Ohi's Story
- Posted on:
- May 9, 2005 at midnight
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- http://es-africa.com/articles/trackback/ohis-story/
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- MBCstories
I left Nigeria in a hurry. Not because I was running away but because the opportunity to leave came very suddenly. I was about half way through my course in the University of Ibadan, sitting at home on one of those long strikes when a friend suggested I explored schooling abroad. A few weeks, and many expensive phone calls later, I was on my way to a sleepy university town in the UK, recommended by my head of department. It was a miracle that even in the midst of a strike, I was able to get my transcript and a covering letter within two days and without parting with a kobo. Just goes to show that the system can and does sometimes work. It was easy to go, but hard to leave in a way. The experience was different from the times I had been on holiday, but I was finally going to do a course that was more practical than the almost purely theory based education I had been getting. It was an adventure, so like the hobbit, I took up my gear and the sheets of prayers my mom thrust in my hands and off I went. I had an interesting time in the UK. There were of course many things that one couldn¡¦t do and get at home which I enjoyed. But more than anything, it confirmed to me that people make a system, and that their attitudes and values have more to do with its success than anything else. Why do I say so? For one thing, whilst there was the normal quota of guys doing their best to reinforce the anecdotal stereotypes of Nigerians, there were many more who just decided. They just decided to do it; to put their heads down and work and play and travel and party as hard as anyone else in the world. Academically, most of those who didn¡¦t get caught up with the distractions of the city lights were at the top of their class. So the confidence my parents had gently instilled in me, that we were no different, no better, no worse than any people anywhere in the world, was reinforced. There is no lacking gene, just a different mindset that separates us. It wasn¡¦t so easy getting adjusted though. I arrived 5 weeks into the school term in the middle of a cold November, was in a town where there was no home food, and there were no other Nigerians in the school! The last shock turned out to be a blessing as it forced me to become immersed in another culture, and not just surround myself with familiar things in a strange land. There were things that I discovered on my travels (the UK being such a great hub for the budget jetsetter) that I took on board as good, and flagged as undesirable things I did not want to see in my homeland. It also made even more glaring the things that make us seem to crawl and not walk like those around us. After all the studying was done, I made a half hearted attempt to apply for jobs in the UK. I had just finished an MBA, and at the time the market was resistant to foreign hires, not as pliant as it is now with the various migrant schemes. Also the only other English speaking haven, America, needed you to sign away your life and be caged in the albeit large expanse of those united states for a few years. This and a quite prodding, coupled with the weariness of living a somewhat nomadic experience made me look homeward. My whole family was in Nigeria and I wanted to catch up with them again after four years. I had been going back home at least once a year, so I was as comfortable there as in the UK. I was also keen to cut my teeth in the engineering world, and there was and interesting ¡¥world class¡¦ experiment going on back home. So I sent in my CV and got interviewed in the UK, finalizing my employment in Nigeria. My main worry was having to while away the first year doing youth service. Fortunately, back then I was swimming against the tide (notice the cheeky dig at the newcomersƒº) so employers were open to allowing one fulfill the obligation to the government, whilst taking you on as staff. At that time, it wasn¡¦t against the rules to do so, though I hear that things are different now. Another concern was being stifled in the system and not being able to develop my skills at a level consistent with the developed world. Again, God smiled on me, as the project was a truly international one, and being cocooned in a little island off the coast of Port Harcourt afforded a buffer that allowed us to create our own little world. This was a place where one believed things could work, and this encouraged us to work without a mindset of total futility. And things did work. There were the usual frustrations, especially those that come with working in an expatriate dominated environment, but I felt a disproportionate amount of energy was spent griping. Whilst a lot of the reasons for undermining the local staff were mere propaganda, the fact still remained there were gaps that needed to be filled to allow one stake a claim for competence. It wasn¡¦t anything magical. There was of course strong incentive for the expatriate staff to preserve the myth of ¡¥expatriate¡¦ being a synonym for ¡¥expert¡¦. I found that without an inferiority complex one could get a lot further, and that if one stopped talking and kept getting the magical experience that kept us locked out of the key meetings and discussions, your work showed for itself. Even if advancement didn¡¦t come from the organization one was with, I realized there is nothing more valuable that the skills and knowledge one has and the competence to deliver to customer and create wealth. This was something not everyone appreciated. Unfortunately, the mismanagement, abuse and media propaganda that we have experienced have blinded us to our self worth. There is a tangible belief by much too many that things just have to be different in Nigeria. I saw it in the way people triple checked everything I said before daring to believe I could be right, and how some joker could be sitting across the table talking absolute horse manure and their words would be taken as gospel because he didn¡¦t own a green passport. I saw it in the way the security guys check me, but waved the car behind me on. Thankfully, I had a clear focus, and since there was nothing much else to do I threw myself into the work and the seemingly impossible task of actually making a difference in the organization by the way I worked. I tried not to treat people with the same preferential treatment they showed me, me being on the lower end of the food chain of course for being both young and Nigerian. I kept working and learning and trying to block out the noise that told me that things could never work. Did things work out for most people I met there? Not for all, but there were a few of my colleagues that had caught the bug, and who realized that the real value was in the experience that we were gaining and not just a paycheck, and hanging around them made things more bearable. I found there is still too much of a colonial mentality kicking around. The most interesting thing is this is not a function of living/schooling abroad or not, as I find people who have never set foot out of country who get it, and those who have never lived in-country who don¡¦t. If anything, I prefer to tell people I schooled in Ibadan, especially foreigners as they nod knowingly as if to say you could only be that way because you were lucky enough to be molded by their institution. In fact, the most pivotal statement in my educational life (¡¥read to understand, not just to pass exams) came from a Nigerian lecturer. These were things I knew before I left our shores, things my parents instilled by example. If there was ever a statement that made me want to put some serious hurt on someone was for them to say that things would fall apart if a Nigerian was running my company. They don¡¦t even say present company excluded! That is one of the most ignorant things I have ever heard and it tells me that for all the education we receive, there isn¡¦t that much enlightenment. It is at par with saying Colum
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