The game of money is always happening all around you, as each second goes by, whether you are part of it or not.

The interesting part? the players do not make announcements on billboards or pay radio stations for jingles to be broadcasted, you just have to be part of it or you aren't.

Because if e didn't dey, e didn't dey.

Every morning when you wake up and every night as you retire to bed, the game of money is constantly played every single day—in boardrooms, in markets, in quiet investment decisions made by people who understand the rules long before you even became aware that these rules existed.

And if you do not know how to play, you are not simply losing. You have already lost before you made your first move.

On a recent episode of the podcast Declassified, host Femi Lazarus sat across with an investment analyst and strategist Opeyemi Adesina, and there was something he said that I think deserves more attention than it received.

Adesina noted that the gap between the wealthy and the poor is not just wide, it is locked.

This was made clear as not just solely an access or privilege issue, which are also factors in wealth creation but literally and figuratively Locked.

As in, by design, by knowledge, by access to information that moves quietly through certain rooms and rarely finds its way out.

It's in the light of issues like this that individuals like Tope Mark-Odigie is trying to solve through the Game of Money series, trying to bridge that gap in the best way she can.

What the Game of Money Series Is and Why It Exists

Think of a chessboard. If you sit across from an experienced opponent without knowing how each piece moves, you have not entered a fair contest. You have entered a conclusion.

It does not matter how many pawns you have, how many materials are on your side of the board, or how long you stare at the pieces.

The moment your king is in check and you do not stop or avert it, the game is over. And so it is with money.

It does not matter what other factors you bring to the table, your hustle, your ambition, your connections, if you do not understand how money moves, how it compounds, how it behaves, you are already behind.

This is the premise at the heart of the Game of Money Series, a podcast series launched by Tope Mark-Odigie, a seasoned Nigerian broadcaster, entrepreneur, and financial educator known across media and real estate circles simply as TMO.

On March 19, 2026, she introduced the series to an intimate but engaged audience at a watch party in Magodo, Lagos, giving attendees an early preview of what the show intends to do and who it intends to reach.

The answer to both questions is ambitious. TMO's stated goal is to raise one million people to millionaire status, beginning in Nigeria and extending across Africa and eventually the world.

The vehicle is not charity or motivational speech. It is financial literacy, delivered plainly and practically, for salary earners and entrepreneurs alike.

Because the Game of Money does not discriminate between the two. Wealth, as the series emphasises, can be built quietly behind the scenes or visibly in public, what matters is understanding the principles that govern it.

Co-host Martins De Extratainer framed the show's value simply: it offers access to insights from seasoned professionals that most people would normally have to pay for.

Co-host Olayemi Ogunwole, pushed further, money conversations should not be avoided or treated as taboo. The podcast exists to normalise them.

Episode one, titled Raising Financially Intelligent Children, is already available on YouTube at @gameofmoneyseries.

The conversation has started because the game of money isn't just for adults alone but also for children.

And this whole momentum about money is building toward something larger.

The Game of Money Conference, the third edition is scheduled for May 9, 2026, an event designed not for a specific type of individual, but for anyone who wants to understand the game well enough to stop losing it.

Money, as TMO puts it, has principles and rules. It can be learnt and it can be mastered.

But first, you have to admit that there is a game being played and decide that you are no longer willing to sit it out and watch as a spectator.