Nigerian Nightmare An American Entrepreneur's Personal Log 1998-2004

Summary

A Harvard MBA (i.e. the author) becomes Consultant in 1998 to an American engineering company, KEMAX, Ltd., which completed an oil flow control system for a major pipeline in Nigeria and was to receive final payment after several years during which the system was to prove itself.

By 1998, the payment had become overdue, and unfortunately the prior regime and its people by then had be replaced - leaving in its wake a state of total confusion and disarray, thus opening the door to a host of new "government officials" all vying for the exclusive right to carry out the payment.

The MBA spends six years in an ongoing attempt to obtain Kemaz' payment and maintains a continuous log - as it describes the effect upon the lives (including the author) of those who suffered the unbelievable frustration and dire consequences of dealing with Nigerian "officials" over this extended period of shameless graft, corruption, and extortion.

The reader will experience laughter at times, tears at other times, mixed with disbelief - and, hopefully, an increasing realization that here are two cultures at such odds with each other as to be nearly impossible to effect even a semblance of normal business relations.

It is also a story of Trust (American style) and how it can be exploited into a living nightmare. If a moment exists in business history when trusting American entrepreneurs "lost their virginity", this story is hereby offered as a prime candidate.

About the Author

Mr. Wright was educated in New England at the Choate School and Williams College and holds an MBA from Harvard.

He served as a Naval Officer and carrier pilot during and after the Korean War, after which he spent a number of years in Wall Street, where he co-founded Wright, McCarter, D-Arcy and Chew, investment advisors.

He later moved to Puerto Rico where he engaged in real estate and hotel development both there and in the Virgin Islands. After several years he then returned to New York and became co-founder of World Resorts, Ltd. with Allen & Company and Boston Capital Corp.

From that time until the present, he has been involved in numerous entrepreneurial business activities both in the U.S. and abroad.

Mr. Wright has two married daughters in Virginia and Vermont respectively, a son in Montana, and another son at James Madison University in Virginia. He lives with his wife Kristina in McLean, Virginia.