It is with the eyes that one tells the absence of palm oil; it is with the mouth that one determines the absence of salt; if a stew lacks oil, it is the eyes that will tell.
Nigeria is working, Nigeria is not working, corruption is the problem, Nigerians are not patriotic, it is the problem that Jonathan left, and PDP messed up the system for 16 years.
We are a structural deficient nation, or we are not a nation-state. The Igbos are the problem, no, it is the Yorubas that betrayed the Ijaws, and now the fulanis are dealing with Tinubu.
We need ministers; Buhari is a go-slow, snail-speed, others say that he has achieved more in 30 days, EFCC is working, and at least Lamido is now with cell number xyz. There has been a bailout, there should not have been. Boko Haram is killing more, it is a result of checkpoints removal, or it wasn’t removed.
Across the Nigerian nation, we are still yet to address our problems—However let me share this fable.
One day a rabbit was boasting about how fast he could run. He was laughing at the turtle for being so slow. Much to the rabbit’s surprise, the turtle challenged him to a race. The rabbit thought this was a good joke and accepted the challenge.
As the race began, the rabbit raced way ahead of the turtle, just like everyone thought. The rabbit got to the halfway point and could not see the turtle anywhere. He was hot and tired and decided to stop and take a short nap.
Even if the turtle passed him, he would be able to race to the finish line ahead of him. All this time the turtle kept walking step by step by step. He never quit no matter how hot or tired he got. He just kept going.
However, the rabbit slept longer than he had thought and woke up. He could not see the turtle anywhere! He went at full-speed to the finish line but found the turtle there waiting for him.
The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race; you could add too, that you never underestimate the weakest opponent.
This is the version of the story that we’ve all grown up with, but our version of the story continues.
The rabbit was disappointed at loosing the race and he did some thinking, he realized that he’d only lost the race because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there’s no way the turtle could have beaten him.
So he challenged the turtle to another race. The turtle agreed. This time the rabbit went all out and ran without stopping from start finish.
He won by several miles.
The morale of the story fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. Its good to be slow and steady: but its better be fast and reliable
But the story doesn’t end here
The turtle did some thinking this time and realized that there’s no way he can beat the rabbit in a race the way it was currently formatted.
He thought for a while, and then challenged the rabbit to another race, but on a slightly different route. The rabbit agreed
The turtle and rabbit started off
In keeping with his self made commitment to be consistently fast, the rabbit took off and ran at top speed.
Until he came to a broad river.
The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.
The rabbit sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the turtle trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.
The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.
The story still hasn’t ended.
The turtle and rabbit by this time had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together.
Both realized that the last race could have been run much better.
So the turtle and the rabbit decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
They started off, and this time the rabbit carried the turtle till riverbank, there, the turtle took over and swam across with the rabbit on his back. On the opposite bank, the rabbit again carried the turtle and they reached the finishing line together.
Both the turtle and rabbit felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they felt earlier.
The moral of the story? It is good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies, but unless you are able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, you’ll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you’ll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership
Nigeria as a nation is yet to harness its potential, we do not believe in anything, we are sure that we can, but how we do not know. Everyone is a local champion, damning the other person.
Na our ‘oyel’ money, we wont allow him rule, the man is old and hence as a turtle can do little.
Are we ready to work as a Team Nigeria or we will continue this Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa thing…there is no stew currently in this mix, and the eyes can, I dare ask, can we maximize our strengths or we will continue the current ‘amala’ dance—Only time will tell.
