Nigerian State Governor Punishes Latecomers

Ayodele Fayose, the controversial governor of Ekiti state in the south-west geo-political zone of Nigeria arrived at the state secretariat today, and promptly locked the gates into the secretariat building just after 8am to keep out those who would arrive late. Of course many of the workers were late as is normal for most Nigerians in the civil service at the federal, state, or local government level. He proceeded to humiliate the latecomers who all knelt down, or even lay prone on the ground in their well ironed and starched Monday morning work attires to plead with the governor not to get the sack and also to promise never to be late again. I can bet good money that a good number of them would have attributed their lateness to the devil!

My interest, as usual, is to look at it from the religious angle. I would like to assume that most of these workers who were late to work today either went to church yesterday, or to the mosque last Friday. I can also bet good money here that none of them were late to their respective places of worship. Why then were they late for work? It is a Nigerian thing. Those in the employ of the government, just like our elected officials and political appointees, see their government job as guaranteed a meal ticket, one that will provide a salary at the end of the month. They therefore put in the most minimal of efforts, hence it is not uncommon to see them report late for work, demand bribes for jobs they are paid to do and abandon their duty posts at the flimsiest excuse, which includes midweek church services or choir practice.

The angle pursued by many of the media houses reporting this story was that the governor was dishing out inhuman treatment to these habitual latecomers. While not intending to undermine those who arrive early to work everyday, those who arrived early, today, were not necessarily in the habit of doing so, and of course, a number of those who were late to their duty posts today may have always come early, but were unfortunately caught out today. While this is true, let us not remove our focus from the fact that Nigerian civil servants do not take their jobs seriously. Arriving on time to their places of worship is more important to them than arriving on time for work, after all, they must not forsake the gathering of the brethren.

Kudos to saharareporters.com. Please follow me on twitter @naijaanarchist and Nigeriananarchist on facebook.