“The Nigerian factor is what makes things that work elsewhere fail to work in Nigeria. It is also what makes doing the wrong thing acceptable, and doing the right thing condemnable” – Tayo Solagbade
Below is a screenshot of the home page of my – now defunct – Beat The Nigerian Factor (BTNF) ™ mini site, which I ran on a sub domain of my former, 9 year old website – www.spontaneousdevelopment.com.
I’m posting it along with excerpts from the home page featuring a definition I coined for the social anomaly called the Nigerian Factor – because this problem persists today, and remains a MAJOR hindrance to Nigeria’s progress on various fronts.
==Starts===
Nigeria has wonderful talents that can add great value to the world. But she needs to give those talents a conducive environment to flourish. Tayo Solagbade’s definition of the Nigerian Factor indicates how the Nigerian Factor stifles Nigeria’s ability to do the foregoing :
“The Nigerian factor is what makes things that work elsewhere fail to work in Nigeria. It is also what makes doing the wrong thing acceptable, and doing the right thing condemnable” – Tayo Solagbade
SDAc believes that anyone who truly loves Nigeria will want her to develop to the point where many individual Nigerians will no longer feel a need to flee for Europe and America,( these days even Ghana/Togo!) in order to achieve worthwhile goals.
Perpetuation of the Nigerian Factor currently (Jan 2006) makes this development process difficult, if not impossible.
a. BTNF Objective
The objective of this mini site is to provide education for re-orientation towards eliminating the Nigerian Factor. This is being done as a social development service.
Why? Because we believe every business organisation will find her chances of survival and profitable existence threatened if negative influences that prevent stabilisation of political and economic conditions persist.
We also believe we have a responsibility to contribute positively to the development of any environment in which we operate. Not all of us can get invited to high profile meetings with important dignitaries to discuss matters of national importance/security.
Click here to learn about our adopted strategy,and how you can join us.
b. How Bad Is This Problem?
Our special report – “The Nigerian Factor UNMASKED!” – was originally written in June 2005. However events in the last quarter of 2005 – especially the unprecedented series of fatal aircraft crashes has revealed other areas where the problem has eroded any security persons in this country (Nigerians or foreigners) may be confident they have.
At the special emergency meeting of stakeholders called by President Obasanjo(and broadcast on TV), one of the delegates provided revealing insight into the issue of age, and airworthiness of planes bought and used Nigerian airline operators.
According to him, sometimes officers of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) who travelled abroad to inspect planes to be bought by an airline operator, would have their estacode, flight tickets, accommodation fees paid by the airline operator(who wished to purchase the plane to be given a pass or fail mark by the NCAA officer!) – in addition to being provided a shopping allowance. How can one then expect the NCAA officer to objectively carry out the assigned job?!
The above more that anything else confirmed the President’s insistence on corruption as the root cause was not wrong. All this however only came to the fore AFTER multiple crashes claiming hundreds of lives within a few weeks (including those of 50 very young students on their way back to School) had occurred.
c. Individuals Are Also Guilty!
The irony is that those responsible for cutting corners in vetting/ buying the planes and who circumvent established routine aircraft maintenance regimes for personal monetary gain are NOT all in government. Some are individuals in society who think it is smart to exploit the existing loopholes.
Maybe that is why many Nigerians seem incapable of insisting that things be done as expected. They can ask for a while, but they soon give up and accept anything they are told hoping that the problem will resolve itself.
The SDAc believes that this LACK OF POLITICAL WILL(note that political will need not be demonstrated through violence) is what makes Nigerians continue to suffer the hardships they complain so much about. The following quote reinforces this:
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them” – Frederick Douglas
===Ends==
The Nigerian Factor™ was behind what manifested as the Econet Wireless saga that Strive Masiyawa is currently writing a series on via his Facebook page and website.
And it was behind the shameful revelations that Olusegun Adeniyi highlighted in his THISDAY newspaper article titled “An adventure to discover the best teacher in Nigeria. Drama Galore…lol!” – about the rotten state of our educational system.
Simply put, the Nigerian Factor™ is the reason why Nigeria has failed to work for decades, compared to small neighbouring countries with only a fraction of its capacity or potential.
But there’s hope…especially with the new leadership Nigeria now has…
Especially when it is considered in conjunction with the vibrant and growing population of civil society crusaders who are using PC and Internet technology in creative ways to elicit more responsible behaviour from key actors in society.
Never has the time to do this been more relevant than now. A wind of change is really blowing across the Nigerian landscape.
Those of us who were mocked for trying to fight the Nigerian Factor™, but who refused to be discouraged, are now the ones leading the way to show others how to do it.
Even though the material from the BTNF mini site was published way back in 2006 (over 9 years ago), it still remains VERY relevant to today’s Nigeria.
That’s why I’ve decided to deliberately republish relevant excerpts from the Beat The Nigerian Factor (BTNF) ™ mini site, on my SD Nuggets blog, to provide badly needed information and education for reorientation of those who will be on the look out for it.
Those who were misled into thinking there was no other way to do things, are now coming to the realization that it can no longer be business as usual – and they are searching for viable alternatives.
Guess what? This website – www.tayosolagbade.com offers information and education about several viable alternatives to the Nigerian Factor™.
If you’d like to know what those viable alternatives are, and how you can use them to achieve the progress you desire, no matter the obstacles you face, explore the articles on this blog – especially those in the “My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better” category.
You’re reading Making Nigeria Work Again: We ALL Need to Beat The Nigerian Factor (BTNF) ™ by Tayo Solagbade, originally posted on his Daily Self-Development (SD) Nuggets™ blog. If you loved reading this post, be sure to follow Tayo on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
You may also wish to check out his growing library of tutorial and demonstration videos on Youtube. Click here, to download over 10 resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), was taken over by Aplus.net. Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build (and move his website contents into) a SUPERIOR "reincarnation" at http://www.tayosolagbade.com.
Most URLs bearing the old domain name appearing in search engines should now work if "spontaneousdevelopment.com" is replaced with "tayosolagbade.com". If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.
Click "Tayo, What Happened to SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom?" to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))
Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:
Succeed by Emerging from Adversity Like a Phoenix (TayoSolagbade.com launches extra Hosting plan with FREE Web Marketing!)
And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:
A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
Source: ExcelVB
