Ufan mi,
That’s simply “My friends” in
Efik language of Cross River State, Nigeria. Hope you had a nice weekend? It is
my pleasure to welcome you to another episode of our weekly motivational Versus
Series. We are getting close to celebrating a year of writing this series as
this is the 47th edition. We might need to tweak after the first
year evaluation. So get ready, your feedback is highly important.
Today, we would be talking in
financial terms. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I do not like
Mathematics as a young lad but when you add the naira sign, I comprehend it
fast.
Some weeks, the water pumping
machine within my premises broke down. Some of my neighbours felt that the
machine had served for five years as such; it is due for replacement while some
neighbours differed saying that we can fix the machine. The machine was fixed
and it went back finally two weeks afterwards. We were back to square one,
alas, “kobo wise, naira foolish,” the Nigerian equivalent of English saying, “penny
wise, pound foolish”.
Kobo is that little fund that
seems minute but matters when accumulated. In the Yoruba parlance, it is said
to be, “eesun teretere ni dibu” which
means, ‘small drops makes the mighty ocean’. Kobo mindset makes one feel he has
conserved funds. Some ways in which we exhibit the kobo-mentality is when we
fix a worn-out item, buying a fairly-used or second-hand item. This eventually
runs in thousands of naira at the end of the day and it cost more than the
purchasing a brand new item.
Naira is the huge amount expended
to procure a particular item. Many of the needed new things that are purchased
are usually tagged expensive but the value will be gotten over time. Naira is
that hugged amount that is spent an item while one is sure of maintaining
distance from a plumber or any other emergency repair service as the case
maybe.
Remember, whatever you gain at
the corner will be lost at the bend. Make optimal use of your limited funds by
not spending wasteful when you actually want to be thrift. Go for the best at
once and not keep buying inferior products over and over.
Have a thriving week.
Best regards,
Olu