RADICAL NERD

There is a particular kind of disadvantage that comes with being a builder in Nigeria. You are already ten steps behind before you even begin. Before a Nigerian developer writes their first line of code, they're negotiating electricity, internet, the cost of a decent laptop and the realities of an economy that seems determined to make the simplest things unnecessarily difficult. The designer is fighting for visibility in a market where access often matters as much as ability. The Product Manager is trying to explain why product management is not glorified project coordination. The analyst is competing for global opportunities against people who have had access to better systems, networks and institutions for most of their careers. And then, after navigating all of this, you are told to compete on merit. What merit are we measuring, exactly? The quality of the work, or how well someone performed despite having to fight for the conditions under which that work could exist? It is easy to preach equality of opportunity when you have never had to spend half your energy negotiating the conditions required to participate. Martin Luther King Jr. once said: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman." But inequality in opportunity is no less consequential. Because talent is universal, but access is not. And this is the part that sucks the most, there are extraordinarily gifted people in this country who may never get to demonstrate the full extent of their abilities, not because they lack ambition, intelligence or discipline, but because the starting line was never the same. We must be honest about that. But we must also refuse to be defined by it. As Rengoku said, "Set your heart ablaze." Because if there is one thing we have, it is raw, unfiltered grit. And sometimes, that is the only thing keeping the dream alive. Kwechiri.