Nigerians always flow with the times. As events occur they modify their words to fit the current situation. Some make sure they use these words at every opportunity they get. For example, the great Tsunami that brought a lot of disaster also gave Nigerians the opportunity to say ‘the political Tsunami that has...’ There was also the birth of the ‘due process.’ Till date people still flog the phrase. The recent tide however no one seems to want to ride. The Minister of Information and communication, Dora Akunyili, said she wants to ‘rebrand’ Nigeria.

The initiative has met with a lot of criticism so far. People hissed when they received the ‘good people, great nation’ short media message on their mobile phones. I think, as a Nigerian who is desperate for progress, that we should not kill this initiative. If it is restructured and has more focus on ‘rebranding’ the attitude of Nigerians and the leaders it would be a success. Just condemning this effort without suggesting an alternative is like condemning the effort of a child with poor self esteem. The act might make the child too discouraged to try standing on his feet again.

Some people have said to me that change would not come until certain there are changes in development. Well, Governor Fashola has made some changes in Lagos and people have commended him but they still break traffic rules unless there are law enforcement officers to break their wings. People still throw dirt on the roads despite the fact that the governor is trying to make Lagos clean and beautiful. Personally, I think that whether there are developmental changes or not Nigerians with their current attitude and frame of mind would not contribute to any progress.

Let’s stop whining, if we want things to work we have to work hard lest we are disaster prone. We can start by offering suggestions to the media, I am sure interesting ones would be published in the papers. We can also write to the minister herself, I am sure she is desperate to find Nigerians who share her passion and are ready to contribute to the progress of the country. Please give this a thought and act accordingly.

The Part to Success

I have pondered over the years on what the most important ingredient of success is. I have searched into the lives of great men and women alike who were successful and have gone before us. I have also observed the lives of some great men and women that are still alive and are succeeding day by day. What I found can be summed up in the words of Theodore Roosevelt – ‘With self discipline most anything is possible’. This statement is quite straightforward and accurate. Self discipline must be developed in order to succeed. It is the ability to force yourself to do what you have to do, whether you like it or not. One thing struck me when I was watching the film ‘The great debaters’. Forest Whittaker was talking to his son and he asked him to repeat a slogan he frequently said to him and it goes thus “We have to do what we have to do, so that we can get to do the things we want to do”. This sums up discipline.

The root cause of many ills in our society is indiscipline. Indiscipline is when a truck drivers decides to leave the container on his truck unlatch, it is when leaders squander money allotted for development, it is evident in the behaviour of the trader who after being sent off the road from street hawking returns with his/her goods, it is glaring in the passers-by who litter the environment with wraps of already consumed goods. There are many examples of the gross indiscipline in our nation. However, we can choose to act right. We can choose to be better citizens, pay our bills and taxes on time, we can choose not to accept the evils being done by corrupt leaders, we can choose to be masters of our lives.

Every action of self discipline you practice will strengthen your level of self discipline. Over time, it will strengthen your character, your confidence and your self esteem. You get to be what you want to be and the world will be a better place.

Note this, if you don’t discipline your self, the world will discipline you.

Glass Full Glass Empty

I am sure some of us are familiar with the tale of a glass that has water in it. Some people would say it is half filled while others say it is half empty. Our response depends on our mind-set, perspective, outlook, point of view or mental model. They all mean the same thing. I will stick with the phrase ‘mental model’.

Mental models can be defined as deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. It is a framework for the cognitive processes of our mind. In other words, it determines how we think and act. We may not be aware of the effect these models have on our perception and behaviour, yet they have the power to move us forward or hold us back. Why do good new ideas rarely get put into practice? Often because they conflict with deep-seated internal images of how the world works. People of creative minds have often brought forth ideas that are brilliant, however, when they think about the lack of stability in electrical power, lack of security in the country and a host of other challenges they fail to put the ideas into action. These mental models limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting, much to our detriment. That's why managing mental models-discovering them, testing their validity, and improving them can be a breakthrough concept for enterprising individuals, learning organizations and our country. Mental models govern how we make sense of the world and how we take action in it. An easy example is the generalization "people are untrustworthy." Such a sentiment shapes how we act and how we perceive the acts of others.

Mental models are generally Incomplete, constantly evolving, not accurate representation (contain errors and uncertainty measures), provide a simple representation of a complex phenomena and can be represented by a set of if-then-else rules. They limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting.


A lot of people often make statements like “if we were not in Nigeria, we would be able to achieve this”. When statements like this are made repeatedly they give a literal picture of our mind sets and achieving anything would be difficult. Another popular example of poor mental models we use during elections is “our vote never counts so why go out to vote in the first place” or “we all know that Rtd General Banks would rig the election, voting is therefore a waist of time”. When the time for election comes, we don’t vote at all since we know Rtd General Banks would win because in our minds we have given him power by thinking he would win and therefore he does win and then we say “we knew he would win anyway”. To buttress this point, the Punch newspaper of Sunday 2 November 2008 reported that negative feelings about a campaign can discourage voters by making them less likely to vote instead of voting for someone who will likely lose.

Another scenario is the one in which mental models help people to avoid the real issues for example if a friend dies at an early age we say it’s the will of God and we don’t bother to find out why because it would look like we were questioning God’s actions. It is not wrong to believe in God but has it crossed the mind to find out what went wrong. Why did he die? Did he not get prompt medical attention? What were the circumstances surrounding the death? People will not probe simply because they have the mind set that anything that happens is an act of God.

A lot of the happenings in our country today are the results of the mental models we have guided our lives by. We have to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. We need to change these mind sets if we want a change in our society. If we think the same way, we do the same things and occurrences that happen will not change. The discipline of mental models also includes the ability to carry on ‘learningful’ conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others. In this way, each person reaches out to another and the whole society.

THE VALUE OF A NIGERIAN LIFE

I once asked a Nigerian youth how much it would take to purchase her. She looked offended and answered haughtily “I am a priceless jewel”
“What makes you a priceless jewel?” I asked her politely in a very soft encouraging voice to coax her to answer my question truthfully and as best as she could.
“Well, I am wonderfully made by God”.
I went further in my quest “Do you believe that all men are equal? That all men are priceless?”
“Yes of course”
So I went on prodding “Would you say then that your life has the same value as the man who is hungry on the street and would do anything to survive or the infant that dies at birth because of a lack of proper care?”
Silence ensued.
Some people might feel that putting a price tag on human life is inhumane, because every life is "priceless". However, one cannot help but wonder how much value we have placed on our lives.

The value of life, according to definitions, is an economic or moral value assigned to life in general or, according to political or social scientists, the marginal cost of death prevention in a certain class of circumstances.

From the definitions, the value of life in our great country is questionable as people continue to suffer and die. Those mostly affected are women and children. The statistics on maternal and infant mortality from WHO and UNICEF reports shows that 800-1500 in every 100,000 women due to pregnancy-related causes and 201 in every 1000 children die. It is more depressing to note that majority of these deaths can be prevented if proper actions are taken. However, these figures remain mere statistics until the next victim is our wife, sister, daughter or child. Even then, some still go into denial blaming the devil or their in-laws or the will of God. Are we going to keep watching and lamenting?

Let us step down to our streets which have become corridors of death. Maimed bodies or victims of accidents are seen lying on these roads. A lot of people turn their faces and call on the name of their gods while the bold ones pick abandoned boxes left on the road as refuse to cover what was once a person with rights to life. Also on the streets, without caution and with what looks like a death wish, the popular ‘OKADA’ riders throng the roads singing unheard songs like “I’ll ride till I die”. They are seen taking risks at sharp bends or bursting out of junctions without any sense of responsibility for their lives or that of their passengers who seem in oblivion to the antics of the riders anyway. This shows that people will try to survive at any cost. The life expectancy in Nigeria is 45years. This means that most people are expected to die at the age of 45 years, that is taking at least 25 years off our lives if the Bible’s life expectancy of three scores and ten years is considered.

It has been said that about 60% of Nigerians live below the poverty line (i.e. <$1.00/day). How much can $1.00 do to keep body and soul together? The Federal government in time past has tried a lot of strategies to reduce Maternal, Child deaths and poverty in the country, however, poverty sticks to Nigerians like glue. This is not because we just can’t help being poor, it is because we have refused to do what is right. It is not the job of the president alone to make everything better; we have an important role to play in making life better for ourselves. Every time we throw dirt on the street, we contribute to the morbidity statistics, every time we loot funds meant for the public, we contribute to poverty and death and every time we fail to speak up, it shows we have no care for our lives or that of others.

We need to examine our values and principles. We need to be accountable for our actions. A colleague once asked me what the need for principles is in a society that has lost its sense of moral obligation. Let us not forget that we make up the society. If we fail as a nation it is because we have all failed either by our actions or inactions. Let us start to act right, speak out and work. Our work should be our prayers so that the God we serve will crown our efforts with success. We all have a right to live well till we are old and ripe for death so let us stop contributing to our demise.
Life is precious indeed and we are all priceless in the eyes of God.

Speak up Naija

This is a blog spot created to inform, educate and entertain on any issue in Nigeria. It provides an opportunity for all Nigerians to speak up about these issues concerning our nation and our people. It calls on young creative minds, experienced hands and all people with a drive to make a better place for all Nigerians to contibute to this blog.

Our beautiful country is plagued with so many problems and we have a long way to go in resolving them. However, a great man once said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. Let us do the little we can do; each man (or woman) his (her) own bit. Let us come together and work it out.

P.S: The cliche "All work and no play makes jack a dull boy" might be a trite expression but it holds so stay tuned for some exciting and mind blowing gists.

Cece Nigeria