E is for Empowerment
For the desired results of change to be achieved the Empowerment of the people is crucial. Empowerment of the people must be inclusive of...
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A publication that advocates the maximising of your talent for your personal wealth creation and the benefit of your community!
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Be the C.H.A.N.G.E you want to see in the world - Focus on Nigeria. Change Digest Volume 1
Promoting sustainable positive change for nation building. Get your copy of this inspiring book. Let's safeguard the C.H.A.N.G.E
Available as both ebook & print. Out in Summer 2017!
101 Ways to Be the C.H.A.N.G.E you want to see in your family, community and nation. Change Digest Volume 2
Promoting sustainable positive change for personal development. Get your copy of this inspiring book. Let's share the rewards of C.H.A.N.G.E
Available as both ebook & print. Out in Summer 2017!
C.H.A.N.G.E
C is for Creativity
Creativity is the ability to generate ideas that results in new products and services that contributes to the socio-economic growth of a community. Every Nigerian has a creative ability that can be released for the mutual socio-economic benefit of the person and our nation. We’ve excelled in this area in various communities worldwide. However, the socio-economic growth that results from embracing creativity has not been replicated in Nigeria.
What can be observed among Nigerians is the reality that rather than support and enable creativity in others, there is an increased occurrence of deliberate attempts to frustrate the creativity of their fellow Nigerians. This tends to be achieved through varying acts of intimidation, deception, discouragement, oppression and piracy. The challenge for us as a nation is that these acts are rampant in our families, local communities, associations, institutions, organisations, governments and we seem to have exported it to the Diaspora. The reality is that when we frustrate creativity in others, nobody wins. And this will ultimately breed restlessness, strife, violence and invariably encourages corruption.
Mr Debo Adesina explains further the appalling state of creativity in our nation, in an article, “Good time to be a Nigerian!” on January 4, 2016 in The Guardian Newspaper. In the article, he was celebrating the achievements of two Nigerians in the United States of America – Mr Adewale Adeyemo, who was appointed Deputy National Security Adviser of the United States by President Barack Obama and Dr Bennet Omalu, the first pathologist to report chronic traumatic ancephalopathy in high impact contact sport athletes and military war veterans.
He indicated in the article, “These achievements have, nevertheless, exposed the ineptitude of Nigeria’s leaders and challenged them to a better utilisation of human capital. For, were Adeyemo and Omalu home-based, their stars shining as they do now are a possibility. A more potent possibility, however, is that those stars would probably have been extinguished by a bureaucracy that stifles merit, a system that is the graveyard of talents.”
H is for Hope
Change Digest - Volumes 1 & 2
Be the C.H.A.N.G.E you want to see in the World - Focus on Nigeria. Change Digest Volume 1
Volume 1
Creativity
Hope
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
For change to happen, Hope must be renewed that a positive outcome will result from the change process. Hope has been defined as:
- the feeling of wanting something to happen and thinking that it could happen;
- a feeling that something good will happen or be true
- someone or something that may be able to provide help
- someone or something that gives you a reason for hoping
From many indications, Nigerians are very hopeful people; despite many years of disappointment, frustration and neglect, we keep holding on a hope that all will work out well for us. Unfortunately, the desired result from holding on hope seems to elude the majority of the people. For change to be effective and sustainable, we need to restore hope in the people. This can be achieved when we stop taking people for granted and we start taking decisions based on the overall interests of the people and our nation.
Renewing Hope is needed in our families, communities, associations, institutions and governments. In our society, everyone in a position of authority seem to think they have acquired all power to oppress others. That is why some police officers will not think twice before shooting a citizen that has clearly not committed an offence but only insisting on safeguarding their citizenship rights to safety, security and peace. In the same vein, some civil servants will not think twice before delaying simple administrative processes in an attempt to discourage, frustrate and extort citizens they are meant to provide a quality service. Likewise, some other people in various positions of authority, will not think twice to deny other citizens opportunities of promotion, progress and prosperity.
Hope can be translated to mean Helping Other People Everywhere; change will happen when we accept that we have a responsibility to help others around us either in the form of sharing information, resources, assistance, effective programmes and policies. Someone said, "The only difference between those who threw in the towel and quit and those who used their energy to rebuild and kept it going is found in the word - HOPE.” To rebuild our nation, we need to restore and keep renewing Hope.
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
A is for Action
One reason I believe people find Change challenging is that it involves hard work. We are set in our ways and our comfort zones; the status quo seems to be working for some of us - why change it? Particularly if the change will undermine our extra-legal sources of income. Sincerely, if by doing less legal productive work, you make economic gains and progress; the incentive to act and change your practices is lost; particularly if that action to change is not universal in the society. Unfortunately we tend to point accusing fingers at our leaders, overlooking the reality that the practice to inflate contracts, divert budgetary resources and deceive others has become entrenched in our value system. Within our families, associations, institutions and communities, it has become the norm for an individual to increase the cost of an item when asked to purchase something. The extra financial gain made is justified on the grounds of been "a smart economic person". Unfortunately, everyone grows up thinking this is a right and acceptable practice and when they end up in leadership positions – political, corporate etc, they can't see anything wrong in continuing the practice, irrespective of the increase in the number of zero's involved. For change to be real in our society, we all have to take action to stop practices that endanger our collective existence.
If there is another area, we need to take action to change, it is our driving culture. Every Nigerian, irrespective of status, education, religion, profession etc seems to transform into the lord and owner of our roads when driving. We are constantly in a hurry, give no due regard to other road users, break traffic laws at will and easily make disparaging, abusive, uncivil remarks about other road users. Yet we wonder why we keep experiencing traffic gridlocks on our roads; why we are stressed and have other health challenges; why our work productivity is low. Change will require us to take action in this area to bring about the desired socio-economic growth in our society.
A reciprocal action will be required from those in positions of authority. Let's take action to stop corrupt practices in our value system, take action to implement qualitative effective programmes, take action to consider the future legacy of our nation rather than short term political gains.
Action
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
N is for New Ideas
The concept of Change is based on two fundamental principles:
1. Something is not working, we need to explore a new way of making it to work
2. Something is working, but are there other ways we can make it work better.
The key strategy to implement these two principles is for us to be open to embrace new ideas, new ways of doing things, new strategies to get desired results, new mentality, new values, new norms and a new society. Change will keep each of us constantly seeking new ideas to improve ourselves, improve the processes and practices we use to get things done and improve our values. Albert Einstein said, "It is insanity to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." He also stated, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
If Bill Gates did not explore an improved way to computing, he will not have developed Microsoft that has impacted the way of life worldwide today. Steve Jobs believed he could improve on what Bill Gates achieved, he gave the world Apple with its diverse product range that has transformed both the computing world and our way of life. Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, a tool that has allowed billions of people worldwide to communicate via the internet. Unfortunately I searched but couldn't identify a single Nigerian that has brought about a similar impact on the way of life worldwide (I stand to be corrected). Of course, some Nigerians have done their bit in providing exemplary service for our nation, however this has not translated to impact the lives of Nigerians not to talk of the world.
An average Nigerian is familiar with these brands – Samsung, LG, Hyundai and Kia – with most homes having products from at least two of these brands. However, I doubt it if an average Nigerian is aware that all these brands are owned by South Korean multinational companies. South Korea has an estimated population of 50.6million (Wikipedia), it is a country that is technically still at war with it's neighbour – North Korea and has had its own experience of political and socio-economic crisis; nevertheless, the country pulled their common purpose together to actualise an economic turnaround that ensured South Korea was transformed into a developed and prosperous nation. Together with Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan they formed the Four Asian Tigers that have transformed to become high income economies in the 21st century and they were able to do this without oil.
In Nigeria, as we count towards marking 100 years of independence in 2060, we can set a target for ourselves to achieve becoming an African Eagle by transforming our nation into a prosperous, peaceful and patriotic country. To do that we need to lay the foundation for change by exploring new ideas.
New Ideas
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
G is for Generation
The context for Generation to be addressed to bring about an effective and sustainable change is the process of passing the baton from one generation to the next. In every nation that will be great, there is an active long term plan for future successive generations to build upon and then continue to lay the foundation for the next generation. Over the years in Nigeria we've had a plethora of National Development Plans, National Rolling Plans, Vision Plans – Vision 2010, Vision 20:20:20 and diverse other overlapping programmes – SAP, NEEDS; however none has translated into laying a solid foundation for the next generation to build upon. We tend to just shift the target year to some distant, catchy period e.g. Vision 2010 becomes Vision 2020 when we realise there is nothing to show for the budget that has been allocated for the initial target date. Unfortunately for us, as this is what we bequeath to the next generation, they just follow suit and repeat the same process leading to an unending generational cycle.
A critical examination of the underlying reason for this lack of generational planning is our poor and inadequate maintenance culture. This is revealed in the manner we treat our national infrastructure; we divert maintenance budgetary allocation, encourage sub-standard workmanship and turn a blind eye to disrepair and decay in our infrastructures. Examples abound nationwide – roads, airports, power & energy, transport network, sports centres, seaports, refineries, office and residential buildings etc. To address this unending generational cycle, the current generation must embrace change and ensure a solid foundation is laid for the next generation to build; this starts from our families, associations, institutions, communities and governments.
Generation
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
E is for Empowerment
For the desired results of change to be achieved the Empowerment of the people is crucial. Empowerment of the people must be inclusive of skills, knowledge, opportunities, resources and a conducive environment that will support wealth creation and prosperity; guarantee peaceful co-existence and wellbeing of all citizens. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we have failed woefully in this area, we pay lip service to empowering the people yet we deny them the basic reward of dignity in labour.
We run our educational system based on just giving the youths a sense of education without challenging them to become effective contributors to nation building. Our record keeping is totally inadequate, as a result we don't have accurate projections of the number of professionals – Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Engineers, Researchers, Farmers, Entrepreneurs etc – that will be needed to support our economy; everyone seems to transfer their skills to the area of high employment potential – Civil Service, Banking, Oil Sector and Politics.
Change must translate to full and total empowerment of the people to discover, nurture, develop, release, and promote their potential, gifts, talents and skills for their personal benefit and the benefit of our nation. It starts from our families, associations, institutions, communities and governments. When the people are empowered, they become challenged to empower others; a system that fosters a sustainable process of raising an enterprising, committed and patriotic citizens that will support building a prosperous, peaceful and great nation.
Empowerment
Continued in Change Digest Volume 1
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101 Ways to Be the C.H.A.N.G.E you want to see in your family, community and nation. Change Digest Volume 2
Volume 2
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