Nigeria needs its own Obama

I have come to the conclusion that Nigeria needs its own Obama. A leader who can inspire his people to take personal responsibility for their actions and move the country to greatness. A leader who has a passion in his heart for his country and willing to take on the powers that be to bring about just and right process that is fair to all, no matter their class, colour, creed or religious beliefs.

"Yes we can!"

Yes We Can!

As Barack Obama becomes America's first African American president, what lessons do we as Nigerians take away from this momentuous occasion? Should it be self-believe, in that if you believe you can do something good and set your mind to it, all things are possible?

If Nigerians both collectively and independently say "we will make our nation, a great nation", we can do it and "Yes we can". There is still hope for Nigeria, and we have been so blessed in where our country is located. We never have to cope with natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes or Tornadoes, most of the disasters that happen to us are man made.

Let us change the fortunes of our nation by every Nigerian doing his or her little bit to make this nation great again. Let what Barack Obama has achieved inspire us as a black people, that the sky is the limit and with God all things are possible.

And in the words of the man himself "YES WE CAN"

Judged by the content of your character?

Martin Luther King Jr said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Around the world today many Nigerians around the world are judged first by the content of their character, and not by the colour of their skin. What positive impact are you having for your country today?

Nigeria's reputation around the world

I have done a fair bit of travelling around the world, and I am amazed how far Nigerians travel on their green passport. This in itself has a downside, as every where I have been Nigerians are always treated as third class citizens. Our reputation around the world has been deeply tarnished through drug charges, money laundering, being insolent, loud and abusive. Many organisations have created rules to contain our bad behaviour. I'll give you an example.

I was told that a particular airline that flies to Nigeria has told its cabin crew to stand in the aisles to prevent passengers from rushing to the door as soon as the plane lands. This is just to contain us, and to get us to do the right thing we are now treated like 7 year olds. Its a similar picture everywhere around the world, we are truly a shameless people.

We need to begin to change our attitude in the spirit of patriotism, true ambassadors of our motherland. Lets get back to those times when General Idi Agbon brought some sense of decency and pride to be called a Nigerian. Self-discipline and self-restraint will make the international community take note, and we will become a people that are respected the world over once again.

The letters behind your name mean nothing to me!

I was reading a blog of a fellow Nigerian alluding to the fact that our current president is the first Nigerian to have attended University, and although I am a product of the university myself I think such thinking is seriously flawed. The fact that you went to university does not make you a better candidate to run an organisation or country than a non graduate, neither does it make you an effective leader.

For many years we have given adulation to people with many letters before and after their names. We tend to think that they have the ability to bring better and higher standards to the environment in which they operate. Its only in Nigeria that we prefix a person's name with Eng orEngr, if they have an engineering qualification, which is a load of tosh!

I have learnt that having many letters after your name or a title before your name does not necessarily make you an effective person. In fact it tends to make you a less effective person because you begin to think of yourself more highly than you should. I have worked with many highly effective leaders that have never set foot in a university, and have contributed immensely to the growth of the organisations they have worked in.

So let us ditch the titles and letters and become more effective leaders by walking the walk, and not just talking the talk, because talking achieves very little.

Nigeria's maintenance culture

I remember when I was a kid I loved to visit Ikoyi and Victoria Islands, the houses were grand and a beauty to behold. Over the years a lot of the houses are looking rather older than they actually are. Reason? A lack of proper maintenance. Now everyone is talking about Lekki, and I can assure you in 10 years time, it will no longer be the talk of town. Many of the houses will have been defaced by dust, if not worse.

Nigerians lack a maintenence culture. We drive our cars until they break down, we live in houses until they become a hazard to live in, and we use our roads till they break up. Even in factories, I have heard of parts used till they cease up, causing an entire production line to come to a grinding halt.

We need to change our perspective about our maintenance culture. The more regularly we maintain what we have, the longer we will be able to get some long life usage out of it. I believe there are big opportunities for maintenence companies to spring up and sell their services, especially property maintenence companies. Let us take care of what we have been blessed with and adopt a proper maintenence culture.

Food for thought - Cocoa Production

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s Nigeria use to be the top producer of Cocoa. Have a look and see where Nigeria is now and our annual production, then compare with that of Ivory Coast.

Country	Amount produced	% of world production
Côte d’Ivoire	1.3 million tonnes	37.4%
Ghana	720 thousand tonnes	20.7%
Indonesia	440 thousand tonnes	12.7%
Cameroon	175 thousand tonnes	5.0%
Nigeria	160 thousand tonnes	4.6%
Brazil	155 thousand tonnes	4.5%
Ecuador	118 thousand tonnes	3.4%
Dominican Republic	47 thousand tonnes	1.4%
Malaysia	30 thousand tonnes	0.9%

Data source: International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) - 2006