Someone posted an indictment on the begging culture, which has now enveloped us.
When I say us, I do mean it!
In the past, the standard way of writing a letter for employment was to begin with, ‘I beg to apply…’
These days, we’re not begging for employment but for favours when we shouldn’t if we have done the right thing at the right time.
All the fault is ours as a people. Instead of voting our conscience for people who would do what we want, we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by the cunningness of godfathers.
Once they empower us, they pick candidates for us. It’s not a matter of whether the candidates do well or not. It’s a matter of what we know how to eat, which gradually kills us.
And so, we would have signed off another four years through our greed.
While the godfathers pick choice political posts for their surrogates who dare not complain unless they want the heavens to fall upon them, the Godless godsons, too, are on a looting spree.
Why is it that despite the fact that the eighteen thousand naira minimum wage, if paid at all, is not enough to last the average honest worker until the end of the month, workers still pretend everything is, okay?
When I consider that the Nigerian worker always asks for a ‘salary increase,’ I can’t help bursting into laughter. The Nigerian worker usually thinks that once his salary is increased, everything will be all right, and he will live happily ever after.
They have chosen to forget that an increase in government minimum wages also brings increase in the salaries of workers in the organised private sector.
The one that is especially interesting is the informal private sector, which consists of landlords, food sellers, and so on.
So, the average worker will enjoy a temporary increase in their financial power. However, once the traders wise up to the salary increment, the situation will return to ‘normal’.
Instead of demanding salary increments, workers should demand improvements in basic amenities like roads, housing, electric power supply, and government accountability. Are all these even available?
Another thing is the reward system in terms of salaries and gratuities. The fact that someone has been elected as a councilor does not make the demands of his immediate family more pressing than those of his classmate who has decided to serve as a technocrat.
Why is it that a person who retires from office, such as the governor of Lagos, gets a house each in Abuja and Lagos while a person who has spent his lifetime in the civil service has not found enough resources to complete his two-bedroom apartment in the rural area?
We may go on and on, but I feel that the situation might remain the same until all these inadequate inequalities are resolved.
The Yoruba used to be a proud people who would rather die than beg. Where is that pride now?
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