“Competence goes beyond words. It’s the leader’s ability to say it, plan it, and do it in such a way that others know that you know how and know that they want to follow you”- John C. Maxwell

David William Moyes is a distinguished Scottish professional football coach and former player. His illustrious career spanned a period of about four decades, first as a player with different clubs, then as a coach, and most recently as a manager of some of the highly regarded clubs in Europe.

As a player, Moyes made over 540 league appearances as a centre half in a career that began with Celtic where he won a Championship medal. He also played for Cambridge United, Bristol City, Shrewsbury Town, and Dunfermline Athletic, before ending his playing career with Preston North End.

He became a coach at Preston and later worked his way to becoming the club’s manager in 1998. He won the League Two Championship in his first year as manager and his profile rose rapidly. He was picked up by a Premier League Club, Everton, as manager in 2002. At Everton, Moyes’ performance was extraordinary as under him, the club qualified for the third round of the UEFA Champions League in 2005 and reached the 2009 FA Cup final.  Besides, Everton remained a potential winner of the Premier League.

Moyes received effusive praises from his Premier League manager colleagues and in Parliament for his achievements at Everton. He also won individual awards as LMA Manager of the Year (2004-2005) and Premier League Manager of the Month (2002, 2010).

Wrong turn

For all of his 12-year reign at Everton, Moyes did not win the Premier League title but he kept the club as a serious contender for the crown. In May 2013, he was appointed manager of Manchester United, the most successful Club in the Premier League history. And the ‘cookie crumbled’ for David William Moyes.

He spent only 10 months out of his six-year contract at Manchester United as the club wobbled from one defeat to the other. Following consecutive 0-3 home defeats against Liverpool and Manchester City, a ‘FLYPAST’ was staged by United fans, with the banner displaying ‘WRONG ONE – MOYES OUT’ in seven-foot lettering during a home match against Aston Villa in March 2014.

What went wrong? Why was David Moyes’ stay at Manchester United Club such a monumental disaster? My opinion is that he was promoted above his competence. He is a great and talented guy with a track record of achievements at a Division 2 and middle level Premier League clubs. He should have been allowed to consolidate himself at Everton and, at least, win the league title before being catapulted to Manchester United, where I think he was overwhelmed by the gargantuan task of keeping up with the outstanding success of his predecessor, Sir Alex Fergusson.

Unfortunately, since that misadventure, the two parties involved are yet to recover and fully regain their pre-engagement positions. Manchester United has engaged about three coaches after Moyes but they are yet to reach the pre-Moyes height set by Sir Alex Ferguson, while David Moyes has moved to Real Sociedad in Spain and back to England, with Sunderland, all disaster outings without regaining his Everton-day success level.

Peter’s theory

In ‘Peter Principle’ (a management concept theory published in 1969 by Laurence J. Peter), it was noted that there is a ‘strong temptation for people to use what has worked before, even when this might have not been appropriate for the current position’. Whoever recommended David Moyes for the Manchester United job must have used his record at Everton without considering if his competency level can handle the task at a much bigger club.

The business dictionary defines competence as ‘a cluster of related abilities, commitments, knowledge, and skills that enable a person (or an organisation) to act effectively in a job or situation’.  Competence indicates sufficiency of knowledge and skills that enable someone to act in a wide variety of situations.

In analysing his theory further, Dr Peter stated that ‘an employee’s inability to fulfil the requirements of a given position to which he is promoted may not be the result of general incompetence on the part of the employee as much as it is due to the fact that the position simply requires different skills than those that the employee actually possesses’.

A further discussion on the principle will show that an ‘excellent employee’ may be inevitably promoted to the point where the employee’s performance is no longer excellent, or even satisfactory. I have witnessed many cases of very good employees who had performed very well in their previous job positions as executors of plans but failed woefully when they were wrongly or hastily promoted to the higher post of policy formulators. In the two cases witnessed in the early stages of my career, these employees were fired from their positions.

The Nigerian example

I have often wondered why the immediate past president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr Goodluck Azikiwe Ebele Jonathan, was considered suitable for the job at the time he was elevated to the presidency. Apart from the political consideration by the powerbrokers to have someone from the minority tribes at the pinnacle of power base in Nigeria, could there have been other competency issues involved? Could these competency issues have weighed heavily in favour of his choice versus other minority tribe contenders like Dr Peter Odili or Donald Duke?

I have my doubt that this was done in any systematic manner. Dr Jonathan rose rapidly, as recorded in ‘Wikipedia’, from being an education inspector, lecturer, environmental protection officer, deputy governor, governor, vice-president and later president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was the latter position that showed that he had been promoted far above his competency level. Like David Moyes, he was and he is still considered a good person but an incompetent president.

As President, he completely forgot himself and the nation and allowed corruption to flourish, so much that The Economist described him as one ‘who let politicians and their cronies fill their pockets with impunity’. Till date, Nigeria and Nigerians are still counting the cost of the monumental disaster that the immediate past administration represented.

For sure, there are many other public administration appointments in which people were elevated above their competency level. There is the case of Dr Patrick Akpobolokemi, the erstwhile Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), who was a lecturer at Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State before his elevation to the exalted position of the DG, NIMASA. Certainly and according to ‘Peter Principle’, he was promoted into incompetence which was largely on display throughout his tenure. From reports and current revelations published in the newspapers, Dr Akpobolokemi seemed either not to know what his duties were or he simply adopted stealing as his only job at NIMASA and he appeared to be so much in a hurry to do so.

The way forward

How will Nigeria move forward if we continue to have people in offices that they are barely qualified to hold? Have we considered what position Nigeria would have been by now if we had had the right people in the position of power? When are we going to have competent people in charge of our ministries and agencies at both the federal and state levels? What if our successive presidents had been in the league of Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or other notable visionary leaders recorded in history worldwide?

What if our governors had been competent super-performers and not showmen and political warriors as we have now nationwide? What is next for Nigeria in terms of management of her abundant human and material resources? Perhaps, this is the time to appeal to those who are in position to nominate, recommend or appoint people into offices to, please, in the interest of the nation, consider the competencies of the individuals that they are about to nominate, recommend or appoint into offices. Let the nation and the individuals concerned ‘leave David Moyes at Everton’!

The story of humans is full of struggles. Over time, individuals, families, nations, groups and organisations have jostled to gain certain levels of advantages over others. This struggle is responsible for wars, conflicts, murders and the social vices that are rampant in the world today.

The same struggle has a positive face, however. It has oftentimes led to innovations in many economic and social areas. In business, strategies are designed and executed to secure a competitive advantage over rivals. The path to this advantage is taught in business schools all over the world.

Similarly, political parties, ethnic groups, religious organisations and other bodies struggle to design ways to outmanoeuvre their competitors. The focus is usually on the advantage to be gained rather than the value it confers. In this process, few ponder over the concept that advantages inherently also have disadvantages built into them.

Historical examples

Some advantages are natural or inherited. Some people are born into rich families or with above average physical attractions or good physique, health, etc. Goliath’s extraordinary height and unparalleled war experience gave him boasting rights over the army of Israel. It was recorded that his voice sent shock waves down the spines of Israeli soldiers. He bestrode the fighting arena like a colossus and no one came out to challenge him for 40 days. However, Malcom Gladwell in his book, David and Goliath, recorded that it was the disadvantages of Goliath’s commanding heights that gave David victory over him. He was afflicted with gigantism (caused by hypersecretion of growth hormones), which gave him the size that was intimidating to his opponents. This advantage was accompanied with blurred vision that, in turn, put him in a disadvantaged position against expert slingers like David.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the creator of the infamous, durable and lightweight assault rifle, the AK-47, wished later in life that he had created a lawnmower instead of the destructive gun that once conferred advantages on its holders. Even the great Albert Einstein regretted making the atomic bomb, a device that won the war for America against Japan. He wished he had been a watchmaker.

After World War II, America spent hundreds of billions of dollars to acquire military capabilities that eventually catapulted her to the status of the most powerful nation in the world. With this advantage, America became the Chief Policeman of the world and acquired the self-imposed burden of having to respond to developments in all regions, thereby incurring civil and military expenditures that now seem beyond its means.

In this process, the advantages of being the world’s only superpower turned into a major disadvantage. Most of the country’s manufacturing activities have since been outsourced to other nations, leaving it with decrepit infrastructures (e.g. airports) that are lagging behind in facilities available in smaller and less powerful nations.

Donald Trump latched onto this perceived disadvantage to rally Americans to his side, promising to bring back lost production, restore jobs and upgrade infrastructures. He won against all odds.

Health industry

In Nigerian hospitals, doctors are the dominant bosses. They have clear advantage over the other health professionals because of long term headship of virtually all health institutions, closer ties with the powerful people in government and the very delicate and sometimes critical nature of their jobs. They offer no accommodation to other healthcare professionals who are forced to accept whatever the doctors decreed or be crushed.

Over the years, this advantage has been stretched to the limit. Doctors have become a law unto themselves, going on strikes for all manners of reasons. Today, Nigeria has one of the worst health indices in the world and our public hospitals are no longer the health sanctuary that they once were. The doctors have lost some, if not all, of the credibility they once enjoyed in the public sphere. The advantages doctors enjoyed have been grossly mismanaged and the disadvantages have risen to the top of public perception.

Pharmacists, too, have an advantage of employment over others in the pharmaceutical industry. They are preferred in community practice, manufacturing, sales & marketing and other support services. Under the law, a pharmacist is required for the registration of a premise for pharmaceutical services. For too long, many pharmacists relied on this advantage to the exclusion of other requirements for a successful business operation. Today, the pharmaceutical landscape in Nigeria is dominated not by pharmacists but by those who must struggle at the point of entry to prove themselves worthy of employment and retention.

Political sphere

In the Nigerian polity, certain tribal groups historically gained certain advantages over the other ethnic groups. The Yorubas, for instance, had early exposure to Western education and are, by far, the most educated ethnic group in the country. They are thus more vocal and quicker to challenge political authorities. The most vociferous opponents of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the Yoruba political flagbearer in the early years following the country’s independence, were from his ethnic group.

Yorubas are divided and can barely speak with one voice on any national issue. The advantages gained from their early contact with the Western colonialists were not properly managed and today, the ethnic group struggles to reach its potentials in the Federation.

The Igbos of South-East Nigeria are adept in commerce and can be found everywhere in the country. Diligent, industrious and fired by the need to revise the setbacks suffered during the civil war, the Igbos can be found conducting trading activities in the major cities of Nigeria. They dominate in Nigeria’s commercial city centres. This advantage has conferred on them the bragging rights of being the ‘Jews’ of Africa.

In his writings, the late renowned Igbo author, Chinua Achebe, commented on the tendency of his kinsmen to show off their hard-earned wealth through extravagant displays that often drew the ire of some other Nigerians. The disadvantage of this advantage has shown in the group’s complaint of marginalisation despite having the entire nation in their ‘hands’. The

Northerners are deft political actors who have dominated the political landscape right from the First Republic. They have used their privileged position to garner some advantages for their region. The allocation of resources to states and local governments weigh heavily in favour of the North.

However, this advantage has been the bane of the Northern states as the free flow of resources has not resulted in any meaningful development of the region. The region lags behind in all indices of development in comparison to her southern counterparts. The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has alluded to this in his recent public addresses. The disadvantages of the advantage that the North gained in her struggle over other regions are reflected in the indices: High poverty, low literacy rate, etc.

The point being made here is simple: whatever advantages enjoyed by a group or an individual will most likely last only for a short time. Eventually, the disadvantages of such advantage will crop up. If you are being oppressed by others who have an advantage over you, do not despair. Review the situation critically and figure out the disadvantages inherent in their position. Exploit it. Let us resolve to make the world a better place to live for others around us. In that way, we will all be in an advantaged position.