USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: FROZEN IN MEDIOCRITY: A NATION’S DITHERING WORK HABITS

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-----Original Message-----
From: Esther Olaiya <olaiyaesther2@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2013 06:51:31
To: ayo_olukotun<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
Subject: FROZEN IN MEDIOCRITY: A NATION'S DITHERING WORK HABITS

FROZEN IN MEDIOCRITY: A NATION'S DITHERING WORK HABITS
AYO OLUKOTUN

No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year
fails to make his family rich- Chinese proverb.

Nigeria continues to astound the world by its amazing waste of
opportunities, the barefaced graft of its leaders and the low grade
output of its policy decisions. A widely referenced article by
American journalist, Joel Brinkley published in a recent edition of
the Los Angeles Times laments that a country which takes home close to
$225 million daily from oil sales, is rated by the Economic
Intelligence Unit as one of the worst places to be born on planet
earth in the year 2013, on account of distressingly poor quality of
life.
Brinkley, who called for the impeachment of President Goodluck
Jonathan in the wake of the Alamieyeseigha state pardon saga fingers
corruption as Nigeria's number one woe and robber of opportunity. This
is of course correct; but we must not lose sight of other contending
national infirmities such as a remiss and self indulgent work culture
about which comparatively little attention has been paid by our
leaders and civil society. For example, we must be one of the
countries with the highest number of officially declared off work days
in the world. Bear in mind, too, that before every holiday work shuts
down a couple of days before and does not commence until a couple of
days after the state declared holiday.
Competing with the 'not on seat syndrome' especially in the public
sector, is the phenomenon once alluded to, by Godwin Sogolo, Professor
of Philosophy whereby workers increasingly spend the first few hours
of their working day doing their 'quiet time', an otherwise edifying
religious practice of praying and reading the holy books which is
however better reserved for the privacy of one's home. Factor too, in
this connection, that when labour upsurges break out, 'warning
strikes' can run into a whole week of shutdown by workers, while
strikes have been known to lengthen into months virtually paralyzing
vital institutions such as those of healthcare or education. Let me
state for the avoidance of doubt, that strikes are legitimate weapons
of protest especially in situations of dialogues of the deaf such as
we often encounter in our labour-management relations. Protracted
strikes however, tend to redefine the concept of strike and to raise
questions as to the interface between strikes and a national culture
of indolence.
Globally, nations especially those in top league positions tend to
take their work culture and productivity seriously, as they obviously
relate to their high standards of living and economic output. Ever
since the German scholar Max Weber, published a seminal book on the
linkage between protestant values such as diligence and thrift and the
rise of capitalism, in Europe and America scholars have continuously
addressed themselves to the effect of an efficient work culture on
individual and national greatness. Much was heard in recent years,
about the rise to industrial prominence of some Asian countries in the
context of religiously derived Asian work values. Today, on American
and European campuses, Korean and Chinese students are often seen
staying in the library for longer hours and undertaking rare feats of
diligence. Pushed to extremes or oversimplified, the linkage between
hard work and impressive achievement breaks down; it nonetheless
contains more than a kernel of truth which a nation like ours ignores
at its own peril.
Political leaders, if they are of the right mettle are especially
placed to inspire their citizenry to better work ethics, through the
force of personal example. A recent article in the Business Insider
lists two respected leaders, President Barack Obama of the United
States and Ma Ying-Jeau President of Singapore as belonging to 'the
sleepless elite' a group of high flyers who work long hours and do
with far less sleep than most of us. Obama reportedly goes to bed at
1am and rises about 7am if there are no emergencies; while Ying-Jeau
renowned for legendary work ethics sleeps only five hours a day and
rises habitually before daybreak to jog. To that list must be added
the famed work ethics of Hillary Clinton, the most travelled secretary
of state in American history whose self punishing work schedules were
interrupted by her doctors who forced her to slow down.
We know little about the work habits of President Goodluck Jonathan
and members of the Federal Executive Council; but he has so far been
silent about ways of getting Nigeria back to work. After a much
celebrated signing of a performance contract by ministers nothing
further has been heard about the matter and no minister has been
disciplined as a result of laggard performance. Matters are no
different at the legislative institutions of government where
absenteeism has been a decided feature for many years. Happy
exceptions to this dismal trend occur however at the sub-national
levels of government. On a visit to Akure, the Ondo state capital last
week to attend a governance seminar organized by the Adekunle Ajasin
University, a colleague and I as we went around Akure town spied the
low key convoy of the state governor Dr. Olusegun Mimiko leaving his
office at about 11pm. As we sat down to a meal of pounded yam and bush
meat my colleague narrated that the governor whose day begins quite
early often works into the wee hours of the next day; there must be a
relationship between this herculean work pace and the clutch of
modernizing activities increasingly evident in the state. Other state
governors in the southwestern part of the country associated with
edifying work habits includes Governors Ajimobi of Oyo State and
Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state. It is also the case however; that
those leaders are yet to translate their work habits into a mobilizing
creed which will galvanize the citizenry into the kind of improved
work culture associated with political entities bent on setting a pace
for others.
In general, the political leaders of an earlier generation were
noticeably workaholics – Awolowo, Azikwe and Ahmadu Bello leaders of
the First Republic were reputed for the knack of seating for long,
uninterrupted hours at political strategy sessions. Overtime however,
and with the advent of windfall earnings from the oil boom, an earlier
work culture reflected in the Yoruba philosophy Ise logun ise (hard
work is the medicine for poverty) was overturned and replaced by a
bonanza mentality also captured in Yoruba popular culture ise kekere
owo nlanla (little work, plenty of money) imbibed by leaders and
followers alike. To be sure, long hours of work is not always the same
thing as increased productivity as productivity is often a derivative
of better technology, conducive work and policy environment, as well
as improved capital intensity; but the two concepts are often related.
For example, it is difficult to sustain healthy work habits in the
face of infrastructural deficiencies such as erratic power supply and
run down work settings. However, no nation can make a head way with
the kind of slouching and laggard work ethics which currently prevail
in the country. It is time to restructure our work culture and the
decadent values that promote indolence and laxity in high and low
places.

Olukotun is a Professor of Political Science and Dean, Faculty of
Social Science and Entrepreneurial studies at Lead City University,
Ibadan.

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