Over to my sister in law's house to say hello. My family complain that they used to see me more when I was travelling back and forth from the UK than now that I am based in Naija. I explain that the trip from the UK to Lagos was a lot easier than the trip from Lekki to Suru-Lere. Those who have experienced the Lekki traffic know what I mean.
Anyway after catching up with a few pleasantries I ask whether she has managed to find another job being as she is fed up with her current one and then she tells me this story. Apparently not too long ago at a Zenith bank branch the manager was upset that sales targets were not being met and therefore decided that punishment had to be meted out. The punishment took the form of asking all the staff to get on their knees. Like you know back in primary school. More astonishingly they all complied!! We are talking about adults here. Some were parents. Some had actually acquired their degrees through legal means. On their knees. Apparently afterwards one of them resigned and has now acquired a lawyer. My sis in law is not sure what the claim will be.
At another bank branch apparently the manager needs a walking stick for her mobility. Word has it that when she gets frustrated she uses this as a whip to get the staff to sit up and take notice. Imagine being flogged at work. In a bank. What do you tell your friends and family when they ask you how your day was? This is not counting the numerous stories of these bank marketeers that are prepared to drop more than their principle(s) in order to reach ever demanding targets. Or sleep with the boss. And his wife.
Yesterday we were on the Lekki expressway on the way to the beach. Out of nowhere appeared a white pickup that forced us into the inside lane towards the kerb where people scattered helter and then skelter to avoid certain you know what. The pickup was closely followed by a dark blue 4 x 4 carrying the usual rag tag boys in blue. As I watched open mouth the lead car forced a car against the outside kerb and another few inches and the driver would have hit the divide at speed leading to a front tyre explosion. And God knows what else. I asked my driver to try and catch up with the perpetrators but they were going at such a speed it would have been impossible to do without risking our lives and other innocent ones. So they got away with it.
In the lead car driven by a Nigerian was a white man. In the back of the truck was some black fibre as used in the deployment of telecoms services. And it struck me that my fellow countrymen are readily prepared to kill their fellow man, woman and child in order to help a white man get his fibre to site on time. What price communication?
How can we have any sense of self worth when we are being sold out so cheaply by our very own?
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I find your reaction to the speeding white man very over the top. This shit happens every minute of every day somewhere in Lagos....about 0.001% of the time a foreigner is in the car. Do you think the people were selling themselves out under orders from the white man or just doing the same thing they do all the time regardless of who is in the car.
Too many lagosians drive tooo badly...FACT. That incident was no different just because a white man was in the car!
The problem is not people selling themselves out it is just the overwhelming selfishness of enough (not the majority but enough) people in this country to completely screw it up.
Anon please do not take offense to my references about the "white man". Trust me some of my best friends (and relatives) are white. :-> My point is that I do not tolerate bad, dangerous or reckless driving regardless of who is in the car. If you read through past mails you will note that this is becoming almost an obsession with me. My reference to the race of the man is that if we agree that most of the morons that allow their convoys to engender the lives of their fellow citizens are
politicians (and other petty crooks, I know I am pouring gasoline on top fire)we can at least agree that ignorance plays a big part in this. But for someone from one of the so called developed countries of the world to allow the same?
My question when I catch up with these people is to always ask one simple question. "Would I be allowed to do this in your country? So what gives you the right to do it in mine" I then ask the driver and the rest of owan boys whether they know what the very same oyinbo will tell his\her people when they get back home?
I still maintain though that we seem very ready to sell ourselves out given the smallest opportunity regardless of who is paying the bill. And the opportunity to impress any "johnny foreigner" just sends us into a total spin.
Thanks for dropping by though. Appreciate your views.
The case of the white man being driven by a fellow black man willing to kill his fellow brothers and sisters just to get the white man to site just reminds me of what our own so called govt officials do the same. My brother alomost got killed by men in rag tags once no thanks to him just coming back to naija after a very long time abroad and thinking those people have to be cautioned.
They were expecting the cars to fly off the road in a heavy traffic on the island but he wasn't willing to because he had a big car that couldn't squeeze in anywhere on the road. And our fellow Lagosians all took cover but an old woman came forward to plead with my brother to leave them alone because he was already kicking these so called mobile police officers.
His believe that one person can change these people's attitude in one day but our people in naija don't think the same way. Just so sad how we take the treated from our fellow country men.
As for the bankers, hope the person that choose to resign gets fair judgement.
So sad what people have to go through in the hands of these millennium slave masters.
Pls don't believe the banking stuff jare....kneel down koh, kneel down knew....and give me a break about the flogging...u're stories sound so over exaggerated. What branch of Zenith did this happen?
Both stories (the bank and the over-protected oyinbo) are related - they both are grounded in a colonial master-slave relationship that Nigeria has yet to shake off. Government officials are the new colonialists, behaving in pretty much exactly the same disgraceful and disrespectful way as the British colonial bigots did (I'm thinking of Robertson and his like, not the hundreds if not thousands of well-meaning Brits who served at lower levels).
All kinds of nonsense goes on in the banking sector - really horrible stuff. Kneeling down or being caned is relatively light-weight compared to other things that go on.
There needs to be a revolution in the organisational culture of so many organisations in Nigeria. We really need some heroes who stand up and say: fuck this shit, I'm doing this the right way.
It is funny that people are feeding into pure Rubbish.Blogs like this give people the impression that gidi is still in a pre colonial state of mind. The driving story is pointless. Everyone in gidi drives that way. Black,white,yellow, it doesnt matter. that is lagos driving for you. so stop trying to make it seem like a white man being in the car changes anything.
and the zenith one is clearly ridiculous. it Amazes me that anyone will believe such nonsense. Provide the branch, and the sales manager who punished, and the name of the person who is suing and I'll provide you with statements from people in that group to dispute this bullshit. Please if you have nothing to blog about, take a nap rather than writing bullcrap and feeding it to people who do not know better
Hmmmn, Nigerians and bad belle it is amazing that with education, you can still be envious of each other and be small minded, my comments are to the two anonymous that siad if you have nothing to blog, take a nap,and also to the other anonymous that wrote this...u're stories sound so over exaggerated. What branch of Zenith did this happen?
I understand freedom of speech and others, is it by force that you u have to come here and read this blog, u chose to and so u must adhere to the writers opinion, if u r not happy then delete his link which am positive is ur favourite on ur pc and let us that love this carry on reading and don't use this avenue to spread hatred. it is a story and it must be taken light hearted.
i hope i have been able to convince you and not confuse u that we love Toks boy's blog.
God bless
Laughter
@laughter - wow. Thanks so much for your comments. I personally don't understand these people. Reasoned debate I can deal with. But this? Hey live and let live abi?
Both anonymous say that everybody drives like this in Lagos. Oh well. That's all right then. Let's leave them to kill us all.
And of course the Zenith stores are "exxagerated" despite the solid source and really nothing this bad ever happens in Corporate Nigeria. Hmm
The second anonymous tells me to go and take a nap. Sounds like you are the one already in deep slumber my friend.
As laughter so rightly pointed out there are a lot of other blogs out there in blogland where you can bathe in the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Go there.
Flogging people at work???
Mr.Toks, i should try that sometime.
I'll whip out a Big stick and say "oya bring your Nyansh" lol.
Naija!!!
I never leave the road for them! Never! (well only once when 2 people in my car begged me to!) scratch my jalopy if you will but am not going anywhere, fly!
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