In Nigeria or perhaps Africa as a whole, we tend to disregard time have a low regard for time. When an event is expected to hold at 8am and end at 2pm, people start coming in an hour or a few hours after. Also, when people come exactly at 8am, the event most times has not started.
It is probably at that time that the mic is being tested or the place is being organized for the event and of course, all that is in the programme for the event has to be done and it will definitely extend closing time from 2pm to 4pm. I sometimes wonder how all these started and there’s no doubt I myself am guilty of “African time”.
Now what is African Time?
African time according to Wikipedia “is the perceived cultural tendency, in parts of Africa and the Caribbean toward a more relaxed attitude to time”.
I can’t exactly speak for the Caribbean because I’ve never been there, neither can I speak for the whole of Africa but I can speak for my country Nigeria and we (not all Nigerians but majority) don’t appreciate time.
Can we say that African time is a natural thing for us? Well, I don’t think so. You see, in the olden days, during the time of our fore-fathers, they respected time. Although they didn’t have the clock or phone to tell time like we do, they used the sun and shadow to tell time. When a village meeting was called, people would be present at the said time, even during festivals and traditional rites. So how is it that we don’t respect or appreciate time in Nigeria? How did it all originate?
Frankly, I have no idea but I can give a few reasons as to why there is “African time” in Nigeria.
Firstly, Nigerians don’t exactly monetize time the way the white man does. In Europe or America, people are mostly paid based on the number of hours they work and so every hour is precious to them. I have come to notice that time is money (just like the popular Nigerian song, ‘time na money eh, time na money’) and the business men know this, including those in Nigeria and abroad and so they don’t play with time and are strict to it. They have schedules that have each hour occupied, whether it is 1 hour golf or 30mins dinner with someone. That is why when they have a meeting for 1pm that is to end at 2pm and the meeting happens to start 1:45pm, once its 2pm, they leave because the next hour is probably booked for something else that is important, maybe s/he has to catch a flight to another city for an important meeting that will bring them a lot of cash.
However, in Nigeria, we are mostly paid on a monthly basis. What we know is that after the month, we are getting paid. In most private organizations, they take the issue of coming late seriously and it could cause some money to be deducted from your salary. In governmental organization, it is usually not so (but it all depends on the organization per se). That is the reason why some civil servants will come late to work and still get paid fully, it is the reason why someone can afford to be gone for 3 hours during work hours or not come to work for a few days and still get paid. It’s the incompetence of the people and the government but that is a story for another time. You see where I’m going with this? Basically, we just don’t appreciate time and neither is it monetised.
Secondly, most Nigerians don’t just keep to time. Like I mentioned earlier, you go for an event that is supposed to start by 8am and it starts 9am or 10am. I’ve experienced this a lot. People know this and I guess that’s the reason they choose to come late. For example, if I’m told a meeting is for 1pm and I think it won’t start exactly 1pm, I’ll definitely be there but not by 1pm, probably 30 minutes or 1 hour after. There are times when a meeting is said to start 1pm and exactly 1pm it starts. In that case, if I choose to come some minutes after due to African time, then I have come late and probably missed important discussions. Another example is when a programme is expected to end 3pm and even at 4:30pm, the programme is yet to end. This can be so annoying because one might have plans to do other things. The funny thing is that most times, no one apologizes for these things and somehow, we have come to accept it as a ‘normal thing’. We also see this in universities where a lecture is to end 2pm but the lecturer just ignores that and can lecture for an hour extra. It’s quite sad. Let’s not forget some of our politicians that are invited as guest speakers but choose to come late to an event, and so it keeps people waiting just because oga politician decided to come late which is very wrong.
In my opinion, African time is an excuse for coming late and misusing other people’s time and at the same time, make it feel it’s a normal thing around. It is also as a result of bad planning and management of time.
Nigeria has a long way to go in development and economy. One way that will surely help is if we respect and manage our time. An event is said to start 8:15am, then it should start exactly 8:15am. You are told to come for a meeting at 6pm, then 6pm, you should be there and not just about to leave for the meeting. The impact of this might not be tremendous or gigantic but “combination of small impacts leaves a large one in totality”. It all begins with you.