The call for nation building in Nigeria is increasingly gaining traction driven chiefly by millennial demographics in the country. Babs Olugbemi, founder of Positive Growth Africa, in this interview with KELECHI EWUZIE, speaks on the role of individuals in building a nation. Excerpts:
You celebrated 20th anniversary of Great Achievers’ club last year with a seminar for the executives. Why did you start the club and what were your objectives?
The Great Achievers’ Club is a registered academic club I founded while in school to help students develop academic excellence and prepare them ahead for the ICAN examinations. It was founded in the Ogun State Polytechnic in 1999 and now in the Olabisi Onabanjo University and The Polytechnic, Sapade. Aside from developing academic excellence in members, we envisaged the club will help in breeding leaders who will take ownership of others and communicate effectively.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary, we organised a leadership summit for the executive of the club from the three schools. We used that opportunity to rethink the objectives of the club and agree to align the purpose of the club with the current reality. Thus, the club is now beyond just an academic club. It will henceforth, develop the six core learning skills in the members, plus life, social and entrepreneurship skills to help our graduates and members.
After 20 years of investing in people, what is your focus?
For any country to develop there is a need to develop the capacity of the people. I have focused my coaching and mentoring activities on the students, teachers, youth and employees. My focus on these components is strategic. Singapore is an example of a country that focused on the capacity development of her people during the regime of President Lee Kuan Yew. Today, Singapore is ranked among the top three since 2015 in the Programme International Student Assessment (PISA) due to what they focused on in the 1960s. Focusing on human capacity will produce people who can handle situations and help the country to grow.
If you see the books I have authored, they are centred around the youth, teachers, students and employees. The students are the starting point before anyone turn to a youth and without teachers with the 21st century teaching skills we cannot have students and youth with the six core learning skills to survive in this information age and transform our society.
How can Nigeria maximise her potential and develop as a nation?
We have many third world countries that have been transformed into first world countries. Check Singapore, South Korea and recently the giant strides in Rwanda. Behind these transformations is leadership and the focus of the leaders is not to amass wealth or remain in power but to advance the lives of others.
The potent way for Nigeria to develop is to develop the capacity of her people in a balance way. I am an advocate of balanced capacity optimisation if we are to see sustainable growth.
Take for example, the Tony Elumelu Foundation that is encouraging entrepreneurs. If you can get the grant, irrespective of your vocation, just prove to the foundation that you know what you are doing. This is unlike what some of our elected leaders are doing associating more with musical celebrities while people who for example write good books or made viable discoveries in sciences are ignored. You will notice that most of our youths either want to be overnight celebrities. This is because we are rewarding and celebrating some vocations.
Aside the balanced capacity development and creating opportunities for our youths, our leaders should focus on maximising the resources we have rather than politicking with everything. For example, we should be like Russia, supplying gas to other countries if our gas potential is maximised.
In summary, let’s reward hard work and reduce reward for people who make money through positions without necessarily adding value to the society. We don’t need to think far, let reduce the salary and entitlement of our senators. Let’s cancel the use of state money to pay pension for someone who doesn’t need it and focus on developing the majority who are poor and struggling. If we don’t take action and help many poor youths to find their bearings, kidnapping, banditry and all other form of social vices will be here for long.
What can the youth do to reduce crime rate and be at their best?
Our youths should take the lead. I authored a book title ‘Take the lead’. Anthony Joshua is a good example of what our youths should do. He is not an overnight success. He had tried to be a football and some sort of other things before settling for boxing. One good thing about AJ is his humility in defeat and victory. You can’t see him showing wealth or in the news for the bad reasons. He recently prostrated for the President while presenting his belts to him in London. I think his parent should be given award for bringing him up in such a cool-headed way while others should learn from him.
To reduce crime, our youths need not to be moved by the unnecessary information on social media. Don’t celebrate wealth you don’t know the source. Find what you love to do and develop yourself to be one of the best in doing it. I know it is tough in a country where there is no or little government support for the unemployed, but that’s not a reason to go into crime. I remember how I was at time a bus conductor before getting admission into school. As youth, your thought drives your action. Be disciplined and find one activity you will commit your entire life into doing. I have always been saying it; talent is not a big mountain you have to move. It is simply an activity you love to do. When you find it, develop yourself to the point that no one will say no to you.
Any youth that loves what he is doing and working to be the best will have no time to go into crime. Crime is as a result of idleness of thought and inaction towards a specific goal and destination.
What can we do to improve the education standard of our students in Nigeria?
In one word, focus on the teachers. When teachers are motivated, it is easier for them to overcome difficult environment and working condition. Being a teacher is a calling and journey. It is like riding at the back of a tiger, you keep riding. That is why I called the teachers the most important profession in nation building.
We have seen investment in infrastructure- buildings, textbooks for students. It is time we invested in the capacity of the teachers. Teaching jobs should and was once for the best students. Today, it is the last option outside oil companies and banks. We should ensure anyone teaching and developing our future are well rewarded and trained.
The next is our curriculum. We are still using curriculums and style of education that produces mass output of graduates without necessarily taking into consideration the desire of the students. We should revamp our curricular and extracurricular activities in the learning environment to give opportunity for talent discovery.
Why are you focusing on employees and in what capacity have your team been engaging them?
Most employees in Nigeria complain about their jobs, employers, the environment without really doing anything. A lot of people are toxic staff, not engaged and only earning a living. I want people to live, energise, activate and develop their strengths starting from volunteering their latent talents not required on the job for their employers. Whenever you see someone complaining always, that person is operating at a low level of awareness.
What is the next plan of action in your nation-building activities?
We have engaged over 20,000 teachers, many students and youths. At Positive Growth Africa and Mentoras Limited, we will keep doing our best as individuals and registered entities to help others to be at their best.
We will be working with some state government institutions to improve on the education by developing the capacity of the teachers and motivating the students through our resources like the teachers and students’ fortress. We will continue to support our clients to be the best employers with engaged employees. We will focus more on private coaching for our youth and whosoever wants it.
Tell us about your new book for bankers?
It will be a crime not to author that book. The value chain banking is a practical guide for winning the business and loyalty of your customers. Though, meant for bankers, it is a must-read book for professionals with sales and bottom-line responsibility. At a time in my career, I was the head of the value chain banking for UBA, I was also privileged to work in almost all the sensitive departments in the banking industry which gives me a good overview and perspective about banking as a career. Coupled with my innate leadership skills, I was able to suggest how bankers could be at their best by developing intimate business relationships with customers, develop their competence and be good brand ambassadors for the banks.
The purpose of the book is therefore to reduce complaints by bankers by helping with the knowledge required to gain momentum and the understanding of the nature of the banking career. In the book, I identified three categories of bankers: the career star, transistor and survivor. The book will be turned into learning materials for online and class room based coaching for bankers in all the departments of the bank.
