My Nigerian Diary.
Oladele Dosunmu
Passionate about seeing the Alkebulan of my dream emerge. I am unapologetically African. We are building the Emerging Alkebulan. Titles don't matter. Disrupting the status quo. Thought provoker. Pan African to the core.
I love Nigeria my fatherland, there is something about "Naija" as we call it that makes it unpredictable, it is a country where conventional principles don't work, and it always keeps you on your toes, you just don't know what to expect. I am always open minded, which quickly dissipates the moment you encounter one of the service personnel.
I recently encountered one of the worst customer service experiences ever in one of the top banks in Nigeria. Its processes were not customer friendly at all. If this was a bank in the west, they won't be in business any more. Their endless form filling, their unfriendly staff with frowned faces. They came across as if they were doing their customers a favour. I thought to myself this can't be right. The unfortunate thing about the whole issue is that the banks customers' expectations were so low, they didn't expect any better, the staff could not offer anything better, due to the inadequate training offered to them, they did their best under the circumstances. I thought to myself "If you don't train them, don't blame them".
On the positive side of things, I visited a few places, attended a few seminars, I was really encouraged and inspired by the good work that some organisations are doing to help develop the next generation of leaders, making them believe in Nigeria and its possibilities and potential.
What is working? I entered the Lagos BRT for the first time, I was really impressed, the fact that Lagosians paid their fares and queued to wait their turn to enter the bus was encouraging. This gave me hope, with more good initiatives by the government things can work. All we need is good leadership and a few more forward-thinking individuals and organisations to make things happen.
In conclusion, the progress of our country is in our hands, we need to be accountable for own actions, in so doing we need to also start holding our leaders accountable and stop following them blindly. The moment they realise that the people expect, and they are held to account for their actions, things will change. If people continue to stay ignorant and let the blind lead the blind the status quo will remain. I am hopeful, but after a few days I felt drained. I concluded that if it's going to be, we all must do our little bit to turn things around. As much as we pray as a nation, we need to back it up with action. Prayer with no works is a waste of time. The fight to change our attitudes and mindset continues.
Music Professional, Visual and Fine Artist
7yLeave your thoughts here…"The unfortunate thing about the whole issue is that the banks customers' expectations were so low, they didn't expect any better, the staff could not offer anything better," .... This right here is the problem, we are so accustomed to mediocrity and the bare minimum. I like how you are solution-driven Richard. Indeed, Africa is changing, if we can all play our small role in an excellent way
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7yI totally agree. Rather than focusing on the issues let's make those small ripples that will create the waves. Enjoyed your diary!
MSc Social Work
7yGood insights. Some problems are institutional like customer service which require a re-orientation and training while some can be fixed in a jiffy. There is still so much work to do in Nigeria, we are work-in progress!