Drip, Drip, Drip to Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg
Drip, Drip, Drip to Accra, Nairobi, Johannesburg
By Pius Adesanmi.
The three diaspora Nigerian Professors are trying to give back to the system. Two weeks of a "training the trainers" capacity building exercise meticulously planned for a University is no tea party. You want to increase and broaden the intellectual bases of early to mid-career lecturers. You get a very energetic group of 30 lecturers in the program - Assistant Lecturers, Lecturers I, Senior Lecturers, Associate Professors - all eager to acquire new skills in innovative research, grantsmanship, innovative teaching, maximizing qualitative scholarly output, deepening theory, etc.
You tell the Vice Chancellor that at the end of these two weeks of intensive training of his lecturers, he should expect increased scholarly output, heightened competitiveness in the areas of research grants and funding, as well as increased participation in competitions for international conference attendance grants by his lecturers. You tell the Vice Chancellor that he should expect increased skills in student supervision by participants in the seminar.
Then a country wakes up and declares an initial two days of holidaying and feasting. Not content with two days, she adds the obligatory jara of one day to it! That one day of jara that will, of course, not be forgotten by adherents of a competing religion when next they get two days off for Xmas or Easter. They will insist on their own jara holiday.
How a country in such a sickening shambles gets off by believing that she can afford this level of irresponsibility is what I don't understand.
How this festering open sore of a continent, this confounding spectacle of chaos, underdevelopment, and unreflection, this rickety nation that should be working 24/7 for 365 days in order to stand any chance of moving to the 19th century from her current location in the 17th century believes that she can feast and lazy her way out of her current morass beats me.
How many innovators were already airborne for Nigeria for meetings that could change the life of this unserious country on Thursday when her unserious leadership just woke up and announced an extra day of holiday that she cannot afford?
How many industrialists, development partners, innovators, scientists, investors, etc, were airborne for meetings only to land in Lagos or Abuja and be confronted by this irresponsible indulgence of an unserious country?
So, you somehow convince me to bring my business to you. I try to overlook your 17th century infrastructure. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide one minute of electricity. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide one bucket of pipe-borne water. I try to overlook your horrible roads and terrible airports. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide security from Boko Haram, Avengers, kidnappers and armed robbers. I try to overlook your corruption.
I arrive with my business only to have to contend with the fact that I must be prepared to always lose thousands of valuable billable man hours to your ill-reflected public holidays throughout the year.
I decide that my business may be able to survive a lot of things; it will never survive your national work ethic.
In my hotel room in Lagos or Abuja, while wondering what to do with my time that you are going to waste on Thursday with your jara holiday that has disrupted my investment meetings, I pick up the phone to talk to prospective partners in Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg...
My business will go where the leadership is serious...
By Pius Adesanmi.
The three diaspora Nigerian Professors are trying to give back to the system. Two weeks of a "training the trainers" capacity building exercise meticulously planned for a University is no tea party. You want to increase and broaden the intellectual bases of early to mid-career lecturers. You get a very energetic group of 30 lecturers in the program - Assistant Lecturers, Lecturers I, Senior Lecturers, Associate Professors - all eager to acquire new skills in innovative research, grantsmanship, innovative teaching, maximizing qualitative scholarly output, deepening theory, etc.
You tell the Vice Chancellor that at the end of these two weeks of intensive training of his lecturers, he should expect increased scholarly output, heightened competitiveness in the areas of research grants and funding, as well as increased participation in competitions for international conference attendance grants by his lecturers. You tell the Vice Chancellor that he should expect increased skills in student supervision by participants in the seminar.
Then a country wakes up and declares an initial two days of holidaying and feasting. Not content with two days, she adds the obligatory jara of one day to it! That one day of jara that will, of course, not be forgotten by adherents of a competing religion when next they get two days off for Xmas or Easter. They will insist on their own jara holiday.
How a country in such a sickening shambles gets off by believing that she can afford this level of irresponsibility is what I don't understand.
How this festering open sore of a continent, this confounding spectacle of chaos, underdevelopment, and unreflection, this rickety nation that should be working 24/7 for 365 days in order to stand any chance of moving to the 19th century from her current location in the 17th century believes that she can feast and lazy her way out of her current morass beats me.
How many innovators were already airborne for Nigeria for meetings that could change the life of this unserious country on Thursday when her unserious leadership just woke up and announced an extra day of holiday that she cannot afford?
How many industrialists, development partners, innovators, scientists, investors, etc, were airborne for meetings only to land in Lagos or Abuja and be confronted by this irresponsible indulgence of an unserious country?
So, you somehow convince me to bring my business to you. I try to overlook your 17th century infrastructure. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide one minute of electricity. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide one bucket of pipe-borne water. I try to overlook your horrible roads and terrible airports. I try to overlook the fact that you cannot provide security from Boko Haram, Avengers, kidnappers and armed robbers. I try to overlook your corruption.
I arrive with my business only to have to contend with the fact that I must be prepared to always lose thousands of valuable billable man hours to your ill-reflected public holidays throughout the year.
I decide that my business may be able to survive a lot of things; it will never survive your national work ethic.
In my hotel room in Lagos or Abuja, while wondering what to do with my time that you are going to waste on Thursday with your jara holiday that has disrupted my investment meetings, I pick up the phone to talk to prospective partners in Accra, Nairobi, and Johannesburg...
My business will go where the leadership is serious...
Comments
Post a Comment