The past three weeks has been full of public works in the twenty local government areas and the thirty-six(36) local council development areas of Lagos State. A stranger might think a state of emergency has been declared on infrastructure by the government of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-olu, the executive governor of the state. Lingering projects are hurriedly being completed, drainage and refuse are being cleared, and roads are being graded. The more I daily hear the jingles on the radio about the scheduled inspection of projects coupled with the high level of activities, series of questions arise in my head: why so much publicity? Was the local governments and councils on shut down before now? Is there more that meets the eye?

I am expressing my displeasure as a concerned Lagosian and tax payer that has high expectations from this new administration. I may be a novice to how the government works, but I strongly believe that a government that wants to transform the lot of its people should not go around publicizing work inspection tour for almost a month before the event because it will not get the true picture of governance at the grassroots.

Permit me to share an experience of sincere and excellent leadership. It happened a little over two decades ago when I was a resident of Nigeria Air Force Base, Ikeja where I had a taste of good governance. Before the appointment of late Group Captain Sam-Ethnan as the Base Commander, the barracks was in a state of paralysis and shame. The environment was highly polluted as refuse was collected and burnt close to residences, electricity and water supply was a luxury, sewers leaked, domestic animals roamed everywhere, crime rate was high, infrastructure was dilapidated and lawlessness prevailed.

Before him there had been commanders that maintained the status quo. On his appointment, he set to work, spoke less and acted more. He Never Announced Inspection Tours; and they were frequent. He was tireless. He randomly entered flats and inspected the level of hygiene, food in the kitchen, furnishings of the living room. Soldiers were parked and locked out of their flats for things like dirtiness, no beef in the soup, etc. If a block was unkempt, the entire occupants were relocated to a non renovated section of the Base. His transformation would be much appreciated under subheadings below.

Environment and Refuse Management

Trees were felled and the environment was landscaped with flowers that produced sweet aromas. Everywhere was lit with street lights and powerful flood lights, no more hideout for miscreants. Refuse was collected and taken out of the Base everyday except on weekends. Burning of refuse stopped and the sight was transformed into a beautiful lawned field. Little baskets were tied to poles to collect trash. No one dared litter the streets. All domestic animals were banished.

Security, Law and Order

There was 24 hours Air Police patrol. Criminals(even soldiers children who stole) were paraded around the base and banished. There was prompt response to distress calls. The fire department was revamped with new vehicles and equipment with constant fire drills. Speed limit and traffic rules were strictly enforced. Parking spaces were marked on the streets. Curfew was imposed from 11pm to 5am. Indecent dressing was banned. There was zero tolerance to indiscipline.

Infrastructure and Social Amenities

There was 24 hours uninterrupted water and electricity supply. Residences were completely renovated. The only time in my life I enjoyed constant electricity for two consecutive months without ceasing at some point. The medical centre was upgraded and service was improved. The Mammy market was enlarged and modernized and home retailing was outlawed. The roads were rehabilitated. Indoors and outdoor sports facilities were improved and, recreation centres were built.

Communication

He installed intercoms in all blocks as there was no GSM at that time. Service delivery between the Base Service Group, BSG, institutions and the residents was excellent.

Air Force Base Ikeja underwent complete transformation that it became the most beautiful, organized, neatest, and functional military barracks in the country. It became a centre of attraction for Nigerian tourists. Life was exciting. Unfortunately we lost him and he was immortalized with the renaming of the base to Sam-Ethnan Air Force Base, Ikeja.

This is not a eulogy but a point of reference to leadership and how governance should be. During his frequent unannounced inspections, everyone was on his toes. Everything worked. Ex-Governors Lateef Jakande, and Raji Fashola are of one spirit with Sam-Ethnan. They exhibited exemplary leadership that puts the people first.

In conclusion, I call on Governor Sanwo-olu to eke his name in the hearts of Lagosians by delivering good governance. Lagos was excellent under Fashola because he was known for Unannounced Inspections. His credentials made President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint him twice as a super minister: a minister that handles more than one or two portfolios. There was a reversal of this excellence under the last administration. Mr. Sanwo-olu should make the local governments work by unscheduled visits. We should feel their presence.

I wish the governor well in his duties!

This is one of the interesting things I have seen in recent times; an academic institution, whose major source of innovation is research or at best, closed innovation, is taking a big leap to transit to an open innovation system. Our education system so far in Nigeria, has been largely characterized by a one-way transfer of knowledge and information, where students have to take-in what the lecturer is saying, and regurgitate back during examination. Yes, our system tests for memory and not intelligence.

Amazingly here, Obafemi Awolowo University, is in the process of face-lifting the main entrance to the campus, and has thought it so nice, to involve students in the design phase of the project. The school is not just sourcing for ideas, they are also ready to award monetary prizes to winning students. This is a big redesign of our public system of governance in Nigeria, and kudos to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eyitayo Ogunbodede, for championing this initiative. Traditionally, this design could have been outsourced, or done internally, with huge sum of budget. Yet, the design will be poorly done, and the funds allocated to the design will be siphoned.

For a university with brilliant professors and design professionals, deciding to go beyond their border of innovation, and make it open source, is a big leap to our public system.  In a world of widely distributed knowledge, an institution, organization or company, cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research. Open innovation is more or less like the antithesis of the traditional vertical integration approach, where R & D activities lead to internally developed products. It is a “distributed innovation process, based on the purposively managed knowledge flows across boundaries”. By integrating a much larger variety of ideas and knowledge into new product and service development, the performance of this process will improve, and the resulting products/services will have a better fit with the customers’ requirements.

Many big corporations such as IBM, 3M, DuPont and Boeing have explored the benefits of external innovation opportunities, transferring major new initiatives from internal resources to those that focus on external networks and communities. Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) approach to R&D is one of the most popular examples of open innovation. To have a greater grasp of external ideas and actors, P&G moved its R&D strategy from concentrating on internal R&D toward “connect and develop”. By this, P&G has opened itself up to a wide range of external sources of innovative ideas. The “connect and develop” model is based on the notion that externalities may often be more valuable than internal ideas, or they can complement the internal ideas to generate great value.

As Obafemi Awolowo University, takes the lead in student-centred design, the Nigeria public sector, must equally transit to an open innovation system, a citizen-centred governance, to develop tailored solutions and policy framework. Citizens are not meant for the electioneering process alone. They must also be involved in co-creation and co-innovation process. This is not new. President Barack Obama did it, with the Open Government Initiative, in the United States. In Canada, The Institute for Citizen-Centred Service (ICCS), was established by the Public Sector Service Delivery Council (PSSDC), and has been playing an important role in enhancing citizen satisfaction with public sector service delivery. Also, in South Africa, The Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), was established by the Minister for Public Service and Administration, with the aim of improving the quality of public service through the development of innovative, sustainable and responsive models.

Nigeria has been 20 years into democracy, and despite this, the government has been employing a dominant top-down approach to governance system. Treating citizens as customers is one of the key elements in transforming public services, and has been considered a core element of the (new) public management reforms globally. Government, institutions and public authorities, must transform from bureaucratic organizations into public service provider, to be managed with a strong emphasis on transparency, accountability, service orientation and perceivable output and outcome devoted to the welfare of the citizens.

Public values must be integrated into the decision-making process, to improve the quality of decisions, build trust in public institutions and create public access to information. The “Change begins with me Campaign” in Nigeria can’t be effective, until democratic power is given to the voices of the masses. Nigerians have the capacity of citizens to pass sound judgment on public policy matters, and provide high quality contributions to the policy processes. Without the right structure, to create an open innovation culture in Nigeria, we will continue to circumnavigate cycle of poor policy, poor implementation and poor standard of living.

The 2019 World Mental Health Day was celebrated on Thursday, 10th October, 2019. The theme for this year’s celebration was “Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention”. To mark this day, a group of psychiatric doctors came from Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, to talk to us in the church. They took a few minutes to enlighten the gathering on causes and warning signs for suicide. They also shared pamphlets on this fast arising problem. This post today is to mention some of the concerns raised by these doctors and the warning signs of suicide discussed in the pamphlet.

While growing up, I was taught that if I kill myself I will get the hottest part of Hellfire (I can’t remember who taught me that anyway). In fact, it never seemed that anybody will want to commit suicide. We only see that on television and we see people that do that as stupid (after all they will end up in Hellfire). I grew up with this notion, and I know a lot of people do so too. As hard as life was, a lot of us wanted to keep it.

But we are seeing something different right now. I don’t really know why but a lot of people are beginning to see the other side as better than over here. Some people attribute it to the hardship in this life, others see it as people being pushed into it by some unforeseen circumstances, and then we have those that believe it has something to do with the supernatural forces (especially the evil forces). I have even read of someone who believes that every suicide victim is possessed by the evil spirit. Well I don’t know, but I know that life can be unbearable sometimes.

Well, I thank God that our psychiatrists and psychologists are beginning to create awareness about suicide and mental health. They have been so silent about these before that I began to get worried. With their campaign against suicide and for mental health, I believe that we can now look up to a brighter tomorrow for our children.

Like I stated earlier, this post is to address the issues of mental health and suicide raised by the doctors from Psychia Hospital, Enugu (as it is fondly called). I am not a health practitioner, so I am not in a position to add or remove from what they told us orally and in their pamphlets. I will write out the points raised in the pamphlets and, if possible, chip in something they told us orally (the ones I can remember, lol) or the ones I gathered from life experiences.

A. Facts about Mental Health

• 1. Good mental health is more than the absence of mental illness, it has to do with everything we do.
• 2. To achieve good mental health, we must strive to take decisions and actions that will keep our mind at rest (I realised this part long ago when I noticed that too much worries and toxicity can affect my mental wellbeing).
• 3. Mentally healthy person acts in such a way that promotes happier and more fulfilled life that can create a healthier society (this point makes me wonder how many people in Nigeria are mentally healthy, if you get what I mean).
• 4. Good mental health is the foundation for an individual’s and community’s effective functioning and well-being (you see what I mean by what I noted in A.3? If many Nigerians are mentally healthy we won’t be experiencing some of the problems we have in our society today. My thoughts, though).
• 5. The changing pattern of modern urban life affects mental health of the population through work pressure, social demand, the fear of failure, unemployment and loneliness. We need to be proactive.

B. Facts about Mental Illness

• 1. Mental illness is becoming a greater problem in healthcare.
• 2. We are all vulnerable to mental illness and during our life time nearly half of us will suffer from a significant mental illness and this may rise the longer we live.
• 3. Even the very young children may show early warning signs of mental illness.
• 4. More people without mental illness are more violent than the mentally ill (this really got me).
• 5. People with mental illness get better and may recover completely.
• 6. Most people who seek for professional treatment early are more likely to get completely better.
• 7. One can reach his or her potentials while having mental illness (I’ve seen some of them).
• 8. Mental illness can be prevented by addressing the known risk factors.
• 9. Mental health and mental illness are everybody’s business; by our actions or interactions, we make the world a better or worse place for others as well as ourselves.
• 10. Mental illness occurs by an intricate interaction between genetics and favourable or unfavourable environmental factors (so, someone that has some form of mental illness in his gene can still be fine in a favourable environment).

C. What We should Do to Prevent Having Mental Illness

• 1. When our challenges seem to be overwhelming that we feel we can’t get out of it, see a trained mental health professional.
• 2. When you are abused sexually, raped, bullied, or blackmailed, report to your teachers, good friends or see relevant agencies or a mental health professional.
• 3. When you are in an abusive relationship or marriage such that you regret ever marrying in the first place, see a mental health professional.
• 4. If you lose one or more loved one that you cannot get out of the grief after about six months, see a mental health professional.

D. Facts about Suicide

• 1. Suicide should not be seen as a crime or weakness in character. It is due to mental health challenge.
• 2. Suicide does not just happen, it started as a process.
• 3. Suicide is preventable.
• 4. Most suicidal people desperately want to live; they are just unable to see alternative solution to their problems.
• 5. People with history of attempted suicide are more likely to complete the suicide in future (this one scares me).

E. Warning Signs/Red Flashes for Suicide

This part is divided into three – the person’s talk, behaviour and mood. According to them, once you notice any of the following signs in your children, parents, friends, co-workers, students or anybody you have close contact with, YOU SHOULD NOT IGNORE IT.

I. Talk: If the person talks about:

1. Killing themselves
2. Feeling hopeless
3. Having no reason to live
4. Being a burden to others
5. Feeling entrapped
6. Unbearable pain

II. Behaviour: These behaviours are red flashes for suicide:

1. Increase use of alcohol, cigarette or other drugs.
2. Looking for a way to die such as searching online for methods or asking such questions.
3. Withdrawing from usual activities.
4. Acting anxious, agitated or behaving recklessly.
5. Isolating self from friends.
6. Sleeping too much or too little.
7. Visiting or calling people to say goodbye.
8. Giving away prized possessions.
9. Displaying aggression.
10. Showing unexpected rage or talking about seeking revenge.

III. Mood: Don’t ignore these moods, especially if it started suddenly

1. Feeling depressed
2. Feeling anxious
3. Loss of interest
4. Feeling irritable
5. Feeling humiliated/ashamed
6. Displaying extreme mood swings
7. Anger
8. Relief/sudden acceptance

I know this is quite scary, but it is informative. Let’s take care of our mental health, and look out for one another. Life is hard already; adding mental illness to it will only compound the hardship.

Culled from The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu’s campaign pamphlet for the 2019 World Mental Health Day Celebration.

I was just chatting with a childhood friend based in Houston Texas and this thought came to mind. Is there really anywhere you don’t find Nigerians? Do they miss home? What helps mitigate the homesickness? It all boils down (and yes, literally, to food).

I have encountered numerous Nigerians visiting the UK and London in particular, and no sooner than they have unpacked their travel gear, do they ask the same age long question.

“Is there any Nigerian eatery nearby?”

I must admit, this always comes as a bit of shock to me, as I would have imagined that only a few hours ago, these individuals would have treated themselves to some variant of Nigerian food: be it Jollof Rice, Pounded yam and Vegetble soup (edikang kong, okro, ogbono, ewedu or bitter leaf) and Suya or Fish/ Goat meat pepper soup. So what’s the impatience?

Nigerians in the diaspora know the exact needs of their brothers and sisters at home visiting these new climes. But the question is how have they responded to these clientelle. I have lived in Dubai, London, Scotland and visited Berlin, Houston, Atlanta, Florida, Tanzania and South Africa in the past decade or just over. In these journeys and sojourn, I have been rather unimpressed by the ambience of Nigerian restaurants in these locations (when compared with their counterparts).

There is a Nigerian saying that the way to a man’s heart is through food.

The same can be said about the best therapy for homesickness. Is food the only attraction? How about the atmosphere? Attitude of the waiters/ waitresses? Custmer service? Don’t even talk about the price for now.

This article is pitched as a wake-up call with managerial and theoretical implications. At the managerial level, Nigerian restaurateurs need to up their game and provide the appropriate ambiance, quality of service and innovativeness. At the theoretical level, academics should encourage students to undertake research projects on how to make Nigerian restaurants competitive especially in climes outside Nigeria.

Further reading:

Madichie, N. O. (2007). Nigerian restaurants in London: bridging the experiential perception/expectation gap. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 1(2), 258-271.