April 2006 - Six
(6) Conversations With Six Different Individuals Which Confirm The
Nigerian Factor Exists(True Stories) Preamble This month I begin a long overdue article in which I narrate 6 true personal stories in which specific individual acquaintances categorically told me I could not succeed as an Entrepreneur in Nigeria if I failed to "play the game" by giving cuts, turning a blind eye to "over-invoicing" etc.
In other words, they told me pointedly that if I refused to accept the Nigerian Factor and the way it worked,i would not achieve the business goals I aimed for. Some were quite adamant about it too, almost as if they owed it to others to get me on board. When I remained uncompromising, and restated my determination not to play the game, they subsequently became my most caustic critics - some choosing to do it from afar and/or behind my back. I record the details of two of those conversations on this April 2006 page because I want it to be seen that these persons KNEW the Nigerian Factor existed, BUT had accepted to do what others before them had been doing rather than find an alternative that worked. When they met me, my intransigence got to them, and made them feel a need to "stop" me. Suddenly, people who should have been my friends/allies began taunting me and hounding me. It was like I had committed an unforgivable sin by saying I would not do what they said was the only way it could be done. But then maybe I DID commit a sin. I say this because some of them actually opened up to me that they were actively involved in doing the same things prior to asking me to consider doing it too. Probably they had thought their saying they also did it would have made me feel it was okay. But when I balked at doing so, they became threathened, even though I never condemned them or suggested I would tell others what they were doing. I could not be trusted to keep my mouth shut I'm sure they thought, so the next logical line of action was to either harrass me to give in - or discredit me. Recently this latter line of action has been favoured by some of them - though they choose to work "anonymously". Click here to read details of one that occurred in the recent past.
They went out of their way to inform people they met/who knew or had heard about about my "situation" so as to turn them against me. But they did not stop there. Some began making "crank calls" to my mobile number. Others went and made requests at my web site pretending to be who they were not. Even some called me up under false pretenses to ask me to send in proposals of work that did not exist or evening me to meet with their web designers etc(more on this in June 2006 when I will share with you the true story of a well respected Institute whose employees used the instruments of their offices to perpetuate what i consider the most unbelievable form of Entrepreneur Abuse possible. What they did is best described with ONE word: Pure MALICE! Till June 2006 ending). Short of giving full names and addresses, I will be revealing enough information for you to very accurately assess the veracity of the claims I make in the article. Stay tuned :-)
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1. The Nigerian Factor And My Conversation With A "Friend". S.K are his initials. He is married with kids, and a muslim. In my second year after I started out as an entrepreneur, I spoke with S.K with whom I was then a volunteer tutor at a certain NGO movement about my work as an entrepreneur and the challenge I was facing trying to get new business. Specifically, I mentioned that it appeared to be widely accepted practice to offer some form of compensation or reward to a person in charge of passing along or approving a proposal one sends in to a company, in order to get the job. This in my opinion was a dishonest practice and amounted to the same thing as bribery. I then stated emphatically to S.K that I had no intention of ever giving anyone gratification in exchange for an opportunity to do what I believed was work that I was not only capable of doing, but which I was convinced would help the organisation improved the performance of its people.
To my surprise, S.K would later reply(I had given him a lift on this day after we had together attended a function to which the NGO had invited us), that he truly appreciated my level of passion and self-belied BUT he added that he seriously doubted if I would ever be able to succeed in business in Nigeria by maintaining my stand regarding not giving any "cuts" or agreeing to "over-invoice" etc. He was of the opinion that the practice was so widespread that I would not be able to find many places where it would not be a requirement. What has however been most amazing for me is the consequent change in behaviour of S.K towards me. Following that day of our discussion I noticed that he began giving me calls at intervals of 2 to 3 months to ask me "how i was getting along". initially, I took is to be friendly enquiries about my work's progress, but later he began making cynical remarks about how I was unreasonable, and sending text messages with silly "quotes" asking "how long will you continue to suffer" and so on. I initially tried to ignore him, but one day he sent one that really upset me, and I (not having credit on my mobile), went to the nearest phone center and called him to stop it. S.K from his looks would probably be in his mid to late thirties and is a young ordinarily easy going man by nature. I hardly think he meant any harm by what he did then. The problem is that like a number of o0ther Nigerians, who feel there is no point fighting against what appears to be an overwhelmingly well established and accepted "bad" practice, he thought he could "help" me come to my senses and see the folly of the way i had chosen to follow. If only such people would realise that they could still remain good friends if they respected the decision of the other persons to do things in his/he own way. By way of interest, I could not help wondering, as he continued to molest me, if his behaviour did not betray the fact that he himself has always been benefiting from such activities in the past and could not imagine anyone not wanting to accept it. I have no proof of this however. In summary, S.K was sure I would not get far if I id not "join" the party and pay the game of "settling" those necessary to get given jobs by prospective client company decision makers or person with influence. That proves quite clearly that he knew something existed in the Nigerian society which made it futile for an otherwise qualified, competent and capable service provider to be given a fair and impartial opportunity to contest for provision of a product or service to meet a client company's needs. That 'thing" is the Nigerian Factor. |
| Click here to read(on the May page) the second conversation I had with another individual about the Nigerian Factor. |
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