(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!
