African Time.

Three days ago, I attended an event where I met some young Nigerians drawn from various fields. Come and see faces bristling with brilliance, some accomplished, some in-between, others wearing faces that symbolize hope for the Giant of Africa. These are those selected by a panel for Nigerian Dream Personality Award, an award to be given at National Rebirth Art project in Dubai in February, 2016. When I arrived at the meeting, I met some of the organizers, decked in Nigeria Rebirth T-shirts.
Naija get beta hope.

This meeting was scheduled by 10 am and I came about 10:20am, afraid that traffic must have played a fast one on me. But alas, I really wasn't late as we stood up for like an hour, waiting for the Minister's Boardroom to open. While I waited, I met a new friend, Micheal, of Skydev Global resources and also Sonia, an interesting young woman who tutors school children .

While we were standing, the minister came in. I apparently didn't know he was the minister judging from his attire. I thought he looked like some smart security personnel assigned to the Ministry of youths, the type that are quick to roll their eyes and ask 'Oga, anything for your boys?' If you've never met him, you would hardly know he's the minister, particularly with his blaring red beret. Behind him, I could see about four or five mean faced Policemen with disciplined smile perched at the edge of their lips for the sake of courtesy. I was taken aback when I learned he was the minister. He passed I and my new friend and noticing that we did not quite recognize him, he asked us, 'Where is the minister nah, hasn't he arrived? ' Such an interesting personality he is.

 But my friend asked me an important question. "Why are we so sold out to African Time? I searched my mind for answers. I pondered on moments when African Time had affected me badly. When I arrived for programmes early, only to wait a long while before it starts. I remember when we organized an event in our organization, Motivators International, where we started way beyond schedule even though the event was very impactful in the end.
I don't know who to blame, nature or nurture, Africans or just Nigerians.

What exactly is African Time? Or better still Nigerian Time? What is it with us to think that 10 am is actually 11 am, 1pm is same as 2pm and 3pm sits comfortably at 4pm? Do these things happen in Europe, Asia or America?

Are you wondering what later happened when the minister came? Don't worry, tomorrow I will write about how the meeting with the Minister went.

I have since decided to take it personal with African Time. To start keeping to time strictly this 2016. Let's call this D-Motivator's Time. Hehehe. Do you have any thoughts to share on African time? Have you ever been affected or infected by African time?