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One of the biggest
pet peeves that I have with responses to requests or questions in the
Nigerian context, as is the case in many developing countries, are the
phrases – “By God’s grace,” or “If God wills.” For example: “By God’s
grace, good leaders will be elected during our elections,” or “If God
wills, the dress will be ready on Wednesday,” or “By God’s grace, the
university will reopen in June,” or “If God wills, the flight will
depart on schedule.” I could go on and on.

I am a big believer
in the grace and power of God and I have seen it manifest in my life
time and time again. I also recognise the myriad challenges and risks of
operating in our country, where every day is an adventure and there are
no guarantees about what one can experience when they step out of their
house on a daily basis. However, I also recognise that God has given us
the grace to achieve results, and that His will for us is that we
deliver on the commitments that we have made to people. Too often, we
hide behind these phrases to excuse us from taking responsibility for
our own actions or from getting angry enough when others use them to
make excuses for their inability to deliver.

Somehow, by using
these phrases, we basically shift the responsibilities and
accountability of our actions or inactions to God, who has given us more
than enough to work with. For example, as humans, we have the ability
to plan events, manage our time effectively, and to understand how to
prioritise tasks. We also have the ability to plan for uncertainties and
to develop ‘Plan B’ strategies or hedge our risks, in order to minimise
the cost of uncertainties. Clearly, because of our ability to transfer
most of the responsibility to God, we get a little lazy about fulfilling
our end of the bargain.

In an effort to
institute systems and structures within AACE Foods, our start-up
agribusiness, I introduced penalties for late deliveries on projects.
For example, we hired a carpenter to build lockers for the staff. During
the negotiations process, we asked him to indicate when he would be
able to deliver the lockers. He picked a date two weeks after the
start-date, and used the same phrase – “By God’s grace, I will deliver
the lockers by January 8.” We explained the penalty system to him – that
he would be charged 5 per cent of the balance on the payment for every
late day. We asked him, once again, if January 8 was still reasonable or
whether he would like to change the date to the 10th or even the 14th.
He repeatedly stated that the 8th was more than enough time and
proceeded to sign the contract stating that he understood the terms and
would deliver.

You can guess the
outcome of the story. On January 5, we called the carpenter and he said
that the wood for the lockers was still drying, but that “if God wills”,
he would still deliver the lockers on the 8th. On the 8th, we called
again, and he told us that he was on his way. We waited, and waited. He
eventually delivered the lockers on the 15th and was extremely upset
that we chose to penalise him for the late delivery.

While one might
argue that we were unfair to the carpenter who could have faced some
uncertainties which compelled him to miss the deadline, the reality is
that he needed to take full responsibility for his actions, and deliver
on his commitments or face the consequences.

Too often, we make
excuses for ourselves and others – “there must have been some serious
traffic, the downpour was unexpected, an okada hit the car, they took
the light and there is no diesel”, etc, etc. In our context, sometimes
these excuses sound as silly as “the dog ate my homework”. The reality
is that as unpredictable as many of these occurrences appear to be, they
are more of our everyday realities and we have to plan for them. Even
more important is the fact that one missed deadline or an inability to
deliver in one area affects a range of other activities, which will
invariably escalate the challenges that we all face.

And if for some
‘real’ reason, we cannot deliver, at least call to explain, instead of
waiting for the customer, client or friend to be the one to call to find
out why the lapse occurred.

God has truly
blessed Nigeria, and Nigerians. It is time we stop passing or sharing
the responsibilities of our actions or inactions with Him – and start
doing our part.