Our Constraints to Success

• Mass poverty in our regions – Some areas are much worse than others, but the neglect is acute and visible
  
  
• Lack of employment opportunities
  
  
• But even if the opportunities are there, experience shows that people in the region are grossly underprepared to assume roles of professional responsibility in a formal employment setting.
  
  
• They like the idea of going to work, but are largely unfamiliar with the expectations of an employee, such as showing up to work on time, focusing on the role, conference calls, contributing to meetings, etc.
  
  
• Lack of general ethics
  
  
• In my experience, the day you employ someone is the day that person begins preparing their exit strategy at the expense of the company.
  
  
• Any employer (or authority figure) is automatically viewed by staff in adversarial terms, thereby allowing the employee to intellectually justify their nefarious conduct and theft.
  
  
• Staff views any employer as “the government,” a benevolent entity which exist for the sole purpose of catering for the needs of the staff, and not a profit-making venture with a fiduciary responsibility to owners to maximize revenue and shareholder value.
  
  
• Mistrust of government – The people generally have very little confidence in government services, and believe they are on their own
  
  
• Government routinely misses salary and pension payments, and people accept this as a “normal thing.”
  
  
• Mistrust of employer – Many employers, just like the government, routinely miss staff payroll payments, with the staff expected to be happy to even have a job. This leads to employer mistreatment of staff, and very often, women are the victims of exploitation in the process. The alternative is to not have a job at all.
  
  
• Additionally, private sector employers rarely provide a retirement package, which forces a “get mine while I still can” mindset from staff.
  
  
• Fundamentally dishonesty among the masses – Most people are fundamentally dishonest when it comes to money matters and integrity. It simply isn’t there. Relatives tend to be the worst given your limited ability to discharge maximum punishment due to family ties, and they know this.
  
  
• The moral compass is very low
  
  
• Inadequate community pride – People will support their community sports or dance teams, but seldom participate in gentrification projects which would aesthetically boost and clean their environments.
  
  
• Being “first overall” in school, is no longer viewed as a prestigious accomplishment, as it assumes that being academically talented is no longer a given path to success.
  
  
• Being a politician, even if it is merely a Ward Chairman, carries more weight and prestige, than being academically gifted, even if that person is functionally illiterate.
  
  
• The curriculum currently being taught in schools does not adequately prepare students for the knowledge economy; the curriculum remains stuck in the WAEC era of static learning versus dynamic delivery and the application of knowledge.
  
  
• Universities do not even bother having career counseling services which would provide students the tools they need to successfully find employment.

Examples include:

• Do they have resume writing workshops, tips or other forms of guidance for students?
  
  
• Does the placement office have stats on the job market for various majors so as to guide students in finding work post-graduation, or perhaps preparing sophomores and juniors for the job market while they are still in school?
  
  
• Does the University even have a placement office? Do they care?

LOW EXPECTATIONS

• The society generally has low expectations for just about everything, therefore making it difficult to achieve standards of excellence in anything
  
  
• The people tend to be content with the bare minimum and “surviving”. No one really thinks to thrive
  
  
• The government is seldom held accountable, nor does the system even permit them to be. The widely held belief is that public service is a license to have access to free government funds without accountability to the people.
  
  
• Our people are very risk averse – As the saying says, “No risk, no reward.” Risk taking is frowned upon by our people and indeed mocked, when  things do not succeed. Therefore, the rewards are also not there. No discovery mindset.
  

Language - Communications

• We are largely divided along language and tribal affiliations. Especially language.
  
  
• The people tend to be content with the people that speak like them
  
• Our communication languages made worse by colonial languages.
  
  
• Societies that have evolved have had 80% to 90% of their population able to communicate – read/write in a common language howbeit there are various sectional interline dialects. Hindi in India, Manderin in China, English in USA, German in Germany, Japanese in Japan.
  
  
• How would you expect someone in Sokoto, Nigeria to vote in a “democratic election” to someone in Uyo, Nigeria, when both do not understand each other in language communications.

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Solutions

SOLVING THE POWER PROBLEM – Power Generation

• Dutch Innovation – Bring in the Dutch, Germans, Canadians, Australians or anyone else that can solve the power generation problem by using innovation and renewal forms of energy. Once the State/Region has a reliable and functional supply of electricity, industrialization can take off from there. Our people seem to ignore the elephant in the room, which is delivery of electricity before businesses can grow to scale. They seem to believe there are ways to industrialize without steady electricity, but there simply isn’t. It is a core prerequisite which generators do not solve.
  
  
• Most Countries do not have as much fossil fuel (crude) like we have, yet they enjoy constant electricity. Let’s copy!