Yesterday, at the Aswan Forum in Egypt, President Muhammadu Buhari announced that in January 2020, Nigeria will commence the issuance of visas at the point of entry to all persons holding passports of African countries.

“We in Nigeria have already taken the strategic decision to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of our people within the continent by introducing the issuance of visa at the point of entry into Nigeria to all persons holding passports of African countries with effect from January 2020,” he said.

Last year, the Nigerian government announced visa on arrival for selected categories of people. In July, over 2000 of such visas were issued to some persons considered in the category of investors.

In November, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) announced plans to issue visa on arrival. Concentration was centered on pilgrimage as a way to boost tourism in the country. The recent announcement by Buhari to grant all African passport holders travelling into Nigeria, visa at entry, has however set a new milestone in African integration. But there is a contradiction!

The news although welcomed by many, came surprising for obvious reasons. Since August, Nigerian land borders have been closed, a development that the Buhari-led administration has defended as a means of curbing the smuggling of banned goods and services and to promote locally made goods.

The argument that the border closure is hurting already fragile economy has gone on deaf ears. All these are happening at a time when Nigerian signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a pact that is designed to spur intra-African trade and continental integration.

The principles of the AfCFTA guarantee free movement of people, goods and services. Each of these principles has been utterly violated by the border closure and it is hurting the economy of the whole West African region.

In his speech at the Aswan Forum, Buhari reminded other Africans countries of the need of connectivity through free-flowing transport system, especially through intra-African roads and railways.

“Africa should embark on the provision of transport connectivity by enhancing the development of roads, rail, and air links which will ease the free movement of persons, goods and services within the continent. In this regard, we in Nigeria have already commenced an aggressive drive to upgrade our rail transport system and road networks across the country.

“We should furthermore promote free trade within and amongst Africa and Africans especially now that we have launched the African Free Trade Area Agreement,” he said.

It is an unprecedented contradiction that action alone can substantiate. Whilst his speech is acknowledged as a fact, the closed borders have without words, refuted his preachment.

One of the implications of the closed borders has been restriction of movement of people, goods and services. A situation that has not only limited the inflow of goods through the land borders but also the growth of locally made products.

The needed integration that was advocated in the Aswan Forum has been preceded by anti-integration decisions that need to be unwound for the anticipated benefits of AfCFTA to materialize.

But on the basis of the contrasts between words and actions, the puzzling word-deed misalignment casts doubt on intent. When the largest economy in Africa preaches integration in one way and opposes it in another, it creates a bedrock of economic chaos.

Already, Ecowas countries are becoming vindictive, and are taking measures to fight what they perceive as economic injustice, and the overall trade of the region is at the receiving end. Nigerian traders in Ghana have become targets of government sponsored oppression, an attempt to register the country’s displeasure over the closed borders.

Ghana’s exports to Nigeria have been limited to the barest minimum and so it is with Benin and Niger Republic, and the three countries are seriously weighing the options.

While Nigeria’s ‘visa on arrival’ gesture is a good example for other African countries to follow, the fate of members of Ecowas should not be on trial. Charity begins at home. Therefore, Nigeria should open the doors to her immediate siblings.

It remains just a few weeks for the year to come to an end and for another one to begin. Many people have started saying things like, “The year has finished, let’s do it next year,” or “This year isn’t good for me, I strongly believe next year will be my year.” You hear different sorts of proclamation and procrastination at this time of the year. Promises and pledges are also made by people to others on what they will do for them in 2020. In fact, the end of the year always comes with the same attitude – seeing the oncoming year as a better one. This is the chief reason behind New Year resolutions.

New Year resolution doesn’t only come at the first day of January. As far as I can tell, it comes from the beginning of the “ember” months (that is from September to December). Immediately we move into the 9th month of the year, people start seeing the year as coming to an end. There is this believe that whatever that isn’t achieved by September may no longer be achievable within the year. A lot of resolutions are actually made around the month of October and solidified in November. December is more like a waiting period for the year to go so that “actions” can be taken in the new year.

I’ve always been against New Year resolution because I see it as a way of restricting and binding ourselves to the limitation of time. I don’t believe we have to set our time to achieving goals in years but in the days and weeks, and, of course, in hours. I always believe that instead of saying, “I’ll do this next year,” I should say, “I will complete this in two or three weeks time” or “This should be done by April next year.” By so doing, I will not look at years but days, weeks and months. The essence of this is that I won’t have to fold my hands to wait for the year to end, as a lot of people do, but continue the planning and the processes that come with accomplishing the set goals.

But that is by the way. Some of us have certain goals we want to achieve next year. You can call it your New Year resolutions or Goals, they still mean the same thing to me. It will be good if you asked yourself whether you’ve been able to achieve the resolutions you made before, or whether you’ve been making the same mistakes all year round. If you have been able to achieve more than 50% of your set goals, that’s a pass mark I believe; but if you are among those that set goals and forget them immediately the year begins, or you decide not to pursue them, or worse, things don’t work out the way you hoped, then this article is for you.

Most New Year resolutions are not achieved for some reasons, which could range from wrong timing to going for things that don’t interest you. Below is a list of some New Year resolutions mistakes people make.

Waiting till New Year day to think up a goal. I’ve talked about this earlier but it’s good that it’s touched again. A lot of people have to wait till 12 midnight on December 31 to think up things they will achieve within the incoming year. Most of the times, people that do this make impulsive decisions and then sit back like Unoka in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and wait for manna from Heaven.

The people that fall within this group most times don’t even know how to go about achieving those goals. Some of them choose to go after things they couldn’t control. And then there are those that may spend the whole year planning on how to achieve their goals.

You don’t have to wait for the clock to tell when to act. If you have things you need to put in place, now is the best time to do that. And don’t tell yourself you will land a better paying job next year because it is beyond your control. This is also the same thing with saying that you will get married next year. Let your resolution be on things you can control. For example, you can decide to acquire new skills that will make you eligible for better paying jobs and you may decide to go out more to meet people in order to find a partner. Those are the things within your power.

You need to plan for the future in order to create a better one. So, start now to arrange your life and don’t wait for 00.00am, January 1, 2020 to do so.

Focusing on end result without acknowledging the processes. A lot of people fail to understand that setting up goals is like embarking on a journey. And to embark on a journey, one has to pass through many processes, meet many setbacks, take a lot road detours, get delayed in heavy traffic, and so on.

There is need for you breakup your journey into stages and celebrate each success. Failure to do this can make you lose hope along the line. It is not to say that picturing the final destination is wrong, but you need to remember what you will meet different forms of challenges as you embark on your journey.

Lack of adequate planning: It is not only entrepreneurs that need to have plan A, B and C. Everybody needs that. Most of the times things turn out the way you didn’t expect and if you don’t have plans on how to set the course straight in such situations, or how to cushion the effects of the hits you get, you will fall out.

For example, when you plan to clear up your old debts, what plans do you have towards raising enough funds to take care of your primary responsibilities within the period? And if you want to go for further studies, how do you plan to pay up your school fees, buy your books and do other miscellaneous payments without starving yourself and your family members? Failure to put adequate plans in place will only end up discouraging you from achieving your set goals.

Going for things you have no interest in. Of course, if you plan to achieve something that doesn’t interest you, you will immediately drop the effort the first time you meet a roadblock. The easiest way to motivate yourself is to do what makes you happy and gives you fulfilment.

A good example of people that make this mistake are those that go for things others want them to achieve and those that follow trends. So long as your mind isn’t in it, it will flop along the line.

Setting up so many goals. I used to make this mistake. The result was that I forgot most of my goals in a matter of weeks and end up doing the basics over and over again – nothing new to add to the list.

The only way out of this is to remember that we are all humans and should therefore go for that which we can handle. So, set up your goals one at a time so it won’t be too cumbersome for you.

For example, if your resolutions for the year include to write two textbooks and a novel, set up an online shop, register and complete your professional exams, sit for IELTS, launch your blog, attend and speak in international workshops and conferences, purchase your PhD admission form, and so many others, you need to write them down and then plan your journey in such a way that your goals will be achieved one after the other. Alternatively, you can pair up two related goals and pursue them simultaneously within a time frame, if you can afford to do so. But if you hope to accomplish all these goals at the same time, you will either break down or drop them.

Whatever you decide, remember that what matters isn’t about achieving your goals within a year, but within a specific period of time – be it days, weeks or years. Don’t limit yourself to time, but use time to plan.

What is community? It was Saturday and few days earlier on LinkedIn I saw a post on Linked by a contact, Adebayo Aderibigbe, about a Meetup for data science. I am very interested in data science although I was more interested in learning programming. Python programming language to be exact. It has been a long term goal of mine that is yet to be accomplished and is burning a hole in my mind. So, I asked how to register as the post did not show the registration process and but required it. 

Adebayo sent me a message asking for my email. I was a bit hesitant on giving my email when the registration process was not made available but I still gave it. He promptly sent me a google form by e-mail and my registration was completed. As stated on the LinkedIn post the venue was on the Island. It was changed for a reason I didn’t know. But, that didn’t bother me. I was more curious and interested in attending the meetup. It was the first meetup I attended in Nigeria. I had used Meetup.com a lot in England. I tried going to one in Nigeria but it was a strange experience since the organizers refused to reveal the venue for “Security Reasons”. This data science meetup was at Seed Space in Park View so there seemed to be some gravitas behind it. I decided to make sure I came early.

I left to go for the meetup an hour earlier than the stated start of the meetup. It was a bit surprising to me because I encountered just moderate traffic but I got there ten minutes late. Just coming in, I met a very jovial and congenial Adebayo who informed that although more people were to arrive, we would start in 20 minutes. He was not lying. He started by presenting a QR code on the huge projector screen to use a poll for some questions in the presentation and informing us on the inferiority of telecommunication devices other than iPhones. It was already starting to be obvious that this was one of the most well organized Meetup I have ever attended. He gave the brief history of the meetup which was for the Lekki Data science, which was aiming to become the Deeplearning.ai chapter in the Nigeria. Deeplearning.ai is an organization started by the famous Andrew Ng to develop data science and AI and also create groups and content for the advancement of data science. Adebayo played a short video which featured Andrew and his organisation.

After the video, he then told us about INDABA a convention for data science for Africa. It’s also a response to the difficulty of African Data scientists have in securing visas and other resources needed to attend other international data science focused events. Finally, by Skype, he introduced the key speaker of this meetup, Freddie Odukomaiya. He was streaming from UK live. The topic as stated in the flyers was how to get into Data science.

Freddie introduced myself and his brief history starting with his degree in Aeronautical engineering. After having a few jobs he wanted a career in something that combined his previous interests: math and physics. Something that was more challenging that what he was encountering in his work at the time in AirBus. Coming across guides to data science by articles in “Towards Data science” he decided to begin his quest to become a data scientist. One of those articles was “How to Become a Data scientist” written by Marcos Silva.

Now, this journey was by no means easy. He had to make hard choices and really work hard balancing self-study and holding down a full-time job. I would say his background in math and his passion for science really came in handy. He used free online sources such as freecodecamp.org to learn JavaScript which he left to pursue Python. Python presented more opportunities as it used for software engineering and data science. To expedite his progress he also attending a data science boot camp on the weekends. Even though all this was very tasking, he participated in a “hackathon” that resulted in getting him a job in data science. He was able to build a model in the hackathon. Although, he admits it wasn’t not a very effective model, it still got him the job as they company was very interested in the direction he was going and saw potential.

To become a data scientist, Freddie said you would need some tools and resources. The skills he stated are programming skills. He recommended ability in Python, SQL, and Docker. Docker is really important for deployment and makes one a very valuable data scientist and it makes gives them the ability to deploy projects on their own. The mathematics needed are: Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics, and Calculus. These are required and one can brush up on them even though they have a history with weakness in mathematics. Currently there is a vast abundance of tutorials and lessons that would gift one with competence in this area. They are usually available on-line for free.

Finally, Freddie explained the need for business and problem solving skills. These skills include developing questions and metrics for the business. They include problem identification, Domain Expertise and Presentation Skills. Presentations skills also include explaining data science to lay people or people who don’t care about tedious statistics but want to know how the information changes their bottom line. Does it increase revenue? Does it reduce cost or waste? Does it make a difference to the business or organisation? These are questions you must be able to ask and answer for you to progress in your career in data science. 

Freddie also listed out some key takeaways:

• Pick One Programming Language- He promotes Python
• Find your WHY – If you are tired and fed up, what would keep you going?
• Don’t get stuck in the tutorial carousel – Avoid the situation on doing tutorials or not completing any.
• Pick a small set of resources – Makes it easier to start and focus.
• Immerse yourself in a community – Gives motivation, support, and even competition.
• Find a Mentor – Find someone who knows more than you and is interested in seeing your success.
• Apply Deliberate Practice – Freddie didn’t speak much on this but this is a massive. All I can say is ignore Malcolm Gladwell and pick up books such as Peak by Anders Ericsson, Deep Work by Cal Newport, and Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer.

After Freddie’s talk, Adebayo and his colleague, Ayo, then organized the questions and answer session where the guest to the meeting could ask questions about opportunities with data science in Nigeria. He outlined what people could do in Nigeria to improve their opportunities as also stated that his current company, Oakam, is considered coming into Nigeria. We then had group pictures. Yes, with a big screen projection of Freddie, we could take a group pictures. 

Adebayo outlined his plan for Lekki Data Science Meetup: to make it a Deeplearning.ai group for Africa and have a livestreamed conversation with Andrew Ng. He also presented a plan for 2020 and recruited personnel and volunteers to manage LDS. Very soon LDA would organize competitions for DevOps in Data Science. This was a very packed and interesting event. But, apart from Adebayo and Ayo, I didn’t really talk to anyone. But, that is my personality quirk. This was, by far, one of the best meetups I have ever attended.

So, I am starting on my python journey with data science clearly in my future and a very important thing Adebayo and LDS has given me is a community I belong.