by Moses Nosike

Mrs. Ochee Bamgboye is co-founder of  Oy é Institute,an institution set up to facilitate African models of excellence and at the same time develop business models that are indigenous.

In this interview with Saturday Vanguard Business, she states the economic benefits of being culture-proud and if packaged well  can also create jobs for idle hands to some extent.

Excerpts:
What is the idea behind Institute?
Oy é is the Yoruba word for ‘Insight’. The Institute has been set up to facilitate African models of excellence. Basically, we want to develop business models  that are indigenous to us instead of borrowing  from the Western world.

How did you get the initiative?
The founders of Oye are Consultants who have delivered training and other performance enhancing solutions both in the private and public sectors. Our experience has revealed that primarily, Nigerians do not explore their full potentials because they mirror themselves based on euro-centric values. Basically, we have no confidence in ourselves and we don’t sell ourselves in a positive light.

So, we then felt that for us to develop solutions, we need to understudy the positive aspects of our social operating mechanisms and create solutions that work for us. We need to go back a bit and look at what it is that makes us an interesting, unique people, and build on that. On that we basically ask, Who am I?, What is my origin?, What is my sense of purpose as a Nigerian and how do I then place myself in the sense of how the world sees me in terms of globalization?

How do you intend to promote it so that Nigerians can be aware of this line of  business and it looks different from the European perspective?
Like I said earlier, selling what is unique to us – our culture, selling what makes us different from the rest of the world in terms of our values and beliefs.

For example, the fact that we eat African food with our fingers is portrayed as backward, uncivilised. But we have imported the idea of small chops made up of Samosas and spring rolls which are finger foods and nobody sees anything wrong with that just because it is foreign. We should be proud of our positive social experiences because everywhere in the world, people sell what they are about. In India, they sell theirs, so what we’re trying to promote are positive social values that have the potential to make us a great nation.

Who are your target audience?
Our solutions will be delivered at different levels. We target youths through our Oye summer camp which has been designed to raise levels of cultural assertiveness and social identity and all the other issues which come into play and build motivation, positive retrospection and self-confidence.

We also have programmes targeted at private or public sector organisations such as value orientation, models of excellence and developing a social operating system that works. We have diversity and cross-cultural awareness programmes which is aimed at conflict resolution in organisations or institutions, where people can have a forum where they learn about our culture and heritage and share their experiences from a cultural perspective.

Is it something that can promote the economy?
Yes, the average Nigerian needs to be re-oriented to be proud of whom they are as an individual. And when they are re-oriented, skills will be marketed and that affects the economy effectively. They must also believe that they add value to the nation as it were by being proud of that identity. For instance, if I’m from Delta State that makes me unique  and different from somebody who is from Nottingham in England. As it is now the average Nigerian thinks that the person from Nottingham England is better rather than just different.
Will this actually  reduce unemployment as time goes on?

We believe that it will. One of the reasons why unemployment levels are high is because a lot of youth lack the social skills to sell their skills or they lack the motivation to study and benefit from the nuggets of knowledge that are all around them.

Is there any part of this business you feel government can come in to help out in terms of empowerment or support?
Nobody can actually manage any thing by themselves. As you are aware, government is only one part, you have the private sector and the third sector which is the Civil Society Organisations that need to create strategic alliances for things to move forward in this country.

So naturally we would love to partner with government to deliver our programmes. Ideally, we would like to reel off social learning programmes on a large scale, so that all schools within the State can benefit; and then ultimately make it a national programme.
Why this line of business?

(LAUGHS) It is a passion. We sat together and were amazed about how our thoughts about learning and social development were so similar and at that point we decided that this is something we need to put out there. You have to agree with me that Nigeria needs it.

Growing up in the 70’s in Nigeria was full of positive experiences, why don’t our children who are growing up in the Millennium know about this? What has happened to all that we were about?
While developing a career, what do you think one should consider?

Well, as far as we are concerned, social capital is the crucial aspect of both national and social development and one of the ways you can increase your social capital is to look at what we call VALUE ORIENTATION of a people and that lies in our social conscience; which is what the Oye as an Institute is trying to actually identify.

We need to ask ourselves what are some of these value orientations that contribute to our social capital and how can we celebrate these values that will help us become an excellent people?
Do you think the economic environment would allow this to thrive?

Well, a lot of these things generate their own value. So, initially it’s not a business that will yield profits in the short term – it is what you call a SOCIAL ENTERPRISE just like you have education, and others.

These are things that must be done whether there is money or not. So, it’s one of the things that if we do not do as a nation, we are not going to be able to develop the value of our social capital, because one of the things we have going for us in Nigeria is the amount of people that come from Nigeria. There is estimated to be a 160 million of us, so, if we cannot create value from human capital then we are in trouble.

The Chinese or Indians are an example, they have invested in their own social capital and have turned it into value for themselves and rest of the world. Unfortunately, we are not harnessing our human capital, so we hear of a Nigerian who is doing amazing things at the World Bank, Phillip Emegwali who has invented the most amazing software but as a nation we don’t celebrate these achievements. These are people that grew up in Nigeria, went to Nigerian schools, were socially oriented here in Nigeria and have risen to the pinnacle of global achievements, so we have to ask ourselves it can’t be all bad, can it?