A young Nigerian man recounts his experience as a factory worker and how his fellow countrymen, the supervisors, advised a Lebanese boss to reduce wages.
This follows a viral interview with the BBC by a Nigerian YouTuber, Emdee Tiamiyu, in which he stated that “Nigerians only use the student visa route for the betterment of their lives, not for education.”
According to a Twitter user known as @CRawkeen, their supervisors did something similar by lowering their pay from $8K to $4K while claiming it was too high.
In his words;
“When I finished secondary school and awaiting admission, I was working at one Lebanese company. They were paying about 8k per week or thereabout. One supervisor, a Nigerian man went to tell the Lebanese guys that all of us still live with our parents and the wage was too much.
You see, when they say you should pray against every principality and power, they’re referring to your fellow Nigerians. Weeks later, the Lebanese people dropped the wage to, I think,4k every two weeks, which amounts to 8k per month. The supervisors had their salaries increased It was really funny then.
These supervisors that are Nigerians also join the Lebanese guys to further exploit Nigerian workers. I’m trying to remember a Marxist term that describes them but I think I can wrap it around something like “Lumpenbourgeoisie” or “comprador bourgeoisie”.
You know, we are both suffering and working under a not so good condition but because you’re called supervisors, you’re more closer to the bourgeoisies. As a result, you help them further their interest by co-exploiting your fellow Nigerians and blocking their way up-to your own advantage.
It makes the Lebanese guys see them as loyalists, increase their weekly or monthly bonuses, recommend them for bigger positions and the likes.
You should be able to see a nexus between the activities of these supervisors and Emdee Tiamiyu. If you make a Nigerian the prime minister of UK today, he could even block every possible way for Nigerians to secure admission to any UK university not to mention relocating to the UK.
We are great people but among us, we have the extraordinarily unfortunate ones.”
See reactions below:
@samsesin: Oh wow. You delivered as usual. This is so profound. Na we dey do ourselves.
You see why I really wanna work on that project? Things Africans do ehn
@Davydterver: This is exactly why I feel Nigeria can never be great no matter the leader not until we change our mindset
@CRawkeen: Nigeria will be great but some Nigerians need a brain reset and mindset shift.The funniest thing is that these supervisors also had loyalists among us too.Whatever you say against them,they take it to them secretly.The next you’d hear is pay off. You are a threat to that hegemony
@lzexchange: I can never argue this with you because I keep seeing families with made men and all you here about their father is that he was a railway,telecommunication,construction company or coal mining worker back then
@dreay_Man: That’s Nigerians for you. We tend to block other’s success so they don’t make it like us. We really want that veneration, exaltation and ‘prostration’
A rich man can’t give us that.
And in all honesty, it’s more pervasive in one tribe than the others. I hope we can do better
@Emirate701: Same way the unfortunate ones are leading the best of us.
@AdegboyegaArik4: Selfishness knows no tribe,tongue and religion but Nigerians do the most. Selfishness is ingrained in most of us.
By Ejoh Esther
