His warm disposition is an attraction. With a smile that seems to say “don’t worry, be happy” he welcomes customers to his business.
He may not be the happiest man but he’s making lemonade out of the lemons life has thrown at him.
He has found contentment in what he does and would rather keep at it than earn peanuts in a glorified white collar job that brings him neither money nor job satisfaction.
Welcome to the world of Jude Ojirika, a 2017 graduate of Electronics engineering of Enugu State University, Enugu.
Ojirika currently sells roast corn by Zone 4 Junction in Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
He welcomes his customers with a broad smile. When 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE visited, he had just returned from the market and was still setting up for his daily trade.
‘‘My corn has not roasted yet, you would have tasted it,’’ he said as he tried to make the correspondent feel welcome.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE sought to know from Ojirika all about his business and it was a very pleasant time spent, as he jovially told his story.
He started his corn roasting business in 2019, after efforts to secure a white collar job didn’t yield positive results and as a way to keep himself busy, since he’s of the firm conviction that‘ ’an idle mind is the devil’s workshop’’.
So, in order not to allow himself work for the devil, he began to think of what to do while waiting to land his dream job and his elder sister, who sells roast yams, advised him to start roasting corn and he jumped at it because it was the kind of business he could start with very little money.
Ojirika who resides at Deidei area, said he chose Kubwa and commutes daily to his business spot by the side street in Kubwa for obvious reasons.
‘’If I was selling close to my house, my neighbours won’t pay me what I ask of them,’’ he said.
According to him, in this area, he has people coming from all over Kubwa to patronise him.
Asked the category of people who form his largest customer base, he said, ‘’bankers, teachers, nurses from the General Hospital, students, youth corps members and even students who come with their parents after school.’’
At 35, one would think Ojirika may be somewhat shy or ashamed of seating by the street corner, roasting corn all day long, but he said “I am not shy because I have passed through a lot in life and I have come to understand that as a man, you have to start from somewhere.’’
Having done this for three years now, Ojirika has mastered the art of roasting corn and can even talk about seasons.
He told 21st CENTURY CHRONICLE that because corn is a seasonal crop, when it is peak time during the raining season, he sells between 270 and 300 pieces of corn in a day. But off peak, which starts from the end of September, his sales drop to about 210 a day.
“During the raining season, people like hot corn, so sales go up,” he added.
And with these sales, he makes an between N4,500 and N5,000, and on some very good market days, up to N8,000 daily. Of this amount, he saves on a daily basis, and is able to take care of his basic needs, and also sustain himself while waiting for a job in his area of study, which he hopes today get ”by God’s grace.”
Ojirika analysed his expenditure in detail, and said he makes way more than what he spends from this ‘’seeming small business,’’ to the extent that he won’t take up just any job.
He cited an instance when one of his customers, a staff of a nearby bank offered to help him get a job in the bank, shortly after the COVID 19 Lockdown in 2020 but when he calculated the salary and weighed it against what he makes in his corn business, he turned down the offer and has continued to roast corn ever since.
He also narrated how he escaped being infected by COVID 19, attributing it to sitting by the fire in the course of his business.
“The heat helped chase Corona away,” he enthused, even as he noted that unlike other businesses, his business survived the pandemic.
“I was getting special orders from customers who would call to order for fresh corn. So, business did not stop at
all.”
Small scale businesses like this operating in Abuja often attract the wrath of the law as staff of environmental protection agency and development control are often on their trail, dislodging and disrupting their operations.
Ojirika has been lucky as he has never been apprehended, despite operating at the strategic point for some years now.
He said he is always at alert and is quick to dismantle his umbrella and remove his other wares from sight, anytime he spots the development control officials coming, while he “sorts” the tax officials and they “just go away.”
He regretted that some of his contemporaries scoff at such “small opportunities” and advised that not finding ones dream job after graduation should not discourage young people from going out to try other things that can earn them money for their livelihood.
Corn roasting, according to him, is one of such opportunities that could be embraced by anyone just starting out in life.
