When will Africa’s Elite Grow Up? | Iyinoluwa Aboyeji | TEDxEuston

[Music] so today you know I just want to talk about something that has concerned me over time and it really begins with an interesting story about myself as a child one question that I'm sure many of you got and I also did from France from family from parents from people who cared about us or were just interested or wanted to strike up a conversation is what do you want to be when you grow up and I personally had the most interesting answers to that question and my parents would never let me forget them because they consistently make a lot of jokes about it my first career choice was I wanted to be a taxi driver and for me the logic was really simple you know my father at the time this was posts up Nigeria lots of economic hardship you know he had a take home package I couldn't take him home and so I figured you know he would supplement that income by driving taxes you just call them Kabu Kabu and you know out see him get in the car you know pick up a passenger and they paid him as soon as he you know dropped him off and so I figured he was making a lot of money because all the money I could see was cash and then you know my second career choice was I wanted to be a policeman and it was because I kind of noticed that the only person he really gave that money to before he got home what's the police now the good thing is I eventually turned out alright I didn't become a taxi driver or policeman but I never lost my touch for cash what you see at the heart of that question what do you want to be when you grow up is really a sense of our society's general ambition its most times the correct answer and I could see the bewilderment in the room when I said I wanted to be a taxi driver and I wanted to be a policeman is that it's driven by personal ambition and the accumulation of wealth even for me the reason is why we want to be taxi drivers the reason why I want to be whatever it is we want to be is so our families can be proud of us but you see in that irony between personal success in a society that quite frankly is a failed Society lies an interesting paradox of personal interest and collective interests we in Africa quite frankly have the most interesting paradoxes and I would argue it's at the heart of why many of us struggle with impostor syndrome I am the richest man in the poverty capital of the world right I am a doctor the best doctor in the world in a society with two doctors to ten ten thousand people I am a professor the most educated diaspora population in the world in a country with ten point five million children out of school something clicks but at the same time we go back to our vomit of prioritizing personal success personal interest over our collectors that defines us as a society and that's tragic and it's tragic because one of the harshest lessons I've had to learn and I learned this lesson at the age of 14 is that personal success will not insulate you from the failures of your society when I was 14 on December 10 2005 a day I will never forget I by a hair's breadth almost died I had been scheduled to board a plane to Port Hackett's from Abuja and I was traveling for supposed to be travelling with the brightest young people of my generation we lived in a bubble we called an OCO jail for children ljc and some of you may know it as neurology is with college in that bubble life was great we had clean water fantastic teachers who were insulated from the pressures of Nigeria but in all it took was a two-hour 30-minute flight from our school to our home to burn all those dreams away and remind us again and in a society with airports that don't have fire ambulances that in a society without good hospitals that in a society where the vast majority don't have access to basic health care emergency healthcare it doesn't matter how successful we become everything can be taken away and that has got me thinking a lot over the years because what I quickly realize is that in reality we feel that societies because we are a people who define success by our individuality by our individual success by the worship of me the doctor and me the lawyer and me the wealthy politician and me the rather than our society I'm a tech entrepreneur right and fantastic introduction was read for me they usually are found the two companies you know important is that but at the end of the day the goal is exceptionalism is here is the one African guy who proved this was possible and he often weighs weighs me down because for me that's a shame really that only one person or one group of people could do the things that I have done and in that acknowledgement of my privilege is a realization that perhaps the impostor syndrome is justified because in a more equal society would I really be the one standing here and the more society would we be in our seats or would other people be more qualified and so a month ago now I decided I was tired of dealing with this internal conflicts of personal success versus the collective interest and so I officially retired and myself and a group of friends came together and started asking ourselves what does it mean to build a future in the interest of the collective and that's probably gonna be the next chapter we're still figuring it out but three key concepts have popped out at us in asking this question the first is you have to have a commitment to collaboration you see Africans are the most fiercely competitive people I have ever seen in my life and it's very funny the kind of things we compete about a bigger house I better pass my neighbor first class vs. business class we don't compete about who's gonna put the most kids in school we don't compete about who's gonna go to the hospital and pay the most bills our billionaires who we glorify do not compete about how much impacts they would have made they are content being the one-eyed man in the kingdom of what blind people which is what we've become and so for me that commitment collaboration for the common good is the first principle the second principle is a courage to stand up against vested interests you know for the last four years you know I've spent time in the financial industry which i'll argue every Nigerian should be ashamed of we don't have banks in our country we have governmental oome books if you're a finance professional you can look at these things which are the cesspit of elite corruption you don't add any value to society and say this is financial institution worthy of the kind of growth my country deserves yet many of us bring them here we glorify them give them chair positions we have to be able to speak up for the common man because that is the person that is the identity that defines our excellence it's not about the people here who've had the privilege of going to Harvard or LSC it's about the average man on the streets does he have that opportunity if you were bright enough does he have that ability if it wasn't if he wasn't in the right place at the right time are we merely the products of luck just enjoying lottery of birth and if we are then we have to do something to fix it and the third is the concern to act now you know there's something I hear a lot of my colleagues say no I want to work hard and make money in the private sector and then when I have money I'm gonna go and change people's lives it's a lie we tell ourselves why can't you change people's lives today and no one is saying you need to come home the one is saying you need to abandon your career or whatever it is you enjoy doing but it is a sense of responsibility that says if my brother is down then I am down to is a deep understanding of the idea that I am because we are it's not just the same we say to sound kumbaya and so for ashamed about how the rest of the world looks at us then we should be ashamed about the child in macoco who can't get an education we should be ashamed about that 13.5 million kids out of school and we should put in the junk this there's another side to Africa no one cares I don't and I don't think those kids do either as an elite we have filled our society and we have to fix it in the first book of Corinthians verses 10 verse 24 I have to quote Bible I'm sorry I'm a pastor's kid it says let us not seek our own interest but the interest of each other our elite have to do better we have to grow up we have to take responsibility for our societies we cannot sit here with three missiles into the open claiming we're intelligent where is the proof and in closing I hope that I at least start to think rather than ask each other as we have one entire generation what do you want to be when you grow up we have to ask ourselves who do we want to be when we grow up thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 14,395

Rating: 4.9772296 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Africa, Africans, Community, Development, Inequality, Innovation, Leadership, Public Policy, Society, Technology

Id: Fxua94bRJPo

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 08 2019