Twitter Thread

Earlier today, @SirAyobami asked me for some tips on public speaking. You are unlikely to find what I say in any textbook on public speaking. I’m just going to tell you what works for me. I used to by quite shy and the bigger the audience, the worse I felt. Not anymore. Thread.

When I was in Law School many many years ago, there was a guy doing his Youth Service there. His name is Fidelis Odita. Fidelis made a First Class at UNILAG and a First Class in Law School. He is now both a SAN in Nigeria and a Queens Counsel (SAN equivalent) in the UK.

Fidelis has a photographic memory. He could cite 100 cases off-head, with the names of the parties, the year of the judgment, the law report where it was reported and even the page number…apart from the arguments in the case and the decision of the court!

He is also annoyingly bright. When he was made a QC in the UK, the Master of Rolls (President of the Court of Appeal) said “Whatever Odita doesn’t know is not worth knowing. At Law School, we used to gather to watch this phenomenon at work even when we were not in his class.

Odita obviously had a gift but I suspect he had also trained his memory for years. He was my motivation to start training mine. I started late though. I started learning mnemonics – how to associate things with each other so that I could remember them more easily.

First step is to write down what you want to say. Then read it over and try and remember as much of it as you can. The parts you forget, try and associate it with something you remember, e.g., a family member that does things like that. Then go to a mirror and deliver it.

Keep going back and forth between the mirror and the text until you get most of it. Then find a colleague or family member and deliver it to them. You will still make some mistakes but after a while, it will be imprinted in your memory. Once it is, your confidence will grow.

When you then enter a room fool of people, you may forget EVERYTHING! Remember the colleague you delivered it to and your practices before the mirror. You may not remember everything, but don’t worry, you’ll remember the gist of it. You may also have heard something you may add.

Gauge the mood in the room. Some jokes that worked in private may not work in public. Scan the room for any familiar or friendly face. When it’s your turn to speak, look for that face in the audience and focus first on them when you start speaking. You’ll be less nervous.

Start with something that you easily remember. Start anywhere. You can always come back and say “As I said at the beginning…” Don’t forget that the water doesn’t start flowing until you turn on the tap. But have the structure of what you want to say in your head. Use a mnemonic

So if I want to talk about Politics, Literature, Art and some data (Numbers), my mnemonic is PLAN. There’s no way I’ll forget that and it will help with how I sequence my speech. Once I start talking, I get less nervous. Spice it up with jokes and personal experiences.

The joke must be appropriate for the occasion. Tell short appreciate stories…like the one I just told you about Fidelis Odita. People like phenomena and like it when you say what you are not perfect at. It helps the audience to connect with you as a human being like them.

What do you do with your hands when you are speaking? Good question, right? Some people gesticulate vigorously. If you are given to vigorous gesticulation, I’ll say do it when you want to make an important point. You’ll be boring if you don’t gesticulate at all.

For most people, keeping one hand in your pocket (if you have one) can help you relax. If you don’t have one, rest one elbow on the lectern if there is one. The important thing is to do something that helps you relax. Don’t be scared of the audience. They are there to hear you.

Try and finish on a high. An appropriate quote will get people nodding and is likely to earn you applause at the end. Like with most things, the more you do it, the better you get at doing it. Some people have a gift of oratory which they hone with practice. Preparation is key.

”Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure” – Confucius. Thanks for your kind attention and Good Luck. End. [Did you notice I finished with a quote?]

Twitter Thread

3 min read

The Status of National Stadium Abuja

July 28, 2024

The Status of National Stadium Abuja

Jun 2, 2018

A few days ago, I asked what had even happened to our National Stadium in Abuja. Many said it had been overtaken by herdsmen who were using it graze their cattle. My friend @rikkialakija picked me up from home to go see for myself. We spent 2 hours. This is what I saw. Thread!

The main bowl of the stadium is in very good shape. It was solidly constructed. The chairs are not broken but the grass pitch itself is poor. There are people who dutifully trim the edges of the grass daily. They only earn N20,000 per month but are still being owed salaries.

The running tracks around the football pitch are fine. There are no bumps and athletes are using it to train. It’s about 15 years old buy it seems to have been done well from the start. It probably needs to be freshened up in advance of any serious competitions there.

One thing that struck me is the number of young girls that were there training for one thing or the other. I saw many more young girls than young guys. Most are teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18. The drills they were doing were tough, but they all seemed enthusiastic.

See that young girl to my left wearing the Nigeria track jersey? Her name is Rosemary Chukwuma. She’s a Commonwealth bronze medalist. She runs 100 and 200 meters. She’s frighteningly fast. She’s just 16 years old. When I saw her 6-pack, I had to suck in my tummy.

We saw a lot of fire engines that were clearly not functional. Many had flat tyres. On to the swimming pool. The dive pool was dirty. I understand nobody uses it. It would have been better for them to just drain the water, although I don’t know if it’s a collection of rain water.

The main swimming pool is the biggest swimming pool I’ve seen in my life. I’ve seen pools that hotels claim are “Olympic size.” Na lie. It’s relatively clean but @rikkialakija says it needs a bit of chorine. The plastic chairs are fine but the VIP ones are broken. Deservedly!

We also saw people playing volleyball and basketball in various courts. Some of the basketball games were serious competition stuff, with people wearing team colours. Of course, there were people doing brisk business selling secondhand sports kits, food, drinks and ice cream.

Next, we went to see the Velodrome. Magnificent structure but, inside, it was full of thousands of cooking stoves & gas cylinders. I understand that we paid N5 BILLION for them in May 2015, just before the handover of power. They’re still there, abandoned. https://google.com/amp/thenationo nlineng.net/jonathan-releases-n5b-to-buy-stoves-for-rural-women/amp/…

I did not see any herdsmen, cattle or snakes. What I saw was hundreds of Nigerians using the magnificent faculties. Some need some TLC but most were in decent shape are are being used daily. Everyone we met were friendly and pleasant. Everyone invited us to try out their sports.

@rikkialakija and I concluded that these are the real Nigerians, not the ones behind phone keypads. The spirit in the place was just refreshing and different. We agreed to go out and mingle more. After two hours, Rikki had to drag me away. Great day out! Thanks, Rikki! End!

Twitter Thread

2 min read

Intellectualism or Intellectual Arrogance

July 28, 2024

Intellectualism or Intellectual Arrogance

Dec 11, 2018

INTELLECTUALISM or INTELLECTUAL ARROGANCE. My attention has been drawn to the fact that some people are angry at me for coining the term “Errconomist.” They accuse me of promoting “anti-intellectualism” and one even said below that my intellect is pearls given to a swine. Thread https://x.com/TheIgboBandit0 /TheIgboBandit01/status/1071855162946281473 …

As always, we must start with definitions. An intellectual is someone that displays a high degree of intellect. They will often relate to a broad range of ideas, synthesise them & proffer solutions. True intellectuals are acutely aware of the limitations of their own knowledge.

Intellectuals can add a lot of value to society. They can be annoying while at it, but no nation can develop without its critical thinkers. Indeed, one of my criticisms of the current administration is what I perceive to be an unusual disdain for intellectualism.

However, many intellectuals stray into the realm of intellectual arrogance and even, sometimes, some sort of intellectual narcissism. I treasure intellectualism but detest intellectual arrogance. Let us now examine the characteristics of intellectual arrogance.

An intellectually arrogant person tends to display the following characteristics:

1. It is my way or no way. Only my views can be right. There is any other viable proposition.

2. They see themselves as THE errxpert. Nobody else knows anything, even those with more information.

3. They refuse to see the big picture, especially the impact of politics on economics.

4. They are only interested in theorising and dictating, not doing. Everyone else, including those with facts that are not in the public domain, are ignorant.

5. They can get very nasty if anyone dares to contradict their ideas and views.

6. They regard any question as an insult and a challenge to their intellect.

7. They will sometimes manufacture ‘proof’ or twist facts to vehemently defend their positions.

8. They are often attention-seeking wannabes who are desperate to be part of their exclusive club.

9. When they happen to be right about anything, they get very snobbish.

10. They pretend to be very broad-minded but are actually very parochial in their interests.

If you recognise any of these traits in yourself, or others recognise them in you, you are intellectually arrogant. If you are intellectually arrogant and you comment on issues of Economics, particularly if you also claim clairvoyance…Yep! You are an Errconomist.

I am in my house. Come and beat me. End!

Twitter Thread

5 min read

Internet in Nigeria

July 26, 2024

Internet in Nigeria

INTERNET IN NIGERIA: I’ve been with @Spectranet_NG for about 5 years. The service was okay. I was paying N18,000 per month for a ‘Gold Unlimited Plan’ or something. However, working from home exposed them. There’s nothing unlimited about the plan. I decided to try others. Thread.

I teach research methods to a first year PhD class every year. Because of COVID-19, I couldn’t travel to the Netherlands this year and had to teach online. The university uses its own videoconferencing system called ‘Blackboard Learn’. Spectranet couldn’t cope.

We switched to Zoom as we heard that it uses slightly lower bandwidth. It was only a little better. We all had to switch off our videos. As the students were at home, they all had to mute their microphones. You’ll crack a joke and you can’t tell if anyone laughed. Frustrating.

Spectranet was only giving me 360kbpd. I called them out here and they said it slowed down because I had exhausted my “unlimited” data. I’ve been unhappy with them for a while. Their system can’t even carry Netflix.

As I was calling them out, @9mobileng jumped in and offered their mifi. I decided to give it a try. It cost me nearly N20,000. Basically, it was pretty useless. Maybe it’s not just good in my area. It simply did nothing. I had to use my phone as a hotspot most times.

Then someone suggested @ExploreLegend. I thought it probably makes the most sense because it is Fibre. It’s expensive o. The installation and first month subscription is N172,000. Monthly subscription is N35k. They said it will take 2-3 weeks. The office paid on my behalf.

As Spectranet was deathly slow and 9mobile simply didn’t work, waiting 3 weeks was very frustrating. In the meantime, my brother @Stanlee_Okeke helped me to get an @MTNNG Hynet modem. I am very very impressed by it. I paid N20k. It’s giving me speeds of nearly 9Mbps.

Part of the reasons of going ahead with the MTN system is because the customer service from @ExploreLegend is shockingly bad. I am blessed with very good blood pressure. When things cause me too much stress, I just let it go and stop worrying about it. That’s what I did.

You’ll call them and they won’t answer. When they can be bothered to answer, exchanges like this are common: Legend: Hello? Me: Is that Legend? Legend: Yeah? Me: Can you be a bit more enthusiastic about your job? There are many Nigerians looking for work. Legend: Ok. Me: Ok???

They’ll promise to return calls but they won’t. They can’t reach their installers. The email they send you contains a number for the installer but it is a wrong number. The time of the appointment in the email is fictitious. The installer comes whenever he likes. Usually late.

Nobody knows anything. Customer service doesn’t know installer. Installer doesn’t know anybody in the company. The supervisor is never “on seat” and never calls back. At a point, I stopped calling them and just left it, especially as my MTN Hynet was working excellently well.

3 weeks after I paid, they finally installed the system today. The road they dug up to lay the Fibre and all the interlocking tiles they removed are still there one week after they dug them up. Installer said he was too busy to help me reconfigure my wireless extenders and left.

He said many people had complained and that I should call them out publicly. I then went to their Twitter TL and it was just a catalogue of complaints. Same thing I have been complaining about. Shockingly poor customer care. Please take a look at their TL: @ExploreLegend

I believe that you have to make a deliberate effort to be that useless. It cannot come naturally to any business that plans to survive. You have to work very hard at it to be as bad as they are, because it is not an attitude any legitimate business would often have.