ECONOMICS OF TIME MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

 

(Modest thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha; Oct. 28, 2022; 08116181263; loisayuba420@gmail.com)

ECONOMICS OF TIME MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

The entire existence and progress of human society thrive on the tripod of matter, space, and time. How a nation or people explore, deploy and use these natural endowments to determine their respective level of development. Hence,  the need to appreciate these resources with the view to perfect how best they can be harnessed and appropriated to advance human progress.

In elementary science, "matter is anything that has weight and can occupy space." this essay, it is referred to all physical resources, be they living things(trees, animals, human beings, birds, etc) and non-living things(rocks, water bodies, weather, sun, and moonlight, etc) which have value and could be carefully explored, diligently exploited and judiciously appropriated through the knowledge of science and technology for the benefit of man and other living creatures that need them. It is the sum total of all planetory bodies and everything in them that Matter does not exist in a vacuum but in space.

Space can be described as a location or place where the matter in all its dimensions exists and human activities take place. All human institutions, whether, formal or informal are spaces without which no matter could be located and harnessed. In order to appropriate matter which exists in space, time is required.

It is the time dimension of matter that constitutes what is called chance (opportunity).  In other words, time is the opportunity to work or carry out any activity on earth. It is an economic resource and allowance for human actions which constitute the focus of this expository treatise.

All living things have 60 seconds, a minute, 60 minutes an hour, Twenty four hours a day, on average, 30 days a month, Twelve months a year, ten years, a decade; twenty -five years, a silver jubilee; Fifty years, a golden jubilee; Hundred years a century, One Thousand years, a Millennium, that is, if any single human could last this long. There is none as far as my history tells me. As long as men live, there is no discrimination in the allocation of time; they enjoyed the equal opportunity to explore, exploit and appropriate every resource (matter) that is available to them except for those who for unnatural reasons are confined (prisoners).

Prisoners, though have the inalienable right to live, are within the time of incarceration, denied the freedom to walk about and explore available opportunities that life could offer them. Their stay in confinement has a time dimension. How long their freedom is taken away from them has economic implications because of the time lost would have been deployed into productive ventures that will add to the overall economic output.

Time is a strict master and in its natural order always fair and just to all. Once it starts, it does not wait for any man. Men are either adjusting to their regular rhythm and deliberate speed or missing out on everything. While other resources (matter and spaces) could be conserved, time is delicately not conservable and controlled. It is an unseen essential that could trigger transformation in a nation if properly harnessed but destroy the same when misused.

The value man attaches to time (opportunities) and his purposes shall ultimately determine what he makes out of it. It is important to note that the value of time derives from man's understanding of it and he stands to badly lose when it is not used properly. As a corollary, the value man places on his purpose (s) also guides how his time could be structured to achieve optimal results. This implies, that given the purpose (s) of man, and other resources available to him, time is one of the most critical resources that needs careful exploration and appreciation for a man to break through.

Time provides limitless opportunities for greatness, yet, it is the singular most abuse of all resources in human history, especially on the continent of Africa. While "time is money" in other climes like the USA; it means virtually nothing in the continent. Africans could go to war in pursuit of power to control other resource endowments such as land, forest, rivers, seas, and oceans, and other planetary bodies, but care less about time, which, though equally allocated by natural order, could be as scarce as any other resource.

"The time in Africa", they say, "is when the program gets started." This implies that time is of no consequence and is not taken seriously in the continent. The concept of African time simply refers to flagrant abuse of time. It means coming late to every function, be it school, wedding, business meetings, duty post, etc. A programme in Africa, which is scheduled to start by 10 am could unapologetically start at 12 pm (Two hours behind time)! The African time mentality has become a cultural malaise and a retrogressive myth trap that must be deconstructed and replaced if any productive and meaningful progress can be in the continent at all.

The main thesis of this piece is that poor use of time is the bane of underdevelopment in Africa. Continents or countries that have mastered the use of time have made tremendous progress in every facet of their lives, be it economic, social, cultural, moral, etcetera. A nation that comes behind in time management can be sure to come behind in all development indicators. In other words, nations that waste time waste every opportunity for rapid development. This is especially so in the 21st-century world where technology is a defining element.

The justification for this hypothetical consideration is based on the fact that most of the countries that have made great progress have no clear evidence of endowment material or physical resources. For instance, Taiwan has a history of constant importation of sand, but yet is making great progress. Due to the poverty of material resources, countries like Spain and Japan are constantly depending on taxes to develop, but Africa, which is described as the 'black gold' is lagging behind in almost all development indicators. What makes the difference is that while these countries (Taiwan and Spain) invest Quality time in Human Capital Development to create value from nothing; most African countries are wasting quality time in rent-seeking. The country's people have no time discipline and less commitment to the need to sharpen their skills which have the potential to enhance speed in the production of goods and services in the continent.

The general drive in the 21st century, actually, is to attain speeds in the use of time facilitated by technology. In Africa, however, the speed which is ultimately measured in time is not an issue at all. Africans, from the least to the mighty often behave as if they have all the time in the world. Disrupting important occasions for coming behind time is a sign of power and proof of relevance. Important dignitaries who apologized for coming late to one function lives to repeat the same crime tomorrow and subsequently too.

During important functions, it is common to hear very Important Persons (VIPs), who ought to be modeled in time management, telling people something like, '...apologies, please. Due to the huge demands of my office, I could not get here in time.' Then the question is asked: Why are leaders or public functionaries not defaulting in time management in other climes?  Leaders elsewhere are time conscious, time disciplined, and time productive but not in Africa. It is a mentality of rogues to keep repeating actions acknowledged as wrong yet do nothing to change it!

Time management is poor in Africa, but why? Attempts are being made to answer this all-important question by examining the situation in Nigeria with the view to making inferences and recommendations. There is no better theoretical explanation for Africa's failure to maximize the use of time other than Murphy's Law which says, "Everything that can go wrong will." With this fated philosophy, Africans believe, whether the time is properly managed or not, what will be will be. In order words, African underdevelopment is a fate dictated by natural order; not anybody's undoing but really?

Nigeria is sixty-three (63) years old and blessed with all manner of material and human resources, but has woefully failed in achieving rapid development. With its estimated 206m people and 923,768 km2 land mass that is characterized by diversified weather and rich mineral deposits, the country is grossly underdeveloped.

Over the years, Nigeria has mobilized resources from within and without but has continued to default in time management. It can be argued that a substantial part of the problems militating against the development of Nigeria is closely tight to time insensitivity and wastage. The nation-state is behaving as if it has all the time in this world. In terms of value creation and productivity, Nigeria cannot explicitly and unambiguously account for its over six decades of existence as a sovereign state.

Lateness to work, absenteeism, truancy, and idleness at workplaces are recurring decimals in Nigeria. This is part of the unfaithfulness and the deficit in patriotism associated with resources in the country. Except for private establishments or public offices perceived as 'lucrative', other places of work in Nigeria's public service often become functional from 9 or 10 am on weekdays and begin to wind down by 1pm.

It is not an exaggeration to argue that, on average, the active work hours in most of the country's public institutions is 3 hours as against the supposedly eight hours per day. Worse still, Nigeria's work system is characterized by so many public holidays, which consume lots of work hours annually. These glaring abuses of labor time have a substantial negative effect on productivity in the economy and must be reversed if the country is to leapfrog.

Skills and time mastery are recipes for rapid development. Anything that has a time dimension is an opportunity to make a difference. The problem, though, is how to use it. When you don't know how, ask questions; If you know less, still ask questions to know more. With the right questions, your mind can be illuminated and there is no feat you cannot attain. 'Time', 'they say, waits for no one.' The opportunity cost, that is, the alternative forgone after choosing to misuse time in Nigeria is development. In other words, when time is misused or mismanaged, development is forfeited. This is the headache and nightmare of contemporary Nigeria.

Time has no reverse gear. It is not elastic nor is it renewable. Those seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months running into years, decades, and even centuries, etc., you failed to utilize constitutes missed opportunity that cannot be regained or recovered. Because I previously did not have a quality understanding of the dynamics of working time, I cannot account for, at least, ten (10) cumulative years of my life on earth. And I do not think I am the only victim of this glaring waste of time and resources. Therefore, this exposition is meant to awaken our consciousness and, if possible, to forestall further misappropriation of the time resource at private and public workplaces.

Time must be put to better use in Nigeria if it must catch up with developed and emerging countries that have gone ahead. The country with its people must, angrily and deliberately, redouble efforts to redeem the time, and resources or maintain the status quo and be left behind forever. God forbid!