How New York City Got Its Juicy Nickname “The Big Apple” — And What It Means To The World

 By Lolu Akinwunmi

 

CASE STUDY 1

A few years ago we won a new piece of very large multinational business worth over £100m to our global group. But this client insisted he wanted a non Nigerian to head the business unit within our office. Because we had never hired a foreigner, it was a bit tough getting one. 

We finally did, a South African who everyone, especially the local client was happy with. On the day he was expected to move to Lagos, he was arrested at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Jo’burg because he had allegedly committed massive fraud in his former company. As he was being driven back to the city by the police, he jumped out of the fast-moving squad car and was reportedly badly injured. That was the end to the idea of a foreign staff. My Nigerian staff did the job for many years and very well too.

CASE STUDY 2

I attended a global network conference in Joburg for very senior WPP/Ogilvy people. As was usually the case, the first evening we all met at the bar for pre dinner drinks. Everything was going well until the alcohol began to loosen their tongues and somehow the conversation switched to Nigeria and corruption. Almost everyone had something negative to say. I quietly listened to their inebriated comments and finally asked if I could ask a few questions. 

They accepted. So I asked if they all had prisons in their countries. Not knowing where I was headed, they guffawed and said “of course ‘Lolu”. I then asked if the prisons were filled with Nigerians. They hmm’d and errm’d but finally answered in the negative. So I did my home run and coup de grace and added that what this meant was their countries also had criminals and corrupt people. They became very quiet and the next evening most avoided my company. Good riddance to rubbish. Bloody hypocrites.

Now where am I going?

Yesterday I put a post on Facebook on the need for Nigerian entrepreneurs and organizations to patronize qualified Nigerians in employing people as it had become fashionable to bring in especially Asians who are not necessarily more qualified and better and cost more to maintain as expats.

The post received mostly positive responses and many agreed with me. However, a few responses didn’t agree and some said they would prefer to hire foreigners because of integrity issues. They averred that Nigerians are criminal and corrupt and would kill their businesses. One or two cited some accounts to justify this position.

I felt sad reading them and will tell you why:

1• It is not true that Nigerians will wreck your business and steal from you. It is not a general rule or assumption. Since 1992, we have run the PGA Group and have never hired a single foreigner. And the businesses have grown and done well. And while we have had one or two cases of staff who showed an unacceptable level of integrity, most have been straight forward and very very honest. And over the period within the group we will have cumulativeky hired between 500 and 1000 people or slightly more.

2• This belief that foreigners are not corrupt is in itself corrupted thinking. Many people will tell you the problems they have had here with corrupt foreigners. As senior staff. As junior staff. Even as cooks and house keepers. I know a few.

3• Trusted Nigerians are doing so well in nearly all parts of the world as technocrats, professionals, political leaders, administrators, judges, policemen etc. And they serve with integrity and are making us very proud. I was on admission in a UK major hospital in 2021 and the foreign Consultant swore about Nigerian doctors. He spoke lovingly about their hard work, integrity and commitment. I felt very proud.

4• There is a lot of crime now in Europe and especially the UK. House breaking. Robberies. Pickpocketing. Murders. Credit card frauds. And most of the accused are Asians and Eastern Europeans. Very few Nigerians. Now do we then say all Asians and Eastern Europeans are criminals? Would it be right to generalize and stereotype?

Many Nigerians who hire foreigners also need to investigate their own integrity levels. Many steal from the companies they set up. Many encourage bribery and corruption. The Nigerian staff see all these and simply join their bosses in the debauchery and bad behaviour. Where ethical standards are high and flow from the top, the incidence of these things is much reduced.

And btw I was a member of a panel of discussants at an event organized by the Convention on Business Integrity where Prof Yemi Osinbajo told us that the total number of prisoners in Nigeria was less than 80,000. We were all shocked. You would imagine maybe millions? I did my research later and compared with large population countries and found Nigerian number was one of the lowest.

Didn’t we all feel so proud a week or so ago as Nigerian athletes performed extremely well in Accra. Were those 419 people? Criminals? How about the footballers all over Europe? Many teams would function less if their Nigerian players were to leave. Health practice in many places in America would also suffer if Nigerian doctors and nurses were removed. These are not 419 or criminals. They remain Proudly Nigerian. Nigerians are proudly part of the American and Canadian and British administrations. Are these corrupt and 419 Nigerians?

As I round up I must say this. A few years ago, America certified Nigeria a drug nation and many of us were shocked. And this was not because Nigerians were high users of hard drugs but because some of the drugs passed through our borders to other countries. And it was interesting that America of all people was the one labelling and sanctioning us. All the drugs consumed in Nigeria isn’t even up to what is consumed in the Bronx in NY. Yet no one ever certified or branded America a drug nation.

My final submission is that Nigerians are too quick to condemn anything Nigerian. We have an inferiority complex and believe it’s only good if it’s foreign. We also believe all Nigerians are corrupt and criminal. We now head to Asia to bring in “clean” people who are so clever when they cheat and steal they are so perfect you will never know. And then we go about boasting about how we prefer to hire them. We are a people to be pitied.

I headed the last National Rebranding campaign for Nigeria as the CEO and worked with the late Dora Akunyili. During this period I got to know more about our people, my people. We may be boisterous. Loud. Sometimes aggressive. Love good parties and jollification etc. But in majority we are honest people. Hardworking. Resilient. Trusted and trust worthy. We leave our cars to mechanics we hardly know and they return them to us intact. We invite artisans into our homes to work and nothing happens. That we have some incidences of bad behavior does not make all 200 million of us criminals.

And have you observed that the Nigerians in the diaspora who talk down on Nigeria are majorly those who are not doing too well? They are the ones who are happy when the exchange rate shoots up so they can make more money from the proceeds of their odd jobs. The very serious professionals don’t have the time.

We must show faith in Nigeria and Nigerians. We must stop running this country down. There’s a lot of good things to say about Nigeria and Nigerians. Tooooooo many good things. Let’s stop focusing on what the foreign press loves to do… the negatives. Let’s defend what’s good in Nigeria. Let’s showcase our successes. We admit things are not always good but it’s the same everywhere. It’s a country with a great future and we will get there.

Let’s be Proudly Nigerian. We are a good people and a great nation.

God bless Nigeria. Amen.