Naija and the backdoor recruitment scam

Things would be better if we all accept our place in the scheme of things and stop struggling to be what we were not meant to be. A man delivered with the help of a traditional birth attendant and the one born in the amenity ward of a private hospital do not share a common destiny. That is why Naija comedians make a strong distinction between an ajebota and an ajepako. One was raised on the fat of cows and the other was raised on akamu, corn pap – simple. Okay, the one raised on akamu argues that s/he has stronger bones, but what is essence of carrying strong bones when you don’t have to throw a fist? The ajebo is chauffeured to school by a driver who is the son of an ajepako. Usually, they do not attend the same school. The ajepako must go to school in the morning and hawk in the evening buying into his parents’ dream that education is the emulsion that whitewashes destiny.
Of course accidents do happen even with progeny but its result remains an aberration, never a transformation. The trouble with most of us is that we have read or listened to too many destiny-changing sermons from motivational speakers that we live our lives hoping for the ideal instead of settling with reality. Reality is that the system is a caste structure. Most of us are hooked on the hallucinogen of hope.
This is how I categorize the recent backdoor employment scandal in the Central Bank of Naija. Nearly 100 blue-blooded employees were coronated with special exception. The noise of mischief makers is that these privileged ones were not subjected to ‘due process’, an unforgiveable sin in the prologue of change. They want Godwin Emefiele axed from his job. It won’t happen. Rather those who ‘leaked’ the story would go for the privileged ones while the story itself dies as naturally as it came as the camera of events switches scene to a more titillating scandal harvested here daily a dozen for a kobo.
The bank’s tepid response shows that the case has been buried. In Sai Baba’s Animal Farm as in the classic, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than the others. Those sniffing the hallucinogen of hope believing that it is otherwise would soon return to their shrine to give thanks that President Jones did not succeed in bottling oxygen for sale as fresh air. The poor have no sense of entitlement except at campaign season where some pay the supreme price or are willing to kill to sustain the status quo in new garbs.
There are only a few ways to making it in this land of ours. You could collide with destiny like Olajumoke Orisaguna or be happy that you are allowed to keep hawking without incident until your time on earth is spent. If you dream that your destiny would change like Olajumoke, remember that there were prettier girls hawking on the day fate chose her to move up. The picture of a snazzy Ghanaian bread hawker is dressed in suits and tie has earned him nothing but contours on his skull. Hope, as someone bravely confessed is a slim diet.
This shindig did not start with Emefiele. It has always been part of the survival strategy of the ruining class to create avenues where their children can carry on the family privilege. How did schools get run down – because there is a business need to license private ones? How did hospitals transform from mere consultant into rotten morgues – because government has no business in taking care of the children of those accused of genital recklessness. Nepotism, by its proper name is the grease that oils the wheel of unfairness in the public sphere. It is legalised in army recruitments leading to tactical manoeuvres in the face of the enemy. In the police, it is responsive for lopsided promotions. In the Customs, it is responsible for favoured transfers.
Nepotism is the foundation of inefficiency in the evil service. It is the building block of all promotional exams in which those who did not sit pass while those who burnt the midnight oil are failed and systemically stagnated. For, even in advertised recruitments, those who passed screening are never employed on their own merits – no, they are asked to go and bring a note from their sinnator before recruitment. I bet in a free flowing exercise, none, and I mean none of the backdoor employees would pass a normal recruitment process. The reason is simple, while others were reading to make something out of life, they were learning the latest dance steps or hosting lavish parties.
Check the number of times they sign in and the number of times they fly away. Check their input after recruitment and you have the answer to why Naija is the way it is. How could we drive change using the same old wheel?