Why we are behind the rest of the world

Its hard not to laugh at Jidenna as he demands an apology from the

The concert held on Saturday, May 13, 2017, at the SE Arena, Wembley in London, United Kingdom. The event would have been better than it was if not for what is known as African Time.

The music concert was billed to start at 7 pm but did not kick off until eighty minutes later. This affected the run-up of the whole show as star acts couldn't perform their full sets. Jidenna did not even have the chance to get on stage as the organisers turned off the lights when the event's time was up.

The One Africa Music Fest was just a show in England to highlight the crossover success of Nigerian and African music these days. Unfortunately, it just showed how we are not serious about time.

African Time can be the butt of several jokes but in reality, it exists and is an unproductive way of doing things. Many of us have gone to a meeting or an event on time only to find out that the show is several hours from starting.

There is hardly any entertainment event in Nigeria that starts on time. They always start hours behind schedule. Moving away from the entertainment scene, African Time affects our way of doing business.

Time is money but in this part of the world, you would be surprised to find out that people show up to appointments and meetings late. A business partner or a prospective investor gives you a time to show up at his office. You get there on time but the investor is running late.

We have a shabby attitude towards time. We are hardly punctual. It's normal for a Nigerian to show up at an appointment and event several minutes and hours late because he believes that the event won't start on time.

African Time also applies to African Americans. It is generally believed that black people no matter where they are in the world would show up late to an event.

If you want us to show up at a place on time, give us a fake time, like two or three hours ahead of the real time. That's when we will show up on time.

One of the major reasons why we are not productive as a people is because we don't value time. African Time is a bad attribute that we should do away with.