Sir,
The average Nigerian is discriminated against in varying forms regardless of whatever strata of the society he or she is situated. Meanwhile, be it subjugation, disenfranchisement, segregation, exclusion or neglect; discrimination can be experienced as a result of one’s age, sex, status, religious belief, economic status, political view, affiliation, marital status among others.
In the work place, age stands in the way for recruitment in some cases. Marital status also becomes a factor considered. In some cases, the females are made to commit to not getting pregnant within some period of years or not get married. In some cases, newly married ladies, about-to-wed females and married females are recruited for the fear of having to grant maternity leave while some utilize the “sex sells strategy” with young girls for marketing and sales roles.
As regards religion, I shudder on getting to some offices and shops for transaction at 9am to find their workers having morning devotion at office hours. Customers have to wait – The Ikoyi Passport Office is not exempted from this. After keeping applicants outside the passport office in the early morning sun or in the rain on raining days, they finally open their gate, assemble applicants and get them seated thereafter, the commence their devotion session.
The Christian format devotion anchored by the passport officers is conducted for the applicants regardless of the faith they belong to different. The same set of officers that lead the prayer session will be the ones that will manipulate applicants to extort them, sabotage government’s digital process from working and frustrate the capturing and application process so that applicants will be left with no other option than following the illegal route that they have created to extort them.
Age discrimination works against the young and old in the workplace at different scenarios. The young are expected to have gotten a masters degree at age 23 when the universities do not run smoothly as scheduled due to strikes. At other times, masters degree owners have to under play their degrees to get a job – these set of Nigerians are under employed. In other cases, people above certain age brackets are discriminated against because employers want young people so as to pay low salaries. The young are discriminated against when companies request for 5 years experience and above but will not give the candidate one out of those years of experience. In other words, everyone is looking for an already made product rather than build one.
Certificate discrimination on the other hand is common in present day Nigeria. Certificate foreign schools are seen as prestigious regardless of whether the certificate was acquired from a third world school. Once it bears a foreign or a strange name, many Nigerians are swayed by it. It is the same with foreign accents. My school colleagues in Mass Communication often narrate how the new generation media outfits rave for presenters that can speak in foreign accent. These presenters most times fake it and in most cases, they do it annoyingly such that It irritates the locals whose accents they are imitating. Applicants that are not sold to faking such foreign accents often times do not get the job. For this reason, we have presenters who concentrate not on the subject matter but more on how they sound. It does not matter if they are making sense or have a grip on the topic in discussion.
Single ladies or mums are discriminated against as well. They sometimes are not the choice of landlords when they go searching for accommodation. The reasons sometimes are sickening. Some have the mindset that it ks a man that has the capacity to pay for rent while some say they women will turn their house to a brothel where different men will be visiting them.
The Nigerian political terrain also by default excludes the female gender from the process. The rules seem crafted to solely to favour the men while the female gender is not considered the policies formulation. Another discrimination type is one a result of one’s body physique. However, physical challenge should never be a ground to disqualify someone for employment especially for roles that do not require physical tasks. Religious discrimination in the work place is also common especially where the owner of the company belongs to a particular religion. The boss often times leans towards recruiting people that belong to his or her religious faith, denomination or niche.
It seems it is a sin to have a Nigerian certificate, belong to a religious faith at some times, be of a certain age and belong to a tribe or ethnic group. Talking about nepotism, the civil service needs a baptism to sanitize its space off this discriminatory grip and nature of its existence. I wonder why an Anambra man cannot be the governor of Kano State and a Zamfara State indigene cannot be the governor of Ekiti State. The Nigeria of today until it changes tomorrow but as for now, we all must deal with the discrimination we face.
Regards,
Olota ‘Seun
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