I’m a 3d artist. I’ll design the occasional calendar or greeting card. I’ll shoot your music video and documentaries. If the price is right, I’ll even build you a website (you’d have to give me a couple of days to learn how to, though)

Why? Cos I’m Nigerian, and that’s what we do. Everything.

I used to joke that a Nigerian pilot could land his 737 with a torch light if he had to. And that a Nigerian doctor could perform brain surgery on a subdural hematoma patient with the light from his Nokia if he had to.

I don’t joke about it anymore.

About four years ago we completed a multimedia project for a client. They were pleased with the work. So pleased, in fact, that they asked if we could produce 10,000 copies of the work. The only issue was that it had to be done in four days. Of course we said we could.

We made a couple of calls. Then we made many more. There was nobody in all of Lagos who had the capacity or time to accommodate our need.

I’ll cut a very long story short. We (about seven of us) proceeded to burn and label 10,000 cd’s by hand in the space of three days. I still have nightmares about that period. But very few things I’ve done have given me the sense of accomplishment that came when we pasted the 10,000th label.

Now, and here’s where we get serious, note the phrase ‘if he had to’ in my jokes about the pilot and the doctor. That, people, is what separates the more developed countries from us. We wait till we absolutely have to before we make any meaningful change to the prevailing circumstances. They, on the other hand, are constantly thinking of new ways to improve status quo.

The average UK supermarket has three different ways you can make your purchase. Is it absolutely necessary? Maybe not. But I can assure you that as we speak they are thinking of more ways.

If we would just apply ourselves to proactive thinking, I assure you Obama and the United States have nothing on us. While they’re saying ‘Yes, we can!’, I’m yelling ‘Yes we did, are doing, and will continue to do!’

Ps: By the way I sell cars, land and I do office supplies too.