Human innovation driven by Rewards

Ochuko was a cheerful young man, although was not born with a silver spoon was a very intelligent lad. He was the second child of Mr and Mrs Ayonuwe. His father was a teacher in Grammar school, and his mother was a trader who sold food stuffs in the market.

Ochuko had three siblings, two sisters and a brother. Ochuko had passed his secondary school leaving examination in flying colors, and was eager to go to the university to fulfill his long term ambition of becoming a pharmacist. He was inspired when he met his father’s younger brother who was a pharmacist, he admired his uncle’s wealth and and since he was interested in sciences, he was determined to become a pharmacist.

His parents lived in the ghtetto area of Mushin Lagos. His older sister was in her third year in Lagos State University studying Accounting. Her name was Fejiro and they were very close because they shared passion for fashion and beauty. Their parents had joked that if not for the age gap between him and his sister they would pass for twins, as they also looked very much alike, and enjoyed each other’s company.

After the lockdown in the year 2020, his mother had an accident which ed to the loss of her legs, this drained their family’s resources as she was unable to take care of herself ans support the family financially so his father made he and his younger siblings start hawking to support his father’s salary. His older sister Fejiro, was good at sewing while he was good at illustrating designs for her, she sometimes helped neighbors mend their clothes for meager amounts, which contributed to her school fees. Ochuko was eager to go to the university, even though he was aware that his father could not afford to sponsor his education,

On a Friday, his sister came home and informed Ochuko about a competition she course mate told her about . It was a fashion competition, where the the winner would be rewarded with a scholarship to a fashion school in London as well as one million naira. Ochuko jumped after hearing sister mention life changing opportunities for their family. He had begun to imagine all the good things that money would do, like help his mother and his younger siblings, and there would be no need for his siblings to hawk in Lagos traffic. Plus the chance to go abroad to learn and become skilled in a lucrative craft that he loved. It seemed like good fortune was finally coming his way.

Ochukwo begged his sister to consider making him her partner for the competition , he persuaded her to consider his designing skills as well as his ability to help her run errands while she’s having lectures in school. His sister agreed, since he was of legal age to enter for the competition, and two heads were better than one. The competition was an intense competition designed for start up fashion designers in Nigeria, not to mention the requirements for the competition was to create a fashion line of five outfits, showcasing the Nigerian culture in a new way and using a new method.

Ochuko and his sister registered for the competition and began to plan themselves for the competition as they had only two more weeks to the final submission. Their major challenge was raising money to buy materials they would use to create the outfits, and this discouraged them, until Ochuko brought up an idea of them going around to tailors in their neighborhood to beg for their cloth scraps and then join it together to make their designs.

Mr Ayonuwe returned home one evening after work and met his children sorting through scrap materials, initially he started shouting at his children for making a big mess in their two bedroom rented apartment, but they told him that there was no cause for concern, as it was for a competition that would transform the family if they won. Mr Ayonuwe calmed down and praised his children’s effort to make something of themselves.They also took materials from their old clothing like elastic, stones and other things that could help the appearance of the clothes.

They also decided to make outfits that represented their part of the country, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Ochuko designed the clothes and his sister started sewing the clothes with the scraps. They were able to coordinate the colors and patterns of the materials they got, which made the clothes beautiful and colorful.

 Eventually the day for the submission came and Ochuko and Fejiro submitted their designs.

When they got to the venue, they were afraid they would not win due to the large crowd they met at the event. The judges narrowed their selection to two of which Ochuko and his sister was among. After the selection, the judges asked both teams to make deliver a presentation about the processes and the story behind the designs, and when Ochuko and his Fejiro spoke about how they represented Nigeria through the scraps by the diverse cultures that existed in Nigeria. They mentioned that each material was not the same but had similar texture, which portrayed how tribes in Nigeria have different beliefs but are similar in traditions. 

After the presentation, the judges were amazed by their presentation, and enquired if they had made any designs before. They responded that they could not even afford proper materials to sew. The judges were dumb founded to hear how these siblings created a new set of beautiful designs from nothing. They unanimously decided that Ochuko and Fejiro deserved to win the competition , as they has met all the requirements prescribed by the organisers of the competition.

As soon as they announced Ochuko and Fejiro as winners of the competition, their joy knew no bounds, they started screaming and shedding tears of joy. They were presented the cheque of a million naira and they hugged themselves. After the came down from the stage, they were approached by a news reporter that asked them a question, she congratulated them on their success and complimented their creativity and innovation,she proceeded to ask them about their inspiration. Ochuko responded to the news reporter that it was the reward, he said the reward drove their human ability to be creative, the impact the reward would have in their lives inspired them to create something of value, Fejiro supported his statement by nodding her head since she was overwhelmed with emotions and could not talk clearly.

Reward is a positive principle that has been practiced from generation to generation.Reward can be defined as a benefit given for doing something good.  Reward comes in different ways but can be majorly classified into tangible and intangible rewards. Tangible rewards are rewards that are usually physical in nature an example is the one Ochuko and his sister Fejiro got with the money and scholarship. While an intangible reward is something that can not be valued like appreciation or recognition. Reward is a driving force that encourages people to be creative, and creativity is a component of innovation.

Innovation is necessary as change is a constant factor of life and humans need to evolve.Innovation can also be defined as the introduction of new things,ideas, or the way of doing something. It can also mean the creation of values from ideas

The only conflict of Reward lies on the value placed by the person rewarding and the person being rewarded, if the person being rewarded does not consider the reward valuable then he/she may not be driven to be innovative. The value Ochuko and his sister placed on the reward of the fashion competition drove him to be innovative about finding materials to sew their designs, and using those designs to represent Nigeria’s diverse cultural heritage.

In a nutshell, Reward is a crucial part of human existence, likewise Human Innovation, they both work hand in hand to improve our lifestyle and society at large.