Banks And Their Outsourcing 419 - Attention: CBN Governor

When I was young, I used to love former Gateway bank's advert on OGBC 2, I remember it started with 'Breaking the chains of hassles and perspiration in Nigerian banking culture, Gateway bank .bla bla bla'.

Personally, I just like the advert and as an Engineering student, I thought the statement was right and good enough to attract customers and those that are aspiring to work in a bank, after all, that might be an opportunity to work in banks in anticipation of breaking chains of hassles and perspiration of people and meet their needs through any of the Nigerian banks. Of the truth, my target is to work in manufacturing or oil companies until a twist of fate re-channeled my direction in life and put me under the banking system as an HND graduate. 

HND? Does it sound like HIV? To me, I strongly believe they are entirely different in structure, characteristics and morphology but to employers of labour in Nigerian banks, it seems it sounds like HIV in their ears, because it is very hard to fathom a situation where we are usually box to the corner to tender OND as highest certificate when we have HND or ask for additional professional certificates like ICAN, CIBN, ACCA before one can be given a full staff status but on the other hand, a University degree in Astrology, Yoruba, CRK, Arabic, etc. (For example) needs no additional qualification, since the person is a university graduate, he is better than the best HND product in every aspect of banking. What an aberration and unspeakable act from those that claims to be professionals and astute bankers in Nigerian banking system. Imagine a situation whereby trained accountants from reputable Nigerian polytechnics are in the cage as paying cashiers and a university degree in any discipline, even Jumpology (If it existed) will be given order from his or her seat. This is nothing but gross indiscipline and lack of common sense, which is not very common because people loose their senses whenever they want to preserve an act order to make profit. That is the situation in Nigerian banks. I am still coming to that powerful but dubious HND graduate that sold his brothers out like cheap goats because of his own selfish interest and to maximize profit. Maybe later. 

Another sad aspect is the issue of 'upgrading' yourself from HND to B.Sc. I don't like to call it upgrading because it is demeaning and totally out of phase with good sense of judgment if an HND graduate should go back to 200 levels in the University to get any degree. If you complained in the heat of the moment about maltreatment of HND in the office, some, especially, those that never passed through the Polytechnic system or those passed through it but just decided to be stupid or unjust will tell you to go upgrade yourself. But in the real sense of it, what is there to be upgraded? What is there to spend three or four years on after the number of years we have spent on HND? Are we now implying that HND equals to A' level? It is so sad that some even start from 100 levels because of this discrimination to repeat almost everything they were thought in HND class, the years that would have been spent on other rewarding things that will enhance personal upliftment and move the country forward. 

I suggest sensible Nigerian professors should come together to evaluate both syllabuses and show us where the difference lies, why the gap is terribly wide and reasons why we should go back to the University to spend another three or four years. If they cannot find sensible answers or solutions to this or convince us on the reasons for the disparity, I won't say anything for now but it would be hard for me to respect any of them because they all know it's terrible stigma to the Educational system in this country but most decided to shy away from it but if Professors in UK came up with reasons why both should be equal, I know for sure, Nigerian professors would follow with passion. I wonder why we always wait for western world to shape our future for us? 

HND and University degree could not equated in UK due to the way both are structured in their country besides that there is no room for discrimination in such an organized environment because graduates have choices. I've not been there but information I got from reliable source and a friend in UK made me to understand that HND graduates up there spend three years without writing of project and some courses that are added to ours which stretches HND program to five years including project and industrial attachments. 

Back to the time the CBN came up with 25 billion capital base for banks, both contract staff and full staff came together to save their jobs and banks. As fate would have it, some merged, some were acquired and some are able to stand on their own. But what did we get in return? Blatant negligence and cheating of the highest order, one of my friend's bank increases their full staff package by 100 percent and did nothing for the contract staff. A year later, they remembered them with a 'whooping' 10 percent increment, some got 8 and 5 in some banks, to make things worse, some were demoted from core staff status to contract staff because they posses HND. What a life? The tension grew wild in various banks, HND graduates with no additional qualifications were sad and later shrugged their shoulder, suffering and smiling. 

It's natural to feel sad, cheated and look for a way out but for contract staff under these modernized slavery camps called banks, you must be strong because we work from 7 am to 7 pm, we do the most tedious aspect of the jobs, paying and receiving, office assistants, running other errands that cannot be mentioned but don't get me wrong, core staff are working too, I mean real work that entails risks and analysis, when some stand up from their seat after hours of typing and tabulations, you need to feel the seat's temperature with your back hand, you'll be surprised by the heat, so, don't blame them when they adjust their trouser and skirts intermittently, most butts are burnt and within three years, most will start using glasses because the computer depletes their vision. 

Amidst all these, the bank pays lip service to improving oneself to those of us under contract staff siege. I mean improving yourself by repeating almost all you've done in the Polytechnic or go for PgD, then masters. This is very difficult for most of us because by the time you pay rent for the year, take care of yourself, basic needs, family (nuclear and extended), your parents (If you still have one or both) and other unforeseen circumstances. For those with good sense of evaluation and reasoning faculties, what would be left from the mid six figures most of us are earning? Apart from this, giving loans to contract staff is very difficult. One even said they should talk about good customers with powerful net-worth because contract staffs are not their target. So, no need to stress this, it is easier for core staffs in the system to further their education even when most don't need it because their packages are fine and attractive. For now, I am collecting 30% of what a new graduate collects and it has been like that for over three years, our own remain static but something is added to theirs every year. 

Imagine, a friend with four years experience as operation staff went for an interview in June. She did well, impressed them, they were convinced, the panel knew she was superb but were sad to tell her they want core staff from other banks, not a contract staff. Even with four years experience, they refused to open the door for my friend and I asked myself 'Are we configured to be contract staff for life?' She even went ahead to tell them she had trained many full staffs, especially, those that joined the bank after her but they still turned her down. In the light of this, I am using this opportunity to thank some banks that are HND friendly; my friend just joined their list of happy people. 

Nowadays, it is now a pride to plot graph of profits made for few consecutive years in their TV adverts to show their effectiveness and degree of success in order to convince customers but none of them is ready to plot the graph of the number of people they've exploited for few years. In the media, they pay lip service to working towards being the best bank in Africa; they talk about how to come together as one to make the bank and Nigeria great. For anybody with intuition and good sense of ingenuity, is this how to make a country great? By enslaving one to elevate one, killing one to empower the other in order to maximize profit. That is why I get furious at times in my office anytime there's seminar or training in Lagos, from places as far as Sokoto, Katsina, Maiduguri Damaturu and other Northern branches, core staff fly by air and contract staff travel by road. Within three hours, they are in Lagos, for us, we are just starting because we will spend between 20 to 24 hours on the road. Just like traveling from Nigeria to Gambia by road. Why? Is it all about maximizing profit? Why treating us like slaves? What a blatant act of dehumanization? 

In one of our branches in the East, some of our core staffs resigned and move to other banks. While the branch was at the brink of collapse, contract staffs and few core staffs were used to manage the branch for months until they brought fresh University graduates with no banking experience. Contract staffs trained them before they could stand on their legs. Imagine that! 

And when there is fraud, they blame it on contract staffs; we are the first to be suspected because we are the marginalized part of the system and under serious oppression, a kind of oppression that triggers a sense of desperation in most of us. After all, we deserve something rewarding for our efforts too, besides that our parents deserve to have the dividends for all they have invested in us. We want car not carts, fine suits not fairly used, we want to live in flats not face-to-face and boy's quarter, we want to further our education with ease, not the hard way, we want to be loved not cheated, we want your progress, stop regressing us, stop employing us in order to enslave, degrade, disgrace, embarrass or put us under different forms of oppression and depression. 

Of the truth, policy makers in banks are disgrace and pure embarrassment to this country, they have thrown their professionalism into the gutter and embrace money-grubbing, they've lost their traditional, Islamic and Christian ethics and ethos, the moral lessons parents, teachers, the society and religion installed in them has been corrupted with virus called money. I'm asking you with a heavy heart, where is your sense of utilitarianism? Is this how they do it foreign countries? Is this how to be your brother's keeper? Please, let your thoughts toward us be of good so that His thought toward you might be of good. 

Luckily, some of you are up there today through scholarships from tax payers money, some, through your parent's efforts and some, through personal struggle and development. All in all, thank God for His grace, it's not by your power, intellectual capacities or inclination. You studied here and abroad, you knew how Banks were ran in the past here in Nigeria and the wonderful opportunity to see how they run it in stabilized and structured environment overseas but with all these blessings and achievements, you came back home with a different ideology, totally out of phase with team spirit, general well being and professionalism. You came back home with the philosophy of making more money through the right channel, coupled with cloaked prostitution and exploitation. If our prayers are answered and God removes his blessings from your achievements, your present state would be inversely proportional to your nearest future, even, after life. 

Let me shift your spectacles to this if yours is blurred. Do you know you're running those banks with tax payers' money, money from business men and women in and outside Nigeria, NCE, HND, University graduates, market men and women, transporters, teachers, industrialists, religious and educational institutions, hard working parents from all spheres of life that are loyal to you. Is this how to pay them back? By exploiting and enslaving their children that went to the polytechnic. I thought life is all having rewarding symbiotic relationship. To this effect, I am imploring you to go and read or study the philosophy of the ants and the level of cooperation among them, it's marvelous. How I wish most of you were like that, with all your degrees and the so-called professionalism, ants' intelligent quotients are better than most policy makers in Nigerian Banks. Look deep inside your heart and put yourself in our shoes, to God in heaven, what you're doing is worse than racial discrimination, even, the whites did not treat yours and our parents like that before independence, so, why you? Why is perpetuation of injustice and wickedness your area of study and specialization? Continue if you like but posterity will never forgive you. 

Some even have the guts to open their branches inside the polytechnics, they make millions from our tuition fees, salary etc but lecturers and Rectors never asked them about the maltreatment of their products. Rectors, open your eyes, most of your products are slaves in the banking Industry and some others. Alfas and pastors, add this to your sermon on Friday and Sunday respectively, most of them can't take decision until you tell them. They only have certificate not wisdom. 

Lastly, the solutions to this menace to the society is for the President to take a good look at this and call them to other, not only in banks but other companies that are into these unwholesome practices, CBN should help us out of this problem by taking serious decisions that will shape our future in the industry and polytechnic graduate and undergraduates should wake up from their slumber, stand on their feet and fight for ourselves. Those people at the house of assembly cannot help us, even those at the corridors, pavement or verandah of power cannot do much until we come together as one to voice our feelings and express ourselves. 

How can we express our feelings? Methinks, it's simple and straight forward, especially for those that have powerful imagination and sense of creativity. Just close your eyes and imagine a situation where National Stadium in Lagos is filled to the brim with HND graduates and undergraduates in white T-shirts with different captions 'I love HND', HND is GOOD', 'Proud to have HND' etc. Sitting down together with one goal in mind, listening to lectures from successful HND graduates that have weathered the storm, cross the hurdles and know how it feels. Followed by a peaceful rally. 

'Good!' You exclaimed. Now look at it again. What of if we can do it on the same day in different stadium across the nation. For example, Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Enugu, Kano, Kaduna etc. 

'That's fantastic!' You exclaimed again but don't be too excited, most of them are around you and up there, shouting 'This is bull shit!' loudly or inside their heart.