Aisha Yesufu: Old age, leadership and my America experience, By Mariam Jimoh

The video of this lady Aisha Yesufu talking about old men leading the youth that is making the rounds prompted this story.

See a few years ago, I had the opportunity to work with this Soil Engineering firm considering my background in Architecture and then I had also badged a degree in Landscape Architecture.

I know those who know me will wonder how I became a Cybersecurity Engineer/SME in which my experience also qualifies me as a Cybersecurity Architect..well…it all came to full circle isn’t it..lolzzz.

But that’s a story for another day.

Anyway back to my story…

So, I had been interviewed by this 93 years old man who was a Senior Partner in the company. After the usual line of interview questions related to the field he wanted to know when I came into the country…

His personal story confirmed to me why he asked that question, for he said just like me, he had been a graduate of Engineering from India in the 70s when he first got to America…

The first place he thought to look for a job was in the same office we are sitting in today (of course alot had changed since then) but he was glad the owner at the time took a chance on him and employed him, so he is doing the same for me…

He said he had worked deligently with the owner and others to help grow the company as much as they could…and as a matter of fact they remained the only Soil Engineering company still practicing in that area…

Many of their customers have remained with them over the years as well…

What was facinating about “Shamir” at 93 was his alertness, his brain that still remains as sharp and his agility despite his frail frame

Shamir still jogs in the freezing cold minus something degrees during winter and in the heat during summer, despite the heavy presence of computers and different design tools in the office, he was still the only one who bends over an electronically operated drafting table to draft landscape contours and designs to precision..

I remember always being afraid to take my computer AutoCAD drawings to him because at a glance he can see your mistakes and correct your measurements…

But this is not just a story about Shamir’s brain and agility.

You see the owner of the company who had employed Shamir at his prime and made him partner had a son, Steven who was also part of the compamy but was much younger than Shamir. Steve must have been in his mid 50s as at this time but I wouldn’t know because he was a chain smoker…

You see Shamir and Steven don’t see eye to eye for obvious reasons, the company was handed to Shamir after the demise of Steven’s father and the reason is not far-fetched

Because while Shamir would almost always be the first to get to the office at 8am and the last to leave after the cleaners leave at 8pm, never leaving his desk except to get lunch or when he walks about 5 blocks to the approval office to get his drawings approved.

Steven on the other hand is hardly in the office…he seldomly shows up, we the staff only get to see him once or twice per week and he comes in at random times, today maybe 11am and next day maybe 1pm.

And on those times he comes in with a trail of cigarettes smoke, goes into his office with his door ajar while he speaks loudly on the phone or at other times he and his friends would take over the conference room or even the visitors lounge and just chat away…

All of these he does to get under Shamir’s skin and sometimes he suceeds, because they always result to a fighting match…

The story making the round was Steven wanted an expansion, he wanted things done differently while Shamir was old and unyielding…

Many who had been with the company for 30, 35, 40 years were in support of Shamir

Those of us who are young, thought Steven was up to something and he needed to be given that opportunity.

Anyway, 2 years after I left the company Shamir died at the young age of 95.

I was only there for 6 months because the enviroment was too toxic for me.

I drove past the office building a couple of months ago after so many years and the building looked exactly the same..

The name tag, the car park, the barbed wire fences everything still the same.

It’s been 7 years since Shamir died and nothing has changed…NOTHING.

So I asked myself…what happened to all those fantastic ideas Steven had.

What happened to all those dream he was fighting Shamir so hard and blaming him for…???

I see the Nigerian youth the same way…You continue to ignore the little steps and progress we keep making as a country because you are not waking up with streets paved with gold..

You clamour for the not-too-young to rule…but as soon as the opportunity comes you will have no Idea of what to do with it.

If Steven had taken the time to learn from Shamir, perhaps he would have turned his father’s legacy into something everyone that ever worked there would be proud of…

Same goes to the Nigerian youth.

Instead of fighting the old at every turn, why not learn from them, their mistakes, successes and failures, then perhaps when it’s your time you would have something to fall back on..

• Mariam, a US-based Cybersecurity Expert writes from Maryland