Happy Independence Day

An old school colleague sent this piece to our mailing list. Very touching so I decided to share. Hope you enjoy it and it speaks to you the way it did to me.

"This little book is dedicated to my children and their age-mates throughout Nigeria whose future the argument is all about. The inspiration and the vigour come from them; the flaws and the weaknesses are mine"

The lines above are from Chinua Achebe's foreword to his "The Problem With Nigeria." The guy who gave me the book said he first visited Nigeria in 1991 and after our first chat about Nigeria offered to lend me the book. It was originally published in 1981 when a lot of us were still running around in our unmentionables. Achebe had enough to amuse, make one think, get annoyed and so on in the 60-odd pages. The keenest of the emotions for me was sadness. Sadness because the book might as well have been written about 51-year old Nigeria. To put it in another light, I wonder what Achebe would say or write about Nigeria today.

I know we like over-simplifying the problems facing Nigeria and I will make my best effort at doing that here - everything wrong with us starts and ends with leadership. Be it our amazing corruption quotient, our infrastructure deficit or our unrivaled lack of patriotism; it can be traced back to leadership or the lack of it. However, there is something that I strongly believe is the lowest common denominator (for want of a more apt description) in all of this and that is education.

It is quite easy to point out the problems and call for someone's head (the story of the club called Arsenal) but without moving a step further to identifying possible solutions and pursuing them, how can we expect things to go differently? I am convinced that every little helps, especially in the public schools, and even so much more when aggregated. It will be 10 years since we left school in 2012 and I don't know if any of us have reached those marks that we talked about in our "where do you see yourself in 10 years?" section of our yearbook. No matter your station in life - there, near or far - I hope we realise that we are gradually inching into the "older generation" category. We are not just the generation that now gives (to our children, parents. younger ones, etc) rather than receive but the generation which if we fail to build, will end up being described in similar terms by our children as we like to describe the ones before us - plenty promises, no performance.

I know this is all so far away from who we think we are as a group or where we are right now but I have had encounters or read things over the last few months that made me decide the debate with myself in favour of sending this mail. Hopefully I will not have succeeded in having a monologue here, I hope this ticks off something in someone to make them realise that their 2 fish and 5 loaves may end up feeding 5000.

God bless.

Sayre

Loving Our Children to Death

I came across this article and it made for a great read and very insightful too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Friends, Let me add the benefit of my time as a student and then resident in the UK - and I live in Lagos now. The first thing that I discovered about UK-born, white, English undergraduates was that all of them did holiday or weekend job to support themselves - including the children of millionaires amongst them. It is the norm over there - regardless how wealthy their parents are. And I soon discovered that virtually all other foreign students did the same - the exception being those of us status-conscious Nigerians. I also watched Richard Branson (owner of Virgin Airline)speaking on the Biography Channel and, to my amazement, he said that his young children travel in the economy class -even when the parents (he and his wife) are in upper class.   Richard Branson is a billionaire in Pound Sterling. A quick survey would show you that only children from Nigeria fly business or upper class to commence their studies in the UK . No other foreign students do this.             There is no aircraft attached to the office of the prime minister in the UK - he travels on BA. And the same goes for the Royals. The Queen does not have an aircraft for her exclusive use. These practices simply become the culture which the next generation carries forward. Have you seen the car that Kate Middleton(the lady soon to marry Prince William) drives? VW Golf or something close to it.  But there's one core difference them and us(generally speaking). They (even the billionaires among them) work for their money, we steal ours! If we want our children to bring about the desired change we have been praying for on behalf of our dear country, then please, please let’s begin now and teach them to work hard so they can stand alone and most importantly be content, and not having to "steal", which seem to be the norm these days.           “30 is the new 18”, which seem to be the new age for testing out the world in Nigeria now.  That seems to be an unspoken but widely accepted mindset among the last 2 generations of parents in Nigeria . At age 18 years, a typical young adult in the UK leaves the clutches of his/her parents for the University, chances are, that’s the last time those parents will ever play “landlord” to their son or daughter except of course the occasional home visits during the academic year.     At 21 years and above or below, the now fully grown and independent minded adult graduates from University, searches for employment, gets a job and shares a flat with other young people on a journey into becoming fully fledged adults.           I can hear the echo of parents saying, well, that is because the UK economy is thriving, safe, well structured and jobs are everywhere? I beg to differ and I ask that you kindly hear me out.  I am UK trained Recruitment Consultant and I have been practicing for the past 10 years in Nigeria .  I have a broad range of experience from recruiting graduates to executive director level of large corporations.  In addition, I talk from the point of view of someone with relatively privileged upbringing. Driven to school every day, had my clothes washed for me, was barred from taking any part-time job during my A-levels so that I could concentrate on studying for my exams?! BUT, I got the opportunity to live apart from my parents from age 18 and the only time I came back home to stay was for 3 months before I got married!       Am I saying that every parent should wash their hands off their children at age 18? No, not at all, of course, I enjoyed the savings that I made from living on and off at my parent’s house in London – indeed that is the primary reason for my being able to buy myself a 3 bedroom flat in London at age 25 with absolutely no direct financial help from my parents! For me, pocket money stopped at age 22, not that it was ever enough for my lifestyle to compete with Paris Hilton’s or Victoria Beckham’s. Meanwhile today, we have Nigerian children who have never worked for 5 minutes in their lives insisting on flying “only” first or business class, carrying the latest Louis Vuitton ensemble, Victoria ’s Secret underwear and   wearing Jimmy Choo’s, fully paid for by their “loving” parents. I often get calls from anxious parents, my son graduated 2 years ago and is still looking for a job, can you please assist! Oh really! So where exactly is this “child” is my usual question. Why are you the one making this call dad/mum? I am yet to get a satisfactory answer, but between you and me, chances are that big boy is cruising around Lagos with a babe dressed to the nines, in his dad’s spanking new SUV with enough “pocket money” to put your salary to shame.  It is not at all strange to have a 28 year old who has NEVER worked for a day in his or her life in Nigeria but “earns” a six figure “salary” from parents for doing absolutely nothing. I see them in my office once in a while, 26 years old with absolutely no skills to sell, apart from a shiny CV, written by his dad’s secretary in the office. Of course, he has a driver at his beck and call and he is driven to the job interview. We have a fairly decent conversation and we get to the inevitable question - so, what salary are you looking to earn? Answer comes straight out - N250,000.00. I ask if that is per month or per annum. Of course it is per month. Oh, why do you think you should be earning that much on your first job? Well, because my current pocket money is N200,000.00 and I feel that an employer should be able to pay me more than my parents. I try very hard to compose myself, over parenting is in my opinion the greatest evil handicapping the Nigerian youth. It is at the root of our national malaise.       We have a youth population of tens of millions of who are being “breastfed and diapered” well into their 30s.  Even though the examples I have given above are from parents of considerable affluence, similar patterns can be observed from Abeokuta to Adamawa! Wake up mum! Wake up dad! You are practically loving your children to death! No wonder corruption continues to thrive. We have a society of young people who have been brought up to expect something for nothing, as if it were a birth right.   I want to encourage you to send your young men and women (anyone over 20 can hardly be called a child!) out into the world, maybe even consider reducing or stopping the pocket money to encourage them to think, explore and strive. Let them know that it is possible for them to succeed without your “help”.             Take a moment to think back to your own time as a young man/woman, what if someone had kept spoon feeding you, would you be where you are today? No tree grows well under another tree, children that are not exposed to challenges, don't cook well. That is why you see adults complaining, "my parents didn't buy clothes for me this Christmas", ask him/her how old-30+. Because of the challenges we faced in our youth, we are where and what we today, this syndrome- my children will not suffer what I suffered is destroying our tomorrow. Deliberately reduce their allowance or mum-don't cook on Saturday till late afternoon or evening-do as occasion deserve.                 I learnt the children of a former Nigerian head of state with all the stolen (billions) monies in their custody, still go about with security escort as wrecks. They are on drugs, several times because of the drug, they collapse in public places. The escort will quickly pack them and off they go, what a life. No one wants to marry them. Anyone who stops   learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.- Henry Ford. Hard work does not kill, everything in Nigeria is going down, including family settings. It is time to cook our children, preparing them for tomorrow. We are approaching the season in Nigeria where only the RUGGED, will survive. How will your ward fare?         If the present generation of Nigerian pilots retire, will you fly a plane flown by a young Nigerian pilot, If trained in Nigeria ? People now have first class, who cannot spell GRADUATE or read an article without bomb blast! Which Way Nigeria !, Which Way Nigerians!! Is this how we will ALL sit and watch this country SINK?      Best Regards

Lagos State: Taxation Without Representation

Lets start with a tale of the Dictatorial President [OBJ] and the Heady Governor [Tinubu]. Federal allocations were withheld for months which saw the Governor seeking alternative income source and voila TAXATION [i mean multiple, ridiculous, exploitative taxation] was born in Lagos state.

Lagos State

Fast forward to present day. The Governor of Lagos State is a lot of things to Lagosians [focussed, diligent, intuitive, smart] but one thing he is not is kind hearted or a philanthropist. The tax regime in the state now has reached an all time high.

Anyone who lives in Lagos today has a feel of what I'm saying especially as it concerns taxation. Everything is taxed, your shop, your clothes, your food, your car, your house, your land, your flowers, your curb...... Is anyone getting the flow? this is clearly multiple taxation!!!

Now, back to my title "Taxation Without Representation". Has anyone seen the movie "Training Day" with Denzel Washington, where he was a DEA Cop and had a drug dealer friend? He needed some cash and decided to burst his friend and loot a sizable portion of the chaps cash stash? This was the exact phrase used. They were taxing the money without representation, no records, no traces, nobody knows! See?

Same thing is happening here with us, we pay taxes in this state [at least i do, a large chunk of my pay for that matter] and we expect some basic amenities to be provided because we do our part. Simple things like Power, Water, Roads, Security, Education etc. But what is happening is that we are being taxed multiple folds, the funds are being looted by some politicians/rogues/scoundrels/thugs/thieves/opportunists and they don't stop at that, they even expect us to pay for the few basic amenities provided!!!!

Good case is the Lekki Tolls being constructed. Where is it done? Three tolls in a single LGA? Lets not dwell on this as the powers that be can easily split the LGA in three!!! Then what do we say?

Power is not provided, security is zilch, water is not even something that one asks for anymore etc. Then why all the taxes.

Just frustrated, really tired of the state of things. But I live here and will continue to do my part.

Just another Nigerian