THE PROBLEM WITH AFRICA 9

A man who had been looking for job for a very long time received a proposal and was invited for interview by 2:00 pm. By 1:30 he started dressing up and by the time he got to the venue it was 2:30 pm, and he wasn’t in haste as he took his time and gently walked to the venue.
By the time he entered the office, he was late, and the big boss who he was supposed to be interviewed by was just leaving.
You came late the secretary told him, he looked at his wrist-watch and said, ‘no I didn’t’, ‘of course you did’ the secretary insisted, ‘no I didn’t, didn’t the appointment said 2:00pm?’,’ yes,’ the secretary said, ‘and what is the time now’ she interjected, ‘it’s just 2:35 pm’. ‘Your time was 2:00 pm and not 2:35 pm, you are late; she said, ‘it’s same thing, 2:00 and 2:35 pm’ he insisted trying to prove himself right about not being late. The frustrated looking secretary said, ‘well, when you are done arguing with yourself, you can leave the office’.
This wasn’t the first time being late had made him lose an opportunity in his life and it won’t be the last because by the look of his inability to accept that he was wrong to be later than 2:00 pm would make him to keep turning up to every of his appointments late.
When an African is ‘fired’ for turning up late to work, he won’t accept he was wrong to be behind schedule, in Africa ‘late coming’ isn’t considered a crime; its part of life that you are expected to get used to.
This is one of our problems in Africa, ‘we are always late to every appointment’ and we don’t consider it to be wrong to be behind time.
If a meeting of Africans would seat compulsorily by 4:00pm, the leaders would think its wisdom to announce that the meeting time would be by 3:00 pm. Some would be confused at the exact time to turn up, whether by exactly 3:00 pm, or 4:00pm and some ‘wise ones’ would turn up by 5:00 pm, they know the leaders have 4:00 pm in mind then that African late coming spirit would possess them and cause them to come later.
No African wants to be the first in a meeting venue, he wants to be the one others are waiting for and because others wants him too to be waiting for them, everyone turns up late and things get undone day after days of meetings because everyone keeps coming late.
When an average African says ‘I’ll be with you by 1:00 pm’, expect him by 2:00 pm or later time and don’t expect remorse from him because he won’t consider himself ‘late’ or ‘wrong’.
Who did this to Africans? Why do we cling to an error so strongly though it continued to affect our dignity and respect, when it continued to make us defer what needs to be done till later time and later time. Why is it that the ‘African Time’ does have a stronghold on us? Why do we detest being the first to arrive in a meeting venue?
To build a better Africa, we must learn to keep to time and appointments. When we say we’ll be at an event or meeting by 1:00pm let us be there by 12:55 pm latest.
When we keep our appointed times, we’ll have our business done early and move on to other things.
We would miss fewer appointments and our words would have greater value. When we say something, we won’t need to swear to make others believe in our words. Being true to our appointments would make the rest of the world to be true to their appointments with us.
When Africans take herself seriously, the world would become serious in dealing with her.
God bless you
Promise Ikpe