What You Dont Know About Facebook Owner "Mark zuckerberg" During his short visit in Nigeria
A country and its value system
It is no longer news that the founder of facebook visited Nigeria yesterday. As expected, every tweets, instagram feeds and of course facebook post was all about this young, gifted but humble man who though is about same age with me, but has achieved and touched more lives positively than I can ever imagine to touch in a life time (though i know there is room for overtaking). But in this brief peace, though i know I can't exhaust all the ways Mark Zuckerberg challenged our value system as a people, but I will touch on the few one's that quickly comes to mind.
1. Mode of entry: he came in silently (like the biblical thief in the night) without much fanfare and noise, that I am tempted (a) to believe he doesn't trust the Nigerian security apparatus to give him adequate protection and therefore believes the best bet is for him to sneak in and before any kidnapper or other person who might have ulterior harmful plans towards him could strategize, he would have been long gone. (b) he was raised with a value system that understands that (in alhaji Alabi Pasuma's word "ariwo ko ni music) noise is not music. Compared to some Nigerian bloggers who just because they have about 2million participants on their platform will not allow us to rest with silly and unnecessary information just because they want to come from Lagos to Abuja and even sometimes from Lagos island to mainland.
2. Mode of dressing: it is not new to see a yahoo boy who just swindled someone of $500 to be dressed in dog chain, sagging his trouser (showing of a dirty boxer short ), thinking he has arrived having spent all the money on clothes and fake bling bling with an unkempt dreadlocks. But here is a man worth $54billion, yet dressed in something not up to $500 (he's not even wearing a wristwatch). (a) apart from yahoo boys, you also see some banks and so call fortune 500 companies whose total asset is not up to $10billion and the will be using dressing, age, ethno-religious affiliations etc. instead of content of the applicants head, to judge during recruitment exercise. No wonder many companies have lost the service of geniuses they ought to have employed and have settled for average performers who knows how to dress or speak to impress (I am putting this one in because all my classmates who are first class students are not good dressers and I habe observed them ober time that they perform better when they dress simple than when they dress to impress)
3. Mode of meeting people: while a Nigerian local government chairman or governor (just because he has managed to acquire $50million through fraudulent means) will be disturbing our peace with siren when passing by our neighborhood, just to get our attention. This $54billion dollar clean money trekked the streets of Yaba, Lagos without heavy police escort, and met everyday people doing what they know how to do best at CC HUB, ANDELA Nigeria and a few other places.
There are many other things to consider, in his coming to the most populous black nation on earth (at least we know his visit is not a charity case visit, its a visit to explore the brimming technology potential that is written all over the walls of the country, but our clueless leaders couldn't see. And instead of investing in it are asking our youths to go back to farm. (N.B. non of the top 20 economically vibrant countries in the world is an agrarian economy, but thats a talk for another day)).
The difference i see between Mark Zuckerberg and all that I have compared him with is the value system of the environment where they grew up. Nobody will give you preferential treatment in most western countries because you're a rich man, neither do they have time to be drooling at your feet, because higher percentage of them too are gainfully employed and so don't have time for nonsense, reversed is the case here. The value system here taught many of us that except you show off, you won't be accepted, that's why you see many young couples go into heavy debts just to put up a show stopping wedding, and also some borrow to by aso ebi while neglecting children school fees. The value system here don't care where and how you got the sudden wealth, all they want is, jusy get the money. That's why Nigerian youths will come online to celebrate thiefs who are bleeding the economy dry because of their ethnic or religious affiliations to such thiefs.
If we must see the radical and progressive change we desire to see in Nigeria the first place to start from is a change in our value system. We must stop honouring a thief or a tyrant because we share the same ethnic or religious affiliations. We must learn to call a thief a thief and a tyrant a tyrant instead of celebrating their shenanigans. We must begin to let our conscience instead of our sentiments to guide us when addressing personal or national issue. Until we start re orientating ourselves on the positive values we must hold dear, values such as hardwork, probity, accountability, meritocracy, dignity of Labour etc we are going nowhere as a nation, I rest my case for now.
It is no longer news that the founder of facebook visited Nigeria yesterday. As expected, every tweets, instagram feeds and of course facebook post was all about this young, gifted but humble man who though is about same age with me, but has achieved and touched more lives positively than I can ever imagine to touch in a life time (though i know there is room for overtaking). But in this brief peace, though i know I can't exhaust all the ways Mark Zuckerberg challenged our value system as a people, but I will touch on the few one's that quickly comes to mind.
1. Mode of entry: he came in silently (like the biblical thief in the night) without much fanfare and noise, that I am tempted (a) to believe he doesn't trust the Nigerian security apparatus to give him adequate protection and therefore believes the best bet is for him to sneak in and before any kidnapper or other person who might have ulterior harmful plans towards him could strategize, he would have been long gone. (b) he was raised with a value system that understands that (in alhaji Alabi Pasuma's word "ariwo ko ni music) noise is not music. Compared to some Nigerian bloggers who just because they have about 2million participants on their platform will not allow us to rest with silly and unnecessary information just because they want to come from Lagos to Abuja and even sometimes from Lagos island to mainland.
2. Mode of dressing: it is not new to see a yahoo boy who just swindled someone of $500 to be dressed in dog chain, sagging his trouser (showing of a dirty boxer short ), thinking he has arrived having spent all the money on clothes and fake bling bling with an unkempt dreadlocks. But here is a man worth $54billion, yet dressed in something not up to $500 (he's not even wearing a wristwatch). (a) apart from yahoo boys, you also see some banks and so call fortune 500 companies whose total asset is not up to $10billion and the will be using dressing, age, ethno-religious affiliations etc. instead of content of the applicants head, to judge during recruitment exercise. No wonder many companies have lost the service of geniuses they ought to have employed and have settled for average performers who knows how to dress or speak to impress (I am putting this one in because all my classmates who are first class students are not good dressers and I habe observed them ober time that they perform better when they dress simple than when they dress to impress)
3. Mode of meeting people: while a Nigerian local government chairman or governor (just because he has managed to acquire $50million through fraudulent means) will be disturbing our peace with siren when passing by our neighborhood, just to get our attention. This $54billion dollar clean money trekked the streets of Yaba, Lagos without heavy police escort, and met everyday people doing what they know how to do best at CC HUB, ANDELA Nigeria and a few other places.
There are many other things to consider, in his coming to the most populous black nation on earth (at least we know his visit is not a charity case visit, its a visit to explore the brimming technology potential that is written all over the walls of the country, but our clueless leaders couldn't see. And instead of investing in it are asking our youths to go back to farm. (N.B. non of the top 20 economically vibrant countries in the world is an agrarian economy, but thats a talk for another day)).
The difference i see between Mark Zuckerberg and all that I have compared him with is the value system of the environment where they grew up. Nobody will give you preferential treatment in most western countries because you're a rich man, neither do they have time to be drooling at your feet, because higher percentage of them too are gainfully employed and so don't have time for nonsense, reversed is the case here. The value system here taught many of us that except you show off, you won't be accepted, that's why you see many young couples go into heavy debts just to put up a show stopping wedding, and also some borrow to by aso ebi while neglecting children school fees. The value system here don't care where and how you got the sudden wealth, all they want is, jusy get the money. That's why Nigerian youths will come online to celebrate thiefs who are bleeding the economy dry because of their ethnic or religious affiliations to such thiefs.
If we must see the radical and progressive change we desire to see in Nigeria the first place to start from is a change in our value system. We must stop honouring a thief or a tyrant because we share the same ethnic or religious affiliations. We must learn to call a thief a thief and a tyrant a tyrant instead of celebrating their shenanigans. We must begin to let our conscience instead of our sentiments to guide us when addressing personal or national issue. Until we start re orientating ourselves on the positive values we must hold dear, values such as hardwork, probity, accountability, meritocracy, dignity of Labour etc we are going nowhere as a nation, I rest my case for now.
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