FINAL THOUGHTS ON CULTURAL CHANGE
Abraham Lincoln, once president of the United States of America, said that if he were given ten hours to cut down a tree, he would spend six hours sharpening his ax. Our definition of hard work in this country needs to be examined and redefined. Hard work in this part of the world is only physical exertion. Our society commends the person who sweats a lot.

Really, it is not that our people are not hard-working but most detest mental exertion. When you ask the seeming hard-working person to learn something new or take a course that will help him to be more effective in his or her vocation, the general reaction is that it is not expedient. Generally, around here there is mental laziness.

 

Our reading culture is very poor. We like material things but unfortunately, if you do not expand your mental capabilities then you may not be able to accumulate wealth. Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. The person who wants it fast but does not want to harness his mental resources would still end up in poverty.

The greatest asset you have for creating wealth is your mind. It is unfortunate to note also that the small percentage of people who read here largely do so for leisure. They would rather read fiction novels, comics, or soft sell magazines. They avoid reading books that would task their minds. We need to emphasize education. And you,
dear reader, invest in books. What you learn determines what you earn.

Also, do what you can to give your children good quality education. Also, we have to deal with our inclinations to excessive socializing. It is a culture that has a way of keeping people impoverished in our nation. There are too many parties and occasions that require we spend money that could have otherwise been invested. There are too many ‘aso-oke’ to cut.

Some people still owe on the last four clothes they sew for one party or the other but that does not stop them from collecting another one on credit. We forget that the borrowers are subject to the lender. It is generally believed that Africans have a culture of mutual impoverishment. There is a way we agree with ourselves to keep ourselves poor. Part of the big problem is societal expectations.

In the bid to live up to the expectations of society, people do more than they should do; they spend more than their ability and remain poor. Even people with great prospects – who have a good job or a flourishing business – squander everything in order to live up to the expectations of society and eventually they end up like everybody else.

I believe this will change in our own time. Who says the whole town must come to your wedding? Most especially when we have discovered it has been statistically proven that financial problems are a major part of the reasons homes break up. Young people borrow to organize weddings and as soon as they are married, the first thing they have to do is to pay back the money they owe.

My dear reader, you have not impressed anybody by borrowing to marry. It is not the level or amount of public recognition of a wedding that makes a marriage successful. The amount of money spent on excesses, which may look small now, would become large some years down the line if invested. I am not saying that you should not spend money on yourself but be selectively extravagant.

Spend money on the things that matter, especially when it has got to do with investment. In Africa, we promote associations without value – friendships that do not have any meaningful contribution to our lives. Of course, we all need C relationships.

This is one part of the world where people, in the bid not to offend others, stay in relationships that are frustrating them. You need to understand that there is no way you can make real progress without the need for a change of association. We need to be sensitive and not sentimental. If your brother is messing up your business fire him.

You, may be wondering, “What would they say?” When your business collapses, what won’t they say? In wrapping up our discourse on Cultural Change, let me offer a few suggestions. Firstly, I think we have to work on wealth creation for our people and stop pretending that wealth is not good.

Secondly, we need to create a culture where people love to study so as to change our mass ignorance problem, understanding that people’s earning power is proportional to their level of education. It has been statistically proven that when you group people together according to their level of education you will find out that their average income coincides with their average level of income.

Our short-term thinking affects our desire for education because we want immediate gratification. Another thing that I suggest must become culture is Full-Employment. Africa has to find a way to get everybody to work. A good chunk of our productive population is not working. Somebody said it is difficult for a poor man to be a good citizen.

We need to encourage individual initiative. We have to make people realize that they can start something by way of entrepreneurs. It is not compulsory for everyone to find jobs. We have to emphasize on profit as regards our economy. Profit is the engine of national growth. Because it is profit that would determine how wealthy a country becomes.

We have to encourage this because it is when you make a profit that you pay tax. There are lots of businesses and individuals who do not pay tax and it is very unfortunate because that should be the government’s major source of income. Finally, we need to develop a savings and investment culture. There is the probability that some of us have been doing this but it has to become a national culture.

We need to find a way to get everybody to save and invest. Dear reader, I would encourage that you start talking to your friends and family members to involve themselves more in savings and investment. I believe you would have noticed that it is the culture that individuals have that forms the culture of the nation. We need to make savings and investment a matter of necessity and not of choice. It’s a new generation. It is the dawn of a new day for this nation.

Nigeria will Succeed!