Seek the silver lining

The year 2016 seems to be on steroids in its race to end. It has been one tumultuously eventful year for Nigeria and Nigerians. The language on the lips of most Nigerians is that of pessimism and negativity. Understandably so. The economy has been very negatively challenged and no less challenging for both government and citizens. National income has very significantly nose-dived, meaning that very many businesses have lost significant capacity. Several states are owing workers many months salaries. Companies are downsizing and many people are out in the job market. Criminality is on the rise. On the face value, the situation looks bleak. The attendant tantrums may therefore not be totally out of place.

Justifiable as it may be, throwing tantrums is however not the way out. I have just completed an eye-opening program in the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa on the subject of Futurism in Business. One of the things that the program taught participants is how to use trends to predict trends in business and life so as to avoid being a victim of complacency and corporate and individual ossification in time. The reality of the times demands that we begin to change our orientation in realization of the fact that the cheese has moved. What many Nigerians fail to understand is that a recession does not really exist. What we call a recession is simply a shift of resources in pursuit of a new value code. Resources always flow in the direction of value. Oil provided that and oiled our economy at a time when the world was high on fossil fuels. And we enjoyed the boom when oil was the global value driver.

The global value requirement is rapidly changing. Many European countries are building more charging points for electric cars than petrol stations. The intention is to eventually phase out cars run on fossil fuels over the next five years! By 2020, it is expected that the driverless car would have been in commercial production. The world has changed and tantrum-throwing will not make us catch up with it. To end a recession, simply follow the direction of value and move accordingly. Everyone of us must wake up and smell the coffee.

I have made up my mind never to allow the pervasive negativity colour my interrogation of and interpretation of events. To do this, I have chosen to draw inspiration from God the author of creativity and Nigerians who are excelling even in these times and who constitute exemplars worthy of emulation in their chosen fields even if not in Nigeria. Their stories testify to the can-do spirit in us as a people capable of doing great things. These times must bring out the best in us.

Last week, I attended the 9th International Reunion of my alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University. The climax of events was the Banquet/Awards Night that saw the presentation of awards of excellence in various fields to three deserving alumni. The first was Prof. Akinwunmi Adesina, immediate past Minister of Agriculture and current President of the African Development Bank. He needs no introduction. We all know Prof Adesina as one of the few exemplars of the last administration. The second awardee was Her Excellency Mme Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Fatou Bensouda is a Gambian. Of particular interest to me here is the third and youngest of the three. At 44, the 1997 graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr. Rotimi Badero is the world’s only certified cardiologist and nephrologist (cardionephrologist) or simply put, heart and kidney doctor. But hold your breath, Dr. Badero also holds FOUR other Board Certifications in Nuclear Cardiology, Peripheral Vascular Medicine, Peripheral Vascular Convention and Interventional Cardiology. An avid painter, he said he owes his inspiration to God in the belief that spirituality and creativity are essential to the art of healing!

What shall we say about Chinedu Echeruo, Nigerian-born Founder and CEO of Gigameet. His two start-up internet companies Tripology.com and HotSpot.com became soar-away successes with Tripology being acquired by Rand McNally in 2010. HotSpot.com was acquired in 2013 by Apple Corporation for a princely sum of One Billion Dollars. Both companies were worth less than ten million dollars at the inception! No, he was not born in the USA. He grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended King’s College Lagos before proceeding to Syracuse University in the USA.

Recently, the world woke up to the news of a Texas, US-based Nigerian doctor, also an alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University, who, in concert with a colleague, removed a foetus from its mother’s womb, operated on it, and successfully returned it to the womb. The baby was later born full term!

Before you begin to say that the environment made them what they are, how about Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-Founder of Andela, a software development and training outfit which attracted funding to the tune of $25m from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently. A serial internet entrepreneur, Iyinoluwa recently disengaged from Andela to start Flutterwave, an online payment company designed to ameliorate payment challenges facing most online businesses operating in Nigeria.

A few months ago, the academic feat of 17-year old Serena Omo-Lamai was reported in many Nigerian newspapers. She finished secondary school from Dowen College Lekki only last year. She secured admission to THIRTEEN Ivy League universities in America and Canada. She opted to attend Syracuse University, the same attended by Chinedu, which had offered her a $56,000 scholarship! She wants to study Biomedical Engineering!

Anyone who frequents the internet would have watched the Nigerian six-year old comedy prodigy Emmanuella, whose comedy skits have broken viewership records worldwide. She has recently been getting the attention of corporate organizations and makes waves and good money from stand-up comedy.

Linda Ikeji is in her thirties. She has become a millionaire in dollars by blogging. She works mostly from home in her pyjamas!

I have highlighted all of these achievements to make the point that in the midst of what most people see as adversity and hopelessness, there are silver linings in our cloud. We are a resilient people and all we need to get to safe haven is to start thinking differently. The close of one pathway is the opening of many others. Those who choose the path of grumbling about moved cheese never see the way out. It is time for us to start smelling new cheese. I counsel that you lay your hands on the classic Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson MD. It will help you to develop the nose for smelling new cheese instead of moaning for what is gone! Nigeria is on the way to greatness. It will happen by the sheer doggedness and creative enterprise of her citizens, not by the unsustainable largesse of a broke government!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!