SIR: One of the major lessons I learned during my almost decade-long sojourn in Japan early 1990s was the intolerance of what the Japanese people call “lost time” in the workplace environment. What then is this “lost time”? What task should cost you 60 minutes to complete, for example, but you ended up using 90 minutes instead to deliver on the assignment, therefore that 30 minutes difference in addition is rightly considered as lost time.

The reason is that you are paid per hour, and, as such, it is inappropriate and unexpected for the worker to receive emoluments for his indolence, incompetence, or unskillfulness. This is a very serious issue in the country.

The promotion of mediocrity, reinforcement of failures, and/or downgrading and despisement of competence and capacity, skillful qualities is not a known trend in countries where national development and patriotism are highly prioritised. Japan, China, and many developed Western countries pay premiums for personalities who possess particular rare qualities in all walks of life, especially those technical qualities that add value to the existence of mankind. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, our politicians even have the temerity, the bold face to demonise known individual political leadership capacity publicly.

The rider to the above topic  – Alive Time or Dead Time  – remains a borrowed line from 2021 classic of Robert Greene’s The Daily Laws 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature. Now that we are stuck in stormy weather in the Nigerian political space; the tempest and tribulations call for a terrifying test period of the texture our politicians are made of; when the lions and other brutal beasts are let out of the cages, yet the prey are perambulating freely in the premises; when the livestock is about to give birth while in teether and all adults in the house are unavailable; when the pregnant mother laying in the manger needs to push out the baby but lacks the needed strength, what shall we do?

Alive Time or Dead Time strongly advises that “vivre sans temps mort” (that’s live without wasted time) is the adopted slogan of the Parisian Politicking. The foregoing is the introductory quote while below is the preamble paragraph. “The time that you are alive is the only real possession that you have. Everything else that you have can be taken away from you  – your family, your house, your cars, your job.” He goes on to suggest that “That time that you’re alive is the only thing you truly possess..,” therefore know how best you dispense of or what you expend the rare commodity time while your nostrils function.

Currently, in Nigeria, there are enough reasons for this strategic discourse. For example, while the United States of America is sarcastically doling out the yuletide gift to the diehard Nigerian terrorists hitherto operating under the euphemism toga or umbrella as banditry (Sokoto State on Christmas Day 2025 and Kaduna State on New Year’s Day 2026, respectively) our President Bola Ahmed Tinubu junketed out of the country.

What anomaly  – the incessant killings in Nigeria – that has persisted for decades with the precious lives of Nigerians gone down the drain, has become something Nigerian political leaders are arguing about, trading blame about the financiers of terrorism; the accusations and counteraccusations have not ceased to date.

The onslaught of Donald Trump’s fury (swift sword) on ISIS-linked terrorists has proven rather more effective than the media pen. In all, let us be conscious of the time, and find redundancy no longer attractive. Whatever substantial gains of the USA military arbitration at the moment must be sustained indefinitely and not be permitted to suffer backsliding.

Similarly, other areas of our socio-economic livelihood that require drastic intervention like the provision of stable power for production, are geared towards the national economic growth and output should also happen alongside.

Steve Obum Orajiaku can be reached via [email protected]