Employing your Boss

Employing your Boss!

This has been my experience with every driver I have ever employed.

Somehow, before they got the car keys, they were humble and contrite, making many promises about how they would conduct themselves and make sure my life is easier because they are now behind the wheel of one of my vehicles.

The story changes after they get the car keys.

They begin to exercise their discretion with my car.

The last one I sacked went to pick up the car allotted to him to drive on a weekend while I was out of the country.

He picked it up without any instruction or permission from me.

He merely calculated that since I was out of the country and the car was with the mechanic, he could pick it up and do whatever he liked with it without my knowledge.

And it wasn't his first time.

He had pulled the same stunt once or twice, and I had cautioned him.

I had trackers installed in all my cars, and I could tell where they were at any time of the day.

He didn't get the logic of the tracker till tomorrow.

He always felt somebody somewhere was snitching on him when I call him to ask him what my car was doing at such and such a place while he was supposed to be picking the children up from school or running an errand for me.

His excuses would range from, I brought the car to my house to wash it or I had to dash somewhere quickly and so on.

Eventually, he couldn't account for where he took the car that Saturday morning, and he got the sack.

The driver before him boldly asked me to give him the car so that whenever it was idle, he would be using it for Uber to augment the salary I was paying him.

Imagine that.

I pay my drivers 100,000 Naira a month. This particular one works with a company within our estate on a full-time basis and earns a salary from the job.

His job description was to pick up my children in the morning, take them to school within the estate and pick them up from school in the afternoon, and drop them at home.

He does this only on school days.

After dropping the children off in the morning, he goes to work, and by 2 pm in the afternoon, during his break time, he goes to pick up the children and drop them at home.

His office was less than two minutes' walk away from the house.

It was a perfect side hustle for him, but he was not satisfied with the arrangement. He said he used to drive LAGRIDE before the car he was driving became faulty, and he would like me to give him the car so that he could use it for UBER whenever he was not picking up or dropping off the children from school.

When he called me with the idea, I asked him if he was mentally okay. He replied by asking me if, as a pastor, I should not be more inclined to give him the car, especially after he had fasted and prayed that God would touch my heart.

I eventually got a solution to my driver dilemma, which I had been dealing with since 2020.

I got a mechanic who faithfully began to do my driving jobs on a pay-as-you-drive basis.

He has a workshop and is very good at his craft. He is not a driver per se, but he gets the job done.

When I need more than one driver in a day, he recruits other mechanics, and they get the job done. Since I discovered him, I have been free of the driver dilemma.

My experience with my drivers reminds me of the kind of state governors Nigerians keep voting for to manage their states.

I was in the UAE recently, and I was shocked to discover that the children of some governors and other politicians were attending schools where they pay as much as 120,000 dollars per session to study.

The amount of money being pumped into the states at the moment is so vast that it is shocking that none of the governors has come up with good ideas that would alleviate the financial stress of the masses in any way.

What about the house rent crisis and healthcare issues?

Most states offer free education and pay salaries. Beyond this, they embark on infrastructure projects that guarantee they will embezzle a lot of money while leaving their citizens to gripe about the cost of food and transportation under the subsidy removal mantra.

During the recently concluded election in Osun State, a lady commented that she would vote for the governor because he paid the salary arrears owed to her mother since the days of Aregbesola. She didn't consider that the value of the Naira had depreciated in multiple fold since then and that the allocation received by the state had quadrupled since then.

Nobody is putting pressure on the governors. It is as if Nigerians are tone deaf and blind to the information being put out daily regarding how fat the state pockets are today.

If you reside in any state and there is no public transportation system that guarantees that you don't spend all your salary on daily transportation to work, please vote out the governor.

The governors who will be contesting in the coming election must all rejig their manifestos and come up with plans to ease the suffering of the people in a visible and tangible manner.

If he is not providing basic social amenities, he should not be your governor.

To whom much is given, much is expected. It is no use having a governor who would rule for eight years only to be hounded by the EFCC for four years after his tenure.

It is better to have a performing governor who would make daily life easy for the citizens under his purview with judicious use of the resources allocated to him and those generated internally by his or her government.

As I travel the length and breadth of Nigeria, I cannot say that I am impressed by any of the governors since 2023.

One would think that with the subsidy removal and the hardship the people had to endure, the governors would swing into action with the funds they now have access to and come up with programmes that would alleviate the suffering of the people.

I didn't see anything of such in any state. The governors pretended they were not getting more money until the federal government started screaming that people should hold them accountable.

The members of the federal House of Representatives and Senators are also getting more money for their constitutional projects, and they are doing nothing with it.

The local government chairmen too are benefiting directly from the federal allocation, but the impact of these funds is not being felt by the people.

It seems we employed drivers who are much more powerful than the people and are determined to drive us wherever they want, regardless of what we want them to do.

The right thing to do is to sack them, so let us go on and do this during the coming election.

PS: I am writing from London at this time, but I don't live in London.

So don't comment on my post with "You have Japa"

Thank you

-GSW-

Matheson Road, West Kensington

London, United Kingdom