‘’Righteousness
exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people’’
-----Proverbs 14:34 KJV
This is 2017, and we live in a world
characterised, reshaped, and continuously redefined by a previously
unimaginable spate of disruptive thinking, as evidenced in the growing penetration of technology into
the ‘’nooks and crannies’’ of human life ( with technology only as a vehicle for the expression or
conveyance of thought). Today the 100% electric car has come to stay, the
driverless car will soon come to stay, and the flying car may likely follow.
Today, too, we are expecting Dag Kitlaus and his team to give us far better
than the Iphone’s SIRI. And we may begin to also live on another planet other
than earth, after 2024.
In education, non-traditional formats are
seriously looking at better alternatives to the formalized all-must-sit-in-class
teaching and learning methods, in addition to efforts made at redefining
appropriate curriculum and who knows pretty soon too change-averse old-school
college professors may soon begin to
think of what to do with their academic laurels. In healthcare the possibility
of curing all diseases is not just been thought off, but vigorously pursued. A variation, weird
and foolishness-seeming on how not to grow old is presently being contemplated.
And in business and entrepreneurship the late Peter Drucker’s authoritative
definition of the sole purpose of business as that of ‘’creating the customer’’
is being increasingly pursued, even better than when Drucker lived. As far as
professionalism goes it, presently, is that of becoming A+ talented(not just at
the level of core-competencies but also at possessing the right ‘heart’ for the
task/job) at the very minimum as the risk of doing otherwise is to witness,
first-hand, what is meant by not ‘’being of profit to God, and mankind’’.
One may ask after all, in the face of
the above, where is Africa in 2017? A
casual observation may lead anyone to thinking the continent is on its path to
doing comparatively better. However, a deeper look at Africa from a globally
competitive perspective---one defined by unbridled super performance, will reveal
the stark reality of a once-labelled ‘’Dark Continent’’, going even darker with
each passing day. Whatever extant stats,
to the contrary, only reveal their cosmeticity and superficiality. In 2017,
most if not all universities, in Africa, are run by academic professors yet the
probability of obtaining an academic transcript under a two-week window is far
smaller than the probability of success for Elon Musk to take us to Mars. Yet
these universities run engineering and computer science departments.
With respect to public service, it is of
serious doubt if more than a handful of African governments can look at a
number and say, ‘’this is the number of employees we have’’. In Africa, ghosts
literarily are powerful enough to walk from cemeteries to offices and write
their names in payment vouchers, and since governments are not competent ghost
busters these ‘’ghosts’’ continue to consume both valuable productive time and
resources. For the underlying politics which forms the basis for these
governments in modern times, the African variant of democracy translates to
modernized anciency where the 16th century king makes use of a
smartphone and drives a modern car in 2017. The modern era , in Africa, does
not mean better than this.
The closest to professionalism, in
Africa and for the most part, is quackery. A growing number of artisans who
have passed relevant examinations characterize the professional landscape even
as they obviously lack requisite attitudinal and behavioural skillsets for the
practice of their trades. For instance it is very difficult to tell if the
man/woman sitting in a court of law, and presiding over its affairs, though may
have passed all relevant examinations and certification requirements, is a
judge or a thief.
Similarly, it is unquestionably true, from
what is readily observable, that a certified nursing assistant (CNA) in the
United States of America demonstrably understands a patient’s rights, the
patient’s role in his/her treatment plan, the right tone with which to address the
patient, and the timeliness of service delivery
far better than the average medical practitioner in Africa. The bigger
the title of the medical practitioner, in Africa, the higher the likelihood of
a patient getting attended to in a most disrespectful manner. It may not be far
from the truth to attribute a sizeable proportion of all deaths in Africa’s
hospitals and clinics to negligence from its medical teams.
How, then, can Africa get fixed for
it to start and continue to run on progress? It, certainly, is not through education/national
reorientation; not by fixing supposedly weak institutions; not the tweaking of
macroeconomics and all that can be found in the literature of development
economics; and also not through technology. The entrepreneurial man can create
the truths in macroeconomics and development economics; he can determine the
content of needed education/reorientation; he can determine and create the
needed strength for supporting structures; and he can determine and create
needed technology. Man, in Africa, is the solution as man is the problem. Man,
in Africa (judging from where Africa is in 2017) is not the right man to
contemplate and execute the kind of performance capable of ushering in an era
which will serve as the needed platform for continued northward continental
progress.
Man, in Africa, is devilishly wicked,
and cannot come up with the kind of personal conduct consistent with
entertaining and engaging in the set of mental exercises which will lead him to
acting out right enough to advance the lot of those who collectively share the
human space with him. It is for this reason that the activities, so wrongly
defined as businesses, whether they are modern in appearance or just the
ordinary street trading type have never been predicated on the need to
significantly make-better what was in existence. They, also, have never
bothered about doing something which is not presently done for the purpose of
making anything any better.
This is what I call ignorance; that
of not understanding the God-given and time tested practice for the attainment
of super performance; that of not understanding that it is the consistency of
the very right engagements/actions of man, as informed by the rightness of his
personal conduct and that of the right spots where he mentally hangs out. Man,
in Africa, has consistently done the wrong things because he has consistently
thought of the wrong stuff courtesy of his inability to tame himself. Yet this Man
thinks, like one suffering from acute malaria, that someday somehow the
consistency of wrong actions will lead to the kind of super performance which
will make America of Africa. This sin of IGNORANCE will continue to render
Africa a continent of global underperformance.
Edwin Ngeri strongly believes that God created man in his image for man to be able to create like him (God).
I borrowed so much, in doing this write-up, from Jim Collins' Good To Great. First his take on the ''First Who, Then What'', and his ''Disciplined Man, Disciplined Thought, and Disciplined Action''coinages. I only hope I have applied them well here.
ReplyDeleteThis is really true sir. I agree with did article. "Ignorance" is really eating Africa up. Thanks sir for another eye opener.
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