Our Youths want Money without Hard Work — Onaolapo

Mr. Jide Onaolapo is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Hakonix Technologies Limited, an outfit that provides technology consulting, systems integration and capacity-building solutions to public and private sector organisations, with headquarters in Abuja and offices in Enugu and Lagos. In this chat with Financial Vanguard, Onaolapo, a business analyst and information systems architect tells his story and regrets that today’s Nigerian youth is not ready to put in the hard work needed to excel. Excerpts:

Background:

Jide Onaolapo… If you don’t know something, 

research it, know it and own it

According to Onaolapo, his background is in urban city project management, networking and database administration. “I studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and then started work with an organisation that built Lagos State’s Oracle Financial system and from Lagos, I came to Abuja and joined another technology company.

I started out as the technology resource person and was later picked to perform project administration and management roles, and graduated into advisory role, developing strategic plans for organisations like the EFCC, and financial units of some institutions like the West African Telecommunications Regulators Assembly. “I was involved in a lot of public agencies’ start-up development.

Starting Hakonix:

Although I started Hakonix in 2003 but it never got any jobs until 2006. When I came to Abuja, I took up a job with a technology company and from there, I moved on to Quantec, another technology company which I left in 2007. “Hakonix started out with automation of the tax administration system for the Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue. That project was interesting because it was done pro-bono and a financial institution became interested in it and funded the implementation. Our start-up capital was probably what we made from our first job. That helped my moving out into a proper office apartment. I think our first profit was around N2m. Although we operated out of Abuja, we have not done so much in Abuja as it were. We have gotten jobs in other states. About 70 per cent of our jobs are outside Abuja. We had jobs in the north but when the bombings started; our staff took off so we had to shut down.

Breakthrough:

“Then they began to take us to other states to work with them and also gave us other IT jobs; so we started to consult for the financial institution. From there, we did some consulting engagements for other organisations like Galaxy Backbone on enterprise projects and many others. I have been working in the public sector since 2000 and my experience in that sector is interesting.

Being focused:

Before going to work at Quanteq Technology Services, I actually had a break. I wanted to go into properties because I saw too many interesting opportunities while doing consulting job with the Dept of Parks and Recreation, probably because of my background in built environment. After a while, I realised it was not what I wanted. I did not have paid job and things were not working the way I wanted. It was tough. Moving to Abuja was tough but in life, if you want to achieve your goals, you just need to get into it – focus, persevere, deliver and the rest will take care of themselves.

Challenges

Onaolapo said the major challenge in his field is the issue of low quality work force and attitude of the average young person to work. “I am from the school of thought of delivery. The kind of human resources we have in the country today is a challenge. A lot of young people find it difficult to immerse themselves into work. You know, once you start to work, it is different from going to school especially if you have focus and drive, you will realise that you don’t really know much and you need to put in a lot to be able to deliver. But these days, you find that a lot of young people don’t exactly want to put in a lot and they want the money. They want the money without the work which is not possible. “People come in and you expect so much from them with their qualifications. Put them on a desk and they cannot deliver. It is very sad so we tend to hire people with master’s degree from the UK or US because you know that at least they will have an understanding of what it means to fold their sleeves and work.

Going the extra mile

“Back in the days, you stay in the office till the job is done but these days, people leave before 5.00pm, especially with excuses like going to church as if that is what pays their salary. It’s about hard work; religion and work life have to complement each other. You need to deliver value in order to be blessed by religion. If you don’t deliver value, is it magic? It is not about how hard you pray; you need to position yourself for opportunities in a way that someone will see and say ok, I can work with this person; this person can benefit me. I tell people that I employ them not exactly to train them as in physical one-on-one training, but to present a platform for them to showcase their capabilities in terms of rising up to occasions. ‘If you don’t know something, research it, know it and own it so you can speak and write about it. “A lot of people have no clue and unfortunately, they are not willing to put in the time to build the capacity needed to push them through. A few good ones are out there but unfortunately too, some of them assume that they already know a lot and they can go out on their own so we lose a lot such people but very few do stay and I encourage them to aspire to become partners in an organisation.

Lack of zeal:

That zeal is no more in the Nigerian workforce. I think it is a societal thing. Nigerians generally have high aspirations, unfortunately, most of them don’t exactly equate hard work to aspiration. It is good to aspire but you need to work hard to get to where you aspire to be. It is not about magic. It is the reason why we have a lot of people going into financial and cyber crimes.

All the 419 scam are aspirations. They want to acquire the material things of life but not put in the effort to match the acquisition. You see a lot of people you cannot justify their wealth with capacity. That is a societal thing, we allow it, religion allows it. You go to religious institutions and they are talking about just giving and prosperity, very few people talk about hard work and ask questions. When someone gives tithe or sadaka, do the clerics ask them how they got the money? It is obvious that the person’s salary scale cannot equate with what he brought. You see students carrying N200,000 phones and you are in school, it is a simple red flag but the poverty level has blinded so many people that they begin to look up to those people to extract from them instead of questioning their source of wealth. Same thing has permeated politics so badly that you cannot get into politics without money in Nigeria. You will never get anywhere without money. How many people who really work hard for the money and have carved a niche for themselves will want to leave it and get into politics? Not many. You have to have a deep passion to serve to be able to make that kind of sacrifice. So those are the societal issues that are bringing the country down. 

Staff:

We are down to nine now from 13. We do a lot of public sector engagement so it is hard to keep up. For now, we employ as the need arises. Once we get a job, we get more staff. We started Hakonix with very small money.

By Ebele Orakpo

According to Onaolapo, his background is in urban city project management, networking and database administration. “I studied at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and then started work with an organisation that built Lagos State’s Oracle Financial system and from Lagos, I came to Abuja and joined another technology company.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/our-youths-want-money-without-hard-work-onaolapo/