We should create right settings for African geniuses to thrive

Jackson is my young friend who has defied the odds. I met him a few years ago when I visited his mother in Mathare, Nairobi.

The room was about 10 feet long and 10 feet wide. That was where Jackson, his mother and three siblings stayed. There was a curtain that divided the room into two.

I was connected to the family through my mission to young people in the slums. Jackson's story was further compounded a short while later when his mother died.

These children were now all alone in the world.

Every time I was teaching or having sessions with the youth in Mathare, Jackson would show up. He began to develop himself and gradually became the go-to-guy for websites and all things internet.

He did not stop there. He continued to add new layers to his knowledge and today it has paid off. He has been invited to the Google campus in Mountain View, California.

OUT OF THE SLUMS

Google has taken care of all the expenses. You should have seen the joy on his face as he recounted the fact that when he got to the embassy for his visa, they were expecting him and everything went flawlessly. Jackson is one person that surely will be heard of in time to come.

Why have I shared Jackson’s story with you today? It is because Africa is full of millions of Jacksons who will never make it out of the slums because they do not know what is possible. As such, they settle for what is available.

My message to my children in the slums has always been that if their minds leave the slums, their bodies have no choice but to follow.

The 2018 Fifa World Cup came and got the whole world glued to their TV sets. Ever since the conclusion of the most popular football extravaganza, where France emerged champions, one question has lingered on my mind. Why did African teams crash out at the group stages while an African-dominated French team won the Cup? What is the explanation for this seeming anomaly?

Come to think of it, never in any pre-World Cup conversation did any of my friends, even remotely, suggest that an African team could win.

AFRICAN DREAM

The African dream was to get past the group stages (and even that dream was not to be). Are we dreaming too small? Have we set our benchmarks against mediocrity? Has our environment conditioned us to mediocrity?

The quality of our dreams is inspired by our environment and our exposure to information. What environment are we creating for the African dream?

The French players of African descent were in an environment that supported their talents to the fullest.

Africans players in Africa, on the other hand, were in an environment where they had to fight for everything, including their fees.

The French players were honoured to play for a nation that had them covered and that had their best interests and development at heart.

If we don’t nurture and celebrate what we have, can we blame the person who celebrates them?

AMERICAN DREAM

When Jackson goes to America and the Americans spot the genius in him, can we blame him if he decides to dedicate his mind to contributing to the American dream, rather than a Kenyan or African dream?

If we do not create the environment in which the African geniuses will thrive, we will continue to lose out on the innovations that hold the key to African transformation. It is so sad when we import intelligence without developing our own.

Environment is king. There is a reason why even if you have all the infrastructure, money and trained personnel to look after polar bears, a polar bear will not thrive in Mombasa, and team building won’t do it. Nothing can take the place of the right environment.

We see this from the recent tragedy where we lost rhinos that were moved from one environment to another.

Environment is key in transformation. Some environments are catalysts for geniuses while others are death sentences.

NURTURING TALENT

Some organisations are France in that they are fertile grounds for nurturing talent, while some organisations are Africa, where even if you went in with great talent, the organisational dream is to get beyond group stages and not to win the World Cup.

Until we create the environment that brings out the genius in our people, we have lost the right to complain if our people give their best to others.

France had no advantage over African nations in terms of skill, strength or experience. The only advantage they had was the the environment that had the capacity to translate their dream into reality. No amount of motivation can counter the effect of a bad environment. In fact, motivation without the right environment leads to frustration.

We must decide to proactively work on creating the environment for the home we want, the nation we want and indeed the world we want.

Dr Akinyemi is the Chief Transformation Officer, PowerTalks. [email protected] WALE AKINYEMI