E124-Dealing with Racism

I knew racism existed long before I came to the UK mostly from the many tales told by my dad who lived here in the sixties and seventies. Nothing prepared me for the scale of it in reality. Racism is different from normal human curiosity of seeing someone very different or being scared because someone looks unusually dark. Racism is a disease passed from parents to children directly or indirectly that believes someone cannot be better at some things because of the hue of their skin. This belief is often accompanied by very unfair actions.

E123-Culture Shock 4

I have witnessed people quarrelled in this country and sometimes even fought physically. The difference is how they move on when confronted by more important issues. This is the key to their success. They don't fight blindly to the detriment of their progress . I have worked with people who were obviously racist but did not stop them offering me a job or working with me because I was very good at what I did. If Africa will let capable people do their chosen jobs irrespective of differences, then the continent will be fully developed in no time. Africa is still littered with tribal wars in the 21st Century. This is shameful.

E122-Culture Shock 3

In the UK ,you have the English,Scotish,Welsh and Northern Irish. These people speak differently and even have their own languages. They all speak english but with very different accents. In addition,you have cockney accent in some parts of London,Liverpool accent,Geordie accent from the North West and so on. I was surprised at the diversity in this great nation and yet they try to make it work as one. My thoughts drifted to Nigeria where we are as divided as the languages we spoke. Somehow over the years, the people of UK have found a way to make it work for the common good. They have their differences anddo not agree on everything but they have learnt to work together for the common good.Something i pray my people will imbibe.

E121-Culture Shock 2

There are do many accents in the UK and I was really shocked to discover that people talked differently.i struggled to understand what was being said, people spoke too quickly and it was complicated because I was a salesperson. How do you sell to people you could not communicate with?

E120-Culture Shock 1

I was very surprised at the differences between the UK and the country of my birth. Drivers respected the traffic lights no matter the time. The policeman says sir when dealing with you. The people offering services go the long way to help and offer help .Cars drive orderly on the roads and negotiate roundabouts without any commotion or the help of a traffic warden. I took a trip to the post office and I saw people in a queue. This was new to me. I remembered the chaos in Lagos and finally acknowledged I was in a developed world .

E119-Please dont get me wrong

Please dont get me wrong, there are many intelligent academicians in Nigeria that have made huge contributions and are been let down by the system. My father was one of them. No funding, no plans to help them them contribute. My father was one of those trying to find a solution to the Nigerian education problem but most of the recommendations were never implemented. I grew up with people like Prof Soyinka (Nobel Laureate) as neighbours and scores of other exciting minds but the country let them down. The jacks i was reffering in the previous blog  are those from mushroom organisations labelling themselves Profs without real contribution. Many of them would have been very productive Senior lecturers.
A very frustrating example was Prof Awojobi who made an ingenious invention called ustinov 1,donated to the country and that device was left unattended in Onikan museum in Lagos. Nigeria and many African countries have many intelligent minds, but they are rarely in charge of decision making. This important function is often left in the hands of  people without a clue of what they are doing. This is a major reason Africa is underdeveloped. Many of the decision makers dont know what they are doing.

E118-On the job 3

I come from a well educated family and was raised on the mantra of what education will do for you. My coming over to the UK opened my eyes to what real education is.Many of the people that were my bosses did not make it to the university and the ones that did had just the first degree. Yet they were masters at what they do.Many of them have done the same job since they were teenagers and so theres no amount of degree that will qualify you better than they are at the job. They were experts at whatever they chose to do. My mind drifted to many of the professors back home that have not made any significant contribution to their fields of speciality. There are academicians here as well with strings of degrees and they are the tink-tank behind the productive industries.One of my lecturers used to be the head of scweppes and many have held productive roles in the industry and still consults regularly. There are not too many people in this in this category unlike where every jack is called a professor back home. I learnt that education is not confined to the classroom and sometimes aptitude does not translate to productivity. one of the problems with Nigeria is too many graduates vying for few jobs. Many would have been better going to the polytechnics and many more to the technical colleges.

E117-My best gift to Beloved Africa-On the job 2

My new bosses noticed i was different from the other workers and called me in for a chat. They asked me if i was educated, i told them i was and they offered me a sales job. i left that weekend with a new job offer that was better than unpacking furniture. On my new job i had the opportunity to earn a lot depending on sales. I sold lots and earned lots. I earned more money than my manager who has worked for 35 years. This would never have happened back home.I had not used my degree for any job yet and i was living comfortably. This felt strange.
In Nigeria, you either qualify as a professional or have well connected parents to make any headway. Millions without this caveats are often trapped and many end up not doing anything worthwhile.Thats why Africa is largely poor. One of her considerable resources, people, are often not put in a productive state and everybody loses because of this. There are so many unemployed graduates,non graduates and illiterates that it will take a miracle to prosper the continent. I learnt my most valuable lesson in my first year in the UK, most of our degrees back home are not worth the paper the certificates are printed on. We study to accumulate letters,the developed world study to produce.

E116- My best gift to Beloved Africa -On the job1.

It's very important to point out that at this low level of employment, my wife and I earned more than most workers in Africa. We had an old Volvo and lived in a spacious two bed flat that had everything in it. If we had continued on this level life would have been comfortable. I was very surprised at this. This is a nation that provides for all no matter what they do. That's why there are no armed robbers or the kind of violence Normal to Africa. Then I became shocked because once you are on a job in the UK your talents are spotted and rewarded. In 10 days, I got promoted.....


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E115-'My best gift to Beloved Africa'-Looking For Work 3

The inspiration that came to me was to rewrite my CV. I dropped my degree and left the GCSE and started applying for lower jobs.In 3 days i got an offer to work as a potter in a new furniture company. It was very humbling experience but i was happy to be doing something. When i got to the store i learnt we were meant to unload furniture from delivery trucks and arrange them in a showroom. It was the hardest job i had done in my entire life.Why was it difficult to get a job in the UK for an outsider? the answer is simple, this is a country that protects her job for her citizens and makes it difficult for anyone to come from outside to steal their jobs. That is why this country is great.Everbody pays the price for success. Everybody without exception.


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E114-My best gift to beloved Africa

My wife was working with the trains and was earning above average doing a job she would never have considered in Nigeria. I found myself doing nothing for the first time in my working life. The thought of being taken care of by my wife nearly destroyed me. I was very Frustrated......then I had an inspiration

E113-My best gift to beloved Africa

Looking for job after a few weeks in the UK was very strange. I had a degree and had some experience in petroleum and Christian resource so I felt it was going to be easy. I was so wrong. I had loads of applications rejected and became despondent . After a few months of rejection, I did not know what to do.

E112. My best gift to beloved Africa

The issue with Nigeria has always centred around leadership. What many don't realise is that leadership is a reflection of the follower-ship. Nobody can really rule you unless you agree willingly or unwillingly. When you keep quiet in the face of tyranny, you are like a dead person without a voice.

E111-My best gift to beloved Africa

It is very important to point out that there has always been a faithful remnant in the country, people with integrity and principles. Unfortunately, many of them were plagued with poverty as it was very difficult to progress in an environment riddled with criminals. God was with them but they have scars to show for it. My father was one of those people. I watched him argue daily and frustrated at the pace of development in the country. He was in a position to compare having lived about 15 years in the UK. He was part of the lost generation.

E110-"My best gift to beloved Africa"

I thought about the poor in Nigeria. Until very recently,The rich were stupendously rich and then you have the struggling masses. There was no real middle class. Everybody aspired to become rich by any means necessary. This was the fertiliser that nurtured social greed and gave rise to corporate corruption common in many African countries.-you steal and then move up in social ranking.

E109-"My best gift to beloved Africa"

The first few weeks in the UK was like a dream. I kept waiting for the electricity to be cut and was not used to not hearing generator noises. It was so quiet, i could not sleep properly. We lived in a flat but had everything we needed. Gas Cooker,Microwave,TV,washing machine etc...We lived in a low income area but almost everyone had a car. I quickly realise that this country had taken care of the poor .That is one of their secrets.

E108 "My best gift to beloved Africa"

When I finally got over the initial shock that the streets were not paved in gold, my eyes started to pick up why I was truly in the developed world. The airport was fully air conditioned, the toilets were spotless and working. Nobody was charging me for toilet paper. Later I was confounded at how well connected the airport was to different modes of public transport . If our leaders frequent this airport why not do the same back home? That was the question ringing in my head .

E107- "My best gift to beloved Africa"

My second notable surprise when i got to the UK was at the airport. I was detained being my first time.I guess i must have looked out of place. Throughout the questioning, they were very polite and kept asking me if i needed,cake, food or a lawyer. Nobody in any form of authority had been that nice to me before.It dawned on me,I was in a very different country.

E106-"My best gift to beloved Africa"

Everywhere around me,people had reasons to distrust each other or differentiate each other. In Nigeria, the group you belong to will eventually determine where you end up irrespective of ability,aptitude or talent. This is a primary reason many african nations have not quite achieved their potential.

E104-"My best gift to my beloved Africa

I grew up inside a university campus (university of Ibadan) and so grew up with every major tribe in Nigeria. I even had a Fulani friend Usman who tried to teach me Fulfude as I taught him Yoruba . We found a way to communicate and had a great time playing with his fathers Cows. The kids had a great time. It was only the adults that distrusted each other.

Excerpt 103-My best gift to my beloved Africa

My thoughts about my people was centred on my struggles in the land of my birth. I remembered growing up in the west of Nigeria, with a hausa grandmother. it was not always easy to laugh at some of the tribal jokes. I remembered being told sternly never to marry an Ibo person and an Ibadan,Ijebu or Ogbomoso etc.. it was very confusing to see the hatred among a people that shared a nation.

Excerpts 102-My best gift to my beloved Africa.

"When I arrived on the shores of United Kingdom. I was very shocked to see pot-holes, dirt and a few rough places. It dawned on me immediately, they are not so perfect after all. It filled me with lots of questions about my own people..."

Excerpts 100-My best gift to my beloved Africa

i hope to start to share with you exercpts from my book-"Best gift to my beloved Africa".This has all the nuggets i have learnt from living, studying,working and running businesses in Europe in the last 16 years.

Excerpts101 from my book- "My best gift to my beloved Africa"

This is the beginning of my series from a book titled My best gift to my beloved Africa. Thisdetailsmy journey from Africato Europe, the shocks, the lessons, the heartaches and the triumphs. it will bless you.