LAGOS – Poverty in Nigeria has become a household endemic affliction that Nigerians continue to battle with on a daily basis. It is now part of our history; and the Nigerian government is one of the prominent agents that continue to elongate this virus amongst the masses as they are being deprived of their rights to life and good living. In a nation with zero or little diseases, poverty has taken the baton; and year-in-year-out, it worsens like a deadly disease. It is an evident and crystal disease that even the blind could envisage. That is what it has reduced Nigerians to; a subject of ridicule in the sight of the neighbourhood and foreign countries. You can identify a poverty-stricken Nigerian in many ways: from how tattered and homeless he looks, his thinking faculty, where he lives, and what he eats (and so, that is why the upper class have attributed garri to poverty).

Although, there have been two schools of thought on what poverty truly is: one, the people in this category see poverty as only when one mind is impoverished; whilst the other school sees it as lacking in finances and material possessions. But come what may, poverty is poverty, no matter how you try to define or sugarcoat it to appear decent and diplomatic in the face of the elites. Simply put, poverty is a lack or an absence of what one needs to sustain and navigate through life. There is no befitting justification for it. As people have attributed the alarming level of poverty amongst Nigerians to atrocious governance, the postcolonialist class has also attributed the root cause of poverty to our contact with the colonial masters; thus, historically, it is justifiable, as the learned amongst Nigerians are savvy of this fact.

In spite of the fact that poverty tends to cart away the sense of humanity and livelihood from Nigerians, there have been so many people who have launched their way out of poverty through different paths. It may not be an easy journey; but definitely, it is worth the journey and also a viable process to tread upon. Having realised that poverty has no good, yet being conscious of it, has brought about creativity in the minds of so many people today in Nigeria of today. People have creatively found lasting solutions to their financial status. Some have continually done this by inventions. Some have done this by flying out of the country. Some have ventured into businesses, whilst others have taken an adventurous route to breaking the long-term disease in their homes. These are the people you will find in the entertainment industry, fashion, art, agricultural sector, tech, etcetera.

Consequently from the foregoing, Joseph James Nantomah is indisputably amongst the categories of people, as we have in the aforementioned. Joseph Nantomah’s story is a tragic-heroic one, which every common Nigerian can relate with, but does not follow the same route as every commoner’s story does. Joseph J. Nantomah as I would like to refer to him in this article as the Jay Jay Okocha of entrepreneurship in both Nigeria and abroad, although he is popularly known in the entrepreneurship world and by so many people as “the Black Mentor”. He was born in Borokiri, in the city of Port Harcourt, South South, Nigeria, on 31st December, 1976. Joseph J. Nantomah is a serial real estate investor, life coach, philanthropist amongst other things.

For Joseph, growing up as a child in the city of Port Harcourt was tough, even tougher. He was raised by his stepmother after his mother had left him for his father at an early age of two (2). His father was a member of the Nigerian sailor, with his stepmother being a petty trader in Port Harcourt. At an early age, Joseph began to run errands for his stepmother by hawking his step mother’s good to put food on the table; his quota of support to the family as a child, whilst he did sleep and feed amongst dozens of other children and siblings. It was a tough time for him as he, due to financial issues, was unable to further his high school education to a university level.

Nevertheless, Joseph, amidst these struggles did not relent. He gave no space for excuses and focused on building his life and status, having realised where he was coming from as a child with no silver spoon in his mouth. The encounter he had with books from financial models such as Robert Kiyosaki and Tony Robbins exposed his mind to some secret about life, as is believed generally that, the secret of life and honing of finances, lies in the great books. And since he had had this first experience that changed his mind, he began to break bounds and his excesses, which today has earned him respect both home and abroad. He has given back many times to humanity and society in Nigeria and in the United States.

Lastly, before Joseph James Nantomah moved finally to the United States of America in 2016, he had become a project management professional with a record of him training over 5,000 professionals in the different fields of life, including bank officials in 2008. On his arrival in the United States, instead of opting for a 9-to-5 job like every other immigrant who came to find a greener pasture, he thought of building his own business and joined bandwagon of entrepreneurs in the United States by starting a real estate management as he had acquired this knowledge from a workshop set for prospective and intending real estate investor and manager. Through his exposure and keen interest for knowledge, he had had encounters with so many iconic personnel in the world of entrepreneurs and also committed his time to championing courses and supporting young entrepreneurs with needed equipment and finances to start up their entrepreneurial goals. Also, as a life coach, Nantomah founded Mentor America which impacted more than 500,000 people worldwide as his own gesture of giving back to society. In 2018, Nantomah met Mike Pence, the then-vice president of the US and was honoured with the President’s honour roll for the Republican Party by Donald Trump, who served as the 45th president of the United States. Just two years of golden jubilee, Nantomah has already written his name in history books within two continents, America and Africa. All these and more, he could achieve with the inspiration he had during his childhood days and from the family he came from. Thus, one could then say, Joseph gained momentum from the fact that he was from a poverty-stricken country and home.