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Home |   About Us |   Contact Us |   Members |   Search |   Subscribe |   Disclaimer |   THE GUARDIAN CONSCIENCE, NURTURED BY TRUTH LAGOS, NIGERIA.     Monday, August 16 2004   news   editorial/opinion   policy & politics   focus/record   business   metro   sports   homes/properties   media   capital market   arts     Guardian Chat Click to join the chatroom Much ado about the Nigerian worker By Anthony Okoro READING the article: "Internal control systems and the Nigerian worker" by Mr. Lanre Abati in The Guardian of Wednesday, July 21, 2004 left me both amused about its nearsightedness and irritated because its thesis is repeated too often. My initial retort was "if Nigerian employees are unhappy because employers are treating them badly, why are they not working for themselves Are they sticking there because jobs are scarce and they can't survive if left alone Are some human beings created employers and others employees Shouldn't more Nigerians work for themselves, so that those who agree to be employees would be dictating to the employers " Too often, I hear people talk as if a job is an entitlement and employers are extensions of our government " "Too many graduates, no jobs" " as if the a job is something you graduate into. But regulated capitalism won the argument " economies thrive when entrepreneurs are left to create jobs and run businesses in their investors� interest with little intervention. For those who missed this article, the author wrote that he gets amused when managers and directors complain, as they seem to these days, about the alarming level of breaches of internal control policy by Nigerian workers. Or in simple terms how often Nigerian workers disobey instructions. Why Because the problem is not the internal control systems but the Nigerian workers who are unhappy. This unhappiness is because the employers also misbehave and do not treat their workers well. From the tone of the article, Mr. Abati appears to be an employee. Before I go forward, let me first declare that I own and run my company. This means I am an employer not an employee. But what I have to say on this issue is not based on this, because I was once an employee too and may still be one some day. I am writing this article in the interest of the Nigerian economy and the very Nigerian employees he speaks for I started this telecom distribution company in 1993 at the precocious age of 24 rather than take a job because I would rather be the master of my fate than a servant. After all, Shell was set up by somebody. Let me create jobs rather than complain about unemployment. At a time, I employed 35 Nigerians and hoped to one day be on the stock market a la Mike Dell and Bill Gates. But in the past two years, owing to the rise in frequency of internal control problems from my staff, I have reduced the staff level and branch network to a manageable level of six employees and I now do my own accounting and storekeeping. I have sworn I will only hire another accountant if he is a foreigner. I just smile when I read the frequent statistics about so many unemployed Nigerian graduates. I have seen first hand what Mr. Abati is writing about Nigerian workers.. Personally, I believe and stand to be corrected that the experience of most Nigerian entrepreneurs of the abnormal level of indiscipline and sometimes downright criminality of Nigerian employees is the number one reason for the level of unemployment and underdevelopment of the Nigerian economy. A country may have no physical infrastructure; no electricity, no police, no telephones. Yet a resourceful businessman can still succeed there by importing these infrastructure; generators, security systems and satellite phones. But if its human infrastructure is untrustworthy and he has to import expatriates to manage his business, it is a hopeless case, because then that country will not even have the middle class to buy his products. Yet this is the situation in Nigeria today. If any one reading this doubts me, let him ask any Nigerian entrepreneur whether he would prefer a foreigner as his accountant or financial manager. It is not only the Indians and the Lebanese that are employing their people as accountants. Any Nigerian employer that can afford to is importing a foreigner to come and be his accountant. However, Mr. Abati made a valid point when he said that many Nigerian employers are guilty of maltreating their staff and that this breaks the trust of these employees forever. Late salaries, job insecurity, lack of retirement benefits and no due process complaint procedures. But can these ever excuse the level of indiscipline and corruption one finds in many Nigerian private employees I think not. Indeed I want to urge Mr. President to set up an equivalent of the ICPC for trying corrupt staff of the private sector if he is serious. The level of bribe-taking from suppliers and contractors by purchasing staff in some private companies is worse than in the government. When most foreigners talk about Nigeria being so corrupt, they are referring to this country's private sector rather than its public sector. If an employee feels justified in stealing from his employer or not carrying out his duties because his employer is owing him six months salaries, he is no more justified than the woman who kills her husband for maltreating her. A crime is a crime, two wrongs do not make a right, and crimes deserve punishment under a civilised society's laws. Even our Organised Labour bodies need to realise that if local businessmen continue to have the level of internal control system breaches they are witnessing in Nigeria today, they will not expand but will rather retrench (as I have done) and massive unemployment will be the end result. It is this same "it�s- good-for-them" shortsightedness that led the Organised Private Sector to fold its hands whilst some criminals were duping foreigners in the name of "reparation". Most honest businessmen thought "it�s not my business, that oyibo man got what he deserved, he wanted to come and steal Nigeria's wealth and instead they stole his own, tee hee." Today these same businessmen are crying that foreigners do not want to come and invest in Nigeria. Now they want to spend billions to re-brand Nigeria. A stitch in time saves nine. Why did UAC close Kingsway Stores and go into Real Estate Why do we only have small retailers today Internal control problems played as much a role as harsh competition. Indeed probably the reason that Nigerian banks are afraid of increasing to a N25 billion capital base is because they are having so many internal control breaches whilst they are as small as they are, that they hate to imagine what it would be like if they got bigger. It is therefore in the interest of the Labour Congress and all well-meaning employees to see that this problem is resolved because in the end it is not the employers that will suffer but those who need a job to live. Historically, the clever employs the weak. Most employers are resourceful and crafty and can find ways to earn a living even without employing anyone. They usually only hire other people because they want to expand out of greed or ambition, not because without help, they will starve. Most people on the other hand who work for others find life hard if left on their own. If you are an honest employee and an employer is not paying you and you need the job, the right thing to do is to try negotiation, if it fails, resign and go. Set up on your own if you can. But don't steal, don't be undisciplined. If you are an honest employer and can no longer pay salaries, work it out with your staff or retrench. Don't lie to them and owe them for months with no plan to pay them! This is plain illegal not just immoral. The employment scenario is a binding contract like renting a house. It is governed by implicit and explicit laws. In 2002, a manager of mine went against company policy and sold my goods on credit to a con man that had convinced her to come and partner with him on a fake supply contract. I lost almost one million naira. Of course her guarantor could not pay. I decided that this time I would not just fire her or do as some Nigerians do and pay the police to torture her, rather I would test the judicial process and help the police prosecute her for the crime of theft. When Nick Leeson broke Barings Bank in the most celebrated Internal Control breach of all time, the police in the UK swung into action and he swiftly went to jail for it. In Nigeria he would have been detained for two years and then released. After two years and 10 adjournments and still no hearing, it was evident to even the police prosecutor that the magistrate trying our case was not interested in doing his job and we dropped the case. This was when I decided to retrench my dream of hiring as many Nigerians as I could. (Yet I can imagine that magistrate waking up tomorrow and saying "my son who is a graduate for five years has no job.") Therefore, what is the truth about Nigeria's internal control problems It is that behind this maltreatment by employers and theft and indiscipline by employees lies the failure of the law and order system of this country to take the job contract seriously. For in the final analysis, employment represents a contract and Nigeria has laws binding it. It is not a favour being done by the employer to the employee or vice versa. It is not about either party making the other "happy". Rather like all contracts it has obligations by both parties to each other. Therefore, if we are serious about creating employment and growing this economy, we need to simplify and accelerate the system through which justice is meted in matters concerning it. Employees who are owed salaries should be able to take their employer to an employment tribunal at minimal cost and get swift justice and have that employer blacklisted and bankrupted if need be. Employers whose employees steal or do not perform in accordance with their employment contract should be able to get such employees jailed or otherwise penalized. After simplifying the judicial process, even issues like minimum wages will resolve themselves. Let's clean up the Nigerian workplace of all this lawlessness so that businesses will expand; so that we can grow our own Barclays Bank and Marks & Spencer. Enough is enough.  Okoro is an entrepreneur living in Lagos � 2003 - 2004 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).  Powered by dnetsystems.net dnet�

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