BN Hot Topic: Scoring Our Mid Term Papers

Appraisal time at work is usually looked forward to with a certain sense of apprehension, especially with the prospect of pay increase and or promotion hanging in the balance. So you work extra hard in the months leading to the time or if you’re inexplicably lazy, you find a way to curry favors from those who would appraise you because some way or the other, you shall be weighed and measured. In order not to be found wanting, you pull yourself up by the boot straps and you ensure that you get a pass mark.

This situation is very similar to school and exam time; the only difference is that during appraisal, you are asked to score yourself before your appraising team lead or boss appends his overall score. So, you self-appraise, and then your boss lets you know whether you’ve exceeded your own estimation or you’ve been wallowing in a cesspool of self-deceit. Yesterday, as Nigeria celebrated 14 years under democratic rule, the Nigerian president, and other members of the government presented their mid-term score card. The ceremony was held at the International Conference Center, Abuja and was broadcast live on TV.

As they reeled out their achievements, which sounded to me like patting one’s self on the back, I tried to imagine what these achievements were measured against. I thought of self-appraisal in the work place and the fact that this might be akin to that. Doing a quick mental run on the sectors wherein these self-determined scores might have come from, I thought of the following sectors: power, education, health, security, economy, tourism, agriculture, employment & infrastructure.

What do you guys think about the mid-term score card as delivered by the Nigerian government as the Jonathan administration hits its 2 year mark? Do you agree with their score of having done well in the last 2 years? If so, can you enumerate the sectors where improvement has been seen? Do you think it’s rather pre-emptive to score one’s self?

What do you guys think?
Let’s discuss