Repost. Originally posted August 13, 2018

Hey look! It’s Angelina Jolie come to save us again! I wonder what they've brought to help us out this time!

Most of us have seen this type of picture before -  A sea of brown and black faces, surrounding one or two white ones, that have come to give them relief or aid.  From shoes, desks, bras and vaccines, to mosquito nets, water and drugs, we are always waiting expectantly for foreigners to come provide us with the basics that we could very well provide for ourselves.

We have been turned into a helpless people with no ideas on how to come together and solve our own problems, that we are consistently expecting more intelligent people to come tell us what to do or give us what we need.

With the proliferation of irresponsible leadership in our midst, we do not take care of our communities and end up requiring the help from ‘benevolent’ saviors, to provide little thing like socks, sanitary pads for women, eggs, rice and other food items we are more than capable of growing and producing for ourselves. What is the cause of this submissive and followership behavior that makes us look up - or defer - to outsiders without making sustained attempts - as a community - to solve our own problems, so we can maintain the pride and dignity of our people?

A young Nigerian entrepreneur had a great idea on how to generate and distribute local water supply for his community, he designed a model, carried out feasibility studies and drew up a proposal, which he intended to present to his state government, hoping for a public/private partnership that could bring a lasting solution to the water crises plaguing the country. His hope was that, if the system worked well, it could be replicated by other communities and help bring some much-needed relief to his fellow country men, when it comes to clean, portable water supply.

Fast forward 18 month later – this young, creative and ambitious Nigerian, who has struggled through several dozen attempts at breaking through the echelon of the government hierarchy without success, is on the verge of giving up on his dreams, because his elected government officials are unresponsive and uninterested in actually doing their work. For those he’d been able to meet - after paying “access fees” to gain their audience - were not interested in the project, because it was an honest attempt at solving a major problem and there were no kickbacks promised for them.

In a gathering among friends, an acquaintance who had just won a major road construction contract, finally told him he was going about it all wrong. The helpful friend informed him that the secret to success on a project like that, was to go directly to the top – the governor of the state – if he wanted approval for his project. But, he couldn’t go on his own or as the head of the project, because he would not gain traction if officials knew an indigene was the advocate for such a capital intensive project.

He kindly pointing out that those in power in Nigeria, rarely took Nigerian citizens seriously and were rather dismissive of their ideas and concerns. The trick was to find a white man to front for him and act as the idea behind the project to give him credibility and all doors would open like magic!