Why Talent and Hard Work Are No Longer Enough
Things have truly changed in our society. In Nigeria today, success is no longer primarily about hard work, regardless of your field or profession. While things have never been easy, the current phase we are going through as a nation is even more discouraging.
Let me be clear: I am not here to condemn my country; I love Nigeria. But we must face the truth. If you are relying solely on hard work, your journey to success may take far longer than it should.
Why? Because it is now more about:
Connections : Who you know and how influential those people are matters more than ever.
Money: Cash has become a fast-track tool. If you have it, you can often bypass the long road others travel.
This unfortunate reality leaves the less privileged at a serious disadvantage. And it should not be this way.
I am not trying to discourage anyone. In fact, I respect talent and hard work. But let’s be honest: in today’s Nigeria, talent alone is not enough. For example, no matter how good you are at playing football, you may never make it to the Flying Eagles unless you have strong connections backing your skills.
This situation is disheartening. Many hard-working people feel overlooked and unappreciated. It is time we restored integrity and sanity in our country.
Let’s build a society that:
Rewards devotion and excellence
Motivates the diligent and committed
Creates equal opportunities for all regardless of background.
Hard work should count again. Talent should be recognised again. Nigeria can do better, and we must demand better.
Do you agree that connection now matters more than hard work in Nigeria?
What can we do to change this?
When you say connection what do you really mean? connection in this context must be explained proper, helping someone with a job link is also a connection, giving direction or informing someone about a job is still connection. These are things that happened around the world not just Nigeria as a country.
But in your context connection is giving out jobs and contracts based on party associations and to unmerited applicants. Its a general problem in Africa, jobs are reserved for a family members and associates. There is no merit in the system, even with all your qualifications someone with less degree will be chosen ahead of you, just because he /she is connected to the Human resource manager of the company.
These attitude has killed productivity in the country, no wonder the county is not producing anything because the best brains not employed while unemployable people are in charge of commerce. Even the government jobs, if you are not connected to a political holders you won't get a job, there is no country that can grow if the labor employment is not giving on merit. Many citizens won't study hard rather they will sort their ways out of school and follow corrupt leaders just to get a job.