The recent conversation sparked by comments from Tosin Olorunda, CEO of Moniepoint describing Nigeria’s employment market as “skill-weak,” has once again exposed a reality many Nigerian workers know too well but rarely say out loud: the country’s work culture is deeply broken on both sides.
A video of young Nigerians reacting to his comments has also found its way across the Internet, further fueling the debate. Clearly, the issue has struck a nerve with many people.
But beyond the social media arguments and corporate explanations, there are uncomfortable truths many people would rather avoid.
The first is that we have too many disgracefully low-paying employers in this country. Only a tiny percentage of CEOs are not in this WhatsApp group. Some are even admins.
Many employers want you everywhere, doing everything, practically taking over other people’s jobs people who are still getting paid for doing nothing. They take advantage of loyalty, squeeze every ounce of energy out of workers, yet appreciation is almost non-existent.
That is the reality for many Nigerian employees today.
The system itself is another problem. For some CEOs, the mentality is simple: “let’s just look around and use the payment measure obtainable as a yardstick.” That is how many salary structures are created in Nigeria, not based on talent, productivity, or value, but on what another company is paying.
So eventually, talent is ignored, excellence is underpriced, and mediocrity becomes normalised. Everyone just brings “anything” on board because the environment itself no longer rewards quality.
Then comes the issue of retaining talents.
Some CEOs and pride are like siamese twins. Many employers fail to understand that certain talents are not easily replaceable. Add that to very poor working conditions and you begin to understand why people leave organisations emotionally drained and professionally frustrated.
The truth is that many employers are users.
And while we are talking about employers, we should also be honest about employees too.
A lot of young people are genuinely lazy. Some enter systems they are not fit for and instead of improving themselves, they begin to seek shortcuts. The next thing is trying to build intimate relationships with bosses just to protect positions they are not competent enough to occupy.
That reality also exists.
Still, there are questions employers must answer honestly.
Are your vacancy notifications getting to the right hands? How exactly do you recruit? Is your recruitment process truly rigorous? Are you genuinely willing to pay for the GLOBAL TALENT you claim to seek?
Because many companies want international-standard output while offering local-standard exploitation.
Do you carry out periodic checks on your staff operations? Are there compensation packages for workers who are genuinely putting in the effort? Do you train and retrain employees for the additional skills you expect from them?
These are necessary questions.
Moniepoint sponsored a reality show with billions of naira. Fine, visibility increases, brand awareness improves, but what exactly does that do for workers within the system?
Many employees help organisations generate huge profits but are still fed peanuts from their own sweat.
And honestly, that thing the first speaker said about the mentality of some CEOs and management teams? Ah!
If that mentality is zero with your leadership, it is zero. No magic.
No amount of branding, PR, or motivational speeches can fix a toxic leadership culture built on exploitation and pride.
At the same time, employees will not stay forever. Like the last speaker said, people will always leave for reasons best known to them. Change is constant. Leaving an organisation should not automatically make workers enemies.
It is rather imperative to state this clearly: no excuse should cover users.
For those kinds of employers, many employees will leave harshly and with scars.
Because at the end of the day, talk is cheap!
Bukola Fortune-Omosola is a Media Practitioner and Communications Strategist
