Tekno is a young talented Nigerian artist whose songs I have come to like a lot. One of my favorites is titled "Rara". Here's the opening lyric: "My country people. Them dey talku talku. Them just dey perambulate. So so story, story every year oh ah..."
That sums up some Nigerians, especially in this era of social media. An awful bunch of people, perambulating, moving without any direction, just talking, looking for and telling stories, from year to year. That is my country people. Stories never end. The trending one is a bank manager who had an affair with a staff and fathered 2 kids with her. Now, Nigerian social media is blowing up, calling for the bank to fire him. Here is the full story as I lifted it from my friend, Chidi Peter Agbaneje's page:
"... FCMB MD that fathered the 2 children of his personal staff. The woman later ran off with the kids, called and informed the husband the kids weren't his. The woman's husband couldn't bear all these -the thought he (an ex banker too) has been lavishly bringing up another man's children, the deceit, the lies. He suffered a stroke, fell into depression and on boxing day kicked the bucket. So many people are now calling on FCMB to fire the MD. FCMB say they are investigating."
I guess my reaction is really? So, of all the one million and one existential challenges threatening Nigeria, this one takes the cake? Fire him? For what? For being the biological father of a woman who is not his wife, or for being responsible for the death of the woman's husband's depressive death? Why do you want him fired exactly?
Okay, let's break it down. He fathered the woman's two kids who continue to be the woman's husband's children. I admit, that does not rank high on morality index. But how many of you out there can swear that they are fathered by the man they call father? How many of you out there have demanded and obtained a paternity test of their identity? How do you know that the same bank manager or another bank manager is not your own father? Keep chewing on that as I look into the husband's depressive death.
So, did the bank manager kill the woman's husband? Obviously not. Is he responsible for his death? We don't know. We don't know because it just may well be that YOU, with your 'talku talku', are responsible for the husband's death. What if the husband slipped into depression because you put his family's secret business out there on social media?
Boko Haram is daily slaughtering Nigerians by the hundreds; COVID-19 is staging a massive comeback in Nigeria; politicians are looting your national treasury; you have no electricity, no water, no roads, no jobs, no money, no home, no food, no future; lecturers are on strike and schools are closed; Buhari is borrowing billions of dollars from around the world, and your drop-everything emergency is a bank manager who fathers two kids with his staff? If you put half the energy you are spending calling for the manager to be fired into getting Buhari and his government to do right by the Nigerian people, maybe we would have been in a different place.
Now, don't get me wrong. A manager who goes around having an affair with a married subordinate, and fathering kids with her, is not an award-deserving manager. But so is a president who cannot fight Boko Haram. So is a governor who openly takes dollar bribe. So is a corrupt and thieving senator who breaks out of prison and wants to be president. So is a corrupt pastor who steals from his congregation. So, you see, in the grand scheme of reprehensible atrocities in Nigeria, a bank manager who fathers two children with his married subordinate should not make the cut.
Move on. But if you must continue to push this story, then, first publish your paternity test that proves that your own father is indeed your father. Until you have done that, you may want to take a moment to get on your knees to pray for forgiveness for your possible role in the husband's public humiliation and death.
All that said, SHAME ON THE BANK MANAGER!
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