Examinations are a daily part of life. As a function of being human, we are examined every day, at home, by our family, and at work by both our superiors and those we lead. Most especially, God examines us. Less I forget, our teachers in life and in school all examine us and we decide the grade of success by the volume of concerted effort we put in. Generally speaking, and as the saying goes,
“YOU WORK HARD, YOU SUCCEED”
This long epistle above is the prologue to a tale not for the faint-hearted. A tale that I speak of from my perspective, but I believe transcends across the view of others. It all began when we were shocked to hear from our facilitator that our end of semester examinations for the Analysis of Business problems course would be real-time and fully virtual (there was no restriction to being able to write the exams in school). This news came as a shock to us all considering the volume of mental effort it took on a regular day to analyze a single case.
However, as the Nigerian saying goes, “WETIN MUSA NO GO SEE FOR GATE”, we were not deterred, the faculty had justifiably explained the rationale behind this decision to the best of her abilities and personally, I felt it was a good call. The rest as they say is history.
My other colleagues had their reservations and truly, justifiably so. On average, it took hours upon hours of intensive and concentrated study to properly read and analyze a case in this course. When you finally do, it would still take a considerable number of discussions with other members of the mini group to properly extract the meaning and get informed opinions regarding the entire case. As a matter of fact, the only time I could remember when a case was read and analyzed in class was the “BURRED PANELS” case and that did not go well at all. Granted, we were all novices in case analysis, but it still took a lot of work and serious contribution by the facilitator to get us on our way. Nevertheless, ‘we manage do am’ in local parlance.
Having said all above, it was only expected, or now I should say hoped for that in order to fulfil the 3hour exam time (considering biology and ergonomics of the human body), we would be presented with a 1 or 2 or 3 or max 4 to 5-page case. We were never expecting it to be easy honestly. If we did, then we should have not signed up for the prestigious Lagos Business School in the first place. However, what we got at 9 am on the 23rd day of April 2022 was in no small terms a true definition of the phrase “RUDE AWAKENING”. It was like an atom bomb had been released and the mushroom cloud that this quiet explosion generated blinded most of us for the next 4hours (yes, you read that right, 4 hours). We got an extra hour to determine our fate.
I am by no means a slouch or a dullard when it comes to the analysis of business problems (and I say that with all sense of humility) but in the time frame and conditions presented, I can say, I met a match. Nevertheless, as the saying goes that Nigerians have a fighting spirit and never give up, I said to myself “WE DIE HERE”. I left it all on my laptop keyboard and sincerely hope it earns me my reward. ATOMIC BUSINESS PALAVA has got nothing on me!
Nothing is cast in stone the wise men say (except of course for power failure) so, WE MOVE and in the words of the legendary fat Joe and Remy Ma “NOTHING CAN STOP ME, I’M ALL THE WAY UP”. Sir Lewis Hamilton says, “STILL I RISE” and Mohamed Salah in the famous Liverpool football club Anfield comeback against FC Barcelona said on his shirt “NEVER GIVE UP”. These words keep me going.
As always, we must not let negativity prevent us from our prayers for a better people and a better nation so GOD BLESS US ALL and GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.
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