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Bribery or PR: An Entrepreneur’s Dilemma
The sixth entrepreneur, Abiodun Bolaji came to ask for 6 million naira in exchange for 60% equity in his refuse disposal business. His presentation seemed to reveal the ambitions of a young man out with a laudable social cause, to rid our cities of debris and garbage, but his business plan revealed a young man who had allocated money disguised as “monthly PR” to be disbursed as ‘bribe’ or ‘brown envelope’ for certain undisclosed officials. His lame justification for this “monthly PR” budget led him to confess his intention to consort to bribery in order to advance his business, implicating him as a business man who had no integrity; whom, if supported would not support the movement to rid the world of the impression that Nigerians were masters at cutting corners, and doing shady deals.
“This doesn’t look good,” John Momoh exclaimed disappointedly, “I wanted to invest in this but you just shot yourself in the foot…I’m out”. All the dragons opted out.
Obv: This entrepreneur had a good chance until he blew himself up with a self-ignited dynamite. How do you confess on TV that you intend to ‘bribe’ your way to business success? I am shocked, and I wonder how you feel! Share your comments…
–The Den Sweeper
August 12th, 2008 at 10:07 am
obviously one reason why most bussinesses dont flourish. On the mind of most average entrepreneurs is this rotten seed; corruption. I loud the dragons firm stand against it. We now know once again that intergrity and not bribery or is it PR (whatever the nomenclature) is the surest and safest way to the top….too bad Bolaji!.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Corruption and bribery (or whatever name it is called to disguise) should be totally discouraged. I am very happy that the Dragons’ highlighted to Abiodun Bolaji that you do not need to go down that route to be successful. There are men and women of integrity in our society who still believe in self discipline, hardwork and are morally upright.
For Abiodun to openly admit his intentions shows how low the moral of our society has sunk to with regards to bribery- we need to fight against this and the only way is through education.
Information is more powerful when it is shared openly so we need to let people no that you can do honest business without resorting to such low and dirty standard. Keep up the good work and promote a positve Nigeria where businesses can thrive on good moral standing.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I did not watch the broadcast but was told that my presentation to the dragons was not aired, just one sentence from me was shown.
I believe that it is only a mad person that goes on television and says he wants to engage in bribery. Obviously, the term “PR” that was used in the presentation was for a good social cause just like the project itself. there was no statement about bribery in the presentation until Mrs Awosika termed the PR in cash flow as bribery which was the furthest thing on my mind.
why wouuld i need to bribe people monthly? Giving to the society that you are serving is now a crime but everybody believes in Good Corporate Social Responsibility, but the rich in Nigeria run away from it except for themselves and their families to enjoy the wealth of the nation.
also, the cash flow projection is a proposed budget projection and not actual spending that must be done. All possible spending are included in cash flow.
comments made during the program have been edited and i understand that it is better to be a saint on television.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
I watched this program for the very first time and I was very happy to see someting profoundly entertaining and intellectually interesting until Bolaji mentioned the bribery thing on TV. What a naive and desperate chap. With the avalanche of scandals on the pages of our newspapers, how do we end this plague!
Kudos to the Dragons for readjusting Bolaji. Bolaji’s free-fall is enough to learn from.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:35 am
According to what we saw in the den, the allocation for “monthly PR” was very questionable, and the entrepreneur had failed to justify, or exonerate himself when accused of having allocated that distasteful “monthly PR” budget in bad fate. It baffles me that Bodun, who claims to be the entrepreneur in question is now trying to justify his budget. I wonder why he did not clarify himself before the dragons.
No matter what, I firmly believe that inexplicable budgets should always be eliminated; how can you talk about CSR when your business isn’t off-the-grounds yet? And if I may remind Bodun, CSRs are usually well explained, and the purpose is always clear.
Corporate Social Responsibility is never a clandestine affair.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Thank you for Den sweeper’s comment and you should have just stated that i included monthly PR which is one line in a table of a 12 page document. I never thought that bribery is synonymous with PR because i have been living my life with integrity and purpose and do not have diabolical mind like the way you are potraying me.
The dragons especially Mrs Awosika were not really interested in my efforts to explain the idea because she had a set mind about PR and she blew it out of proportion. Do i justify myself by continuing to argue with them on set? It is because i need finance for my business that brought me this dirt, mudslinging and insult.
Nobody that knows me will ever believe that my name is associated with bribe to get work done because i am educated, smart and intelligent as you already know from my presentation which the dragons could not discover any lapses. Dont forget that i educated the dragons on World Bank Projects in Nigeria and everybody knows there is nothing like bribery with the World Bank.
My business concern has been off the ground over 3 years ago and part of it is that about 35 young people are benefitting from a computer training scholarship from me. This plan was concluded 3 months ago.
Finally, please give me benefit of doubt that i could not have been on Global Television with a bribery Term called “PR”
August 14th, 2008 at 2:05 am
That was quite strange but i just hope that the guy was well understood.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
There will be a repeat broadcast of episode 3 on Channels TV on Saturday from 1pm -2pm.
I hope it will help shed more light on this subject.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Abiodun should be given the benefit of doubt as i find it hard to believe anyone would come out openly to confess to giving bribe especially on INTERNATIONAL TV. The problem i think he had was not being able to give a clear interpretation of his proposal and typical nigeria, buried him before he died, as the saying goes!
August 15th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
He should be arrested and investigated…obviously, that premonition of his did not start from the Dragons den…if he is a graduate, he must have bribed his way out of school…and if he is still in school, he is definitely a cultist or terrorist…What a disgrace he is to Nigerian youths and his family…his name should be noted and never allowed to hold any sensitive position in public office…i am over disapointed in this fellow
August 18th, 2008 at 12:18 am
hi,
i think we need to really see this issue from the realistic perspective than the way we are all painting it now, if we can sincerely ask all the big public company’s to open their books we continue to see PR here and PR there,they call it corporate responsibilties it happens all over the world the only faulty thing about biodun was his presentation, biodun is a bright young man and i think he will succeed in his endeavours and i believe he is succeeding, madam Awosika actually coined that word “Bribe” and biodun did not correct that impression immidiately while they were all opting out from investing,this fuuny scenario, played itself out again today, i cant recall the name of the very intelligent lady that wanted 3 million to grow her business of developing businesses and preventing startups from dying, i almost went mad when the madam in the house was already opting out, the lady did not allow all of them to continue opting out rather she displayed avowed commitment to her business,… i wont comment on todays show until there is a posting on it for our comments, Biodun you did not start this whole corruption thing, and i beleive that PR means Public relation and not bribe i still know that that investors will look for maximum returns PR or no PR, lets continue to decieve ourselves in this country where corruption assumes an abnormal dimention and blame it on biodun’s slip of tongue
August 20th, 2008 at 10:58 am
i watched the program on channels. I want to thank the producers of Dragons Den for the opportunity to present one of my ideas. I do not have any problem with the broadcast of the program.
however, i will like to state that none of the dragons on the set that i made the presentation to used any negative comment on me and infact chris parkes commended me for my honesty, john momoh also commended me for my honesty and asked the producers to represent me for the program which was not done and ibukun awosika advised me to hide such budget next time under another name.
my pain and regret is the way the Den Sweeper has presented and described me on this website as a person who practices bribery and a person with no integrity to the world.
sequel to this, i believe the Den Sweeper and the producers should be ready to defend this allegation with proof and evidence in a court of law. my lawyers will be in touch with the producers shortly. This is a case of libel.
finally, please keep an unedited recording of my presentation handy for use.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I watched this episode of our great program and the message I also got from Abiodun Bolaji’s presentation was that it included an unexplained provision for PR to the people in the state authorities he would be interfacing with in his highly needful chosen line of business. Now, what is PR? The guy had all the opportunities to explain this to the dragons (or do any thing necessary to savage his image) on international television, but he failed to seize the moment. Ms Odewingie, who was under similar attacks from the dragons, tenaciously seized the moment and was rewarded with three million naira investment. Abiodun should listen to the voice of humility and just learn his lessons by purging himself of ego tripping and this wrong notion that you can only do business in Nigeria through bribery and corruption. He even has the money to pay lawyers to sue the dragons for libel in respect of a business he does not have enough money to start. Very interesting. I wonder if this is the right road to travel at his young age and the very tender stage of his business. Dear Abiodun, do not burn your bridges on international television, because what you do not get today you can easily get tomorrow…and even much more…and even from the same or another set of dragons. And by basic nature science, we can safely say that all dragons are the same. So, other dragons you might need and meet in future are probably watching this show right now.
Have far can we go in blaming this young man? What roll models do the youths of Nigeria have to look up to in our ’successful’ elders? Check out a few recent examples.
A highly placed woman in the business world just used her position to force some of the most important business people in Nigeria to give her PR of one hundred million naira to enable her play the race card in the American presidential election. The whole world condemned this unlawful act; her preferred American presidential candidate publicly disowned her. Now, instead of her to repent and apologize, she said nobody should tell her what to do with her money, official position, PhD, green card, 14-year stay in America, etc, etc. She is above the law, especially as she had done this same thing for a Nigerian presidential candidate in the past with no repercussions.
Another highly placed man in the same Nigerian business world has just been revealed to have paid about 0ne billion naira of public funds to a sorcerer to facilitate his getting contracts from his state government and also eliminate those who had refused to allow him access to the public treasury. This man has also not repented, instead he claims that he was hypnotized by the sorcerer. However, his eyes were open enough for him not to have invested his personal money and assets in this diabolic venture.
Now, these are the type of successful elders that young guys like Abiodun are seeing as role models. That is why Abiodun would not simply repent and take his highly valuable lessons home. Rather, he is actually threatening to sue the dragons.
Like the man said in his book, “What a country!”.