I have come across so many young Nigerians
who still claim that they are un-employable
or they can not get employment/contract,
because of their tribe or where they come from.

Does this still happen in 2008?

I run my own business, and I have not got any
business because of my tribe. I got jobs through
networking (not tribal networking)

I employ based on merit

Shouldn't this be the norm? especially when you run a
professional outfit?

I have been in this forum for about 3-4 months now
and I have discovered that tribal/ethnicity sentiment amongst
the youth is rather high and sometimes defeatist, demoralising and un-productive.

Should it be so?
Shouldn't we always present our first eleven?
Am I deluding myself?

Pls let me have your thoughts

Tribe/ ethnicity should always matter to those who need it to. As long as there are patriotic minds out there, it will always matter. Discriminating against those who choose to be tribal patriots when you yourself are patriotic to your country is hypocritical if you ask me. Whether You love your country more than you love other countries  OR  you love your wife/husband more than you love others out there Or  you love your tribal roots more than you love any other tribe out there ,  all na the same if you ask me and I believe people should focus more on accepting others as they are instead of trying to put them down for not seeing or doing things as they do it.


Be it tribal wars, Color wars, war of the sexes, war over money and what not, the common denominator in all those is that we have PEOPLE involved and these poeple will try over and over again to use tribe/money/nationality/religious as excuse to act stupid. I mean this is to be expected. Eliminate tribal allegiance from the picture and they will find some other reason.

I do not have any problems with tribal/clan allegiance
But must we sacrifice tribe/ethnicity for quality
Must we always blame tribalism/ethnicism for our short-comings?, our failures?, even when we are not competitive?
Must we always see things from a tribalistic perspective?

oldie:

I do not have any problems with tribal/clan allegiance

Depends on which tribe you belong to.

oldie:

But must we sacrifice tribe/ethnicity for quality?

No, but unfortunately in Nigeria; it okay.
Quality is actually one of the most hated words in the country.

oldie:

Must we always blame tribalism/ethnicism for our short-comings?, our failures?, even when we are not competitive?

Once again NO. Even though some people use tribalism to make excuses for their failure, the fact remains that tribalism in Nigeria is glaring.

oldie:

Must we always see things from a tribalistic perspective?

Those who are reasonable should not view it that way, but when some people are persistently discriminated because of their tribes, then they begin to read any move from the tribalistic perspective.
After all, the FG and the entire nation is tribalistic ranging from political appointments to allocations. Ever heard of the federal character or whatever they call it?

@ nuzo
Federal Character exists in the public sector
It does not exist in the private sector or does it?

nuzo:

Depends on which tribe you belong to.

How do you mean?

nuzo:

Quality is actually one of the most hated words in the country.

I think you are wrong there
Quality still counts even in Nigeria

oldie:

@ nuzo
Federal Character exists in the public sector
It does not exist in the private sector or does it?
How do you mean?
I think you are wrong there
Quality still counts even in Nigeria

If that was the case, Nigeria would not be where it is today.

oldie:

Federal Character exists in the public sector
It does not exist in the private sector or does it?

In most cases it does exist in private sector, otherwise the company stands not being favoured by the FG or the Nigerian people with contracts, patronization and other benefits. Find out from Adenuga, Dangote and most of these banks.

oldie:

How do you mean?

Don't be too fast. We all know that a certain tribe gets the mega contracts and other favours without meriting it the most times.

oldie:

I think you are wrong there
Quality still counts even in Nigeria

LOL .
Well, to be fair to you, it only counts to a few in Nigeria. But majority takes the vote, so it doesn't count.
80% of the goods we use in Nigeria ranging from clothing, food, to other materials are imported, 75% of the goods are substandard and Nigerians are okay with it.
Most of the work or contracts executed in Nigeria, either by private or the public sectors are substandard. Otherwise how do you explain houses and bridges worth billions of naira collapsing almost on weekly bases?
Should i talk about health and drugs, telecoms, media, leadership, management etc?

Kobojunkie:

If that was the case, Nigeria would not be where it is today.

Looks like whatever we say or do, your mind is already made up
Give us some credit
I insist that quality still counts even in Nigeria!

nuzo:

In most cases it does exist in private sector, otherwise the company stands not being favoured by the FG or the Nigerian people with contracts, patronization and other benefits. Find out from Adenuga, Dangote and most of these banks.

There are 1001 other companies who do not depend on government contracts
These are the companies that drive the economy to a large extent and these are my main focus

nuzo:

Don't be too fast. We all know that a certain tribe gets the mega contracts and other favours without meriting it the most times.

Why do we always focus on government contracts?
Like I wrote above, there are many more services provided by small to medium companies.
In most cases, these companies do not even care about government contracts
What they need mostly is an enabling environment
Do they get it? This is for another discussion
So if you run your own company here, would you employ/trust only people from your tribe even when they are not qualified?

nuzo:

Well, to be fair to you, it only counts to a few in Nigeria. But majority takes the vote, so it doesn't count.
80% of the goods we use in Nigeria ranging from clothing, food, to other materials are imported, 75% of the goods are substandard and Nigerians are okay with it.
Most of the work or contracts executed in Nigeria, either by private or the public sectors are substandard. Otherwise how do you explain houses and bridges worth billions of naira collapsing almost on weekly bases?
Should i talk about health and drugs, telecoms, media, leadership, management etc?

Thank you for agreeing with me that quality counts!, sometimes, according to you!
We can always improve

But you generalise and exagerate when you say most work done in Nigeria and goods produced in Nigeria are sub-standard.
Buildings or bridges do not collapse on a weekly basis in Nigeria

There are some poor jobs done, no doubt
There some poor products manufactured/imported. I agree
Should we blame these on tribes? NO

The environment is becoming very competitive and knowledgeable
Sooner or later, if you produce/sell substandard goods/services you will be left behind, whatever tribe you belong.

If goods and services are of good quality, Nigerians dont care who made them or who is offering
the services.

For leadership?
That one na another tori

oldie:

Why do we always focus on government contracts?
Like I wrote above, there are many more services provided by small to medium companies.
In most cases, these companies do not even care about government contracts
What they need mostly is an enabling environment
Do they get it? This is for another discussion
So if you run your own company here, would you employ/trust only people from your tribe even when they are not qualified?

You want too know why people focus on govt contracts becos Govt is the main driver of the economy. I share your sentiments on SME's that dont depend on govt but again wats the proportion, its less than 20% of the income generating units.

Let the govt delay release of votes for 2-3 weeks and see the impact on the economy, then u will understand why.

I am not of the view that the private sector is ethnically driven but the fact that tribe remains a factor in Nigeria shouldnt be wished away it is real and affecting the national development until we tackle it headson we will continue to have substandard leadership and skewed economic growth.

away4real:

You want too know why people focus on govt contracts because Govt is the main driver of the economy. I share your sentiments on SME's that don't depend on govt but again wats the proportion, its less than 20% of the income generating units.

Let the govt delay release of votes for 2-3 weeks and see the impact on the economy, then u will understand why.

I am not of the view that the private sector is ethnically driven but the fact that tribe remains a factor in Nigeria shouldnt be wished away it is real and affecting the national development until we tackle it headson we will continue to have substandard leadership and skewed economic growth.

The budget for 2008 has just been passed and the economy hasn't collapsed
The people who really drive our intenal economy (I hope there is something like that) are the SMEs
They employ more than 80-85% of the employables or the people who are ready to work
As for the budget, the government officials steal over 80% of it anyway
But this is not my focus

For your second point, I agree with you that tribe/ethnicity is still a major factor.
But my question is, should the private sector of the economy be ethnically driven?
Shouldn't it be more ethical than ethnical?

oldie:

There are 1001 other companies who do not depend on government contracts
These are the companies that drive the economy to a large extent and these are my main focus

Away4real has answered that question for me.

oldie:

Why do we always focus on government contracts?

I didn't mention only government contracts, i also mentioned the patronization of the Nigerian people as a whole. Or why do you think that communication outfits like Odu'a tel in Ibadan may never exceed Oyo state?

oldie:

Like I wrote above, there are many more services provided by small to medium companies.
In most cases, these companies do not even care about government contracts
What they need mostly is an enabling environment
Do they get it? This is for another discussion

What are we discussing here, tribalism or enabling environment?

oldie:

So if you run your own company here, would you employ/trust only people from your tribe even when they are not qualified?

Why would you want to employ somebody who is not qualified into your private firm in the first place? No real biz man does that.
I have worked with people from different tribes including mine and i can willingly tell you that the trust that existed depended mostly on personal relationship. Unfortunately, i cant speak for other people cos in every tribe, there are always people who are capable of handling any job at any point in time.

oldie:

Thank you for agreeing with me that quality counts!, sometimes, according to you!
We can always improve

No way sir, i never agreed with you on quality making sense in Nigeria like you mentioned. I said, it matters to a few and probably the rich class. Here is my quote on that:

"Well, to be fair to you, it only counts to a few in Nigeria. But majority takes the vote, so it doesn't count".

And of course i believe we can improve, if we want to.

oldie:

But you generalise and exaggerate when you say most work done in Nigeria and goods produced in Nigeria are sub-standard.
Buildings or bridges do not collapse on a weekly basis in Nigeria

There are some poor jobs done, no doubt
There some poor products manufactured/imported. I agree
Should we blame these on tribes? NO

Sorry, i might have exaggerated when i said houses and bridges collapse on weekly basis. But you and i and the world knows that it's a reoccurring events as a result of lack of quality.

oldie:

There are some poor jobs done, no doubt
There some poor products manufactured/imported. I agree
Should we blame these on tribes? NO

Once again no. Unfortunately, it plays out well in the public sector which comprises over 70% of the economy and inturn effects the private sector.

oldie:

The environment is becoming very competitive and knowledgeable
Sooner or later, if you produce/sell substandard goods/services you will be left behind, whatever tribe you belong.

I wish it will be like this, but what is on ground shows that you just put up a big lie here sir.

oldie:

If goods and services are of good quality, Nigerians don't care who made them or who is offering
the services.

Ahh, ahh. That's another big lie. Nigerians do care 100% where the goods and services come from. Otherwise how do you explain most locally made goods in Nigeria being tagged made in Italy, China or USA as the case may be? OBJ at a point in time started forcing people to patronize locally made goods.

oldie:

Looks like whatever we say or do, your mind is already made up
Give us some credit
I insist that quality still counts even in Nigeria!

What in the world do you mean by that?? I said quality does not count much in Nigeria. Just saying it does not mean it is the situation in that country. I mean from watching the trend in that country, any person who is realistic will see that quality does not count for much in that country. From government to the average Nigerian, people do not place much care on making sure that it is all quality goods that are offered them and that is why the markets are filled with fake goods and what nots. If Quality really did count, from the floor up, the markets would have to respond with quality goods and nothing more knowing the people would not accept anything less. Same would apply to government in that country, the goons we have had in office in the past and the present would know that they can not get away with making empty promises and not having anything to show or concrete to give the people at any point in time.

got to agree with kobojunkie. lots of nigeria's seem to be content are scared of complaining about their way of lives.

Kobojunkie:

What in the world do you mean by that?? I said quality does not count much in Nigeria. Just saying it does not mean it is the situation in that country. I mean from watching the trend in that country, any person who is realistic will see that quality does not count for much in that country. From government to the average Nigerian, people do not place much care on making sure that it is all quality goods that are offered them and that is why the markets are filled with fake goods and what nots. If Quality really did count, from the floor up, the markets would have to respond with quality goods and nothing more knowing the people would not accept anything less. Same would apply to government in that country, the goons we have had in office in the past and the present would know that they can not get away with making empty promises and not having anything to show or concrete to give the people at any point in time.

I am not just saying it.
I live it. I do not watch from afar
I do not know how much you know about the Nigerian trend to sweepingly conclude that quality does not count in Nigeria?

oldie:

I am not just saying it.
I live it. I do not watch from afar
I do not know how much you know about the Nigerian trend to sweepingly conclude that quality does not count in Nigeria?

I know enough about that country from inside out to understand that your situation is not necessarily the case for the majority in that country. From inside out that is the case in that country. People are more focused on aquiring stuff than they are on quality of life even. Offer the average Nigerian a chance to a better life and tell him he has to pay taxes to get it, trust me, many will say no. This is just one example. I mean you look around you in Nigeria and you do not have to be a harvard grad to see this be the case. The poor maintainance culture alone speaks volumes.

The landlord goes in to a huge ghetto to plug in his gigantic house and does not even consider that if he cleans up the dump right next to his house, things will not only smell better for him and his neighbours but property value might actually go up. LMAO!!!! and health problems will be reduced for him and those around him.

There are tons of examples if you want them

i hate kobojunkie.
that is because he says the truth as it is
and that is even more annoying
because truth hurts

Yey! We are in 2019