The other nagging issue is 'home'. The how and the when of a return back to our beloved Nigeria. At a recent research report representation, a growing segment of Nigerians was defined in terms of their aspirations and behavior. Apparently Nigerians now see achievement in the light of leaving the country to make something of yourself outside. We have become so devastated that staying in the country is no longer the first option but a consolation prize. Who can blame us. Our president now goes for his diabetes check up in Saudi Arabia and we should now be overjoyed that he has decided to declare it ahead of the trip, unlike the previous check up. Even Hillary Clinton ribbed us with the way we are so inefficient as the 6th largest producer of crude oil yet we import virtually everything we use of the refined product.
Even more depressing now is the reversal of the initial trend of having Nigerians in charge in the multinational organizations at home. Name the multinational now and 9 times out of 10 the CEO or MD is a foreigner. We have been shown up to be such poor managers at home. Time was when the Managing Directors of Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury, Nestle, etc were all Nigerians. We apparently ran things so badly that the foreign owners had to come in to save the day. The sad thing is that they are now creating opportunities for middle and junior management levels as well. More and more, we are seeing people less qualified being brought into these organizations to lead Nigerians who are much more qualified. They have managed to create opportunities for their team members that may have lost their jobs due to the Global recession.
I was discussing with some other African friends recently and they wondered what had happened to Nigeria. We are now seen as having no bite. Can you believe that some of these guys are working in Nigeria without work permits? They treat us so poorly but we are caught in the rat race at home. Where are our fire-brands? Are things that bad?
Yes I know I am probably not one to talk but I refuse to keep quiet! Are there others out there who feel the same way?
7 comments:
This is one of the best articles l ve read in recent times.
The situation in Nigeria is beyond human comprehension.....I think we need Divine Intervention.
We are 40 years backward and its getting worse.
Oga Kunle,
You cannot imagine the frustration of working and living in Nigeria, despite the fact that many of us earn great salaries, and live averagely okay, with vacation trips to Europe, Dubai, and the Americas. I'm a former Zain Marketing person, who left to a competitor in 2008. We blame 'government'all the time, but trust me, we are terrible people. In the corporate world, we have so many empty vessels, egomaniacs with less than zero substance occupying critical positions, doing their best to run down the organizations. Incompetence, greed and corruption is the order of the day. Whoever or whatever caused it, it is our reality, and I don't know how we can resolve it, except some kind of earthquake or holocaust wipes out the current breed of Nigerians. We are totally valueless people, feeble-minded, vain and innately ignorant.
You know, I was chatting with my wife today, about how our white corporate masters regularly tongue-lash us in meetings regarding our incompetence, and the kind of blithe ignorance that our people display. I was at a meeting the other day, where my CEO totally whitewashed the Commercial management, and the subjects under question were unabashedly genuflecting, rather than being sober. This really got to me, not the tongue-lashing, but the blissful ignorance exhibited by my own people. My wife's comment was 'Who told you these people are ignorant? Their agenda to steal is their driving force, so they don't really care what anybody is saying, sebi it is just talk!'
It confuses me too.
I've been the white senior executive in Africa (although without the patronising tonge-lashings, I hope). And I've worked in Africa for African bosses.
I don't believe for a minute the comment about being "totally valueless people, feeble-minded, vain and innately ignorant". But I would be frustrated as hell (in fact, even as an outsider, I have been as frustrated as hell) to see what a mess the continent is, despite the cohorts of excellent people it produces.
And I'm very suspicious about so-called "skill transfer" by the way. I am suspicious about it both:
(a) because the continent has many more highly capable, experienced and professional sons and daughters than most people seem to realise; and
(b) because many (most?) of these non-Africans in Africa ostensibly with the purpose of transferring skills are as good as useless themselves - the West has been dumping its problem children in Africa for a century already.
I've worked with Kunle. I know he's a top professional, but he's not unique in that. Africa is full of smart people who know how to do it right (and that counts for any "it" you like to think of), so why is "it" so often not done right? I really don't get it, honestly I don't. It confuses the hell out of me.
The closest that I ever came to thinking I had an answer was after expose to Gabon and Congo (B). There I had the idea that each new generation grew up learning the inescapable lesson that life-outcomes had nothing whatever to do with effort or objective merit, and flowed exclusively from what you could steal, or from what a relative could steal for you. The wealth spurts up from the earth itself and you just have to grab your bit of it, or starve. That's a damaging lesson to learn.
Hi Graham,
Maybe I was a bit harsh there on my own people. But to some of us, that is the way it comes across.
I don't agree with you for the most part and I'll tell you why. For one, there are a lot of Nigerians who are returning home and more of them are still on their way. This says one thing very clearly that the world at large is in turmoil and no society is immune from the decay. If Nigeria is as bad as you make it look then Nigerians abroad would rather die away from home than return. Yes there is corruption in high places, public and corporate, but part of the reason why the 'owners of the businesses' as you call them are sending their people here is because the space has become too choked up in their own countries, I believe that there are competent hands here who can run the show. I mean, think about it for a while, haven't foreigners been indicted in some of these frauds that have been uncovered, if they are saints and immune to corruption, they should have just said no to the bribes and kickbacks. Our systems are far from being perfect and we all share in the blame (whether those of us here or in diaspora)but someone once said that you cannot say that a man is a thief when he has not been tempted.
Cheers
Miriam,
I wish I could agree with you. We have had the 'competent hands' story for a while now. While there may be competent hands, they are surely not finding their way to the top echelons of business and corporate management in Nigeria. I speak from more than a decade of corporate experience, half of that in middle level management. I have never worked abroad for one day, but I have worked with multinationals since graduation, even during Youth Service. We don't really have mature & seasoned business minds to provide the required leadership, what we have is some educated Nigerians who speak well, but do not have the required mental and ideological discipline to follow through. We have a few shining stars, but too few for a country the size of Nigeria. I have witnessed (won't name names) phenomenal corruption in the private sector, the type that is mind-boggling, committed with impunity and crude bold-faced attitude that may not even be present in the public sector. I have worked in telecoms, and the poor skill level you find in this industry, when it comes to leadership and management, is quite shameful. Even the so-called Diasporeans are mostly half-baked, and are finding their way home to reap their share of the so-called goodies awaiting them at home; senior positions, perks, and incredible salaries. It doesn't take them time to sink to the same level of profligiacy and incompetence as the people at home. Nigeria is a paradox of underemployment (you have MBA graudates manning bank tellers!) and poor skill development (you have senior managemenent and executive management jostling to attend skills-based training abroad, with junior and entry-level staff. An example is the oil companies. Nowadays they hire graduate Nigerian engineers fresh out of school and throw them into major multi-million dollar projects, with no pupilage process whatsoever. Miriam,apart from maybe the banks, and the FMCGs, I challenge you to mention one Nigerian company that has a well-developed and well-structured management trainee program!
I am not saying this out of self-hate; only a mad man will not realise that everybody sees him as a mad man. We have deep-seated sociological problems in our society, and it's high time we begin to address these problems, rather than carrying on with our false superiority complex.
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