Determined to liberate himself from the shackles of generational poverty ravaging his lineage and make something out of his life, fair-complexioned Olly Peter left his ancestral home at Eket in Akwa Ibom State and headed for Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to hustle and break the cycle
He tells his story: “My name is Olly Peter from Eket, Akwa Ibom State and I am 25 years old. I got my school leaving certificate in Akwa Ibom before coming to Warri in 2019. I came from Port Harcourt, Rivers State on my own.
“I went to Port Harcourt to hustle; I was doing barbing which I learnt for a year after I left secondary before I came to Warri.
“I wanted to continue with the ‘barbing’ work when I came to Warri, but I noticed that the owner of the barbing shop I was working in was cheating me so badly that I had to leave him. It was difficult for me to fend for myself let alone send something home to my mom. I had to devise a better way out.
“Shortly after, I met some of my brothers from Akwa Ibom frying doughnut, egg rolls, fish pie and the like, and I joined them. They are my tribe people doing the business at a spot at Enerhen junction,” Olly explained.
Yet unsatisfied with his seeming dependency on his tribesmen for survival, with the knowledge he had acquired and the little money he had saved, he summoned some courage to begin small. With N42,000, he bought a gas cylinder, a burner, made a cabinet, got some flour and other ingredients and materials, got a spot directly opposite an old generation bank near Ogbe-Ijoh Iron Market along Warri-Sapele road and began to do his own frying. In no time, Olly said he had attracted kids from a nearby primary school, commuters, traders and even employees of nearby banks to his delicacies.
“I started this business two years ago after learning from my tribesmen. I later left my people and started this snacks business myself. As of today, I’ve my customers who patronise me regularly. One will need no less than N200,000 to start now. I started small and began to grow and buy more equipment,” he said while beaming smiles.
A short time spent interviewing him showed a 25-year-old Olly with a lots of passion for his trade. Various customers milled around his stall with occasional banters and jokes while he smiled away without losing concentration of his source of livelihood.
Why did he have to start early in life to fend for himself when he should be in school? It’s the same storyline of poverty worsened by the early demise of his father.
“My mum is in the village doing petty trading, but I have lost my father and we are seven children in my family – five boys, two girls. Everybody has to go and hustle. If you stayed behind in the village, who would cater for you except you engage in rigorous peasant farming or take to crimes such as cultism which may quickly terminate ones life?” he averred.
Neither would Olly join internet fraud popularly called Yahoo Yahoo as, according to him, his spartan background would not let him into vices. “I can’t join yahoo boys. I’m not cut out for such kind of life. I’d rather use my energy and talent to legitimately work with my hands to earn a living,” he declared.
Olly gets some little contracts to supply snacks to some groups and individuals during birthdays and other social ceremonies. Some pretty retailers also patronise him for supplies.
“I can go anywhere to supply assorted snacks. I can’t estimate how much I make a day. However, from what I make, I send some money to my mom in the village.
“I plan to extend this business by opening a bakery and having other people selling my snacks across the state.
“I come to work Monday to Saturday and I resume around 6:00a.m or thereabout most days. I live at Market Road. The fuel scarcity is not really affecting my business. It, however, affects my customers because of the hike in transport fares.
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