How religion, culture are holding Nigeria back – Lanre Olusola

It afforded me the opportunity to work with incredible entrepreneurs. It also afforded me the opportunity to work on critical life threatening institutions like marriage, finance, spirituality and career among others. So, it has been a very interesting journey.

And I say to people that care to listen that I think I am one of the luckiest people living now because I get to read many books that have never been written from the lives of people I encounter. I see the mistakes they made, the successes they have and the paths they took. As I sit with individuals, groups, teams, organizations and companies, the person that goes in before those sessions is different from the person that comes out after the sessions. I transform every time I am in a transformational environment. I change and help people change.

Greatest benefactor of my work: That is my story because I am the greatest benefactor of my work. My life is constantly improving, changing and I am learning every day by creating different tools and methodology. The mind of a black man, the mind of an African, the mind of a Nigerian, the tradition, the culture, the values that we hold sacrosanct, are completely different from the system in the West or in Americas. The way a Kenyan thinks is different from the way a Nigerian thinks, the way a Ghanaian functions is different from the way a South African functions. Even within South Africa, black South Africans and White South Africans function differently. So, because I work as Life-Mind and Behavioral Change Coach across East, West, and Central Africa for top organizations like GE, Erikson, and Tigo, I find that it is incredible the amount of knowledge I have been able to acquire about the human race especially the black man. It involves how the black man thinks, the black man’s culture and his values, beliefs and religion. All of those things play a huge part in the way that the lives of these people unfold and the way their organizations play out and in the way people within the organizations behave. For me, it has been a motivational, inspirational and incredible journey. I am just blessed.

Religion! Nigerians are very deep in religion. Whatever is it they serve, whether they go to herbalists, they are Christians or Muslims, I found that religion in itself is a limitation for Nigerians. We don’t really understand the concept of separating spirituality from religion. So, we hook line and sinker follow religion to our own detriment. And our religion is intertwined with our tradition and our culture. That in itself becomes our shackle, handcuff, restraint, and constraint instead of us sitting down to think intelligently and ask if the culture and tradition that we are about to subscribe to or have subscribed to are still relevant in the 21 century. We should also ask if certain doctrines that are being taught are still relevant to people in this century, does it hinder people? How does it help people to progress? Historically, if people had done it in the last 10 years, what value has it added? These questions are relevant because what never gets measured can never be improved. The black man does not think like that because he started it, his father did it, his pastor said he should do it and he continues to do it even though it is never working. Nigerians have stopped thinking.

The black man, the Nigerian, is first a follower than a leader and until we take possession until we take charge of our lives in the way that we designed it to be, we will always be living frustrated lives.

On priorities: Nigerians give priority to what is socially acceptable even though it may not be working for them. Keeping up with the joneses is a major problem. You can not afford a wedding, why borrowing money to do it? The person, who does it mortgages his next 10 years because of a wedding which is just for one day. After the wedding, the marriage fails. Also, people are more in tuned to possessions and things. That is what trips them to the extent that people are marrying things now. People are marrying cars, wristwatches, clothes, where people reside and sorts of material things. These are not enough reasons to marry. The questions are; would those things last forever? Would they be the substance that will keep marriages? I like him because he drives a Range Rover Sports, do you know that it is his father’s car? I like him because he lives in Ikoyi, do you know that the house is his father’s own? So, our priorities are misplaced and it is coming from generations before us. If we are going to progress as a people and a nation, we must stop and ask ourselves if the doctrines, tradition, and culture that are still relevant in the 21 century. We must ask ourselves about the one that needs to be recreated so that we can create the future of our dreams.

Tradition and culture Culture is a set of beliefs that our people have or set of actions that they take to solve a problem consistently over time. And it continues like that from generation to generation while the problems they were created to solve had been solved generations ago. So, Nigerians really need to sit down and access their lives and know how the influences of our society are restraining us and affecting our progress. And if you truly want to live your future, you have to create it by breaking away from the shackles of the past.

This question is based on the assumption that so long as the primary functions of government are not adequately being done in Nigeria, people will still look up to religion and other factors you pointed for the solution to their problems? Religion is the opium of the poor people. Religion has its place. Imagine if there was no religion and the fear of God in Nigeria. Without that, imagine the kind of chaos we will have. However, religion is keeping some people under hold. If there was no religion or fear people will be violent and the society will explode. What I am saying is that the strength of religion is its weakness to the extent that people are not liberated to find expression for the purpose which they were created. Maybe there is a Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Abraham Lincoln in our midst. Maybe there is a Marthin Luther King Jnr or an Obama in our midst. But that religion that is keeping us under is keeping us under. If Nigeria had leaders that are selfless and understand the concept of vision, Nigeria will achieve its potentialities. But Nigeria lacks visionary leadership which is the major problem of this administration. It lacks vision. The administration is quenching fire without vision. They had one vision which was to get PDP out. They did it and does not have a vision of what they want to do. They should sit down and create a holistic vision that includes every sector in Nigeria. They should sell that concept to Nigerians and extend the visionary concept to subsequent administrations. That is how nations are built.

Nations are built with a long-term vision that is always continued by any administration that comes to power. But Nigeria abolishes the vision of past administrations thereby truncating the growth of the nation. Lagos State is a model where there is government by the people and for the people. That is why every administration continues with the vision of its predecessor. At the moment Nigeria needs a long-term vision that should be broken into medium and short term vision. The problems come from our attitude and tradition. We are powerful than any other people but our strength is our weakness.

The very exposed ones come because they know what the winning formula is. They know that Leone Messi is only who he is because he works with Coaches, Therapists and people that support his gift and passion because so many people are more skillful than Messi. There is a way to succeed and nurture every passion, every gift, and every talent. What sets the difference between successful people and people that fail is ignorance. The key is to provide the intervention that we provide. If we want to transform this country, there should be a renaissance to transform the lives of individuals. So, if every man takes charge of his own life, Nigeria will change. If the leadership is committed, we are committed to working with them. 70 percent of our population is below 32 years, we have an opportunity to create a new nation. But the resources are limited. I have the methodology and tools to transform the human mind. It is tested and proven, we have done for the last two decades and it works. We used it with individuals and organizations and it works. But do we have a leadership that is committed to national transformation? Are we willing to put our resources, vision and our money where our mouth is? Or is it by just paying lip service. This government came in with the mantra of change, let us change the lives of people, let us position to empower people. When we transform minds we transform lives, when we transform lives, we transform our communities. When our communities are transformed, our nation is transformed. If you meet Mr. President today, what are the key things you will tell him on how to solve the hardship in the land? We need a clear-cut vision. And any vision that has no timeline is useless. Every goal must have a timeline. It is important to understand the resources available to make the vision possible. Mr. President needs to surround himself with the right people. Mr. President needs to have a vision. Mr. President is not any younger, the only thing for him is to give us is a good legacy which is better than silver and gold. Mr. President contested for the presidency three times and he failed, why is he there? He needs to ask himself why he is there. Now that he is Mr. President what is he doing? It will not be good that Mr. President will be remembered as someone in whose first regime, Nigerians went through hardship. That was the time people could not buy new cars and resort to used cars and it is coming back again in his second coming. Before this administration came in, I had seen more brand new cars on the road than fairly used cars. The cycle of Tokunbo fridge, tokunbo laptops, tokunbo phones and cars is coming back because people can hardly afford to buy new things in the last one year.