AMERICAN MULTI-BILLIONAIRE TELLS BORIS JOHNSON: Nigeria Now Most Attractive Investment Destination
By Olabode Opeseitan
One of the most unmistakable traits of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is his energy. Not the kind that flickers and fades, but the kind that fills a room, charges the air, and makes even the skeptical lean in. Boris is what you call the life wire of a gathering. A super spark. A man who ignites conversations with a mix of wit and conviction. His presence is not just felt. It is absorbed.
And so it was on Thursday in Owerri, Nigeria, when global political and business leaders converged on the Imo State capital for an investment conference. The host was Governor Hope Uzodinma, a man who radiates optimism and carries himself with the quiet confidence of a patriot who believes in the promise of his people.
When Boris took the podium, the atmosphere shifted. His voice, masculine, burlesque, yet laced with respect, cut through the room like a trumpet blast. Conversations stilled. Phones were lowered. All eyes turned to the man who once governed the United Kingdom and now stood in the heartland of Nigeria, ready to speak not just of history but of possibility.
He opened with jokes, the kind that disarm. He celebrated the enduring ties between Britain and Nigeria. He spoke warmly of Nigerian culture, praised Uzodinma’s vision, and saluted Kemi Badenoch, the Nigerian-born leader of the UK’s Conservative Party.
Then came the moment. The pivot. The unexpected.
Nigeria, he said, is now the most admired investment destination among billionaire businessmen.
He told a story.
“This is a true story,” he began. “Two days ago, I was in the Gulf. I won’t say which city, but it was a global investment conference. The room was full of high rollers. Titans. People who move markets with a sentence. I was sitting next to one of them, a man with tens of billions of dollars. He told me he had so many homes in Malibu, he didn’t have enough family to fill them. So many private jets, he flies with two at a time. One for the journey. The other, just in case the first runs out of peanuts.”
The room erupted in laughter. But Boris wasn’t done.
“This man,” he continued, “is a brilliant investor. People hang on his every word. It was like that scene in Trading Places, when everyone waits to hear what Eddie Murphy will say about the next stock. We asked him, ‘Where is the country? The one you believe is the most exciting investment prospect in the world?’”
He paused.
“And he said, ‘I’ll tell you what it is. It’s going to overtake China. I’ve been looking at the numbers. It’s got the most dynamic population of virtually any country on earth. The answer is Nigeria.’”
There it was. A billionaire’s whisper, carried across continents, now amplified in a Nigerian hall. Not a diplomatic platitude. Not a consultant’s slide. But a verdict from someone who bets billions, not words.
It was a moment that lifted the room. Not because it flattered, but because it confirmed what many in that hall already believed, deep in their bones. That Nigeria is not a footnote. Not a cautionary tale. But a headline waiting to be written.
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