not confusing you. Nouns A noun is the name of a thing, place, whatever. But what comes first? Is it state or being? Our humanness is a function of our being. We are human beings. Our being precedes our doing. Our being defines our doing. So these people have come to understand this and they live these lives. They more or less have that understanding to shape the construct, the narrative. Now let me ask you this question have you ever wondered how money flows in this world? Take for a minute, think about it. It is quite complex. Yes, it is how money flows, how exchange happens, how the American dollar comes to be the definition of what I do in Africa. But listen, all of this is because the gatekeepers have come to define them and manipulate them, and it flows as the wheel, like a magician with a magic wand. Each time he gives out the spell is like it becomes a spelling and all of us fall under the spell. We have it. But you know the problem with us our ability to harness the gatekeepers in Africa, in Nigeria, to speak that language? Yes, to speak that language. What's that language? The language of progress, the language of development, the language of awe? Yes, the African style, but on their own, individually. You see them making this amazing, amazing contributions. Before I go on, I'm going to read what I wrote about Tony Elumelu. By the way, if you listen to this and you have a way of letting him listen to this too, why not? If not, give me a minute. I'm sorry, I'm not with my laptop today and I forgot my laptop. It happens Sometimes it does. You know you're preparing for the show and you just run out without knowing that you left something behind. Okay, give me a minute, give me a minute. Give me a minute, give me a minute. If I don't read this, you will not get the whole gist. Okay, I think I've seen it. So, like I said, jp Morgan was the one who created, or behind the creation of New York Stock Exchange, the Wall Street, pulling it from Philadelphia. So I'm going to start with that . I call this piece Illumination, not Illumination. Illumination, illumelu Illumination, the blueprint of Africa's entrepreneurial renaissance. Jp Morgan had Morganization yes , when he started his own act, then I was in the 17th, 18th century. The way he went about it they coined the name Morganization A bold restructuring of American industries that reshaped the economic landscape. Today Africa has Illumination. I coined it, a philosophy of economic empowerment driven by the visionary leadership of Tony Elumelu. Illumination it's not just about wealth accumulation. It's about wealth distribution through structured entrepreneurship. It's a systemic illumination of possibilities where access to capital, mentorship and sustainable investment become the bedrock of economic transformation From capitalism to Afri-capitalism. While traditional capitalism focuses on profit, illumination advocates for prosperity with impact Business as a force for good, creating opportunities rather than merely extracting value. Entrepreneur nation building. A thriving economy isn't built on handouts, but on empowered entrepreneurs. The Tony Elumelu Foundation a lot of us know about it has trained and funded over 18,000 entrepreneurs across Africa, igniting a ripple effect of innovation, job creation and wealth generation. The power of structured impact. Much like JP Morgan structured and stabilized industries Illumination has created an ecosystem for business growth, ensuring that startups don't just emerge but scale and sustain. From banking to nation building, from UBA to S-holding and TransCup, tony Elumelu has leveraged financial systems to do more than banking. He's building industries, electrifying communities and proving that Africa's future belongs. Yep to those who create. Yes, the creatives. Illumination is a call to action . It's a mindset that says Africa doesn't need aid. Yes, recently, all of us, the United States, the aid thing, the US aid, and we are complaining we don't need it. It needs audacity, the audacity to build, innovate and transform. Are you ready to be illuminated ? That's what I came to do on the show today. The gatekeepers I just talked about one of them, tony elumelu. Yes, and that is what we need now as a nation, as a continent, as a people. The gatekeepers for us in all the industries, yes, look at it across music, the creative arts, oil, oil and gas, that you will agree with me. All of this rides on the power of finance, money, the flow of currency. And, tony, like I described, illumination has shown us the way. Why am I smiling? Because I'm excited. You know, when I share this with my younger ones and all of that, they were like illumination. I said, yes, maybe Harvard Business School or Oxford will look at it. Let there be illumination Just like Morganization, all right guys. Let there be illumination just like organization. All right guys. I have to go always excited. At least I might come here to share moments like this with you . I hope this has inspired you as it has inspired me. Uh, I have to say this we are available on all the social media platforms. Go, follow us. We have amazing, amazing content for you on Instagram, facebook, tiktok, linkedin. Yes, on our YouTube. Are you following us? Have you subscribed? Go ahead and subscribe. We have a lot to share with you this season. I have so much. Honestly, I do. I won't say everything now, but follow us, you will see it as it comes. Like what Illumination Till I come your way again. My name is Amakri. Amakri is away. Bye for now.