The Black passion for cash-flashing: Young Nigerian makes bank from stockbroking, buys £150k sports cars

One of our sons, a university drop-out who taught himself to become a stockbroker, claims he earns between £20,000 and £30,000 on a bad month.

Elijah Oyefeso, 21, who featured in Channel 4’s Rich Kids Go Shopping on Channel 4, started by using his student loan and now trades on the stock market for just one hour a day to earn his income. The young man from Camberwell, London, now lives in a £5,000-a-month flat in Kensington and his weakness is super cars, with his most recent purchase a £125,000 Mercedes GTS.

The episode received a lot of praise and endorsement, particularly from the Black community and I will try to to tread softly because he’s just 21 at the end of the day, but I am somewhat discouraged at his attitude to money as well as the attitude of other Nigerians who elevate this young man’s excesses as something to be proud of.

Elijah’s love for beautiful cars has led to the purchase of many fine vehicles. This is in itself not a problem, we’re all allowed a vice or three. But when you buy a Lamborghini and cover it in gold paint? Still a weakness or just a symptom of “I don arrive”?

In July last year, Elijah made headlines when his Lamborghini crashed into his own £60,000 Bentley, with the repair work costing £55,000 on the Lamborghini. He was left unfazed by the accident however, stating: ‘But that’s life, money comes and goes regardless.’

Hmmm…Very prudent, profound and focussed, I see.

It’s crying shame that my people tend to spend more on bling than on business, and the saying goes that a fool and his money are soon parted. Mr Oyefeso does not seem to be taking any great care to safeguard his earnings.

I’m being hard, I know I am. Perhaps unnecessarily so as Mr Oyefeso is 21 and is probably doing what most 21-year-olds would do. But I want more, so much more for my people. I want wealth that transcends generations and purchases that aren’t stereotypical.

I’m trying to imagine what the story would read like if a Jewish kid discovered a talent for making money. We know his daddy would send him straight away to Uncle Yakub’s house every week for the next year to learn how to invest the money wisely. Young Asher would own his own weight in gold bars by the time he was 22 rather than painting a car gold. He’d probably own the other half of Hendon that his uncles don’t already own too, rather than staying in a 5,000/month flat in Kensington as my brother does at the moment.

Well now, what about Asian? What if young Rohan suddenly got good at stockbroking? Well, his father, Dev, would instil in him the importance of a family empire and they would bring over relatives who would run the underbelly of this nation – from car washes to corner shops to Indian restaurants to buying up property at auction and flipping them. Not because they’re so giving and kind, but because Daddy Dev knows that your wealth is nothing if you can’t turn to uncle Ahmed to lend you £60,000 if you ever find yourself in a tight spot. Without people around you who are washing one hand with the other, you have to go to the banks and you know how that goes: they ask for your mother’s hymen first before they give you a loan.

My boy got that gold Lambo tho’ innit? Because Elijah says “If you work hard you don’t need to look at the price tag, you just get it.”

Elijah claims he bought his first Mercedes aged 18 but soon faced jealousy from his peers in the south London neighbourhood after his success and now has no friends from the area where he grew up.

He said: ‘They’ve come from the same area and they’re still in the same area and went to school in the same area.

Ah. The haterzzz have arrived. You ain’t a rich, successful black (wo)man until you have haters who are envious and jealous and hate on you because they want what you have. Yeah, haters are up to no good and Camberwell is no place to park luxury cars. I’d move to a flat in Kensington if I were you. Oh, you have already? Correct.

I used to wonder how sportsmen and musicians could earn amounts of money that seem inconceivable to the rest of the world and wind up broke a few years later, but I guess when faced with what many consider “The Good Life” I can now see why other races just seem to have that money that is loooooooong, money that filters down from generation to generation. Because they build rather than buy. They invest rather than expose. They’re negotiators not negligent spenders.

And if one of their cars hit another of their cars causing £55,000 worth of damage, they would see it as a very. Big. Problem.

I mean…this young man isn’t in my family life. I don’t know if he has bought up half the street he lives on or owns a large percentage of West Sussex. Perhaps he’s in talks with the Qatari sheikhs to buy back the Shard and keep Britain British. Perhaps. Maybe.