There have been many comments made regarding Prof. Dora Akunyili’s re-branding project and I will not add too much to the controversies but rather plead with her to incorporate the re-branding of hardwork into her new project.

Time was when values such as hardwork, honesty, integrity were appreciated in Nigeria and there are sayings and poems that encouraged these values, one of such is the Yoruba poem “ise ni ogun ise” meaning that work is the solution to poverty and we learnt this as primary school pupils in those days when rich, middle class and poor kids sat in the same class in public schools and learnt from teachers who are probably now late or dying of neglect from the same country they served so dedicatedly.

Prof. Dora is re-branding today because all over the world, Nigerians are proving that hard work does not pay and that you gain nothing by upholding high moral standard. The young man that buys a ticket to Thailand and ingests drugs just before catching his flight, or the guy in Amsterdam co-ordinating credit card frauds around the world or the university undergraduate that buys all night browsing time in a cybercafé and busies himself sending out scam e-mails or the young lady whose trip to Italy was a very tortuous one and still has to sell her body to young men in dehumanising conditions all have one thing in common, they are all pursuing the shortcut to wealth.

Nigerians have not always been like this, we’ve not always been a people that look at results only. The culture of hardwork and morality eroded over time and due to many factors and it starts early in a Nigerian’s lifetime and I’d use a fictitious example of a young man called Osaze.

Osaze worked so hard to pass his common entrance and had good grades but his friend from another part of the country who managed to score half of his mark was preferred in the same school he always wanted to attend and he ended up in a school he never liked. Osaze passed his WAEC and UME exams with good grades but had to wait another year but the same friend is studying in the University of Osaze’s dreams. In Osaze’s local assembly and community, his Dad’s junior colleague in the same ministry is the Chairman at all occasions and he has all sorts of traditional titles and drives expensive cars while his hardworking and honest Dad still drives his old car. Osaze struggled and eventually got admitted into university and because he read hard and focussed on his academics, he emerged as one of the best in his class but he’s aware that a secret cult member in his class who he hardly saw in class made a strong second class upper degree. Osaze also heard that a lady who was rumoured to have slept with all their lecturers had a good GPA to show for it, she also scored A in the same course Osaze had a C because he could not buy the lecturer’s handout. Osaze believes hardwork still pays and he is a living proof with his second class upper degree. While Osaze waited for his NYSC, some of the students he used to teach in school went for their M.Sc while he had to take his hardworking Dad from one queue to the other as paying his pension had become a waiting game. After one year, he eventually got called up for NYSC and was lucky to be posted to Lagos where he met his friends who he used to teach. Osaze’s friends, some of whom their Dads joined politics few years back now have their M.Sc and have come home to observe the NYSC and all of a sudden they are the ones getting all the jobs by virtue of their parents’ connection and their foreign degrees and Osaze is left with no other option but to take his destiny into his hands or end up like his Dad. Osaze is even lucky to have the 2:1 degree, some of his hardworking friends made strong second class lower degree and after years of strike, they are now above 27 years old which means they can’t apply for most jobs except they “adjust” their ages.

At this point, Osaze is under pressure but still ready to work hard only when he sees immediate results, his friends have thought him that “working smart” is the solution or else he would end up like their frustrated lecturer who always told them of the various awards he got while studying Canada but still drives his Peugeot 504. Osaze’s mum who always encouraged him not to give up is now one of the women leaders and in this new role she has to organise other women to support that former governor who is being arraigned in court for stealing. She also organises other women to welcome to town the wives of people Osaze regards as corrupt leaders and she tells Osaze this new job pays more than what she got working hard for 35 years and supports the whole family including Osaze who is still under-employed after all she hasn’t got her gratuity. Osaze is now much wiser and ready to change his style after all they say it’s foolishness to do the same thing again and again and expect different results, unfortunately however, his new style will bring his country’s name into disrepute but who cares?

Everywhere you go, they tell you hardwork and honesty are the best policies but you these same people can hardly point to any example and until we re-brand hardwork, honesty, morality, dignity as values that should be held unto, I think we are not going anywhere as a country. Until young men and women begin to see and not just hear that stealing is bad, then there will be many more re-brandings to do. I don’t know if Prof. Akunyili is aware but these brands which Nigeria seeks to dissociate from involve hardwork and great risks yet people still go into it and the reason is simply because they see the results unlike the hardwork of Osaze’s father.

It will be nice for Prof. Akunyili to compare the lifestyle and living standard of her old colleagues at Nsukka with that her of her new colleagues at the Federal Executive council or National Assembly members or the Councillors of any local government and which hardwork will she encourage a young child to go for if she is to be recognised and honoured by her country.

My advice to Prof. Akunyili is that there are values we appreciated years ago in this country and there is need to bring back some of these values and she can start with her Ministry. She can also show the honest and hardworking ones how they can become home owners in cities like Lagos or Abuja and encourage other Ministers to do so as part of the re-branding. I’m aware that pensioners from the Ministry of Defence and other ministries are owed gratuities and have not had their pensions paid since 2006!

Olatunji Jacobs lives in Lagos.

Robot  # 1 | 04.04.2009 08:41

The objecive of this article is to get people thinking about the values which we used to cherish in this country which have not only been abandoned but those holding to these values are now regarded as losers and hopefully get us to embrace these values again....Read the full article.

Gbolly  # 2 | 04.04.2009 09:44

Thank you for enlightening me. Unfortunately, Nigeria does not have an effective government to act upon this epidemic. I believe that the Christian-Muslim in southern Nigeria are enjoying mutual peaceful time steamed from prayers by both religions.