Disclaimer: This post might be a bit controversial and if you’re Nigerian you might not agree with me.
I just got back from BarCampAfrica (I need an entire post to write about this) and I will never underestimate the importance of knowledge/idea sharing. I’m Nigerian and my country people are still a bit behind on adopting this methodology. Ok so let me put this out very clearly: A lot of Nigerians have a sense of envy in them. What do I mean by this? I mean many Nigerians don’t always wish you as well as they might pretend to. I’m not putting out a stereotype here, but I’m speaking out of experience. Don’t get me wrong there are so many great Nigerians who wish others well and are happy when others succeed, but there could be more. Many Nigerians who network with others are looking out for themselves, and care very little about the success of that other person.
This hindered sense of sharing and well-wishing has held us back for so long. I think this is part of why so many smaller African countries are much more technologically advanced than us. One person wants to succed above others and keep it all to his/herself. The fact that competition in Nigeria could lead to assassination, both in politics and in business, proves my theory. This happens all over the world, but if you’re extremely successful in Nigeria, you have to watch your back and be sure you’re not stepping on anyones toes. Dive into a diverse industry, not a monopoly.
I gave a topic at one of the sessions at BarCampAfrica called “The Potential Of The Internet In Nigeria“. All I can say is we are very very behind. We have the highest number of internet users in Africa but are nowhere near the top when it comes to internet technology. Our overall attitude towards collaboration needs to change. It’s a big setback. Any Nigerian web developer will know how “unfriendly” other Nigerian developers can be sometimes.
I heard recently there are only two families in Nigeria allowed to import Moet. Now c’mon. This is a common commodity. This is pure corruption. Again, this happens all over the world, I’m not trying to paint Nigeria black, but someone has to call wrongs out wherever they happen.
It’s agreed that any business owner should restrict disclosure of methods and techniques to avoid creating competition, but we should still to some extent be willing to share information and ideas especially across industries. What people forget is that for every idea out there there are at least 3 other ideas for you to think up and even at least 5 modifications of existing ideas to create an opportunity for success, but Nigerians dont really like competition.
For me, some of my biggest accomplishments have been driven by competition. Competition is healthy for any market. Theres Twitter and there’s Jaiku. Theres Facebook and theres MySpace. Theres YouTube and theres DailyMotion. Theres Coke and theres Pepsi. Any single one of the combinations I just made would probably be a much suckier product if the competition didnt exist.
So, the summary of this post is that I’d want to encourage Nigerians reading this to be willing to collaborate and share. BarCampAfrica has kinda given me a lot of hope about we Africans can also network and make things happen at incredible speeds just by working together. Open collaboration shouldn’t just be a western thing. We can do it too Nigeria.
6 Comments
I concur, most Nigerians look out for self first, but like you said there are exceptions…
Up until recently only Dangote was allowed to import Sugar and cement into Naija…
I just read your interview on StartupsNigeria. Then saw you on BarCamp page, hat tips bro for the godo work. Would like to drop some lines off-line, pls. let me know how. You have my email address. Cheers!
lol. im starting to feel “too out there”. i need to crawl back into my shell. will send u an email.
I agree. There IS a lot of envy in Nigeria, I think especially now with our generation being the first real wave of innovative entrepreneurs. I think people who are not as creative want to take other people’s ideas and efforts down just because they would have wanted the success for themselves. As for being backwards, I will acquiesce that we have a long way to go, but we are making progress in leaps and bounds; this cannot be denied. The Nigerians of our parents generation were content to simply get a good job and go work for someone else. WE are determined to own it. And that is a beacon of hope for any economy, particularly ours.
Unfortunate but true, Temi. However, the way for us to change it is for an entire collection of us to all thrive by collaborating and sharing freely.
I’ve been planning to circle around to talking to you about some concepts once I get them out of the development stage over here (if I can find enough time for it! I need more hours in the day…)
I do agree with the overall theme of your post although I am happy to say that I think the coming generations are slowly phasing out this mentality. I am of the opinion that the only people who need fear competition are those that provide a sub-standard service *cough*microsoft*cough*. Once the focus shifts from solely making money to making consumers happy and/or improving/setting industry standards, competition ends up being harder for the other guy rather than for you. Glad to see that an endeavour such as BarCampAfrica is in existence. I would love to see something similar in the UK.
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