Getting Angry

After yesterday’s post, I couldn’t have asked for a better illustration of what makes me angry here than the workshop Simon and I delivered today.

After a day of very active, participatory and resource-heavy activities which had taken a long time to plan and prepare and had seemed to work really well, Simon invited someone in the group to give us a closing prayer (every workshop begins and ends with prayer here). Instead of which, one of the group stood up and took centre stage to give Simon a lecture about how the per diem he had arranged for them was so insultingly small they had all discussed giving it back.

To put this into context, here are some of the facts about today’s workshop. It was held at the workplace of almost all of the participants, so that they would not incur additional travel or accommodation costs. Because the logistics of providing food for them were tricky, instead we gave them a daily allowance of 1,000 Naira. To give you an idea, 1,000 Naira is the VSO volunteer’s daily living allowance (outside of accommodation); this is what volunteers live off on a daily basis. Last night we went to a normal ‘chop house’ (local restaurant, full of local Nigerians) and got four evening meals including soft drinks for a total of N1,600.

Talking to our colleague afterwards, we asked how N1,000 could possibly not be enough for the participants to buy their refreshments for the day. He explained that it has to do with status, and that people of this stature are insulted that it’s being suggested they eat so cheaply.

There was also outrage about how undignified it was that Simon had told them about this allowance in advance of the workshop as part of a text containing all details of the session. Since some of them do not have access to email and since it seemed that lots of professional communication was done via text, it didn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do. Apparently, it’s not the fact that details were communicated by text that has offended them, but the fact that the amount being offered as an allowance was specifically named in this text.

So there are cultural differences we’re yet to understand, and we have learnt a big lesson today about running everything by a Nigerian colleague before taking action in case there are hidden faux pas. But I’m not sure whether something being an aspect of local culture means I can’t find it unacceptable. This per diem culture – which, it seems, we are only seeing the tip of: apparently civil servants here would expect a daily allowance of N15,000 to attend a training day – is found everywhere, and not just in the development sector. To me it just seems the wrong way round. What value can people possibly see in the actual training if they’re being paid – over and above their salary – to attend it? How on earth do Nigerians react when they move to the UK and suddenly discover that training is actually something you have to pay for, rather than be paid for?

In the ‘development context’ – as VSO likes to say – I can see that you can’t expect people to immediately see the value in what you’re trying to achieve (and certainly I’m not saying I’m expecting gratitude). I can see that, at a community level, it makes perfect sense to me that you would provide food at a community meeting, knowing full well that the food (rather than the agenda) would be the incentive for most attendees, but hoping to achieve something with them while they are eating. Why should it be any different at government level? I suspect that it is this very development work which has created this per diem culture – you start by providing rice at a community forum, and it escalates to persuading government ministers that the education programme is relevant by paying for a day of their time. I can’t see how it’s sustainable.

It also makes me wonder – are there no private training businesses in Nigeria? Is it only development agencies with enormous budgets who provide training and therefore per diems? There probably are training businesses here, or more likely leadership gurus who deliver conferences. Book shop shelves are full of business and leadership guides, and there is a very entrepreneurial spirit here, so I imagine it’s the self-employed self-starters who are willing to actually pay for developing their skills and knowledge.

All of that said, I understand that this is the culture I’ve chosen to come and work in and with; and you can’t change anything by stepping outside of people’s culture and all that brings with it. That doesn’t necessarily stop me being angry about it.

Footnote: I should say that Simon and I are paid incredibly handsome per diems by the funder when we travel to workshops like this, which we had been using to supplement our volunteer allowance. I am now reconsidering what I should do with this money.