When I was in High School, I had a classmate who was self-acclaimed wealthy. You know those kids in class who talk a lot about what they have but no one ever sees what they have? This guy was just that.
He wore the oldest uniforms, never paid fees on time, carried the same schoolbag for years, always came late and most probably never said the truth.
His back story made it easy to believe he probably had some sort of wealth. He's part of the tribe referred to as the "original landowners". I believe every part of the world has these.
These are the people who were believed to first set foot on a part of a country. They existed long before other possibly nomad tribes stumbled on their community and maybe bought some part of their land or exchanged their women and gold for a place to settle.
These original landowners owned a larger portion of the habitable part of the country or state. In some cases, like most parts of Nigeria, they still do.
These lands or landed properties are passed down from generation to generation. Their value increasing every year because in most cases, they own the heart of the city. They own civilization.
In civilized societies, the majority of these lands are mighty structures, buildings at the hub of business activities. So, their value increases in terms of the increase in real estate value.
Over here, I mean some parts of Nigeria, the hub of civilization still has some open landed spaces. These lands are expensive. In some cases, they are bought or even rented by the government. In other cases, they just remain until someone gets tired of how ugly it makes the capital and does something with it.
Yesterday, I was with a friend talking about totally random things when we found ourselves discussing the dollar and how useless our currency currently is. As always, I chipped in how grateful I was to have the majority of my funds in crypto. So, I asked how he stored his funds and he told me he only has landed assets.
My friend is one of the privileged few born into the landowner's tribe. He was born wealthy. He literally came to this earth and had $10k worth of landed property dropped in his cot.
These are only the ones he received at birth. Over time, as relatives died, a portion of their landed properties was divided and he received more he hasn't taken proper account of.
This also doesn't include the amount he receives yearly as rent from houses built by relatives. Rent increases every year. The value of his land increases every year.
He is just one of many. My classmate in High School was supposedly born into the same privilege. Although he had an absurd way of showing it. He was wealthy, probably is still wealthy in his own way.
The value of these landed properties is always in our local currency. My friend and I got talking about the pros and cons and I think we came to an agreement that there's really no need to be bothered about the uselessness of our currency when it concerns assets that always increase in value.
The land is the crypto of the earth. If that makes any sense. While the value will always be in our useless Naira, its value precedes the currency. The value of a property could easily double or crumble based on the relevance of a community.
Individuals who have their properties at the hub of life and business activities, most probably have nothing to worry about. Although I have no facts to back this up I believe regardless of the situation, land or property in specific areas will always be valuable.
It's either the government or a big business taking over that property. One way or the other, money will be made from these assets.
#I'm not so fortunate
My people are more or less one of the settler tribes that got sold the less attractive part of the state. We literally build houses on top of rivers.
I probably would have been willed some property by my grandfather if 80% of my paternal and maternal communities weren't filled with water.
If you ever look at the map of Nigeria, take a look at the bottom part that looks crooked with many lines signifying rivers, then take a deeper look at those tiny dots around the river lines, my community probably falls within one of them.
Yeah, I probably own a portion of that river so tread carefully.
@kmama