Nigeria in search of builders, not Okiriekwes

In Do It Well, a book published in 2008, I identified Okiriekwe syndrome as one of the forces inhibiting Nigeria’s march to greatness. Okiriekwe is a metaphor for incompetence, ineptitude, a half-baked professional and the inability to function effectively to create value. It’s a metaphor for destroyers of value and killers of dreams. It represents the disdain for knowledge and the celebration of ignorance.

Nigeria’s attempts at rising to the status of a great nation have been aborted serially by this bug and its application in national affairs and key decisions that affect our collective identity and destiny.

Okiriekwe is a name given by the Ngwa people of the South East to one of the species of birds found in the area. Like any other bird, it lives in a nest, but its nest is different from most other birds’ homes. While most other birds’ nests are usually covered and therefore serve as good homes for them, Okiriekwe’s nest is only halfbuilt, something like a half-circle facing upward. So this home offers no protection from the elements: the sun and rain beat all members of the home.

One good example of a bird with a half-circle nest is the Song Thrush, while the Hummingbirds and Woodstars build cup-like nests, which also, like typical cups, face upward.

Legend has it that Okiriekwe’s problem started quite early in life. As the tale goes, Okiriekwe only learnt how to build a nest halfway and boasted at that stage that he had known it all. Thereafter, he took leave of his teacher and began his life of independence.

Unfortunately for him, he soon discovered that he could not go beyond the point at which he left off the learning process. That, according to this legend, explains why this bird cannot build a nest close to that of the weaverbird.

A hallmark of the weaverbird is that it is continually building and rebuilding its nest. It is known as one of the birds with the most complex, intricate nests among all bird species in the world. A typical weaverbird’s nest has about two chambers, with the first one serving as the sitting or waiting room, and this leads into the inner chamber, where the bird lays and hatches its eggs.

Nigeria today is one huge Okiriekwe nest, so poorly run by ill-equipped leaders that it has failed to serve the purpose of a typical country. What are the fundamental functions of a country or nation-state to its citizens? Just take the simple case of power, infrastructure, transportation and other necessities of a functioning economy.

What does it take to give Nigerians light 24 hours a day in this 21st century? Why is it a problem to make petrol available to Nigerians without the knotty issue of subsidy? Why can’t Nigeria build good roads and a railway system to facilitate the movement of goods and services in Africa’s biggest economy? Aren’t our acclaimed leaders ashamed that they cannot deliver on the basic functions of an economy?

Every human Okiriekwe believes in and indeed extols, mediocrity. And because they easily find their ways into leadership positions in Nigeria, mediocrity is now an exalted virtue. When individuals of mediocre minds meet and preside over the affairs of citizens, the result is quite predictable. You know the consequences. Think about the decay in our national life; think about the death of commitment to work and excellence in service; think about the fact that things just no longer work as they should simply because the “oga” who should insist on the standards or the right thing does not care or does not even know or he/she is even more guilty of the vices than the subordinates. Why?

They believe in short-term and ad hoc or palliatives as solutions to tough problems, instead of taking a long-term view and planning accordingly. Some of our acclaimed leaders, who are nothing more than Okiriekwes, usually acting in concert with like-minded fellows in their organisations, have run monumental national enterprises aground, forced some into liquidation and left others adrift.

The economy of the 21st century has been appropriately described as a Knowledge Economy. What this means, in practical terms, is that the current economic system has acknowledged the value of knowledge and therefore has raised it to a higher pedestal on society’s hierarchy of values.

Knowledge has become a valuable asset and anyone who possesses it can distinguish himself by putting that knowledge to appropriate use. Just like any other asset, knowledge can now be converted into cash in the same way that a company’s projected cash flows or earnings are converted into cash through securitisation –which is the process by which a company’s projected output is converted into monetary value.

As the reader probably knows, the worth of companies is determined by financial experts who look at the cash flow prospects of the company and express the expected value of the enterprise in today’s monetary value. In other words, a company’s worth is determined by what it’s expected to produce using the whole of its assets – resources- available to it now and in the future.

Between Okiriekwe and the weaverbird, which would you engage as a builder or architect? Which of the two traits will you like to manifest? As citizens of this naturally endowed country, we owe ourselves the duty to choose between Okiriekwe and a weaverbird.

Who would you employ as a staff in your business –whether as a clerk or as a senior manager charged with the responsibility of running the company profitably? Who would you engage as your stockbroker or asset manager? Or who would you want to have as your dressmaker? Would you take the weaverbird or Okiriekwe as your barber? No doubt, an Okiriekwe barber will chop off parts of your hair, leaving the rest untouched. The haircut might as well continue the next day.

There’s no doubt that as a rational person you would strive to engage a professional who knows his trade. Therefore, if you know someone who’s a half-baked professional, it’s clear you would not entrust him with anything that is valuable to you.

Human Okiriekwes are destroyers, both of private enterprises and national economies. They inhibit growth and with time their activities or inaction could only lead to a decline in output as a result of misuse of resources. In Nigeria, many entrepreneurs, government officials and employees are operating in the spirit of this halfhearted bird that does not believe in excellence or in building structures or businesses that last.

Okiriekwe managers are asset stripers, who leave healthy organisations, states or even nations bleeding while walking away with bulging portfolios of loot. For them, what is important is a platform to stand and grab for selfish purposes, not for the greatest good for the greatest number.

An Okiriekwe governor, once in office, sees the government house as a passport to accumulate wealth for his family and cronies and cares less about the plight of the millions of the citizens that voted him into power. He launches a systematic plundering of the state’s resources, overtly and covertly, planting men and women of his kin in strategic places and proceeds to use them as executors of his evil plans. In the end, the ravaging team leaves the state or local government area bare and worse off than they met it.

An Okiriekwe governor or local government chairman is the one that reconstructs a kilometre of a road and calls a ``world press conference’’ to announce his achievement and brandishes his magnanimity to the impoverished state or local government area and its citizens. Meanwhile, the road reconstruction or rehabilitation was neither done to an acceptable standard nor was it intended to last. It was a mere palliative measure, aimed merely at getting the uninformed people to hail him as the “best thing” that has happened to the state or local government area. Six months after or when the rains are over, you will look for the road but will not see it. It has been washed away by floodwater.