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ibnaija@yahoo.com Political Scientist USA

OUR CULTURE OF LATENESS!

igerians are notorious for their lateness. It seems that corruption is not the only Nigerian, lateness is also a Nigerian and by extension, an African. So perturbing is this trend that we, as Nigerians and Africans, must act quickly to rid ourselves of this cloak of tardiness that has blanketed us as a people from time immemorial. Nigerian Time or should I say, African Time, has been the source of many embarrassing moments for Nigerians and Africans, that it has become the butt of many jokes. Of course, in this day and age, no joke of this nature is complete without a Nigerian being the subject of ridicule. And one of such jokes has it thus ---- that a Nigerian died in a plane crash along with several passengers of other nationalities. While everyone else made it at the same time to the presence of St. Peter, the custodian of the heavenly gates, the Nigerian showed up two hours late. Why am I not surprised? When asked by St. Peter why he was late, he responded,! "Oga, St. Peter, hmmm, the potholes on the road to the heavenly gates were too much, and besides, the Nigerian police set up many roadblocks taking bribes, so I decided to take a longer route to avoid all this." He then promised St. Peter, "I will be punctual from now on." At this, St. Peter responded, "Don’t worry, I will help you to be punctual and I will begin by sending you early to hell."

Beyond this comical spin to a rather chronic problem besetting Nigerians and the entire black race, is the need to evaluate our relationship as a people with the rest of the world as it relates to this subject. So nagging is this problem that some have resorted to deception and lies in order to enforce timeliness. I could remember vividly two years ago when I was invited to a naming ceremony. Unknown to us, the parents sent out two types of invitation cards. On one, they wrote "6 p.m." as the starting time and on the other they wrote "4:30 p.m." The former was sent to the non-Nigerian and African guests, mostly colleagues from their work places and the later, you guessed right, was for us, Nigerians and Africans. I only came to find out of this smart trick when I arrived at about 4:30 p.m. and found no one there. Upon calling the celebrants to ascertain the time, they confessed to their trick. In this case, true to type, the Nigerian and African guests arrived at the same! time as the non-African guests who were on the mark at 6:30 p.m.

I can’t understand why Africans, and Nigerians, in particular, have shown selective disrespect for time. What is even puzzling is the fact that many Nigerian professionals in the US and in other Western countries do not go late to their offices. In fact, in most cases, they are the first to go to the office even before most of their white colleagues make it in. This is perhaps, one of the reasons why qualified Nigerians do not have any problems finding lucrative work. Their work ethics facilitate productivity for most agencies and corporations and the word is out there that Nigerians are resourceful with quality productivity. But in spite of this fine professional reputation, most Nigerians become the anti-thesis in their personal lives.

As a student in the US, I had two Nigerian professors all of whom reported to class on time. Lateness was never an issue. Most of the time, they were already in class with coffee in hand waiting for us to make it from other classes, etc. But to my greatest amazement, these same professors were the epitome of lateness outside of the classroom. They never showed up on time to Nigerian events. They delayed everyone not because they were involved in sometime important, but because they just didn’t feel like getting ready on time. When they finally decided to show up, it was usually with much fanfare and disregard for other peoples' time. This type of behavior is worrisome, especially, in a society where time is money. The respect for other peoples' time and commitment must be paramount when it comes to social dealings. Nigerians and Africans alike, should be aware that the world does not revolve around them. They should know that it's not fashionable to show up late for event! s and make their tardy entrance, distracting everyone. They should know that part of improving the image of our country is to be punctual to public events that involve others who are non-Nigerians.

This culture of tardiness belies the Nigerian quagmire of ineptitude and lack of efficiency. It invariably affects our national productivity and our ability to compete with the global economy. With a tardy workforce, we are bound to undermine our output, which inevitably leads to minimum production of goods and services. This, in turn, gives rise to monetary shortfalls. It is imperative that Nigerians and Africans take action to reverse this trend to gain competitive edge with the rest of the world. Given the economic realities on the ground, it would be an aberration for us to continue in our tardy ways when the rest of the world is forging ahead in a timely fashion.

So epidemic is this culture of lateness in our fabric that while I was in secondary school, I could still remember how the school authorities decided to create a special position called "The Punctuality Prefect". This prefect [senior student] was given the monumental task of installing the notion of timeliness into the student body. To further press home this point, we were made to recite every morning before class the following words over and over --- "Punctuality and regularity is our motto." Even so, students continued to go late to classes and other events that required punctuality as the leadership did not lead by example. This underscored on a microscopic level our leadership debacle and the ability of our leaders to lead by example, even in seemingly inconsequential areas.

Regrettably, punctuality and regularity were not part of the lexicon of a couple whose wedding I attended in Maryland a while ago. On the invitation card, they had written "11 a.m. Prompt", for the ceremony. With this in mind, I arrived with my party at 10:30 a.m. I used the thirty minutes to greet other guests who had come to share in this joyous occasion. A few minutes to 11 a.m., we took our seats to witness the nuptial ceremony. Little did we know that neither the groom nor his blushing bride, were in the building. At 11:30 a.m., thirty minutes after the ceremony was scheduled to begin, we were told that the bride was still at the saloon getting that perfect hairdo. This was a piece of information many of us thought should not have been shared with the guests or shared in a general manner such as ‘the couple is not ready at the moment’. So much for our PR skills. As for the groom, we were equally told that he was with his wedding party getting fitted at a nearby! Tuxedo store. In all of this, their invited guests, almost half of whom were non-Nigerians, colleagues at work, ex-classmates, etc, were waiting in earnest, some of whom arrived at 10 a.m.

At noon, a man in flowing "agbada" appeared before us and announced that the new time was 1 p.m. and that if we loved the couple we must be patient. What’s love got to do with it? This information was coming in spite of the fact that many of the couple's non-Nigerian friends had other appointments later in the day. With this announcement, some brought their cell phones to life to re-arrange their schedules. Others remained silent listening to soft Gospel music that came from overhead speakers in the church. The church was filled with anxious whispers coming from the non-Nigerian/African guests. As for the Nigerian/African guests, they were used to this sort of lateness and waited patiently. I felt bad instantly. At that moment, it became a collective embarrassment for us all. It did not matter whether we came early or not, since it was dubbed a "Nigerian Wedding", we all shared in the opprobrium.

At 1:30 p.m., the same gentleman reappeared after spending the last hour or so pacing back and forth in a frenzy. He announced that the ceremony would begin at "2 p.m. prompt." Many in the church were utterly surprised that he could still use the word "prompt". Did he know its meaning? Coincidentally, 2 p.m., was the time that was written on the invitation card for the reception to begin in one of the five star hotels clear across town. Even so, the wedding procession actually started at 2:13 p.m. by my watch, some three hours and thirteen minutes after it was billed to commence. It was utterly disappointing that when the wedding started, all involved in the planning behaved as though nothing had happened as they went about without even offering any apologies to the guests whose time they had completely wasted. It was no surprise when the officiating minister, a white man, abbreviated the ceremony much to the couple's chagrin as there was another wedding in the same churc! h later that evening. The same was true for the photographic crew the couple hired. They too had another appointment that evening and could hardly stay to witness the end of the wedding.

Nigerians and Africans ought to know that there is a whole world out there, which will go on with or without them. They cannot think that all activities will stop because they have decided to operate at snail speed. Why can't we employ our professional punctuality to our social lives? Is this genetic or environmental? One school of thought asserts it’s genetic as this is not only a Nigerian issue, but also, an African issue and indeed a problem that involves the black race, which encompasses blacks in the US and beyond as evidenced in the caption often used in the US by African-Americans, CPT, "Colored Peoples’ Time". Another school of thought maintains that it’s environmental as Nigerians in the West where time is vastly respected are most often not tardy to events that are organized by non-Nigerians and moreso, non-Africans.

The later school of thought might be more credible as in all of my experience in the West, I’ve never met a Nigerian who lost his/her job because of excessive tardiness. They are hardworking as they are punctual in professional settings. Nigerians may have a bad reputation as corrupt and dishonest people because of the activities of a few of us, but laziness is not in that mix. Most of them come in early and leave late. They are known for their superior output and enviable work ethics. The students amongst us go to classes early. The job seekers amongst us are early for their job interviews. The travelers amongst us go early to the airport to catch their Delta, United, American, etc, flight, except when they are flying on Nigeria Airways.

This phenomenon is very interesting and should be probed further. Why is the story different when it comes to Nigerian events? In some Nigerian association meetings in the US, the situation is not any better. Meetings which are supposed to be held at 5 p.m. every first Sunday of the month, start at 6 p.m. and sometimes, 7 p.m. And if the women are cooking for a particular event, add another one to two hours to the starting time as they are never ready on time. The most frustrating part is that when the members finally trickle in at 7 p.m. or whenever they feel like it, they behave as if they are early. They take their sweet time in exiting their car, strolling leisurely through the parking lot to the meeting with no sense of the time whatsoever. Upon arrival in the meeting hall, they spend another thirty minutes or so to greet others before beginning the meeting. Who has all this time to waste in this time-conscious society?

I was told two years ago about a Ghana Airways flight, which was scheduled to take off from New York’s JFK airport to Accra at 3 p.m. The flight was delayed until 9 p.m. when it finally took off. All along, the passengers who had already boarded the flight and were asked not to leave for these six hours were told that the plane had suddenly developed mechanical problems and that the ground engineers were diligently working to fix the problem. Within minutes, rumors started flying amongst the passengers that the plane was sound mechanically and that the delay was caused by the lateness of two high ranking members of the Ghanaian parliament who were also scheduled to be on the flight. These rumors were confirmed when the plane abruptly ceased to have its purported mechanical problems and immediately took off upon the arrival of the two politicians. In all of this, the schedules of more than three hundred passengers were needlessly interrupted because of two tardy MPs who fo! r all we know could have been involved in frivolous deals in the last six hours. Could this happen amongst a time conscious people?

This tardy culture has eaten so deep into our lives that in Nigeria nowadays, in most churches, much to my pleasant surprise, if a couple is late to their wedding ceremony, even by a minute, the officiating minister blesses the ring and leaves it at the alter for them whenever they make it in. As the minister leaves, he dismisses the guests and tells them that lateness is of the devil. This has caused many couples huge financial losses. But it has also made many to be cognizant of the time and come early to their own wedding. We can change this culture of lateness amongst us. We can do it. We can begin meetings without the latecomers. We can begin wedding ceremonies whether or not the late guests have arrived. We can begin a trip without the perpetual latecomers who are always delaying those who keep to time. If this happens to a latecomer ones or twice, he would be early next time. This attitude is flourishing because we tolerate it. If we stand against it, it will fall ! and we will get used to the new time order. We should endeavor to put a premium on the value of time and understand that it is important to respect other peoples' time and commitment.