The event was a security summit, organised by the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC).
I was in attendance.
As usual, prominent persons were recognised.
That’s how I got to know the ‘office’ of the lady.
Apparently, an immigration boss in the state.
She walked in (with two males in immigration uniform), took her phone from her hand bag (being carried by one of them) and gave back the hand bag to him.
Do you know that, he carried that handbag (while standing o) all through the duration of the woman’s stay at the event?
It didn’t go down well with me.
That’s the easiest way to identify abusers of authority.
Outright insensitive in disposition!
When I left that event, I began to Google the images of:
Theresa May, British Prime Minister.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
Hillary Clinton, when she was the U.S Secretary of State.
None of these women (whose names ring a bell on the global stage) had aides tagging behind them with their (boss’) hand bags.
Even the Queen of England carries her hand bag!
What then, is it about the bunch here?
Is carrying a boss’ handbag part of a civil servant’s job description?
Stories are now flying- about the ‘Oga-madams’ in government parastatals (especially in Abuja), …who parade official drivers that actually turn out to be their ‘toy boys’.
What’s with our aversion to drawing the lines between WORK and personal idiosyncrasies?
Is the word DECENCY… that alienated from us, here?
Most seniors I know (who passed through the civil service) had uplifting tales about the superiors -that taught them the professional ropes.
Now, I have only PITY for the young ones trooping into the civil service…what with the crop of superiors they are usually saddled with.
OGA-MADAM can be a repulsive Naija syndrome.
A security boss’ assistant detail (in uniform!) goes to the market for his wife/mistress.
A junior staff is kept away from official duties…because he/she has to attend to a boss’ domestic chores.
Dear ‘Oga-Madam’…
Saddling another (especially an official subordinate) who is NOT in your personal employ with such task is damn CRASS.
And points to a gross abuse of office!
When employers and superiors recognise their limits…DIGNITY OF LABOUR perpetuates!
A salon that I patronise…
I had become used to a particularly sweet (in disposition) lady.
After a while, I stopped seeing her around.
When one asked of her, the response was “she is at the other shop.”
I concluded that they probably opened another salon that she had to oversee.
It was not until I ran into her that I learned the true picture of things.
She told me that the ‘Madam’ opened a frozen foods shop, not far from the Salon and mandated her to oversee the outfit…in addition to her job at the Salon.
I asked if the new responsibility came with a pay raise.
She said NO.
She was still on her 10K per month salary.
I knew that it’s a matter of time before somebody opened her eyes.
And what will be worse…the ‘madam’ would have a tough time finding a ‘worthy’ soul like that lady.
I was not wrong.
The next time I visited the salon,
I was told that she had left.
When I called her, she told me that she asked for a raise and the madam questioned her audacity. And that people who witnessed the constant trips (while carrying cartons of frozen foods on the head) she made to the woman’s house began to ask if she has also become the woman’s domestic help. There is always that ignorant (sometimes MEAN) approach to how we handle those below us in status.
Most jobs that Nigerians turn down at home, they gladly do elsewhere,
Because we do NOT dignify labour here!
END
You are very correct. Sad thing is some of these workers fear that if they do not do this high service they will loose their jobs. Nice write up though.
Truly, it’s the Nigerian syndrome. Master -Slave mentality.