Curbing mediocrity

I used to think corruption was Nigeria’s biggest problem, but I’m starting to doubt that. Every time I probe into one of the many issues this country is encountering, at the core I find the same phenomenon: the widespread celebration of mediocrity…” This quote was part of an introductory paragraph to an article written four years ago by a Dutch Journalist, Femke van Zeijl. Nigerians in cyberspace later named ‘Funke’ because of her firm grasp of Nigeria’s issues.

She started a blog that lasted almost a year chronicling her experiences in the country wondering why a nation so blessed has remained so docile without demanding for accountability and the need for things to be done properly.

I need to point out that she did not write what hasn’t been written by Nigerians over the years. The interest – I believe – is because she was a foreigner. She added – in the article – that corruption per se does not necessarily stand in the way of development. Otherwise a country like Indonesia – number 118 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index not that far removed from Nigeria’s 139 – would never have made it to the G-20 group of major economies. An even more serious obstacle to development, according to her, is the lack of repercussions for underachievement. “Who in Nigeria is ever held accountable for substandard performance?”

Not done, it took this foreign journalist just a short period to start wondering why we seem to wallow so much in mediocrity. “Nigeria,” she wrote “is the opposite of a meritocracy: you do not earn by achieving. You get to be who and where you are by knowing the right people. Whether you work in an office, for an enterprise or an NGO, at a construction site or in government, your abilities hardly ever are the reason you got there. Performing well, let alone with excellence, is not a requirement, in fact, it is discouraged. It would be too threatening: showing you’re more intelligent, capable or competent than the ‘oga at the top’ (who, as a rule, is not an overachiever either) is career suicide.”

If her article had been written by a Nigerian, people would want to know what part of the country the writer is from; or better still, what his political lining is and other such criteria that we use in analysing our situation.

Weeks ago, I asked some undergraduates who sent me SMS reactions on a story I wrote to send a WhatsApp or email detailing their comments in long hand. Since SMS sometimes limits the expressions I thought it appropriate they be given the opportunity to say what they wanted to say without limiting themselves due to cost or word constraints. I was surprised when they still sent the same coded messages to me on WhatsApp. I sent another SMS repeating the same instruction and back came the same coded messages; I gave up and knew that my fear which dates back a few years may have started manifesting. So it is not out of place to say we may be having another challenge with this generation regarding the mode of communicating in English and communication generally without realising it.

Since almost everything has become like instant coffee to this generation, processes are truncated and they want things instantly, even something that may take five years to manifest! This attitude has permeated all facets including education where teachers and lectures often complain of the horrible written English of this generation. And of course, this has repercussions in the larger society, especially when it comes to the area of employment. It also breeds a high level of mediocrity which is now a major concern among us; even to our leadership.

For the average Nigerian youth, the two most difficult hurdles to cross in the quest to become a productive member of the society and a responsible citizen are gaining admission into the university and getting a decent job thereafter. As we are all aware, several factors have been linked to the rising number of the unemployed in the country. From a weak and declining economy, inadequate capacity building, hostile business environment leading to the closure of many companies, funding problems for educational institutions, archaic style of educational institutions and a plethora of other causes the challenges keeps piling up.

Writing style and skill is critical now as it has always been. When we beam the searchlight on the employability or otherwise of many Nigerian graduates we will see the link. What the dearth of coherent writing skill has done is that it has led employers of labour to keep redefining their recruitment strategies each time they notice new trends from this generation. Most times, employers’ first priority is to engage graduates with strong profession-specific skills and then to consider if they have the potentials to be ‘groomed’ for employment.

This potential includes graduates’ personal characteristics and attributes, the diversity of their experiences and skills, as well as their understanding of what the workplace actually is. This is fundamental because employers of labour have complained that many youth definition of the workplace is at variance with conventional norm, some just need jobs ‘to get by.’ While skills and others all seem necessary, English language proficiency seems to be an emerging key factor influencing access to skilled employment, but I am afraid that SMS styled ‘incursion’ into English has done more harm than good in this area.

So what are employers, either directly or in most cases through their management consultants, looking out for? They are likely to be influenced by a range of perceived attributes, including the quality of graduates’ prior training, their level of cultural enclosure, relevant work experience, and demand for courses studied by the applicants in the labour market. But recently, the test for English Language proficiency has become a tool for employers to screen applicants before the interview stage and this is where most of them are ‘weeded’ out.

Beyond the progressively declining quality of Nigerian graduates, we are also dealing with a very narrow employment space, so the issue is not excess supply but quality. I recollect that it was Prof Charles Soludo, the erstwhile governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who was among the first to raise the alarm about the ‘unemployability’ of many Nigerian graduates. He cannot be farther from the truth. I interact with a number of Nigerian graduates regularly and I find it appalling those that parade themselves as graduates today.

And one of the illusions some of them have is the fallacious mindset that jobs come automatically with being a graduate, and you don’t need to justify why the employer should hire you. One of such ‘graduates’ called me recently from Abuja and said he wants to be a writer since jobs are not forthcoming. Though his spoken English was something else I still gave him the opportunity to send in his story. When I managed to read through his two page story that took me almost an hour to decipher, it would be a miracle if anyone hires him. How would any employer employ an individual that cannot speak and write simple English in a country where the mode of communication is English?

Brig.-Gen. Nnamdi Okorie-Affia (retd), a former Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) also raised this concern during his tenure. He said some universities were sending “graduates” to the scheme who could hardly speak English. According to him, the quality of these graduates is so appalling that employers who can’t find any use for them are left with no choice but to send them back to the NYSC.

There is little doubt that text messaging is part of the “culprit.” The reasons are obvious; it is quick, it does not adhere to the rules of English grammar and it is relatively cheap and more convenient, among others. As a result of this influence, many students find it difficult separating formal from informal English. This does not allow for depth and critical thinking needed for total development. To say the least, it leads to laziness and breeds mediocrity in the long run. We need to go back to the basics to curb it.