Nigerians love meetings, especially the face-to-face variety. They meet on and over everything, even issues that could easily be resolved through phone calls or other communication platforms. Some even detest virtual meetings, and the gatherings often become bogged down in endless protocols.
Most meetings begin with lateness, so they rarely start on time whether private or public. Then comes the ritual of reading the minutes of the last meeting and arguments over trivial matters such as spelling mistakes or titles. For instance, if “High Chief” is written as “Chief” or omitted completely, the secretary must correct it with an apology before the minutes can be adopted.
After that comes “matters arising” from the last meeting, followed by debates over whether those absent at the previous session should contribute. This alone can consume an hour. Next is the process of setting the agenda for the new meeting, then roll call and apologies for absentees. By this time, more than two hours are gone and nothing tangible has been achieved. When the meeting finally begins, participants are already drained, and by the time it ends four hours later, everyone is scrambling out, relieved to have survived and planning how to escape the next one.
Between 2004 and 2008, I served on the Ogun State Economic Summit Group convened by Governor Gbenga Daniel and chaired by the late Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director of GTB. At our first meeting in his Abeokuta home, Aderinokun set strict ground rules which he enforced throughout. Meetings would always start at 9 am and end at 10 am. He explained that meetings lasting more than one hour were usually unproductive and punitive. True to his word, he arrived by 8:55 am, called meetings to order at 9:00, and ended by 9:55.
Under his leadership, the meetings were short, focused, and highly productive. He encouraged bonding outside formal sessions but discouraged repetition. If someone made a point, others could briefly agree or disagree, but not launch into long speeches or manifestos. This simple discipline ensured efficiency.
The Aderinokun template should guide meetings at most levels. Not every meeting must end in one hour, of course. Critical or urgent matters may require longer sessions, but this should be the exception, not the rule.
Today, meetings at family, club, town, private, and government levels drag on endlessly without time limits. Often, they drift into unrelated political or social debates, wasting more time. There have even been cases of people collapsing during marathon sessions due to health issues or long hours without food. Others leave feeling ill. Imagine being stuck in an air-conditioned room for hours or unable to visit the restroom for fear of missing key decisions. Meetings have become ordeals, marked by fatigue, irrelevance, and wasted energy.
Some people attend more than two meetings in a single day, spending over six hours seated. Some chief executives preside over four different meetings daily. If so much time is consumed by meetings, when is there time to implement decisions? The solution is simple: set time limits, arrive early, and stick to the agenda. Meetings need not be punitive.
May the good Lord continue to bless and preserve the legacies of Tayo Aderinokun, former Managing Director of GTB.
(Original article was written in 2017.)
