Tag: Culture

Change, Randoms

Of Productivity and National Attitudes to Work

Jilomes

The past week or two saw a little debate on “Nigerian Twitter” about a claim that Nigerians are unwilling to work, effectively saying Nigerians are lazy. While the proponents of the claim had the initial field day espousing their view, the opposing team came out strongly in the second half with valid rebuttals around inadequate remuneration and unstructured workplaces. As usual with many of these debates, the truth is neither here nor there.

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Change

Favouring the Poor Oppressor

Jilomes

“Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly.”

(Leviticus 19:15, NLT)

If you were to have a random discussion with 100 persons about injustice in our society, you are sure to get sustained lamentations about the perversion of justice by wealthy persons who are able to bribe their way out of being punished for their crimes or have “connections” to get a judge to declare that white is actually black because both have five characters. What you are unlikely to hear is any complaint about injustice that favours the poor or powerless.

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Change

An Anthem Better Than a Silver Bullet

Jilomes

Very few persons will ever have the privilege of witnessing surreal ingenuity as magnificent as the silver bullet to national malformation. Jodi Picoult, the American wannabe pessimist once claimed that “…There are no silver bullets in life, there’s just the long, messy climb out of the pit you’ve dug yourself.” But even Auntie Jodi would be enthralled to live in the same era as the wise men in two chambers who have discovered Nigeria’s short walk to freedom.

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Randoms

An African’s Take on the Titanic’s Titan

Jilomes

“But wetin this oyinbo people go find for there sef”

I have long accepted my cross as an offline search engine cum facts aggregator providing value added services to my bosses. But whereas I wish I could request a salary increase attuned to the higher costs of staying current, this article is not about negotiating a raise. My boss’ question mirrored the minds of many Africans and even non-Africans wondering why anyone would pay US$250,000 (almost ₦200 million) to increase the number of persons lost to the Titanic.

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Change

Parenting and the Changing Face of Society

Jilomes

There is this common saying that “the more things change, the more they remain the same.” While I would agree that patterns, like multiples or parallel lines on a cartesian graph may repeat, effectively remaining the same, I wonder if there is truly a reality where things get worse, or the perception is just recency bias at work in our minds. But while my thinking may seem inconclusive, I still find a way to convince myself that with regards to raising children, things are not merely remaining the same.

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Energy

When a Right-of-Way Becomes No Man’s Land

Jilomes

There are a lot of things that happen in Nigeria, that if this were the proverbial saner climes, we would be debating whether to commit people to a sanatorium or a penitentiary. Or, if we wanted to spice things up a bit, we would haggle over how many neck-ward strokes with a USB cord would suffice. But before you accuse me of brutal intent, can we explain why anyone is building a petrol station above a high-pressure gas pipeline when suicide is still illegal in Nigeria?

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Randoms

He was Golden

Jilomes

“Jonah, daddy is dead”. With just four words on the phone, my younger brother informed me that our father had moved on. It had been a fast-paced day from collapsing in church in the morning, to resuscitation, admission in one hospital, referral to a teaching hospital, admission in the tertiary care hospital, and death just before 5pm. Lacking the emotional make-up of most humans, the only time I would shed tears would be as I fell to my knees to tell God He would be responsible for funding the burial and I had no intention of burying two parents in one year, as I worried about my mom. Less than thirty minutes after hearing my father was dead, my mind switched to burial planning mode, and I would come to realise that it takes a village to bury their child.

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Change

Thou Shalt Not Undertake Research

Jilomes

As I picked up my laptop to draft this article, a thought crossed my mind whether the Nigerian antipathy to research and development is in obedience to some religious instruction, or if a fatwa had been declared on any government in Nigeria that dares pay any attention to funding and facilitating research efforts. This thought inspired the title as the best excuse I can conjure for what might be intellectual laziness on a national scale.

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Change, Politics

A Litany of Bad Choices

Jilomes

If you had to choose between eating your cake and having it, what would you choose, and how would you make this choice? Would your choice be logical, emotional, a blend of the two, or a clean random pick? Whichever you choose, you would be aware that every choice has a consequence one way or the other. However, looking at the national development angle in Nigeria, it looks like we make weird choices and later wonder why things took a wrong turn. Whereas there are several factors behind our woes in Nigeria, one common denominator for our dysfunctional state is a litany of imprudent choices.

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