We are a nation of experts.
Give us any problem and someone will have the answer within thirty seconds, usually without having to solve it.
Football? We know what the coach should have done.
Politics? We know exactly how to run the country.
Business? We know why your company is failing.
Relationships? We know what your partner should do.
Medicine? Someone’s cousin once had the same symptom.
Law? “My friend is a lawyer.”
Finance? “Just invest in crypto.”
Everybody has a solution.
Until it is their turn.
The National Expert Department
This is one of our favourite national traditions: solving other people’s problems with extraordinary confidence.
When someone is struggling financially, we tell them to work harder. When a business fails, we explain that the owner simply lacked discipline. If an institution collapses, we immediately know which person should be fired.
Then a politician makes a terrible decision and suddenly we become constitutional scholars overnight.
But put us in the same position and everything changes.
Suddenly, there are nuances.
There are circumstances.
There are pressures.
There are things people do not understand.
Context has entered the chat.
Advice Is Easy From a Safe Distance
This is not uniquely Nigerian, of course. Humans have always been good at judging problems they do not personally have to carry.
Still, we have perfected the art of delivering certainty from a safe distance.
Perhaps that is because giving advice feels easy when someone else carries the consequences.
The person watching from the outside sees one decision. Meanwhile, the person inside the problem may see fifty.
From the outside, the answer looks obvious. For the person responsible, that same answer may come with a cost we cannot see.
That does not mean people should never be criticised. Quite the opposite. Accountability matters. Bad decisions deserve scrutiny. Leaders should face questions, and institutions should face challenges.
However, perhaps we could sometimes replace certainty with curiosity.
Instead of immediately asking, “Why didn’t they just…?”
We might ask:
“What did they know that I don’t?”
“What constraints were they dealing with?”
“What would I actually do if the decision were mine?”
That last question has a strange ability to humble people.
Until It Is Your Turn
It is remarkably easy to run a country from Twitter.
Running a ministry is slightly harder.
Explaining how a business should operate is easy. The picture changes when payroll is due on Friday.
Telling someone how to handle their life takes little effort. Living with the problems they inherited is another matter entirely.
Perhaps that is the point.
Everybody has a solution.
Until the problem arrives at their door.
Good morning Nigeria.
The national consultancy department remains open.
No experience required.
The Henry B Network
Everybody Has a Solution Until It’s Their Turn
We are a nation of experts.
Give us any problem and someone will have the answer within thirty seconds, usually without having to solve it.
Football? We know what the coach should have done.
Politics? We know exactly how to run the country.
Business? We know why your company is failing.
Relationships? We know what your partner should do.
Medicine? Someone’s cousin once had the same symptom.
Law? “My friend is a lawyer.”
Finance? “Just invest in crypto.”
Everybody has a solution.
Until it is their turn.
The National Expert Department
This is one of our favourite national traditions: solving other people’s problems with extraordinary confidence.
When someone is struggling financially, we tell them to work harder. When a business fails, we explain that the owner simply lacked discipline. If an institution collapses, we immediately know which person should be fired.
Then a politician makes a terrible decision and suddenly we become constitutional scholars overnight.
But put us in the same position and everything changes.
Suddenly, there are nuances.
There are circumstances.
There are pressures.
There are things people do not understand.
Context has entered the chat.
Advice Is Easy From a Safe Distance
This is not uniquely Nigerian, of course. Humans have always been good at judging problems they do not personally have to carry.
Still, we have perfected the art of delivering certainty from a safe distance.
Perhaps that is because giving advice feels easy when someone else carries the consequences.
The person watching from the outside sees one decision. Meanwhile, the person inside the problem may see fifty.
From the outside, the answer looks obvious. For the person responsible, that same answer may come with a cost we cannot see.
That does not mean people should never be criticised. Quite the opposite. Accountability matters. Bad decisions deserve scrutiny. Leaders should face questions, and institutions should face challenges.
However, perhaps we could sometimes replace certainty with curiosity.
Instead of immediately asking, “Why didn’t they just…?”
We might ask:
“What did they know that I don’t?”
“What constraints were they dealing with?”
“What would I actually do if the decision were mine?”
That last question has a strange ability to humble people.
Until It Is Your Turn
It is remarkably easy to run a country from Twitter.
Running a ministry is slightly harder.
Explaining how a business should operate is easy. The picture changes when payroll is due on Friday.
Telling someone how to handle their life takes little effort. Living with the problems they inherited is another matter entirely.
Perhaps that is the point.
Everybody has a solution.
Until the problem arrives at their door.
Good morning Nigeria.
The national consultancy department remains open.
No experience required.
Contributors
Fawaz Ogunleye