Jill Rees: Welcome Press

At Wuse market, they make a selection of shirts. There are the normal ones in the many bright African colours so envied by dour UK men. Then there are massive tent like vestments for the larger man. Another way of saying for the successful man.

In Nigeria, a prerequisite for being wealthy or powerful seems to be one’s size, despite the fact that women are always telling men that ‘size isn’t everything’. It seems the bigger a man is here around the girth, the more respect he should be accorded. A man’s size shows that he doesn’t have to do things for himself, he has boys who run errand for him. He can get plenty to eat. Heavy Nigerian soup with lashings of palm oil and half a chicken on top - half? Why not make that a whole chicken? - will expand the waistline better than sweet Northern food. Quiche and salad is not for the business lunch here. Back at the market, I asked ‘Do you charge more for the large sizes, because they’re obviously made for rich men.’

Everything has to be big for the rich and powerful man: he needs a big house; even if he lives alone there is a coterie of friends, family and employees living in with him. He naturally needs a big car, using lots of fuel, big furniture, sofas and of course the famous Nigerian huge bed - how many people are you expecting to fit in there?

My friend Ade is a thin man, very slim, quite young and healthy looking. He plays sport regularly. In Europe he’d be a fine specimen. However he works in a bank, and his customers are always asking the manager, ‘Can we have a different bank manager? This one doesn’t look as if he’s able to make any money. He’s still very thin.’

Nigeria isn’t a meritocracy. It isn’t what you can do, but what you look as if you can do. Influence is still by the macho hard power, taking control, giving orders, bending others to your will. Employees don’t argue with the boss, even when they know he is wrong. Like small rugby players, they weave in and out of the big guys’ orders, finding the way through surreptitiously. They say ‘Yes sir’, but hesitate to carry out actions they know won’t work, waiting for the boss to realise this and change his mind, playing for time. Nigerian employees are incredibly faithful and try to do their best for their company. The emotional nit-picking and criticising which would be thought of as bullying in the UK, washes over them like water off a duck’s back.

When I first arrived in Abuja, my boss ordered an employee to drive me to my workplace. ‘You know where it is, right?’ he asked her.

‘Yes sir’, she said. Once on the Express Way, she stopped and phoned her friend. ‘He’ll come and take us there,’ she said, ‘Because I don’t know the way. I’ve only been in Abuja for a week.’ So I asked her why she didn’t just tell her boss she didn’t know how to get there? ‘Because he would take it as a sign of weakness,’ she replied. And then she gave me some advice. ‘I know in Europe you show your feelings,’ she said, ‘But in Nigeria you hide if you’re upset, because it’s a sign of weakness. It’s like saying you can’t do your job. So you just say yes, then find out how to do it later.’ How much time is lost in this way?

Imagine the scene. Your thin boss is sitting round the table with his employees, telling them his plans. ‘I don’t think that will work,’ says the bright young man. ‘It would be better to do it this way….’ The boss listens, he asks the opinions of others. After a heated debate, a plan of action is decided. Everyone’s expertise is brought to the fore, possible mishaps and alternatives are discussed. Finally a decision is reached. No-one remembers any more whose idea it was, it is a collaborative effort. Once decided, everyone is on board, and goes about their duties enthusiastically. You meet again a few days later, to assess how it went, to monitor and evaluate, to change direction if necessary. This collaborative method is very effective, no time is wasted, no loopholes are left open. The boss is happy, he leaves the office early and, after a light salad with a diet dressing, plays a round of golf. The others have left early too; the job is done and what’s food for the goose is food for the gander.

Things have to change, but who is going to start? A person who is always disagreeing with the boss is going to receive short shrift, and will soon be out the door. Nevertheless, Nigerians can be their own worst enemies, accepting an autocratic boss in a collaboration to ensure their own continuing enslavement to a system which swells the stomachs of a few at the expense of the many. If you have fought for a decent education, financing yourself, taking evening classes, battling against underprivilege to begin to achieve your dreams, why should you have to kowtow to anyone? Your capability should speak for itself. The abilities and potential of all need to be harnessed so that Nigeria can develop into the great nation every single person knows it should be. Like many arcane habits, deference to the big man is an impediment to healthy growth.

The prerequisite for any kind of control over a population or a workforce is always the ‘divide and rule’ kind of management. To begin to enact a change in the relations of power in the workplace people need to work together rather than to let themselves be divided. This means first becoming aware of the dynamics that determine your own particular workplace, and contributing in a way that encourages communication and cooperation rather than each person protecting their own sector. Presenting new ideas in a positive way so that no-one feels threatened. By using dialogue to consider options before taking action will improve results and may enable the enterprising employee to slowly improve the working systems to the benefit of all. When we see the quiet humility of bosses who know how to make the most of his workplace using ‘soft power’, we will know Nigeria is on the move.

Then intelligence will hold more weight than corpulence and we can get the quiche and salad out, and start buying bosses belts instead of huge vests for their birthday.

1,112 words

© Jill Rees

Abuja 21 November 2007

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