CONFERENCES!

I don't know if it's only me who has noticed, but the past two weeks seem very short. It literally feels like one week. I recall when I sent the previous letter, and I thought two weeks seemed very long, but for some reason, it feels like time is going faster, and the days are a lot slower.

Today, I will pour out my heart and allow you to hear my thoughts about something I have been pondering for the past few weeks and almost a month. In July, I attended the Youth Sustainable Development Conference in Morocco, and it was an exciting experience. The good news is that you can watch the vlog on my YouTube channel. I would appreciate comments and feedback on how to edit and to put in consideration ahead of other vlogs and videos I would make.

When I came back from the conference, I really just wanted to rest and recuperate because a lot of energy and time had gone into planning and preparing, and I experienced a major life change before the conference happened.

However, the week after the conference was pretty eventful for me. I had some really important invites that I decided to honour, and then the week after was a lot slower. It was thw week that led into the protest weekend and the protest week in itself.

I just really began to notice that there are a lot of conferences and events happening in Nigeria. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a big country! Of course, there will be deliberations on certain things to ensure that everyone is involved, especially minority groups, but I still think it's a whole lot.

It is also something I noticed about government agencies. We have so many agencies with different names that have the same functions. Some of them are working in silos. Some of them are not even working, and it just makes me concerned.

From pondering, I realized that attending conferences can even be a full-time job for some people. You really just need to know which conference is going to give you a transportation stipend. So if you attend one conference daily from Monday to Friday and you get a transportation stipend, you can probably survive on that.

I mean, it's funny to think that there is an entire ecosystem built from just attending conferences. In some places, it's even different because you know that this is a venue for an event, so you're sure that every day they would have a minimum of 10-15 CSO-related events and conferences, and some people just even show up without an invitation, and they find something to attend. It iss funny, but on the bright side, it provides a networking opportunity.

I was just really overwhelmed by the number of conferences and events and the number of invites, and I think that's a good thing because some years ago, I used to look forward to attending certain events, but I wasn't privileged to attend them because I didn't have an invite for them and now it feels like I'm living in an answered prayer point where I don't need to necessarily look for invite, I have people sending invite for certain events.

One thing I do to filter the kind of events I attend is basically to look at it and say how this event is going to affect my impact on the work I do and the projects I'm working on. How is this event going to increase my influence? Am I going there to network and meet with a particular stakeholder and someone I really look forward to talking and walking with, and maybe this event provides that opportunity? I really just want to say how this event, in turn, is influencing my income. Am I gaining new knowledge I can put to work? These are the things I use to filter the events I attend.

Since I spent over a month really thinking about events, I realized that there are a lot more CSO events and conferences than public sector events and conferences. I also noticed that for public sector events and conferences, a lot of them were also partly and highly funded by developmental agencies.

I mean, it just goes to say as much as we have a national budget if you remove foreign aid and developmental agencies from the country, then the finances would probably be a mess because a lot of the things done are really just reliant on the collaboration and funding from developmental partners. I felt that was really eye-opening.

From sitting down and watching the network news. I mean, I did watch network news as a child, and I still remember some of my favorite network presenters. This year, I have watched the news a lot more because I stay with a guardian. Sometimes, some of the events and projects and the things I do are also on the news, but it was just really within this one month of pondering on conferences that I realized that 90 percent of the things make it to the headlines of the major local network news. When I say local network news, I'm referring to the national network news.

Things like the NTA Network News by 9:00pm WAT that we all watch are usually just conferences, and as much as this fact wowed me, I was highly disappointed because, for me, it was just such an eye opener to how much work needs to be done.

As much as I understand the need to constantly engage stakeholders by various stakeholders in various sectors and the need to have conversations around changes, policy reviews, projects, launch of publications, I strongly believe there is a lack in terms of project implementation in the nation.

We have bad roads. There's the issue of drought that has currently affected farm yield and produce and even the cost of food items.

Still, we are not necessarily seeing as many initiatives when compared to the level of conferences that we see make it to the media.

I think it would be a lot more productive to say that for a nation like ours, we hear of things like building and maintaining schools, rehabilitation of poor education buildings and centers, construction of roads left in dilapidated states for over fifty years, and more.

I think there is a need and a call for more project implementation while engaging necessary stakeholders and having important conversations. So these are just the things that have been going on in my mind. What do you think about my thoughts? Do you agree with my thoughts that we need more project implementation? Do you think the conferences and events are okay? Do you think if we had more organizations collaborating, we would cut down on events and conferences and have more project implementation?

I think it is also an encouragement to say if you are implementing a project as an individual, CSO, or someone in the public sector, it is important to ensure that people can benefit directly from your project, whether it is small community training or you're building, empowering a particular group of people with the right skills or resources. It would be great, maybe, just to turn forward the hands of time to see these things happen more in the country instead of having multiple conferences and stakeholder meetings.

ANOTHER ANGLE

I also know it is vital for politicians and people in the public sector to honour invitations and show up for events, but if we were having people in the public sector show up for more events and give a lot of keynote speeches, then what time do they have to do the work they have to do?

For example, I remember attending this consultation meeting, where we had someone from the public sector present, a minister. The minister gave a keynote address, stayed for an hour after the address, and had to attend another event.

Before this particular minister came for the consultation, the minister was already at a previous event to give a keynote speech. So if people in the public sector have to speak at 5-10 events, then where is the time to do the work?

It's also difficult for people who work at the presidency because sometimes they have to honour national, regional, and local. They still have to show up at diplomatic conversations either at the African Union level or on the global stage level or for various committees, pacts, and treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory. As much as policies, representation, having the right conversations, and doing peacekeeping are important, where is the time for the actual work?

I mean, don't get me wrong. I know presidents and politicians in different countries, and even here in Nigeria, at some point, have done some fantastic work. When they retire or leave their public service office, they make speaking a key and major source of income.

Still, it was just alarming to me that if you would decide to watch the network news for example and if you are watching it from Monday to Friday. Ninety-nine percent of the things are event conferences and stakeholder conferences, and most of them are organised by the CSO.

Are we a working nation or a talking nation?        

Are the conversations yielding impactful results or like keep peacekeeping are the conversations  to keep people in "delulu?"        

Keep your mind open till you hear my next thoughts,

D Oracle!

Tolulope T Gbenro

Tolu's Tea Corner

It was a great week! I had some speaking engagements and I had a productive week. I will share the replay to some of my speaking engagements in the next letter so you can catch up on them in case you missed any. I am keeping a positive attitude and maintaining a grateful posture as I prepare to enter the new month.

What are you grateful for?

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