The Desk — Finance, Policy & the View from the Street By Kemi Adeosun
Five years of Dash Me, a Whistleblower policy that moved $378 million — and why Nigeria keeps losing its best ideas before they can prove themselves
A member of my staff japa’d to London some months ago. I found out not when he was packing, not when he was at the airport, not even when he had cleared immigration. I found out when he had crossed to the part of London where he now lives — when the decision was, in every practical sense, irreversible.
I was not angry. I understood immediately. Because we say we want people to be honest with us about big decisions, but what we usually mean is that we want the opportunity to talk them out of it. He knew that. So he waited until there was nothing left to talk about.
This is not a piece about japa. It is a piece about what that moment revealed: that human beings — including the ones who support us most warmly — have a deep preference for things staying as they are. We dress this up as concern, as wisdom, as experience. But underneath, it is almost always the discomfort of change. The naysayer is rarely malicious. They are usually just comfortable.
