So I was sitting at the departure of an airport somewhere
outside the country waiting to connect a flight back to Nigeria and I had a
full 6 hours to wait. I was tired and drowsy and all I wanted was to return
home. I was bored and ticked off by the weather and tired of their food too. I
just wanted to go home.
While trying to contain my frustration, a young lady possibly in
her late twenties walked in my direction dragging her beautiful suitcase on
wheels with one hand and her laptop bag clutched in the other hand. She was
European, but not English judging from the tone of her skin and fancy dress
sense. She was probably Spaniard or Italian, her fashion style and swag was so
not English, her hair was black, healthy, long and beautiful. Her make-up was
on point and enhanced her already attractive facial features. She had strong
piercing bead-like light brown pupils and a great smile. She was an attractive
white lady.
She walked directly towards where I sat and took the empty seat
next to mine. Her fragrance was smooth and alluring and when she said hello, my
guess was right about her not being English, judging by her accent.
I was bored anyway and looking for distraction so I initiated a
conversation with her. She was coming to Nigeria as well so I was glad I would
have company all the way back home. She was married with two lovely daughters,
she lived in London with her husband who was in private practice as a wardrobe
consultant. She was 28 and he was 29 and the daughters were 5 and 3. They
were a happy and comfortable family.
According to her she worked with the commercial and business
development team of a fashion and cosmetics company doing very well across
Europe, the US and South Africa but they were struggling in Nigeria, hence, her
recent appointment to lead the Nigerian team and drive business growth across
Africa with Nigeria as the critical market where the growth is expected to come
from.
She was very excited about the appointment, she saw it as an
opportunity to quickly make her mark and accelerate her growth and relevance
within the global clime of the business. To her mind, if the highest growth
that year comes from Africa, the whole business would have no choice but to
respect and value her.
I was actually very impressed when she became passionate
discussing how she intends to take over the market from competitors. She
loved her company, believed in their brands, was sure they had superior
offerings and wouldn't understand why they shouldn't be in the top three global
brands in another five years. She was passionate about how she intends to use
the numbers from Africa to drive global market share growth for their business.
She was reeling out the market share and volume numbers across
different markets around the world from the top of her head. She was aware of
production challenges, process challenges and the intense competitive efforts
in critical markets where their brands were present globally.
She analysed the South African market so intelligently and explicitly
from the perspectives of their own product, competing brands, route to market
and consumer behaviour.
Immediately she learnt I was a business management consultant,
she took me on about the Nigerian market for cosmetics and the behaviour of the
consumers. I love people like her, we have similar passion, my boredom and
frustration disappeared and we talked all the way till we arrived Nigeria.
As we both exited the departure lounge of the International
Airport in Lagos, we exchanged contacts and suddenly a brand new Mercedes Benze
s550 latest model chauffer driven pulled up. It was her official car and right
on its tail was my BMW X6, a most recent model also driven by my driver.
Her company got her an apartment in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos
and she mentioned it to know how far it was from the airport in Ikeja.
We exchanged contact details, I gave her a side hug and we
departed from the airport.
In the car, on my way home from the airport, my mind began to
think and I considered the attitude and personality of this fantastic lady. 27
years old, a mother of 2 lovely girls, the wife of a successful designer,
leaves London to come and drive the growth of the business of her employers in
Africa and her efforts started right from the airport coming to Nigeria.
How many 27 year old Nigerian Ladies are like her? How many
think like her, perform like her, delivers like her, have her kind of drive and
enthusiasm for success?
She came to Nigeria for work, beyond personal profit. For almost
a whole day we shared talking through the wait at the airport and the flight,
not for once did she mention her salary, her Mercedes Benz, her Banana Island
apartment, security issues, comfort, convenience, entertainment, leisure or
pleasure. It was all work; the dream, the purpose and the ambition. It was
about the business.
Very unusual compared to a lot of Nigerian business leaders and
managers I daily interact with, she said nothing about my car. I'm already
tired of the comments and frequent compliments about my car and it was so
refreshing my car didn't matter to her. She didn't hail me as “a big boy” as
most Nigerians would and I'm sure it wasn't because she drove something in that
category as well. The cars meant nothing to her, they were tools; her driving
force was the job.
This in my opinion is someone willing and eager to make good use
of an opportunity.
Very contrary to a recent experience I had with an associate who
after a long while was appointed a director in one of the leading firms in
Nigeria. The first thing he did was to organise a thanks giving service in his
church. He invited me to this service and I went. Friends, family, relatives
even his rivals and enemies were invited. His former bosses who thought he
wouldn't amount to much were invited as well.
He shared his testimony in church alright. He talked about a
brand new Toyota Prado as official car, an official residence; a duplex in
Magodo GRA, Annual vacation for the entire family, a driver, a security guard,
and a maid. He became emotional and began to shed tears considering how he had
suffered and laboured to come this far and at last, at 50, he is a director. He
thanked his lovely wife for her support and his pastor for constant prayers in
trying times during his career. It was fantastically delivered.
I considered my experience with the 27 year old European lady I
met at the airport appointed as the Director to lead Africa by a global
company, and this Nigerian 50 year old man, appointed as a sales director for a
purely Nigerian business and I felt sorry for Nigeria. For the European, it was
an opportunity, for the Nigerian man, it was a blessing. After the
thanksgiving, he called me up to thank me for showing up. After thanking me, he
then unfortunately displayed the typical Nigerian nature in most of us. He
asked if I would be interested in distributorship for their products, and him
being the sales director now, we could make a lot of money doing business
together, we could do deals and make so much money. I wasn't surprised, I was
disappointed. The man is an opportunist. It's obviously not about the business,
it's all about himself.
Ladies and gentlemen, this attitude and thinking is also why
Nigeria today is broke and in recession. We're quick to compare the Nigerian
government with the government of other nations, maybe it's time we consider
comparing the people of Nigeria with citizens of other nations.
What is your priority as an employee? What's driving you? What's
your motivation? Is it all about you? Before you curse and judge public office
holders on corruption and impunity, how innocent are you too? Are you not also
part of the problem? Do you use opportunities or you're an opportunist? The
answer lies in your heart.
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