MARKETING AND SALES TARGETS

Setting goals and targets are healthy practice for personal and corporate advancements. Setting targets for professionals in the banking industry as well as other members of the workforce in banks and other financial institutions has gradually become worrisome as employees are put under pressure to perform or be kicked out of the system while luring them with enticing remuneration and other benefits that come with the job. Banks in Nigeria do not limit these targets to bankers only; support staffs like drivers are mandated to participate in marketing for the institution; no one is spared of targets which must be met or they are made to face unpleasant consequences.

Pressure is mounted on employees at a rate that leaves most of them failing in health. Bankers report unfriendly targets set by the institution and pursued by bank executives who also resort to actually hurling insults at employers who are considered to be under-performing. A number of bankers have quit their job in banks in the interest of their health.

Attractive products that are well packaged and placed on offer under reasonable terms will sell very easily in the market if the economy favours consumers’ buoyancy, they would naturally spend and invest. In other words, if the economy favours spending, consumers will patronize products that are being advertised. Marketing banks on the other hand requires the economy to be balanced enough to encourage saving and other banking activities like investing.

Many people have spoken and written along this line and one would have left it at that but it becomes necessary to revisit the idea of setting targets for marketing staff to pursue. Employers of labour of all classes have taken to setting targets for all employees. Setting marketing targets is no longer the exclusive preserve of bankers and sales men and women. The basic salary that employers are mandated to pay have become attached to fulfilling the conditions of marketing as stipulated by the employer.  

 I came across a young lady who was vigorously marketing vehicles and when she was informed that the prospect would be in touch, she pleaded with the officer to do something about securing a quicker closure of the deal for her. She explained that she had been given a target to sell a specific number of cars and if she did not meet her target by the end of the month, she would be asked to leave.  This is usually the point at which many of such marketing people are taken advantage of by dishonorable people in society. This should not be the case; rather employers must be moderated and mandated to pay the agreed basic entitlement and where the employee succeeds in closing deals or marketing products, commensurate commission should be paid to encourage them to aspire to earn more. Prospective employees should be told what their basic earning would be, separate from commissions on sales and they should be allowed to decide whether to accept or decline the employment offer.

Secondly, marketing staff are employed straight from school and employers do not want to spend money training employees further on how to apply their school-acquired knowledge of marketing to the peculiar business terrain of Nigeria. Prospective clients make demands of these marketing staff who often find themselves in situations where they are made to compromise their dignity in a bid to close a deal.

Furthermore, employers no longer want to spend time and money teaching their employees about the product; most people who market products do not know the product they are marketing and this poses a huddle in their marketing ambition.

Most families in Nigeria have started discouraging their members from accepting to work in banks in Nigeria; the rate at which employees take ill or drop dead due to unhealthy pressure being mounted on them by senior colleagues at work is the main reason for this. The few people who still accept to work in commercial banks, finance houses, etc in Nigeria do so because they have not thought deeply enough to discover another viable means of earning a living.  

GOD bless Nigeria.

AT THE LEVEL OF “LET’S JUST START”

All institutions in Nigeria were founded on the dais of “let’s just start”; this is not peculiar to Nigeria. Ghana, Sierra Leone, India, etc. have gone through civil wars and other ethnic crises just like Nigeria and Rwanda. While Rwanda and many others have risen from their fall, Nigeria remains at the level of “lets just start.” What this means is that people are gathered to form a group not by qualification or experience but just that there is a group and the group has a good number of members who perform specific functions usually for government. One would expect that for a while, it would be like that until more refined groups are created on the level of qualification, education or experience. The “lets just start” syndrome has refused to go away or the people have failed to do away with it. Reason being that Nigerians have not advanced beyond that position of wanting to be like the rest of the world and at the same time not wanting to pay the price that civilized nations of the world have paid and many are still paying.

The Nigerian military structure was founded on this same premise and the same goes for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in the sense that men of all qualities were enlisted in the force. Men who claim to be first school leaving certificate holders or school certificate holders who cannot read or write a meaningful sentence are still being enlisted in the force to date. Character flaws and inability to comprehend the need to have integrity manifest greatly among these men and women.

Education is another sector that suffers greatly as a result of the “lets just start” syndrome in that just to help parents and to introduce the need for education, government (the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo specifically) then put in place “free education” up to a certain level, bursaries and scholarship schemes. To date, whenever people list the many challenges facing the education sector, they always blame the government for not providing for these incentives. We see education falling to rot and people are always quick to blame the government. I must mention that in the face of the rot, a lot of privately owned schools are turning our students who are highly sought after by overseas institutions for further education as well as employment in reputable overseas corporations.

The issues of corruption and social injustice in Nigeria have more or less become a part of the Nigerian way of doing things because of this same integral problem at the foundation. Too many areas are stagnant and in some cases moving backwards because there are no hard and fast rules for administering office and resources. This anomaly provides the perfect avenue for corrupt enrichment and lack of accountability in government and politics. It makes room for people to want to mismanage the national resources knowing full well that the executive, the judiciary or the legislature will cooperate and make way for them to get away with what ordinarily should have earned them a life sentence in jail.

In a recent interview, one of the politicians of the old brigade gave many examples of custodians of the resources of Nigeria who mismanaged same and made themselves rich overnight and got away with it; he did this as a means of justifying continued corruption and unfair distribution of the national wealth. What Nigerians of the new generation must believe is that ‘two wrongs do not make a right.’ If they allow their reasoning to be corrupted by such characters, it will be to their disadvantage because the old will pass away and the rot will be left with the new. Many of the multinational oil exploration corporations will give account of how these corrupt leaders of the past have accosted them and held their operations to ransom until they were compelled to make some form of settlement which invariably ended up in the deep pockets of these corrupt leaders.

Employment of choice in the past was the ‘white collar’ job; thankfully, new Nigerians have excelled greatly in sports and entertainment. They are also making waves in entrepreneurship although there is a lot of room for improvement. Young graduates of Nigerian higher institutions have no business being unemployed or leaving Nigeria for distant lands to take up menial jobs. In a recent seminar held in Sokoto, it was revealed that the area of forensic analysis of the NPF is predominantly under-developed because there are less than five qualified people available to serve the whole of Nigeria. Nigerian Universities turn out laboratory technicians, chemists, graduates of microbiology, pathology, morbid anatomy, etc annually and several of them are currently unemployed. How does this justify? Are people thinking deep enough?

Any area that this discourse has not been covered is not spared; all areas of life in Nigeria need to be refined to the standards of the civilized world.

GOD bless Nigeria.

WHO NEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND NAIRA NOTES?

Surveys and reports of the World Bank, the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international economic regulatory bodies have shown that the larger number of Nigerians live on less than $2 per day which is barely sufficient for decent human living conditions. The gulf between the poor and the rich has grown so wide and it continues to grow because of the high propensity of government officials who are entrusted with the authority to administer the resources for abusing and diverting the authority that comes with the position to secure economic gains for their private and personal use. These corrupt government officials, politicians, companies and business people who have benefitted from the corrupt ways of Nigerian leaders are the people who need five thousand naira notes.

Why? The world economic regulatory authorities and the western world classify Nigeria among the backward and under-developed nations of the world mainly for the simple reason that financial transactions and economic exchanges are not traceable. This is because of the deliberate ploy of corrupt leaders to enshroud all financial transactions of government in a thick cloud of darkness that is impenetrable by light.

International aids, grants and others that enter the Nigerian economy disappear without any trace; revenue and income from trade in Nigeria’s natural resources disappear without trace as well. Taxes and duties also cannot be conclusively traced. Government funds that are recovered from corrupt leaders and refunded to government coffers also disappear without any trace.

Bank accounts are opened in local banks as well as offshore accounts, funded with Nigeria’s economic earnings and the Minister of Finance is not aware and does not know who opened the accounts or who operates the accounts.  

The world economic regulatory authorities and the western world insist that to be welcome as an emerging economy, Nigeria’s economic transactions must show records of how money moves within the Nigerian economy. They insist that Nigeria must as much as possible imbibe the culture of transacting business with as little cash as possible and do more business online with adequate records to show for such transactions. Nigeria was compelled to introduce a cashless payment system that reduces the amount of physical cash that is being moved around within the economy. The corrupt leaders have seen that it is quite cumbersome for them to be providing records for their transactions have cleverly devised a diversionary means of taking Nigeria backwards by introducing larger denominations of the naira without being detected.

Is it the Nigerian whose total monthly take-home earning ranges between five thousand and thirty thousand naira that needs five thousand naira notes? If a single one of such notes gets lost, his budget for the month will be greatly hampered.

Who really needs to carry a lot of physical money around? They forget that it is not about carrying large amounts of money but about the value of the money that is being carried around.

Converting smaller denominations into coins coupled with introduction of the five thousand naira notes will further increase inflation. Nigerians are not people who have much value for coins; coins are seen as change that they can leave behind or give to little children as gifts if they will accept and in other cases as alms to beggars. Invariably the price of things that could be purchased at such small amounts will escalate. Furthermore, the small denominations that are to be replaced were produced at great costs to the Nigerian economy and the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo vigorously marketed those notes to members of the public until the CBN’s plans were implemented. Finally, the proposal to produce the five thousand naira notes is being estimated to cost Nigeria over N40bn.

Nigerians do not need to be further burdened with this suggestion of introduction of five thousand naira notes and introduction of coins as replacement for smaller denominations of the naira.

GOD bless Nigeria.

LETTER TO TODAY’S GIRL, TOMORROW’S MOTHER

From the very first few faltering steps you took as a toddler I always watched you with great admiration and applauded your effort as your numero uno fan. You have increased in stature and age as well as experience and my loyalty to you has not waned in any way. My people say ‘we don’t prepare the road for the child we want to excel in life; rather, we prepare the child for the road.’ We have put in a lot into preparing you for the road.

I like to remind you that your life has been much sweeter and altogether better than my own and that of many of your peers. I have told you before that some of your peers use your story as a benchmark for their prayers. In other words, many people see you and wish they could have a little of so much that you have. If only you would spare a few minutes to take account of all things for which you are thankful without taking the most minuscule for granted. Bear in mind that there are people living with health conditions that require for them to pay dearly for medical assistance to evacuate their natural waste products from their bodies or they die.

Remember also that ‘success has many relatives.’ A more vivid Nigerian proverb says ‘poor man no get brother.’ As a pretty, young lady, you are richly endowed with natural blessings that if you happen to fall into the hands of wicked people – they will convert these GOD-given blessings into resources for financial gains. Whose financial gains? Certainly not yours; no not yours because in a little while it will become clear that a treasure has been taken away from you and nothing on earth will make the treasure come back as it is squandered forever.

That man who ‘appears’ generous and gives you money for hanging out with him and so on does so as a way of holding you attracted to him (or his money). It is clear that without the money, he knows you will see him as the ugly fat frog that he truly is. In addition, for him to pay you money, he knows what he is getting in return is worth paying money for. You must pause to find out the true value of what you are giving for his money so you don’t find yourself at the receiving end i.e. so you are not short-paid. Finally, that man has a mother whom he is not spending so much money on; so what makes you so special to him. Nothing; truth be told, you are not at all special to him.

It is essential that you build from the scratch. This does not secure your investment in relationship but someone is there watching how much dedication and sacrifice you put into nurturing your investment in relationship. And all good ventures always pay off in the end.

GOD bless you.

NIGERIA: A POTENTIAL CONSUMER POWER HOUSE

Most African countries and economies have resolved to emerge from the damaging impact of a closed economy, we begin to witness economic resurgence, better economic policies, governance and the use of natural resources and more business-friendly policies with stronger demand for Africa’s commodities from the leaders among emerging economies.  The effect is that despite the economic down-turn being experienced by developed countries, there is a steady growth in trade and economy in African countries.

African working class have been identified as the new economic engine following studies carried out, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has reported that Africa is the second most connected region in the world after Asia.  Nigeria being one of the prominent African countries has seen vigorous and rapid growth in technology by bringing innovation and connectivity to consumers. This has greatly altered lifestyle, business in the area of mobile banking and all units of business.

Nigerian consumers are known to have style and taste and it is expected that they deserve better than what they are receiving today from dealers and agents of companies that provide service to the Nigerian consumer market. The Nigerian consumers are known to be highly upscale in demand for cell phones and fashion items. Nigeria has a large population and one of the largest population of working class. This class is able to earn income and spend their money as they wish.

85% of Nigerians own and use cell phones of one model or the other.  The mobile phones market in Nigeria alone keeps many Asian companies in business and their businesses have done so well that they have moved a large chunk of their business to Nigeria

Another area impacted by this trend is the fashion industry. Nigerian working class hardly spare costs in acquiring trending fashion items for personal use as well as for gift items to loved ones. Nigerian consumers are still very fast in catching up with fashion trends and importers are quick to flood the market with these items. The producers of these fashion items are aware of the Nigerian market and they are always on the lookout for expansion opportunities into the Nigerian frontier.

This growth in economy has been so fast that banking and retail companies are considering expansion into Nigeria targeting a growing middle class of consumers. African Development Bank (ADB) reports that one of the results of strong economic growth in recent years has been a significant increase in the size of the African middle class. And this middle class is the key to Africa’s future prosperity.

Nigerians are known to be widely travelled and Nigerians can be found in some of the world’s most remote islands. Travelling far away from home in search of the golden fleece puts these migrants under pressure in the sense that a large number of family obligations depend on their income and what funds they are able to repatriate home. We gather that over USD400 billion is sent to various parts of the world by migrant workers every year and of this amount, USD325 billion is headed for developing countries like Nigeria. Money Transfer Companies basically charge the initial fee to transfer funds and then there is another charge because the foreign currency exchange rate (exchange rate spread) used generates a ‘bonus profit’ for the service provider who is not obligated to disclose this information to the consumer; some pay points also charge recipients to collect the remittance. Many reasons are given for this social injustice and some of the reasons include: lack of transparency in pricing, lack of competition and insufficient information at the disposal of the consumer.

There was a time we had no choice but love, welcome and accept our local TV and radio stations because they were the only ones on the air and government had total monopoly.  I remember as a child, we happily and eagerly waited for the TV station to commence transmission at 6pm.  The ritual before the opening involved some non-descript scratch-like sound, some music and eventually the national anthem and the citizens’ pledge.  After the children’s belt, the current affairs and news programmes dominate the airwaves until after the network or national news when a lean movie would be aired until the station would close at midnight.

Today, we have some satellite stations airing two or three different episodes of a soap opera in one day, some others showing up to five different football matches in a day unlike when all that was available was the results of the matches played and of course seeing some snap shots of the action in newspapers, posters or cards of chewing gum, etc.  Today, consumers can programme your TV to record what is aired on another channel while you are away altogether. This inefficiency on the part of Nigerian broadcasting establishments has provided avenue for good business for cable service providing companies from South Africa for instance. Painfully, the fact that there is little or no competition allows these cable companies to take advantage of the Nigerian consumer; a show like Oprah Winfrey show is never current; Saturday Night live with Jon Stewart is also substantially outdated. Much of what Nigerian consumers are compelled to view are things that South African and Ghanian consumers will not tolerate.

Knock-offs: one of the many names for counterfeited goods.  Counterfeiting is one form of business that came to be in the late 19^th century and has spread all over the world. It has become popular among consumers and it has gained a very solid base. Nigeria is by no means exempted from the influx of knock off cell phones. Many more companies have moved their production lines to cheaper labour markets of the third world, areas with weaker labour laws or environmental regulations; they give means of production to foreign workers.  These new producers have little or no loyalty to the original company or the product.  The motives include a wider reach, ease of access to raw materials and more consumers, lower costs of production for manufacturers, promotion as well as acquisition which amounts to more profit for the manufacturer and the marketer, cutting out cost of adverts, cutting off the middlemen and marketing directly to the consumer.

There must be a yardstick to control the type of vehicles that enter Nigeria; there must be some regulations which are being circumvented as some officials are turning a blind eye while this illegal practice goes on.  Nigerians work hard and are entitled to good quality of life.  It is not true that all Nigerians like cheap stuff and if these cheap stuff stocking dealers do not manipulate the trade pattern, there would still be market for good quality cars to enter Nigeria and no right thinking consumer would be satisfied with a defective product just because it is cheaper or less expensive.

It has become commonplace to see overseas schools that regularly advertise one course or the other in our dailies. These adverts are targeted at Nigerian students or people resident in Nigeria and the adverts are usually followed by seminars for which non-refundable registration fees are charged. 

A visit to some foreign embassies in Nigeria will showcase how unfriendly some foreign missions are to Nigerians in general; their attitude may be explained away using the excuse of too many reports of violence, crime and fraud cases involving Nigerians abroad.  This can be taken in quite easily however it is disheartening to note that the quality of education being served by majority of our higher institutions has created an inroad for institutions that are founded on a more solid structure to explore the avenue of directing their business at Nigerians. Be that as it may, these foreign institutions flock into Nigeria annually to solicit for prospective students to attend their schools in their own country.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in one of the TEDx seminars called on foreign investors to bring their business to Nigeria if they truly desire to support the economic growth and development of Nigeria. Taking this call one step forward, would it not be a welcome development for these overseas institutions to bring their schools to Nigeria as a means of making it easier for Nigerian students to study and also to provide employment for Nigerians and to generally support in developing the Nigerian economy? Establishing such institutions in Nigeria will be mutually beneficial as these institutions would equally profit from the venture. 

The same goes for medical care. What medical care being offered Nigerians by the government leaves a lot to be desired and for many Nigerians who can afford it, the option of taking their loved ones abroad for medical treatment has become the order of the day.

The government of the day is working at an emerging economy and we begin to witness economic resurgence, better economic policies, governance and the use of natural resources and more business-friendly policies with stronger demand for Nigeria’s commodities from the leading countries among the emerging economies. The effect is that in spite of the economic down-turn being experienced by developed countries, there is a steady growth in trade and economy in Nigeria.

With the reforms that have been introduced into the Nigerian economic system; there is every reason to forecast that if the programme proceeds without hitches, Nigeria will be one of the most buoyant African country.  It is only apt to encourage prospective businesses to put in every possible effort to secure franchising arrangements with worthy brands in Nigeria and also internationally. More like internationally due to the significant amounts of training that they provide which is not common among many others.

In addition, consumer advocacy groups working within the framework of the National Consumer Protection Council will need to be more prominent to ensure that Nigerian consumers are no longer taken for granted. Nigerian consumers spend much more than some other nations where consumerism is more active and manufacturers have learnt not to take such consumers for granted. It is not about spotting the default and going back home to wait for the government to do something; there is the urgent need to revive the spirit of consumerism in Nigeria.

WELCOME TO THE INTERNET AGE

This is the internet age; it is becoming clearer to many more people by the day that these days, people have less time to accomplish many more tasks than they did in the past. It simply helps in buttressing the fact that the evolutionary changes we must adjust to demand that we think and make crucial decisions on our toes without giving much room for consultations with family and business advisers or partners. Time spent with family and friends has been further reduced by the presence of satellite and the internet. While eeking out a living or ‘hustling’ as they say, people are socializing online and friends and family who are not moving at the same pace are left with the ‘shorter end of the stick.’

The amount of time spent on every aspect of life has been further compressed, shortened and reduced by the presence of the internet. The internet provides a gateway to a whole new world which many people utilize constructive and destructively as they so desire. For many reasons, including the platform for anonymity and a platform for relating with people from distant lands, a lot of people prefer to interact with other people using the internet as the perfect interface.

Mammals are known to care for their young and man in particular takes an average of 22 to 25 years and in some cases many more years to nurture, groom and prepare his offspring for adult life. Some offspring are known to have challenges growing up and detaching themselves from the mother’s apron string. Going by the trend of this age, man is no longer allowed so much luxury and indulgence and because there is too much to accomplish within very little time.

It is not out of place to see young people actively participating in governance in the western world. The attack by Anders Behring Breivik on the youth population of Norway in 2011 in Oslo and at a summer camp organized by the AUF, the youth division of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party (AP) left 77 young politicians dead and 110 wounded. The average age of those cut short and injured is 20 years.

A 20 year old Nigerian actively participating in politics at the level of holding elective office is like asking for too much but it is not entirely out of place. Rather than give a 20 year old Nigerian youth the necessary political support, those in the position to do so would give the youth support for ephemeral pursuits that will in no way advance the quest to secure the future of Nigerian youth.

Again, this is intended to point Nigerian youth in the direction of nation building rather than being contented with personal satisfaction. Ordinarily the average age of young politicians in Nigeria is 35 years but with the current trend in politics and life as a whole and the changes that follow, the average age should now be no more than 20 years. There will naturally be discouragement and opposition from older politicians who would basically work on ‘emotional blackmail’ using family members of the younger politicians to dissuade and distract their focus.

A united youth population of Nigeria will be too much of a force to contend with and the earlier Nigerian youth begin to explore the available opportunities the better will be their chance of molding and enjoying a better quality of life than what presently obtains.

GOD bless Nigeria.

ATTAINING AND RETAINING POWER

Political leaders of the old brigade always stress the fact that no one will deliver power to the generation of new Nigerians; rather, they are expected to take power by themselves. This is the bane by which younger military officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces justified forceful establishment of their authority by bloody and bloodless coups alike. Thankfully, Nigeria has overcome that stage of evolvement as the ‘powers that be’ have come to terms with the fact that if they must remain in power, they must replace their military gear with the flowing agbadas and babarigas. Nigerians have been time and again assured that there will be no more military interference in governance and administration of the state.

Dissatisfaction with the government can only confronted by youth taking interest in governance and administration of the vast resources that Nigeria offers. The youth have been completely disenfranchised and what appears to be like a life-line is actually pittance being thrown at the youth. This should not be the case; people who are financially weak are voiceless and powerless; enterprise forms government and the successful young entrepreneur is in the best position to make positive contributions towards effective and meaningful government.  Every suggestion of violence further makes the youth powerless as security operatives will be unleashed against them and many visions will be determined.

Changes in the modern world have shown that riots, militancy and insurgency are no longer ‘fashionable’ and will only end in rowdy protests that avail very little if anything at all. Every form of protest must be expressed in dialogue. For the youth to be allowed to dialogue on issues of governance, they must take interest and indicate their interest. The youth must think of ways of reclaiming their franchise and being that they were robbed in the first instance by the politicians of the old brigade, there will be opposition from this class who are adept at diverting the focus of a united youth league by introducing negative ideology and throwing some hand-outs here and there. Nigerian youth will fare better if they are able to shun these hand-outs as a first step to securing their dignity and establishing their integrity.

Nigerians have been generally described in ways that seem unappealing but in truth, it is time for Nigerians to begin to focus on the positive areas of their characteristics which include:

i.                 Among Africans, Nigerians are the most educated and certified in academics and professionally

ii.                The sense of trade of the average Nigerian is very keen

iii.               Trends in show and entertainment industry have shown that Nigerians are at the top of the charts among all African nations.

iv.               Business in Nigeria has developed so well that it is being taken to international levels

v.                There is the determination to survive and be happy inspite of challenging quality of life

vi.               All of the above combined with a sizeable population makes Nigeria a very attractive market for domestic and international trade

If the Nigerian youth are alert to these opportunities, they will see that Nigerians and Nigeria have the potentials to enable the youth reclaim their franchise. Identifying specific areas of relevance as individuals and connecting with the mainstream ideas of their generation will greatly help in propelling the ambition of the Nigerian youth. This will require:

a.      Rising above the level of tribalism in handling our enterprise and issues of governance.

b.      Doing away with cultural practices that do not in any way help the quest for advancement.

c.      Developing the spirit of patriotism and nationalism in the interest of Nigeria

d.      Imbibing the spirit of self and organizational discipline

e.      Personal development and continually improving our standards to avoid stagnation

f.       Having some integrity in all cases without compromise until it becomes a characteristic.

It is clear to all that salvaging Nigeria is now the collective responsibility of the generation of new Nigerians. These Nigerians are the ones who will be at the fore in the campaign to redeem the lost glory of Nigeria and until they come to this realization, they will continue to suffer the dissatisfaction that they all complain about.

GOD bless Nigeria.

SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING – GATEWAY TO A NEW WORLD.

Like one country differs from another in culture, traditions, norms, value systems and language networking on social media requires users to settle down and understand how it works. An individual can take up a new identity for the purpose of maintaining his privacy or for the purpose of fraud and crime. As soon as access is granted, it is like stepping through a boundary into a new country and one immediately begins to interact with other people. Some of these people are real while others are machines programmed to interact with people.

Under normal conditions, these sites are working tools for reconnecting with people we have lost contact with, for promoting ourselves, our work especially if they are related to the arts and media, for research work and information gathering from virtual libraries provided like Wikipedia and so many others. Social media networking being dependent on the presence and activities of human beings provides a hub for social relationships; many of which have turned out well, others turn out sour and in other extreme cases terminates the visions and lives of other people.

It is structured like the streets of a new country and an African proverb says ‘be careful when you enter a new market lest you turn out to be item for sale.’ It is an absolute no-no to gain access to social media sites and believe one is 100% safe. Parents should not be made to ‘loose sleep’ on account of their children on social networking sites; it is essential that they make their children and wards understand that it is open to all comers and there is no privacy. What they hide from their parents will be open to many more people than they would be happy to believe. To safeguard against this exposure to ‘all and sundry’ users will do well to accept people into their space only if they can connect them to real people who are their friends or their relatives. It does no harm to carry out a ‘search’ on people who request to be allowed into one’s space. People must at all times be cautious of friendship requests from people they cannot trace beyond the pages of social media sites.

Many users of social media erroneously believe that they have privacy interacting with people at the other end who at other times turn out to be computer programmes. It is not proper for users to give out personal information to people they cannot connect to other ‘real’ friends or relatives. Confidential personal information must not be disclosed over social media sites.

It will help people if they believe that the next user is equally capable of having access to their interaction history and details. Also people must at all times believe that ‘unscrupulous elements’ on social media sites can hack into their space on the internet. In short, believe that there is no privacy on the internet. I once received a notice that I should immediately change my password as someone was detected and blocked from as far as Russia trying to gain access to my private email account.

What seems to be confidential for the time being appears so because issues have not yet been raised on the user’s interactions and activities on social media networking sites. When matters arise, the user’s profile, interaction history and every possible detail will be made available for the purpose of a thorough investigation. Apart from that, it is human beings who are hired to run a lot of the engines and programmes being used by internet service providers and many websites. These people have access to a lot of information and if in a moment of weakness they trade information of users, a lot of damage could be done.

All manner of people have access to the internet and they can at any point in time take up the character that appears appealing to the taste of the target. Criminals who have not yet been caught and those who have been kept in confinement are also present on the internet.

RAISING THE CEILING

Growing up in Benin, there was a time the trend was commercial bus service providers installing complete stereo systems with huge loudspeakers tucked in their trunks from which they belted out the very latest hit songs throughout the day at a discotheque volume. The target consumers were the young especially the university students. Uniben students were known to be very selective of the sharpest looking buses to shuttle in or no deal. By the largesse of this windfall, many buses got refurbished and adequately equipped and the ones that were beyond redemption were quickly ‘put to sleep.’  In very little time, it became the fad in Benin and to a large extent it still is.

The revolutionary growth in the entertainment industry of Nigeria lends credence to the notion that people will put their best effort into something that they are truly passionate about. Apart from having the innate talent for entertainment, records of successes by international standard entertainment practitioners motivate would-be entertainers of Nigerian origin.

Success is not guaranteed and returns on investment are not certain but the motivation is there and they go ahead with all of their resources hoping for the best. As in every facet of human life, the bottom of the ladder is usually very crowded but many of the success-seekers are breaking out and climbing quite fast.

I am fully convinced that Nigerians can achieve whatever they set their minds upon if they can be convinced to buy into the vision. A strong point in favour of the examples cited above is that the entrepreneur is completely in charge of his business; quite true, but I like to wrap all of that in one word – motivation.

If we are able to find some motivation in speaking up in defense of Nigeria, it would be easier to market the ideology of nationalism and patriotism. To discover the motivating force would require rubbing minds, exchanging ideas and visions for moving forward individually and collectively.

In whatever area of business or enterprise we operate, we must associate with people of like interests. We must unite in progressive unions and cooperatives to move us forward. We will be in a better  position to achieve much more and a faster rate if we belong in a union or cooperative as against standing and struggling alone in a system where government has completely failed to put any structures in place for the establishment, sustenance and growth of small businesses.

From progressive effort and success of such association, people will be able to have a broader view of how to expand their business outside Nigeria and to invite foreign investors to boost further empower themselves in the interest of the new Nigeria.

GOD bless Nigeria.

BUSINESS BEYOND PETTY BUYING AND SELLING

Laziness more than lack of ideas has been identified as the reason why people involved in petty buying and selling are so many. It has been repeatedly said by business-inclined life mentors and motivational speakers that identifying the area of need of members of the community provides the ideal business idea for the prospective entrepreneur.

A lot of people recognize that involving in business will provide them more freedom to function without undue pressure from employers and also as a means of making money at a faster rate than having to depend on paid employment. Whether or not they have the skills or training is a matter for another day.

Looking out the window within one’s locality, we observe that many petty traders actively into petty trade – sell their wares from the trunks of their cars, hawk their wares and littering the side-walk with their wares in the name of trading. These are methods of trading and remaining in trade without any possible hope of breaking out from the maze or the wheel of poverty.

Trading does not necessarily mean throwing away our sense of pride and dignity. Venturing into trading will benefit people greatly and if only they would critically study their community, their environment and discover areas of need that they can service rather than doing what every other person does. The bottom of the ladder is usually crowded and for one to rise to attaining success and breakthrough, it would be a good move to take time and identify areas that are not so crowded. Areas that are not so crowded are those areas that would require more time for the business and being that many more prefer business that would not require much gestation period, they avoid such business that require time to build.

Business that will last and possibly outlive the founder must be carefully founded and established like plants that have roots deeply developed within the ground. Also business that will yield much return need not be like fast food. A case where one person decides and starts a sole proprietorship without support is a perfect example of business that may not yield much and may also not last long.

Support will always be a bonus to good business; preferably from a well structured cooperative. The merit provided by interest free and soft loans turn into disadvantage in that the trader is not under much pressure to trade quickly with funds so acquired and turn over same quickly enough to profit his enterprise. Acquisition of such funds is by so doing made ineffective.

The cooperative spirit by which many farmers, wood/timber merchants throve in the past must be revived as a first step to lifting and empowering new Nigerians to rise beyond business life beyond petty buying and selling. By now, new Nigerians should have come to terms with the fact that they must start with mini structures that will favour and fire their business visions rather than waiting on the ineffective systems of the old and expired operatives in finance that are more or less focused on suffocating and stifling the youth of the land.

GOD bless Nigeria.

SHAKESPEARE MUST HEAR THIS

There are some editions of the Holy Bible that I have ceased to bother with because I can never comprehend the grammatical structuring enough to assimilate the message. Going through my father’s private library sometimes, I see some books that I find quite attractive but when I open them, I quickly close and return them to the shelf because of this matter of grammar.

I have a lot of books in my private collection which I have grown over the last 30 years. My collection is made up of books I am comfortable with reading. I have been quite satisfied with this arrangement so to speak. However I was alarmed when it dawned on me that children of the next generation including my own are not on the same page with me. They have classified me as ‘old school.’

There has been a change in the language by which people communicate in this modern world and if a message must be effectively relayed to these people, it must be done in the language they can comprehend for the cycle of communication to be complete.

When I saw my teenage daughter and some of my younger cousins on twitter, I enlisted as one their followers and they promptly followed me back. I did not need to be told because when I started to see fast and furious twitting, twipping, chirping like wild birds in flight and in a strange language; in the interest of peace and amity, I quickly unfollowed all of them.

And so it slowly became clear to me that this crop of people will be having difficulty reading the kind of books that I read and found so exciting.

I have heard many adults complain about the same experience and they expressed fears like the people of the next generation have strategically positioned themselves to damage the grammar that we all once knew as acceptable for effective communication in society. In fairness to them, in circumstances where they must communicate in well structured grammar like in legal documents, the basic and acceptable grammar structure remains but in almost every other case, they have modified their language of communication.

I have also come to realize that it is just another transitory phase in society. I fear each time I wonder what grammar may have been like in the time of Shakespeare; I am absolutely convinced that I would have been entirely at a loss if for some strange reason I found myself in that generation. I did not expect the change that is gradually taking place but it has started and the grammar structure is changing with the new generation. It is not a reason for alarm but believing that this is the reality of what is happening.

In the same vein, social media has opened a whole new world for the modern communication and coexistence. Active participation on social media networks has further reduced the distance between people of diverse nationalities. On social media, people actively interact with people they have never met physically and effective communication is done over vast distances. It has proven to be a very valid and essential tool for business, education, leisure and technological advancements as well as so many others. Social media covers each and every area of human life and search engines very quickly provide answers to a wide range of questions. People have come to realize the essence of social media in society and the orientation towards to social media is changing and no one really wants to be left out.

The same approach will have to be taken with the changes in language and communication in the modern society so one is not left behind or made to expend time and resources translating and explaining ideas being put forward.

ACTIVE COMMUNITY POLICING

Television programmes that showcase detailed investigative work being carried out by police have revealed that success recorded in many of the cases involve the active participation of members of the public. The police are human and they are not exempt from human errors.

The success of the police will be a boost in securing the lives and property of members of the community. For security, certain law enforcement agents are allowed to handle fire-power like guns. Predators also attack members of the public wielding guns. Guns are not entirely untraceable; by a slip or a keen sense, a man who owns and uses guns will be known within the community where he lives and functions.

Members of the public are being encouraged to take interest in community policing to support the work of the police and to bring about a sense of security and ease in co-existing within the community. The contribution of members of the public may not involve their having to wield guns.

The effort of the police will be complemented with prompt contributions of helpful information by members of the public. In the past, people reported being exposed to men of violence by bad eggs within the system of the police. Corruption in the police is not peculiar to Nigeria Police Force; it is a universal issue. Thankfully, social media provides the platform for sharing information that would help the police in investigations. It will now be the responsibility of the police to sieve genuine tips from pranks and follow the leads provided.

One or two cases have been successfully resolved using information from CCTVs installed in the premises. It is high time people started considering installing cameras in their homes, their small businesses, restaurants/hotels/clubs, taxi parks, hospitals, churches/mosques, schools and every location that members of the public actively utilize.

The presence of cameras in people’s compounds, fences or gates could serve in resolving cases that also affect neighbours. Installing cameras and circulating the notice to that effect will to a large extent discourage criminal minded people from proceeding with any ungodly plans.

Parents who entrust their children to the custody of domestic help, drivers for school run must as of necessity have cameras installed in their homes. At any point and in any location, they can view live footages as they happen within the confines of their homes and their cars. Parents must also note that schools that do not have cameras installed on their grounds should be classed as sub-standard and avoided.

Many organizations presently utilize cameras in their logistics and operations however members of the community should not believe that cameras are reserved for corporate organizations alone. They always come in handy in residences and every possible place where people converge or where human activity is on the high side. Apart of ensuring security, imbibing the culture of using cameras will provide a new market for consumers.

Institutions that truly mean to check issues of examinations malpractice will do well to have cameras installed within examination centers and from evidence gathered, cases of students caught on camera will be effectively dealt with accordingly without arguments.

GOD bless Nigeria.

CELEBRATING THE GIANTS I HAVE MET

I am not Oduduwa; oral tradition has it that Oduduwa was a prince of Bini descent who landed on the land of Ile-Ife from the sky. I did not become who I am today by magic; I come from way back.

Giants are easily spotted and it will be a gross aberration for a giant to take cover in fright of the average human being. They have strength, speed and well developed senses. They have a fuller view of their environment and if men could experience the kind of view by which giants operate, such men would come out with much better decisions than the average. I have had the blessing of riding on the shoulders of giants and in this prose, I celebrate the people who have affected my life so much that telling the story of my life would not be a complete exercise without mentioning them.

v  Grace and Edward Orhewere

v  The Late Rev. Osaghae

v  Mrs. Gomina

v  Ms. REB Howard

v  Mrs. Taiye Ikilama (Nee Akinluyi)

v  Mrs. Kehinde Umane (Nee Akinluyi)

v  Mrs. Clare Orhewere


v  The Late Mr. Emmanuel Obahiagbon


v  Mr. Rukevbe Scott-Emuakpor


v  Dr. Diran and Mrs. Victoria Fawibe

v  Sr. Apostle Fredrick Egbaiyelo

v  The Late Engr. TOA Bamgbopa

v  Mr. Aikay Oduoza

v  Ms. Irene Akinsola

v  Mrs. Aleegbe Orhewere–Muoghereh

v  Pastor Femi Emmanuel

Their impact in my life has greatly affected my view as well as my focus on many issues. I appreciate them greatly for the good work they have done and for what some of them are still doing in bringing out the very best in me.

CHOICES

A folksong of African origin attests to what we request at the point of agreement with the divine deity. The main line translates to mean, 'I am on my way to the world' and it is said that as spirits, some of us ask for good fortune/good children/good names/etc. and we receive as we ask.

When the whole group sings together, it sounds like each person is asking for one thing or the other but there is are some among us who simply hum and echo without asking for anything.

It comes out sounding like a nice song as we dance to it on our way to the world.

CHOICES

LAGOS STATE TRAFFIC LAW APPLY TO ALL ROAD USERS IN LAGOS STATE

Issues of road traffic management and control are being tackled by the government of Lagos State of Nigeria to ease the challenges posed by the congestion, accidents and vehicle breakdowns on Lagos roads. Prior to the revision of the road traffic law, many road users who violated the traffic law did so under the shadows of Nigerian Army personnel. One would expect that with the introduction of the amended law and the incident involving an army colonel caught contravening the law and was confronted by the governor of Lagos State, army personnel would be deterred from violating the traffic laws.

Some men and officers of the Nigerian Army must have reasons to justify why they continually fail to comply with the prescribed traffic laws of Lagos State. Commuting on the roads in Lagos, one sees army personnel riding three persons on a motorbike and none of the passengers have the recommended protective crash helmet on their heads. We see army personnel riding bikes and driving vehicles along the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) corridors that the government has designed and dedicated for the ease of delivery of BRT service.

There have been fatal accidents involving contraveners of road traffic law and men/officers of the NA are not exempt by the uniform they adorn. Driving along Oba Akran Avenue in Ikeja, Lagos, I once saw a crash site where three army men lay on the ground after the bike the three of them were riding on fell on them. Had any of them died in that accident, members of his family would expect the army to take responsibility for his burial and possibly demand that the army make some payments to support the upbringing of his children.

What is so difficult for these people to understand in these laws passed in the interest of all road users for the ease of traffic congestion and to safeguard lives?

RE: LASTMA V. MRS. YINKA JOHNSON

Officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) on duty on Ajah-Lekki express have been in the news in the last few days over a false claim that Mrs. Yinka Johnson, a banker crushed an official of LASTMA who later died from injuries sustained while performing state-assigned duty. Many road users in Lagos State have had one bad experience or the other with LASTMA officials. Many of such confrontations degenerated to verbal and physical exchange and in some extreme cases, lives were lost.

The unfortunate incident in which a LASTMA official lost his life while on duty last week may have been avoided if a more professional approach had been applied. The unexpected occurred and for reasons that are still unclear, Mrs. Yinka Johnson was very quickly accused by LASTMA officials present at the scene of crushing a LASTMA official with her vehicle. This is very unlike the Nigerian style of reporting news. Her safety was not considered before her personal information was made public. This is very unprofessional of LASTMA and media reporters; bottom-line is a suggestion of malicious intent to put her in harm’s way.

Thankfully, the buck did not stop at the desk of LASTMA. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was invited and with the help of well-meaning Nigerians who were present at the scene of the incident, it was clearly established that Yinka Johnson was not the one who crushed the official in question. Mrs. Yinka Johnson must have many more people like her church, her employers, her family and GOD to thank for escaping false accusation.

Does the law permit LASTMA officials to simply turn the life of a road user upside down by fabricating false accusations and whipping up false evidence and witnesses against a road user in Lagos State because of the authority entrusted to them? Among the LASTMA officials involved in this act of injustice must be Nigerian citizens who give negative tags to the government of the day which controls and administers the vast resources of the land.

This one gives credence to the suggestion that LASTMA being predominantly composed of layabout ‘area boys and girls’ taken straight off the streets of Lagos require a comprehensive college of training for them to imbibe the culture of decency in dispensing service to tax payers who actually are their employers.

GOD bless Nigeria.

ALIENS FROM ANOTHER PLANET SPOTTED

Can Nigerians try to see Nigeria as a corporate entity that seeks domestic and international relevance through social and economic advancement?

For the more than 52years of self-rule Nigerians have not yet found enough reasons to unite and effectively make progress. An African adage says, ‘if we do not make progress, the least we can do is to remain on the same spot instead of going backwards.’ Nigerians will agree that the position of the state of the nation is that Nigeria is returning to the past.

100years after amalgamation, Nigerians still fail to see anything good in a strong and united whole entity as against tiny clusters of powerless and poor nations that will be easy prey for world economic giants who will once again enslave them.

The unpleasant result of erecting an alliance without first addressing issues of economic contributions, distribution of resources and administrative powers, human rights, freedom and tolerance of each other’s social, religious and cultural preferences is what Nigeria today is faced with. Unfortunately, myopic minded Nigerians who basically do not know the implications of their demands clamour for disintegration of the united entity; by so doing, they have effectively alienated themselves from the spirit of nationalism on which a country is founded. In effect, they have become aliens to the unity of the united whole entity known as Nigeria.

Politicians who currently hold office are afraid that the call for the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) will weaken their authority and expose them to the likelihood of loosing their position in office. Let Nigerians cease to celebrate backwardness by dwelling on injustices of northerners against southerners, or depletion of resources of the north that were expended in the developing the south, or on crimes of ungodly leaders who looted and plundered the resources of the land and seem to have gone scot-free or the blood of our heroes and matyrs shed needlessly.

80percent of Nigerians of the new generation did not witness a lot of these incidents that have great influence on the attitude of Nigerians towards the corporate Nigeria; rather warped history spinned around webs of falsehood and deception to serve the selfish-interests of evil-minded politicians of the old order is the driving force by which they approach issues affecting Nigeria. In fact, no one, not even one of them is a Nigerian in the real sense. They feel no sense of duty and commitment to Nigeria and there is no way the land will yield of its abundance to these aliens who tag themselves NIGERIANS. This is the basis for the call for aliens of different lands, climes and planets to come together and work the corporate entity created by the British to success and breakthrough. If Nigerians fail to agree on a united whole nation, then maybe the approach of a corporate business entity; specifically a partnership will bring about a different attitude towards Nigeria. In essence, true Nigerians should start to see themselves as stakeholders in a partnership that has not yet been properly registered according to modern business ethics.

Every foray into business is with the expectation of maximizing profit while each investor watches and monitors the growth of the business so diligently that any suggestion of threatening the anticipated profit will be strongly resisted. In a business partnership, each man comes to the drawing table with something and as such he must be accorded the necessary respect and honour due a worthy stakeholder while he in return complies with the values of the business in order to avoid abusing the freedom allowed him in being a part of the partnership.

Nigerians as partners in business must do away with the sick ideology that some Nigerians are more worthy than others or that some have more claim to the resources of the land than others. And taking the ownership approach of the business towards the corporate Nigeria will bring about profit that will be bountiful enough to go round for all stakeholders to live a noble quality of life so that the land will bless the people rather than feed on the youth.

GOD bless Nigeria

Sovereign National Conference Made Easy

Folklore has it that three baby elephants were chained in order to restrain their movement. As they grew older, they realized that their movement was limited to the extent which the chain allowed them. Long after maturity and increase in stature, they did not realize that they had outgrown the restraining effect of the chain used to restrain them as babies. They remained chained with their baby chains well into old age. The greater number of the Nigerian population is under 35 years; they did not witness the civil war which resulted from differences and conflicts generated by the Amalgamation of the regions. However politicians of the old brigade have transferred the defective ideology of discord and suspicion by which they led Nigeria to civil war to sufficiently corrupt the minds of the new Nigerians.

The Amalgamation is still being viewed by many Nigerians as a defective arrangement based on the economic interest of the British to secure the many benefits that the Nigerian economy provided. The decision to amalgamate the two regions did not sit well with the more enlightened politicians of the southern origin and ever since, the call for the Sovereign National Conference (SNC) has grown and by the day it gets louder. Nigerians of the new generation need not fear the convening of the SNC as the SNC will provide the basis for the continued unity of Nigeria as one whole entity.  

The Sovereign National Conference is an assembly of representatives chosen by the many ethnic communities or nationalities as they would have it that make up the three main regions of Nigeria.  The ethnic nationalities that make up the entity Nigeria are interconnected, dynamic, colourful, complex and multi-faceted in every aspect but at the same time, they differ greatly from one another. This is more of a function of the mind because some of these so-called ethnic nationalities have no clearly defined boundaries and in other cases, the distance between some communities is almost insignificant but they will proudly maintain that they are not one and the same.

Not a single community is expected to be left out of this arrangement. It becomes necessary to convene a SNC when the government turns out to be having issues with delivering social order and justice. Some politicians refuse the call for the SNC on the grounds that it is required only in the situation of transiting from military rule to civilian rule.  Another school of thought holds that the call for the SNC is based on tribal divisions. The SNC should have been convened at the time of the Amalgamation in 1914 but it was not and it is has turned out to be the root cause of all the issues of inequality and social injustice of Nigeria. Also Nigeria has grown beyond the point where things are reduced to tribes; Nigeria is more of a corporate organization which must the effectively managed for the full potentials in the abundance of natural resources to be converted into sustainable development and improved standard of living. Militancy and insurgency will not deliver the results that we expect and disintegration is not an option to be considered as it will lead to total fragmentation of the body of Nigeria. And this will easily make Nigeria prey to united and more powerful nations who will enslave Nigeria once again.

The SNC will address issues of the economic system and property relations in that specific resources and contributions of each group on one hand will be identified and delegates will draw up rational and workable structures by which these resources will be administered in such a way that each and every single member community will receive resources and subventions for the development of basic amenities and infrastructures for the community. Fundamental human rights must necessarily be addressed in the course of the SNC giving clear guidelines that will provide protection for all Nigerian citizens and all peoples residing within Nigeria.  Also, the terms of relationships that should exist between organized religions and the Nigerian state should be stated in clear terms.

The representatives will be locally nominated or selected by the members of the community so there will not be a case of imposing one ethnic group over the other. And it is imperative to note that in every gathering of human beings, there is a ranking system which requires that some are led and others follow; this touches on the area of political and administrative powers. Without being unnecessarily sentimental or tribalistic, we must concede to the argument that some people simply do not qualify for the position of leadership but if they must lead at all, they can lead the region that puts them forward as their leader. The suggestion of power rotation will easily be resolved by rotating power within the three major regions of Nigeria and not causing chaos and anarchy by demanding that every local government area or every other street must have a presidential candidate.

What seems to be dragging the SNC back is the unpatriotic attitude of tribalizing of power and leadership as well as the demand for recognition by every locality. This alone suggests fraudulent intent in that people make it look like taking office is with the intention to loot as much as they can and take home to their communities but in the real sense, the booty still does not get shared at the local level.

Without convening the Sovereign National Conference, the future of one united Nigeria is seriously under threat.  For their own selfish interests and in complete ignorance, the old brigade constitute a nuisance in the path of progress by peddling unreasonable ideology to the fertile minds of the youth. They confound the youth by spreading some paltry amounts of money to echo their senseless ranting by violence while their own children are safely tucked away in the Ivy League of foreign lands.  They circulate such misleading information as that the SNC would amount to surrendering the sovereignty to the people, and that the government could be toppled by so doing. However what Nigerian politicians to date have failed to understand is that they are elected by the people to serve the interest of the people. It is amazing to see that once they secure government position, they turn on the people like the people are lepers and the people who should be calling the shots are made to beg ‘cap in hand.’ The mandate given to the politicians by the electorate does not in any way mean that they have given up their claim to sovereignty; representatives must be chosen from the communities so that there will be some law and order. The mandate truly belongs to the people who hand it to political representatives of their communities. There is no telling what the SNC will unravel and there is no guaranty of total success at first attempt in convening the SNC; however, it will provide a good opportunity to review approaches to our mutual co-existence. In the end, what Nigerians aspire towards is how to build a society where no man will feel oppressed, where people diligently aspire towards achieving excellence in labour as a means of living a dignifying life and a society where public accountability will be paramount in determining good leadership. It is the responsibility of Nigerians of the new generation to re-structure the type of society that they would like to enjoy and do everything possible to actively participate in politics and governance in view of ensuring that no tribalistic, biased and parochial politicians of the old order will fiddle with their mandate and the quest to attain a new Nigeria. GOD bless Nigeria.