| The Formidable Task Of Communicating With Nigerians |
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| Written by Nosa Olotu | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 31 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nigerians versus communication! I often wonder if majority of Nigerians understand the true meaning of effective communication. Communication is not achieved by shouting down to people or writing volumes in response to a simple question that require a one sentence reply. Communication is a social behaviour concerned with conveying messages between people using any if not all of the human’s five senses.
On many occasions I have had to ask myself if Nigerians ever listen to what you say when you address them. I ask that pertinent question because when you talk to a majority of Nigerians the response you get is never related to the point in hand. It always amuses me how Nigerians read, usually negative meanings to what you are saying or asking them. This attitude is reflected in the reply you get from them. Nigerians are notoriously very suspicious of each other. Another feature of most Nigerians is the tendency to ask you a question in reply to your question.
My wife and I were recently at a stock broking firm office in Lagos to find out the latest on a particular company financial results and I asked the manager:
“Has XYZ Plc published their September 2007 quarter results yet?”
His reply was (with what appeared like a frown): “Why are you asking?”
Oops! (I thought) “Sorry for asking. I thought it was the appropriate question to ask in a stock broking office” I replied sarcastically.
My wife looked at the manager and promptly pleaded, “Don’t blame me. I have done my best to train my husband”
The manager replied, ”No, no problem. They have published the results. Do you want a copy to read?” At last, the manager answered my question!
I cannot emphasis enough how important it is for Nigerians to recognise that communication is a ‘two way' process. When you correctly perceive the other person’s responses and you react appropriately with your own thoughts and feelings then you are communicating effectively. This can only be achieved by paying attention to the other person so that you are appropriately positioned to respond.
Communication is one of the most complicated skill to learn. Communication encompases writing, speaking, reading, language, social skills and verbal and non-verbal skills. It is more than the physical ability to speak that we are born with or the writing skill we learn through education. It also requires listening skill and ability to use and understand meanings.
In order to communicate effectively, some of the above enumerated skills need various parts of the brain to be working together. You need, in full working order, tongue, lips, roof of the mouth, voice box, hearing and vision. Also for effective communication to develop along normal lines you need the right time and the right ergonomics.
When there is a breakdown in communication, we could appear be ignorant of other people’s needs and expectations. We could all probably think of many occasions when lack of communication has left us feeling angry or worried. When things are not going right, for example, your love one is ill in hospital, when you are feeling vulnerable or barely coping with stress, the effects of poor communication can increase your stress levels.
It is very typical of Nigerian elites to use uncommon grammatical expressions when speaking or writing. Nothing is more intriquing than when our beloved Professors write or speak to Nigerians (99.9% of whom are not Professors!). They go at length to avoid using simple English expressions in favour of grammatical expressions that an average English person would not understand without the aid of a dictionary. If 99.9% of your audience do not understand what you are saying then you are not communicating.
The main objective of communication is to deliver a message that you want the recepients to understand the way you intend it and get the response you want. It should not be used as an avenue for you to demonstrate your intellectual ability. It is surprising how many Nigerians delude themselves in believing that the more complex is the grammar the more educated they appear.
There are certain communication impairments that you can avoid. I have used the word “impairment” in preference to barrier. I know that impairment can be used in the context of a medical condition, for example, someone who is hard-off hearing can be said to have a hearing impairment. However, if the recipients do not understand what you are telling them, they are no different from someone who is hard-off hearing. So at that point in time they have a communication impairment.
When you write or speak, if you use words no one understands then you have created an impairment for the recipients. You have to pitch the conversation to the level of the audience. Too many grammar, technical jargons and/or errors in your speech or writing can also cause a communication impairment. Nigerians are all guilty of this, partly because English language is not their first language. Sometimes the reason is not because of that. You will find that it is more acute when someone say something that touches on their emotion and they desperately want to react to the situation.
In the previous paragraph, what I am saying is that Nigerians are too quick to react to what you are telling them and they rarely pay attention to the full details. Nigerians are too hasty. Nigerians are not very trusting and quite often interpret what you are saying as the opposite of what you really mean. Everyone has an opinion as to why you said what you said. Nigerians do not mind spending hours hypothesising as to why you said what you have said. They prefer that to spending one minute to ask you to explain what you mean.
Another problem with communicating with Nigerians is the intimidating and distracting way they use their body. They actually believe that raising their voices combined with frowning at the recipients is the most effective way to get their points over. If you are a person who is new to the country and you see Nigerians discussing, you are must likely to rush in to separate them under the mistaken belief that they are about to beat the living day light out of each other.
For example, last November I remember walking through Marina in Lagos on a hot sunny day, enjoying the Atlantic Ocean breeze and watching Nigerians communicate with each other. I saw a hawker and a passer-by who stopped to buy her wares. The passer-by produced a shining N1, 000 (one thousand naira) note to pay the hawker. The hawker raised her voice in alarm. The raised voice drew my attention. I stopped to look. “Oga, I beg make you give me something smaller”. Said the Hawker. The passer-by shouted back, “Give me my change make I dey go o” As the confrontation went on, the two combatants started to sweat under the Nigerian sun. Gosh! I said to myself as I watched, I wondered what their blood pressure reading would be.
I watched the hawker and the passer-by further in amazement and concluded to myself, this is a Nigerian way of communicating. It must be a cultural thing!
Nosa Olotu, UK
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Posted by Robot| 31.12.2007 22:42