The story was told of a father who left 17 camels as an asset for his three sons. When the father passed away, his sons opened up the Will. The Will stated that the eldest son should get half of 17 camels while the middle son should be given 1/3rd (one-third). The youngest son should be given 1/9th (one-ninth) of the 17 camels.
As it is not possible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9, three sons started fighting one another. So, the three sons decided to go to a wise man.
The wise man listened patiently about the Will. The wise man, after giving this thought, brought one camel of his own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels. Now, he started reading the deceased father’s will.
Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 camels. 1/3rd of 18 = 6, so he gave the middle son 6 camels. 1/9th of 18 = 2, so he gave the youngest son 2 camels.
Adding this up: 9+6+2=17 and this left 1 camel, which the wise man took back.
The word ‘bottom-line’ is a finance terminology which literally means profit, as usually seen at the bottom of an income statement. It is simply the benefits derived by the owners of a resource.
The bottom-line which is the expectation driving an individual’s interest, means different things to different people. To the shareholders, it means dividend per share (DPS) or market value of share. To the investors, it means return on investment (ROI) or return on capital employed (ROCE). To the employees, it means net-pay. To the citizens, it means good roads, constant electricity, good healthcare, affordable decent housing etc.
I am sometimes tempted to moot the saying that “people often deserve the leaders they get” or that “the leaders and their performance are often a reflection of their people”.
This however indicate that we all live in one way or the other for the bottom-line, which makes its protection a potent duty of every man. Just as in the story of the camels shared above, the principal interest of man lies in his share of the bottom-line with pursuit of proper accountability.
In a developing country like Nigeria, where colossal financial scandals by both corporate and public sector leaders, without leaving out the religious leaders seem to be the order of the day; where we can barely provide 20% of our electricity need, where the education system produces unemployable graduates in mass, where over 50% of youths are unemployed, where you can hardly drive for a month without visiting the mechanic, where majority cannot afford a decent living in the face of massive housing deficit, where 99% of its wealth is owned & controlled by merely 1% of its elite citizen while leaving 1% wealth for the remaining 99% of its citizen to jostle for, and the list goes on, despite that our land is one of the most-blessed in rich-natural resources, the questions are: do the people deserve any better than the bottom-line they get? Who or what is ultimately responsible for the bottom-line?
This takes me aback to the sentiments of retaining incompetent leaders in all sectors of our dear nation, from public to corporate to religious institutions, which has bedeviled our nation and precluded us from any decent bottom-line.
I am sometimes tempted to moot the saying that “people often deserve the leaders they get” or that “the leaders and their performance are often a reflection of their people”. As much as the blame game is not in itself the direct solution to any problem, when accountability in its full form is not demanded from oneself and from the leaders, while “unaccountability” is not adequately punished, impunity, colossal waste and corruption will CERTAINLY be the order of the day, which in-turn is directly correlated to the bottom-line (the result or profit the owners of the resource receive).
… take responsibility for your failure or success in your own small corner and take the bull by the horn, pick up the pieces, start from where you are …
Many citizens of the African continent are often despondent when it comes to choosing their leaders and holding them accountable to their performance contract. This always lead to incompetent and laggard leaders guile-fully making their way into leadership positions, inadvertently encroaching the people’s bottom-line and toppling the economy of the continent. The irony of this often times is that, it is this same despondent people that eventually turn around to complain the most about the incompetency of these leaders.
The existence of man is rooted in the bottom-line, and absolute accountability is the key.
Rather than continuously grumble about how the overwhelming problems affect our bottom-line … why not FOR ONCE take responsibility for your failure or success in your own small corner and take the bull by the horn, pick up the pieces, start from where you are, with what you have (not leaving out the power of your vote), and make a success story of yourself and this great nation, Nigeria!
EVERYBODY was sure that SOMEBODY would do it, ANYBODY could have done it but NOBODY did it, SOMEBODY got angry about that because it was EVERYBODY’s job, NOBODY realised that EVERYBODY wouldn’t do it, it ended up that EVERYBODY blamed SOMEBODY When NOBODY did what ANYBODY could have done.
Olusegun ALADE
Principal Partner,
Michael Alade & C0. (Chartered Accountants)