The 20 Laws of Nigerian Politics

To understand Nigerian politics is to understand the following:

1. Almost every power play is executed by proxies, many times without the direct knowledge of the Principal.
2. Proxies are all powerful; getting away with murder in the name of the Presidency, ex-Presidents, Ministers, wives of political appointees & elected officials and so on.
3. Politics is about POWER and how much of the RESOURCES of the nation you can personally appropriate. It is not about PEOPLE or DEVELOPMENT.
4. You CANNOT escape tribe and religion in Nigerian politics. Accept and work with what you have. 
5. Money is an inescapable force. It's virulently ingrained in every aspect of our polity and has been known to make otherwise rational Nigerians lay aside logic and humanity.
6. He who controls the distribution channels of information controls the political conversation.  
7. Many news stories are sponsored and full of agenda. Mere citizens are never deemed worthy of knowing the real story. 
8. Morality hangs by a thread. There are many grey areas in an arena characterised by iniquity, inequity and impunity.  
9. Political fights and party cross carpeting are the norm. Pull up a chair. They are always rather interesting. 
10. To succeed in Nigerian politics, you must be exceedingly wise and crafty. True intelligence is not required. We have technocrats for that.
11. You need spies everywhere as well as a comprehensive political intervention structure (attack dogs included).  
12. You must be willing to accept what is possible as opposed to what is ideal.
13. You must have the capacity to sleep well at night having heard plenty of bullshit and witnessed unimaginable evil.
14. You must have the patience of a snail, the resilience of a caterpillar and the doggedness of a bull.  
15. The Nigerian citizen can be likened to a daughter who has been imprisoned in a dark basement by her father with barely enough to eat & has been repeatedly raped.  This is the only way to appreciate the trauma, malfunction, split personality and self-preservation of the average Nigerian.
16. In a country of mass iliterates where the majority are not entrepreneurs and where stock options barely exist for professionals, the easiest route to prosperity is political patronage.
17. Many Nigerians will claim any tribe, swear any oath and sleep with anyone to get a piece of the national cake. 
18. Access to power is not by merit. It's based on who you know and who owes you.
19. Idealism must be tempered by reality and pragmatism.
20. Beware of violence. It is often a ready tool in the hands of those who seek to take all, keep all and protect all.

People, Projects and Insights on Business Structure

[This is a transcript of my March 9th Twitter knowledge series - #PMNG (Project Management Nigeria) and #BizNG (Business Nigeria)]. 

Welcome to today's 2-in-1 session: People & Projects and Insights on Business Structure. Today, I’ll speak on People & Projects first then segue into Insights on Business Structure. Please send in your questions and feedback via Twitter. Mention @subomiplumptre using the appropriate hashtag so I can track - #PMNG or #BizNG.

Let’s begin...

PEOPLE & PROJECTS

At the start of a new project, DON’T set goals, DON’T develop a calendar, DON’T plan and DON’T strategise.  Instead, have an informal session where you get to KNOW your team mates.  You’re going to work with them for a while. You’ll demand results. Get to know them first. Assess their strengths, weaknesses, motivations & motives. You’ll get a more realistic sense of who/what you’re working with.

For ongoing projects, spend some meeting days on social outings. Bond, build loyalty, uncover intentions and give your people a much deserved break.

Document instructions. Take your team through written notes. Call or meet 1-on-1 to ensure understanding. Do not assume.

When there’s persistent system breakdown, it’s a clear sign you should change your unit head, revamp the process, buy new equipment or get a reliable backup. 

Any task without an owner by default becomes the leader's responsibility.

Regularity of meetings is key; whether virtual or in person. Enter these meetings into the team's diary. A meeting a month may be used for training. Continuous knowledge is key and get team members to train one other. This builds leadership capacity.

Ensure your team adopts international industry standards so they don’t limit your international vision. Someday you'll need international collaboration and your team may stumble if they’re not well versed in international terms, processes and standards.

After every major deliverable, debrief as a team to regroup, review and agree on remedial actions & immediate next steps.

In all things remember, the team is more important than the project. A successful team can be deployed again and again to deliver great projects. So, build a core team.

INSIGHTS ON BUSINESS STRUCTURE

There's an interesting Nigerian case study - 2 companies. 2 dead founders. 1 thriving. 1 restructured & sold. The 2 companies are Aluko & Oyebode, a law firm and Cornerstone Insurance, an insurance company.

Many lessons may be gleaned from the evolution of both companies. I'll outline a few...

A vital component of a grand vision is succession planning. Key man risk devalues the effort, financial worth and lives invested in a business. 

The personality of a founder must become the BRAND PERSONALITY of the business through a process of transfer or institutionalisation. While getting the job done keeps the business running; taking time out to build the culture ensures its long term survival.

The essence of a company and its history must be documented. It cannot solely reside in the heads of founding members.  A successor's folly will be to mess with the core values of the company. A new vision, yes. But preserve the values.

The day you find your successor is the day your grand vision starts getting truly implemented. Anything else is like sitting on a stool with creaky legs. The stool might collapse when any real strain is introduced. A successor may be a partner, young protegee or executive committee. Think about and do what works best for your business in the short and long term. But, begin the process of documenting your history and values today.  Start communicating same with your staff.

Thank you.

To view the Q & A session, please search for the following hashtags on Twitter: #PMNG and #BizNG

My Ongoing Thoughts on Nigeria and Yeah...Solutions Too.

Nigeria is beset by two twin problems which have become a cancer in its soul – Iniquity & Inequity. (Where iniquity is a continuing breakdown of law & order and inequity connotes injustice).

Over the years, the problems that have come to define the image of our country include 419, Yahoo Yahoo, Terrorism, Sporadic Power Supply, Decaying Infrastructure, Corruption, Kidnapping, Degraded Educational System, Lack of Job Opportunities, Lack of Finance for Fledgling Businesses –and the list goes on and on. But, my argument is that these things are just symptoms of a deepening disease not the disease itself. The disease can be traced to just two things: Iniquity & Inequity.

If our law enforcement agencies worked, for instance, (and by law enforcement agencies, I mean the Police, Customs, Judiciary, Military etc.), corruption would significantly reduce, allowing our national and state institutions to work more efficiently. As long as crime continues to pay; 419, kidnapping and the like will proliferate. It’s a simply law of economics – as long as output far outweighs input, you have a viable business. The minute the consequence for a crime far outweighs the crime itself, and once that consequence is consistently and regularly meted out, the crime will reduce.

Today, we have law enforcement agencies that are poorly trained and motivated and so do not give a damn about crime. With the right amounts of money, you can ease the passage of any type of good across Nigeria. Nigeria has no credible national database, no fingerprint registry or forensics department worth their salt. Criminals can disappear across state borders without ever getting caught. Suspicious characters can bring in explosives registered to construction companies in containers and clear them through customs. Embassies can bring in weapons like the Iranian diplomats did for the Boko Haram terrorists. Fertilizers can be imported en masse by agricultural concerns and used to make bombs with little oversight. I doubt if bulk shipments are tagged. A West African can easily get a Nigerian passport from the Immigration Service for N18, 000, commit a crime in Europe, dump his Nigerian passport and travel home with a passport from his country of origin.

Interestingly, it’s also our lack of national databases that limits the ability of entrepreneurs to get loans. We have no credit bureau, no credit history, no way of tracking people’s addresses, assets or identities. Checking job histories is cumbersome and ineffective as a recently deposed DG of a Securities Regulatory Institution has taught us:). Where there is no credit history, there are no low interest leases or mortgages.

I recently heard of a bank that offers a purported “12%” low-interest facility to the staff of a few selected corporations. The corporations take on the burden of “vetting” their staff for creditworthiness. If the staff members default, the organisation’s corporate relationship with the bank stands at risk (and perhaps future credit lines). With a lot riding on their “vetting” process, I’m not sure many staff will get the clearance required to access the loans. Or perhaps their gratuities or pension funds will be used as “collateral”.

On the education front, this cancer of iniquity is bred at home as parents aid their children in cheating on exams. Government officials embezzle the monies meant for classrooms; teachers fail to show up for school and face no consequence.

Injustice is bred as we fail to practice true federalism. States are prevented from keeping the bulk of what they produce while remitting only what is necessary to run the federal government. They are also prevented from taking charge of their destinies and so our states continue to remain uncompetitive. Religious and ethnic violence/repression is rarely dealt with impartially. Crimes against vulnerable groups are ignored. There are no social safety nets for the poor, aged and mentally unsound and many Nigerians die like cockroaches. We do not protect intellectual property rights and creative endeavour is cheapened. And in our society, you are only assured of basic services and rights when you are considered a “Big Man”. The concepts of service, self-esteem, individuality and self-respect seem to have been bludgeoned to death by our law enforcement agencies, particularly the military.

We have failed to breed a national unity and identity that takes into consideration our diversity. We have tried to build a nation without recognising the individual tribes, without apologising for the atrocities of history and forgiving one another.

If I were president I would focus on 4 major things:

Instituting True Federalism: Yes, I would push for State Police. I would support the states retaining the bulk of what they make. It will end all the gawdamn excuses about the federal government not doing enough. If your state does not work, look at your thriving neighbour next door, then go stone your thieving Governor. It will also shut up the ethnic groups that keep saying they’re being marginalised – Once you’ve been “set free” - produce and work for your survival

Revamping Our Law Enforcement Agencies: I would focus on welfare first. I would ensure that I have on my desk a signed but undated letter of resignation from the officials in charge of setting up a sustainable welfare structure for our law enforcement agencies. I would happily jail anyone who steals their pay. As per corruption within those agencies, I would institute the stiffest penalties and ensure public shame. In terms of training, I would ensure aggressive skills transfer from the international agencies that work

Developing a National Records Database: If you commit a crime, you will be caught because I would institute the development of a robust national database, and I’m not talking about a pork barrel national identity card project. I will put in place a credit bureau to encourage leases and credit lines. And, I will encourage the stiffest penalties for the misuse of individuals’ data. The data must not reside in a government agency, so it does not become a tool of oppression.

Encouragement of National Dialogue: I am not referring to a national constitutional conference, for in truth, we have not even learnt to talk to or listen to one another. Instead, I would encourage different Nigerian groups to talk to one another, with trained moderators. I will encourage our people to admit to the mistakes of the past without embarking on a witch-hunt. I will document long buried but relevant national history so that we will never again forget the lessons of the past and together I will encourage us to design our collective future.