Naturally, man abhors pain; instinctually, he resists and rejects it. Albeit, man’s struggles and survival, and his innateness to achieving success, are conditionally consequent upon his ability to look pain in the eyes and refused to be overwhelmed/mastered by it. It is believed in Yorùbá mythology that the day a lunatic realises he is a lunatic is the day he becomes whole. Whenever man owns up his pain and tackles it headlong, he comes out victorious and vindicated at the end of it.
Nevertheless, the life of man is ordinarily a struggle laced with pain and suffering. In fact, Biblically, man must necessarily suffer to feed (Gen. 3: 17-19). The labour for one’s daily bread, be it that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth or not, conditionally involves sufferings and pains. According to Ola Rotimi, in his classical “The gods Are Not To Blame”, ‘Life is a struggle.’ This struggle can happen to anyone at any-time and anywhere in life: at the playground, at work, at home, in the market place or in the Church/Mosque.
Ordinarily, wherein employer and employee are concerned, the Nigerian situation is one of subjugation. The employee is socially expected to be timid and allows his fundamental human rights to be trampled upon by the employer. The employer is believed to have the right to doing, as he deems fit, whatever/whenever he/she pleases (good or bad) to the employer without any form of restrain. As such, the employee remains an endangered specie living in perpetual pain of knowing that he is helpless.
This situation has turned many employers of labour into animals in human skin; terrors in the workplaces. That man/woman you think is a nice person has been because you never spoke with his/her employees or work with them. In fact, you would be given a job by an elder in the Church/Mosque, and would be full of expectations that this would be a better job than your past ones. Alas! You find out that the meaning of the NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) was misplaced; it was just an open message for you: Now Your Struggle Continues.
Unfortunately, this arbitrary human behaviour, man’s inhumanity to man has become the norm, codified and acceptable as the way of life in the workplace in Nigeria. I remember taking a course in Psychology, back at the Premier and Prestigious University of Ibadan. It was titled ‘Abnormal Psychology’. The Defence Mechanism of many Nigerians in the workplace has been killed because they work with abnormal employers, under abnormal conditions, without a remedy in sight. In fact, like Nigerian politics, many of the employees defend their abusive employers.
I had to resign a job, after the three months of probational period, in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State on Monday, 10th July, 2022 because my employer [a Professor of Nutrition] was a serial verbal abuser. The man runs an NGO and doubles as the Council Chairman of a Government Institute and the President of its professional body, under which I was employed. Nothing I did or said appealed to the man; I saw hell on earth during the short time I was there. It was an experience I will never wish for anyone.
Particularly, I recall writing a speech which he presented verbatim at an occasion in June of that year. After reading it, he called me into his office and said to me what broke the camel’s back: “‘Wagbémiga this would have been a very good write-up but you lack confidence.” He repeated “you lack confidence” to me two more times, just to make me feel the import of his deteriorating words. Yet, this man is a religious man; an elder highly respected with his contributions to consumer safety and protection advocacy in the country and abroad. He is a husband and a father in his 70s. You would expect such a man to be introspective.
This call is to the respective government agencies saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that Nigerian labourers are not dehumanised, exploited, terrorised and abused for rendering services in the work places. The need arises more than ever for them to protect Nigerians home and abroad, who have to endure inhuman degradations because they want to earn a living. Government must wake up to her responsibility of protecting the fundamental rights of Nigerians as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Civil Society Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations and well-spirited Nigerians must rise to the occasion of defending and protecting the rights of Nigerians at the work places. Majority of employers in Nigeria have lost their humanity. Nothing to show for humaneness but gluttonous greed for lining their pockets. Their employees are subjected to every form of oppression and subjugation so as to maximise profits. These inhuman activities happen even in the homes of rich and highly placed Nigerians, as well as poor Nigerians; including religious houses and government offices nationwide. They have lost their humanity.
To every Nigerian subjected to one form of degradation or the other, hold on tight, help is on the way. Wherever you may be; whether on the shores of Nigeria or you are in a foreign land in Asia, Europe, America and on the African Continent: Hold on, your day of liberation cometh. You will overcome. Do not lose your humanity.
‘Wagbémiga Mary-Peter Ònífáde
Writer/VOA
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