Many of us today are very uncomfortable with the economic
situation. As it were, the nation could be in a recession as all the indicators
are there. Increase in unemployment, bankruptcies, declining real income, GDP
index, declining industry output and negative economic performance.
Many of us are unhappy due to the adverse effect of the economy
on our individual lives and wellbeing. Salaries are owed, companies downsizing,
rising cost of goods and services, scarcity of funds – everything appears to be
harder and tougher.
Of course the accusing finger is directed at leadership and
somewhat rightly so, it is their charge and responsibility to manage the resources
of the nation – both material and human resources efficiently. If they appear
to be inept or sloppy at doing this, the citizens have the right to complain
and cry out.
However, a nation cannot be built or efficiently managed without
the required collaboration of the citizenry. As a citizen it is not appropriate
to have a sense of entitlement without a sense of responsibility. I pledge to
Nigeria my country to be faithful loyal and honest, to serve Nigeria with all
my strength; this, ladies and gentlemen is not just a saying, it's a pledge, a
promise, a vow to your nation.
You have no good excuse to sabotage or fail your fatherland, at
least for the sake of your children and the next generation. You should love
them enough and do what is required for them to have a better life, a better
experience and pride of citizenship as Nigerians than you currently are having.
Many of us desire to see a greater Nigeria, we crave a nation we
want to be proud of, but sadly we don't want to do the work required for this
to be realised.
Individual citizens make up a nation and it is the individual
contribution of you and I that would bring about a rebirth of greatness for our
nation.
Please permit me share my experience as an employee and a
consultant living and working in Nigeria as regards the attitude of a typical
Nigerian employee in terms of service, productivity, contribution and
expectations.
I've worked for many years and most of my earlier days in career
were at respectable and valuable multinationals. I worked in both the telecoms
industry and the manufacturing sector as an employee of mega multinationals in
both.
Because of the size and nature of these companies, I had the
opportunity of working with other employees that are non-Nigerians. I've had
the opportunity of working with Europeans, Americans, Indians, Egyptians, South
Africans and many other people of other races and nationalities. This, ladies
and gentlemen is my observation.
A typical expatriate; non Nigerian gets to the office right on
time, they are always punctual. Once they arrive they say hi to anyone they
meet in the office – if it's an open office and they immediately power on their
laptops or desktops and get down to work. They work straight for hours,
non-stop; devouring work and taking down their tasks one after another. No
distractions, no gist, no stories. They don't laze around, they focus and
concentrate fully on work.
At 12:30, they get up, pick up a book or a journal or
magazine and head straight to the canteen, they place orders for food, sit with
other colleagues on a table, they eat and gist over lunch and try to read the
book or journal. When it's about five minutes to the end of break, they get up,
walk briskly to their offices; to their work station, they continue to work
straight, attend one of two meetings if there are, return straight to work and
keep working. At 5pm, time to close, they shut down their systems and close for
the day. Most expatriates, especially those not of our race behave this way.
In the same office, the same company, a typical Nigerian will
most days arrive late to work. As they enter the office, especially an open
office, they deliver and solicit for elaborate pleasantries. Hey, I hail o, my
people how una dey now, how family, the Nigerians around begin to shout and
hail. He goes around the office shaking hands with the guys and giving side
hugs to the ladies not forgetting to complement their dressing, make up, shoes
or hairstyle and how “oga” is doing a good job of maintaining the female
colleague - someone who arrived the office late. After greeting everyone, he
proceeds to his seat then he would lower his head, start praying and do his
morning devotion for about 20 minutes. After the morning devotion, he powers on
his computer, then something on the laptop would remind him of the Man U and
Chelsea match of the previous evening then the gist and argument would begin.
For almost an hour, the gist is about football, Arsene Wenger, Jose Muhrino,
Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and how much Pogba is now worth, all at the expense of
work. Then the gist will move on to another colleague who recently birth a baby
and should be visited by the team, another colleague who recently resigned and
an exciting church program coming up and how everyone should endeavour to
attend.
Now these Nigerians will work for about 45 minutes to 1 hour and
suddenly someone would say something about top management – a rumour about
promotion, salary increase, the profitability or otherwise of the business.
Then they begin to gist and share views about top management inefficiencies and
how they are wiser and more prudent than all the directors put together. Then
they will all agree there should be an increase in salary based on current
economic conditions and the value of the naira, after all there is money and we
are the ones working for it; the directors are just using us! Laughs.
Once its break time, they're happy, no, they don't want to eat
at the office canteen, the food there is boring, there is one lovely joint not
far from the office where they sell amala, pounded yam, jollof rice and goat
meat; you eat it and your life would never remain the same. They all cram into
one or two cars and drive all the way to this joint. Because of distance and
how long it takes to be served at this joints, they spend two hours on lunch
instead of one. When they return, they are over feed and too tired to work,
they begin to feel drowsy.
They take a small nap and suddenly its five o clock, closing
time. That's when these Nigerians realise they are behind on many tasks and
deadlines. Then they remain at the office till 7pm or even 8, ensuring they do
the report, finalise the tasks, return the mails and develop the plans.
Consequently the job is done in a rush, no creativity, no thinking through,
jobs packed with errors and bereft of quality thinking; they do it and send it
in all the same. They arrive home late and their families welcome them and feel
sorry for them after a hard day's job.
Monday morning team meetings, the expatriate has done almost
five fold of what the Nigerian did closing at 5pm and the Nigerian closing at
8pm; he presents great ideas, fantastic reports, fresh insights and suggestions
and numbers you cannot fault. He appears very brilliant. The Nigerian on the
other hand presents a report filled with errors, bereft of critical thinking,
gaps here and there and to most questions his response is, I'll get back to you
on that sir. Hmmn
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, activity is not
productivity.
Gross Domestic Product is our collective productivity as
citizens and residents working in this country. It is called gross domestic
product, not gross domestic activities.
If there's a decline in our GDP, before pointing fingers and
blaming others, think of you first, are you truly productive or just full of
activities. Look around you, consider your colleagues, consider your
subordinates, dear friend, are we sincerely productive, are our teams fully
productive? If this was largely my experience working in the private sector, I
wonder what goes on in the public sector where your boss has no power to fire
you.
This current recession and economic down turn; are you guilty as
well? Are your colleagues guilty? The next time you want to curse all the
people destroying this country, think well before you curse. Dear friend, are
you productive?
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