On Oct 1, 2018, I predicted that the governor of Ebonyi State (Nigeria) would decamp PDP for APC . At that time, he was running for governorship on the PDP ticket. I wrote this: “ Engr David Umahi will win with PDP in 2019 but will decamp to APC shortly.” I also predicted that by 2023, he would be a Vice Presidential candidate under APC. Today, for America, I write that former President Donald Trump will run for re-election in 2024.

The world seemed to have been in silence since he was de-platformed at Twitter, Facebook and other social media firms. And without his handles, he has been unable to command his followers in a coherent way, for any mission. But that is going to change. Yes, Trump is launching his own social media platform in about 3 months: ‘Jason Miller, a long-time adviser and spokesperson for Trump’s 2020 campaign told Howard Kurtz on Fox’s “MediaBuzz” that Trump will be “returning to social media in probably about two or three months.” He added Trump’s return will be with “his own platform” that will attract “tens of millions” of new users and “completely redefine the game.”’

He has a chance as he can quickly build a website, and invest in the infrastructure stacks. He should be smart to know that Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other cloud companies could terminate his account, as Amazon did with Parler, if his playbook does not change. So, expect Trump to build end-to-end core technology stacks in-house. 

.@JasonMillerinDC said President Trump will be "returning to social media in two or three months" with "his own platform" that will "completely redefine the game" and attract "tens of millions" of new users. #MediaBuzz

— #MediaBuzz (@MediaBuzzFNC) March 21, 2021

Simply, he has the resources to build a conservative tribe on social media. Yet, I am not sure how far the mission will go. I struggle to read Fox News just as I struggle with HuffPost, as you can see extreme biases at the Right and Left, respectively, of their articles. With no core objectivity,  you lose interest. 

A social media built for a tribe will have a ceiling for growth. Of course, for a former President, anything from him could even come to dominate Twitter trending barometer. And that could be the strategy: have a website where people can confirm the message is directly from him, and the virality could happen in other places.

My response to a comment on LinkedIn

Everyone has biases but you focus on the threshold. The fact remains that the greatest technology companies are started/created in blue states which remain the richest states/cities in America. The implication is that people who run these techs are largely democratic-leaning. It is a slam dunk – out of the 50 largest American cities, more than 70% are democratic. And out of the top cities on technology startups per capita, more than 70% are democratic-leaning.

Have you also asked yourself why in the ranking of American universities, blue states host more than 90% of the top ten. These things are not be chance – people make them happen!

And what does that tell you? Those who run techs and media are evidently-biased to the Left.

This week, we will have three Live sessions at Tekedia Mini-MBA. Ifeoma Uddoh will begin on Tuesday (note the time, 11am WAT) with a session on “Building Impactful Gender-Anchored Companies” as she shares  her mission at Shecluded. On Thursday, Project Management Institute (PMI)-honoured Taiwo Abraham. PMP Abraham will take us to an excursion on Effective Project Management.

On Saturday, Ndubuisi Ekekwe will round up the week with Career Diversification & How To Insure Your Career To Ensure You Keep Rising & Earning More. Links in the Board.

Tue, March 23 | 11am – 12noon WAT | Building Impactful Gender-Anchored Companies – Ifeoma Uddoh, Founder, Shecluded

Thur, March 25 | 7 – 8.00pm WAT | Effective Project Management – Taiwo Abraham, Program Manager, Horizant Canada

Sat, March 27 | 7 – 8.30pm WAT | Career Diversification & Insurance, General Topic – Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Tekedia Institute brings business thought-leaders to our Tekedia Mini-MBA program. Dr. Henry Chan, our China Business faculty, discusses ecommerce in China, during a recent Tekedia Live. Three times every week, we have Live conversations on business systems, and advance the wealth in firms. Enjoy and join us 

Saudi Arabia’s Aramco (its equivalent of NNPC in Nigeria) has declared a dividend for financial year 2020 – and the number is massive: $75 billion. Yes, the company will share $75 billion among its investors. You may see that, and ask for the privatization of  NNPC, but remember electricity and NEPA which post privatization has not delivered a different outcome.

As the government plans to invest $1.5 billion, for rehabilitation, into a national refinery, many prominent Nigerians like Atedo Peterside (founder of Stanbic IBTC) have asked the government to kill the idea, and sell. But I do not just buy SELL these days since typically we invest say $5 billion to build, and then sell at $1 billion, and even after doing that, nothing changes.

With that, the question is this: what should be the playbook for Nigeria and NNPC to unlock the type of value, in proportion, Aramco has delivered in Saudi Arabia?

Oil giant Saudi Aramco reported a 44% slump in full-year 2020 results, but maintained its $75 billion dollar dividend payout, with CEO Amin Nasser describing the last twelve months as one of the most “challenging years” in recent history.

Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s behemoth state oil firm, reported net income of $49 billion in 2020, down from $88.19 billion in 2019. The result was slightly below analysts expectations of $48.1 billion but still represents the highest of any public company globally.

“In one of the most challenging years in recent history, Aramco demonstrated its unique value proposition through its considerable financial and operational agility,” Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said in company statement Sunday.

In 2017, I was for “privatize and put in the stock market” when I wrote this, but today, after the mess in the electricity sector, I am not even sure privatization holds the magic wand in Nigeria. Indeed, after years, no one can claim that privatizing NEPA has brought better results in Nigeria’s electricity sector.

Simply, NNPC is still struggling to develop the capacity to reconcile its books with the Nigerian people. This may not be corruption; it could simply be lack of process, within a very complex Corporation, and the interrelationships it maintains with different segments of the Nigerian government, from the Federal Ministry of Finance to the Central Bank of Nigeria. It is a broken process and if General Buhari cannot fix it, it means we need to have a new strategy as a nation.

Yes, there is a way we can deal with this problem: take NNPC public and get its business done in the stock market. That way, all the missed and hidden money will be checked by market dynamics with dedicated experts looking at these numbers, more passionately, because they have fiduciary stakes in them.

NNPC Plc – Nigeria Should Take NNPC Public To Boost Transparency

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