20 Nov 2007 |
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I sat down this afternoon in my office, perusing the many letters on my table. Some were from people and organisations I could tell from their names and letterheads are into trickery and extortion at best. They had written again and again using different names of faceless organisations and offering all kinds of awards. Honestly, this is (sorry, used to be) one of the most difficult parts of my job as a public relations person: trying to convince my boss and, sometimes, the management that these are scams. The awards they claim to offer are worth nothing – absolutely nothing. But it is difficult to convince anybody who wants his ego massaged that the awards are not worth anything. After all, so many recognition and publicity-seeking people are paying hundreds of thousands or millions to collect them every year, so why should we not? The more awards you gather these days, the more you seem to have contributed to the society. Often, these people and groups offer anything from local, national, continental to even international awards. And they attach a list of glossy pictures or magazines of their past awardees and editions. Because their motives can be easily detected by even the unsuspecting, they now add that you are not expected to pay for it. All you are expected to do is pay for a full page or a half page in their magazine to advertise your product, organisation or even your profile. The rates often range from anything less than a hundred thousand naira to anything above two hundred thousand. When you realise that they give out up to twenty-five awards in one fell swoop and organise the programme as many times every year as they have gullible people, then you will understand how many millions they smile to the banks with. Many are fooled because they often have on their list some past or present public office holders who obviously do not have to pay the ‘charges’ from their pockets. I do not know if there is any allocation to cover things like that in government ministries and agencies, but no right-thinking government official who is not a thief will be able to afford their rates year in year out. The other group who patronise consist of people who obviously did not sweat to make their money and so do not know what to do with it. They therefore do not mind parting with some of it to have their ego fanned. One thing I have never failed to do is a quick Google search of the name of the organisation that is offering the award, its officials and the award it claims to be giving. Most of the time, you cannot find a legitimate website with their names on it. The few that I find there usually have a mention in somebody’s profile – somebody who has obviously fallen for their tricks. Do not even try to call the telephone numbers on the letterhead. You may however call the contact telephone number in the body of the letter to be further fooled. Sometimes, they have as their accomplices some so-called international organisations whose awards are worth nothing even in their home countries. That way, you can pay for even an honorary doctorate without knowing whether it is awarded by an elementary school, monotechnic or kindergarten. I usually tell people or organisations who care to listen that it is bad publicity for their names to be listed among known fraudsters, cheats, thieves or people with dubious character for the same awards. And one question I often ask them is: Be honest with yourself, what have you really done to merit an award? What have you contributed to knowledge or society? And what qualifies these award-giving people or organisations to give the kind of awards they claim to be giving? What is their credibility rating? It should arouse suspicion when a carpenter or a college drop-out who has never done anything visibly outstanding all his life says he giving an award to a professor of mathematics. So, stop fooling yourself and enriching some jobless human beings who have tried their hands at everything else and have failed, but have found a haven or goldmine in award-giving. Now, almost all of them claim that ‘you have been nominated or voted by the people’ in their letters. Who are the people? What rigorous research or screening did they do? You may want to ask them who these faceless people are that nominated you an award. Okay, some genuine organisations use it as a tool to raise funds. The idea is to make you feel more important than you really are so they can collect your money or use you to gain access. It is all a game of survival. There is nothing wrong in accepting some of those awards as long as your ideas agree with those of the people floating the organisation, but do not part with any money in the name of membership fee, if it is not convenient. And do not go about with a chip on your shoulder as a Life Fellow (LF), Grand Patron (GP) or Great Grand Patron (GGP) of the Universe or whatever title they may give you. It is ridiculous to hear some people talk about themselves with respect to some weightless titles or awards. In fact, it demeans their true status. The bottom line is, before you accept any award, ask yourself: How much is it worth? The fact that other people display some plaques in their sittings rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, cars and offices, and have their profiles decorated with them does not mean you should part with your hard-earned money to get one. Ask Prof. Wole Soyinka how much he paid to the Nobel Foundation when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Instead, he got some cool money. Our national merit awards come with some tangible benefits to their recipients. Even beneficiaries of Chris Okotie’s Karis Awards smile home with some monetary rewards. That does not mean, however, that every award must come with some monetary rewards to be real. Some come with just a certificate but carry a lot of weight. My point is that if the award cannot add anything tangible to you, it should not take anything from you. You may as well go to the market, buy a plaque for less than twenty thousand naira, call the ‘award’ whatever name you want to call it and decorate your office or whatever with it. At least, the ‘award’ becomes much cheaper that way.
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