One of the old philosophical songs of our very own King Sunny Ade, KSA, came to mind while crafting this piece.
More than three decades ago, the legend of juju music sang: “Oja Oyingbo, ko mo p’enikan o wa o” — Oyingbo market is unaware whether someone is absent or not. What he packed inside that lyrics was that if, for whatever reasons, someone chooses to not come to the busy Oyingbo market in Lagos, that’s their problem. Oyingbo market won’t stand still or not open because of them.
Business will go on and it surely does. KSA went on to add that if he had offended the elders, they should forgive him.
As you may have heard, the Nigerian Exchange has been doing well and in the news in the past couple of weeks. The All Share Index tells the story. Though there were bearish sentiments last week and the values of the shares of some big players went down , that’s the nature of markets. They go up and come down.
This was well captured in the Guardian newspaper of Tuesday, September 2,. “NGX reopens in September on bearish note, capitalisation dips by N362 billion.” It went on to reveal that: “The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) reopened for September on a downturn, yesterday [September 1], as investors lost N362 billion, amid depreciation in 33 stocks.”
Continuing, it noted that: “The market capitalisation of listed companies declined 0.41 percent to N88.406 trillion from N88.769 trillion recorded last Friday.” Also, “the all-share index, which measures the performance of listed equities, dropped by 573.30 basis points to 139722.19 points from 140295.49 points traded on Friday.”
Among companies whose share prices went down on Monday were: “Lafarge WAPCO, Eterna, Oando and Zenith.”
As already mentioned, stock markets go up and down. Secondly, like many other things in life, they too go in cycles – as evident in the flagship’s report. Even both Manchester United and their backyard rivals, Manchester City, know this truism about going up and coming down.
Here’s the thing, keep an eye on happenings in the NGX, as you’ll learn a lot. Watch it throughout this month and that’ll definitely serve as your own way of upping your financial education. Even if you’ve been hurt and lost money before, forgive yourself and use this month to learn.
Encountering homeless pregnant woman
While on a Southbound Victoria line heading to Brixton in April, a homeless woman came onboard and made her way to the carriage I was in.
“Help me. I’m pregnant and need money to feed,” she pleaded. Looking at the young mother-to-be as she stood in front of me, despite one’s suspicion that she was going to use the cash to smoke something, I was nevertheless moved by her mannerism. Though I always carried a little cash, yours truly didn’t feel like parting with his tenner — £10. I wished I had coins. Hopefully, we’ll meet again.
