February 24, 2021
Most times, several young employees graduates and non-graduates, male and female face severe challenges that are corruption related in their offices and places of work. The nudge can mostly come from their superiors, supervisors and managers.
At some other times, you go to offices and meet norms that you are told not to deviate from, because several heads will roll if you do. I once was transferred to Kenema to head a regional office for a company. The guy I met incharge, who was to transfer to Freetown frankly informed me that the office generator consumes about twenty( 20) Liters a day, but that he had informed headquarters that it consumes thirty five( 35) litres daily. I was not to deviate from that, or i will expose him and he risks losing his job.
I informed him that unfortunately I cannot send such ridiculous fuel consumption figures as part of my weekly report just to cover him, as any clever logistician will pick it up and drag my name in the mud. I SAID NO.
To cut a long story short, I got another job the following month and called it quit- as I will not see myself being caught up in the mess.
We most times see our supervisors like practically forcing us to do the unthinkable:
- Fill up attendance list with ghost attendees
- Change figures and forge signatures
- Write up DSA for trips they were never part of, and several unethical/corrupt practices
They generally use you to do as a Mende proverb states “Using your hand to remove palm-nut from the fire”. Meaning he is using you for his own benefit. Whatever the dirty deal is, they end up taking the lions share; you take the left over. You forget that it was you who signed the documents and will be the one to be held accountable when the deal backfires. My brothers and sisters, You have the POWER to Say NO.
Whilst serving as a branch manager for a micro finance institution in Bo, the credit officers I supervised informed the new manager (Myself) that I have got a big job and that they will show me the ropes to swim in money as long as I work with them.
I SAID NO and three months after taking over, I had recommended the termination of two of them who were collecting monthly payments from clients but not paying to the cashier in the office. I had the POWER to say NO.
On the 15th of every month, we went to Sumbuya Lugbu to collect loan payments. The committee set to help us recover the loans, made up of the then town chief and six of his elders called me to the corner and pointed at a huge male goat tied to a stick.
“We are happy you are the new manager, you are our brother and we will see that you become rich in this job. The goat you see there is yours. Let us create about twenty groups of ten members each and you approve a loan of Le 40,000,000 to each group. When it is the 15th which is the date you come to collect the loan re-payments, it will look as if the people in the ten groups went into the bush and did not come to re-pay the loans”. !!!!!!!!!!! Imagine as a young manager, first time to visit the town to collect loan re-payments on one hand and on the other hand the committee I depended on to make my work easier and lighter since they know their people. I was tongue tied but managed to first thank them for their desire for me to be rich but turned down the goat and their offer. They hated me from that day and saw me as an idiot, but thanks to my lord and savior Jesus Christ who gave me the power to say NO.
Earlier upon arrival in the town in the early part of the evening, they had offered me a gallon of fresh Palm-wine and offered to look for a beautiful girl for the new manager since we will be spending two nights in the town. I turned down both the palm-wine as I don’t drink alcohol and their so called beautiful girl they offered to come with at night. I SAID NO.
In another organization in Bo, where I served in a financial capacity, my boss cajoled me to sell office fuel, forge signatures for the then Ebola supplies received, fill up transport refunds payments whenever we had a workshop, sell supplies meant for the less privileged and so on… In all the above, I SAID NO. You have the power to say NO my brothers and sisters.
Certainly there will be counter attacks against you, as long as you make up your mind to raise your head up and do the right thing. Holes will be dug for you to fall into, lies will be told against you, the list goes on and on.
In such cases, stand tall and pray hard my brother, don’t let anyone use you for his /her own selfish gains. Prove that you come from a descent home and not a house. The storm will rage, but definitely, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. The storm will be over because God is with you.
I was the fleet manager for the largest fleet of NEMS/MOHS ambulances in the country. A supervisor lied against me saying i asked him to collect Le 400,000 from two drivers for recruitment and to send me Le 300,000 and the remaining Le 100,000 he should take. Imagine that trash. My salary then was Le 9,000,000 with several other benefits. In a nutshell, I lost my job, suffered to take care of my wife and three kids, but God was with me, because he had NEVER failed me .I handed the issue to God. Four months after my termination, I got a job with the European Union/ MAPE Project. Got the biggest salary I had ever received in my life with the biggest organization I had ever worked for. The God we serve is alive. Stand for what you know is right and never waiver. I am neither righteous nor holy, neither am I a saint, but i fear God, have a wife and three kids to take care of, and a family name to protect. Don’t allow anybody to mess you up my brothers and sisters. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SAY NOOOOOOOO.
Abdul Banya Braima ( Feel Free to Share ).
Freelance Writer. Email: braimaabdul@gmail.com/ 076-720-341.
