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By Chimezie Agwu
Unlike in the past when every artisan was usually accompanied by an apprentice, it is not common these days to see workmen like electricians, plumbers or carpenters accompanied by an apprentice when they go out to work. The same applies to vulcanisers, bricklayers, motor mechanics, tailors, painters and other skilled workers.
Salesgirls, house-helps and nannies are not easy to come by either. Present-day youths are in a hurry to make it in life. They want to rise by the lift and not by the ladder. That is why most of them have taken to cybercrimes, otherwise known as “yahoo-yahoo,” instead of learning a trade. It was also alleged that the youth were impatient, rude, dishonest and recalcitrant.
A businessman once narrated his ordeal with a quiet, innocent-looking 20-year-old boy he brought to Lagos from the village and employed as a sales boy in his textile shop. The teenager, after living with him for nine months (he was to stay for at least three years), committed an offence for which his guardian scolded him.
The young boy, in reaction, eyed his “Oga,” a middle age man and a father of four children, from the head to the toe, and after a long-drawn hiss with eyes wide open, told him right to his face: “But for the fact that you were the one who brought me to Lagos otherwise I would have just lifted you up now and smashed you on the floor to teach you a lesson.”
The man said he was scared and at the same time enraged. He felt like knocking the boy down with an iron rod. But he hugged his temper and the impudent scoundrel was left free. About 5am the following day, he headed for home with the boy and handed the rascal over to his parents. From then, he put an end to having apprentices or whatever other name they may go by.
In another development, a crowd of people gathered in a shopping complex one afternoon. Some of them were engaged in a hot argument with one another. A mini-bus driver had knocked down an elderly man somewhere in the city. His relations insisted on seeing the owner of the vehicle or they would hold the driver with his vehicle hostage until their demands were met.
Surprisingly, the owner of the bus turned out to be a 23-year-old man who was an apprentice to a motor spare parts dealer whose shop was in the complex. The shop owner was in shock to hear that the boy, who had stayed with him for barely three years, had acquired a “danfo” bus at the expense of his business without his knowing it while he was still trying to pay his creditors for the recent consignment of goods supplied to his company.
There was also the case of a woman who entrusted her provisions shop to the care of her niece, a 28-year-old university graduate, while she was away on a three-week visit to her village. By the time she returned, the lady could not account for over N500,000 she realised from sale of goods in the shop.
On the flipside of why many youths appear no longer enthusiastic about being apprentice or showing interest in skill acquisition, it has partly to do with the inconsiderate attitude of some employers or businessmen. There have been instances of apprentices being denied their rights after serving their masters for the agreed specific period.
The employers are said to benefit from the services of their apprentices but in the last year they are to complete their apprenticeship and be financially and even materially equipped by their bosses to start business of their own as agreed from the inception, the “Oga” begins to cook up stories bordering on intransigence and even stealing against the apprentice as a ploy to deny him settlement at the end of service. Many youths who have fallen victim to such a raw deal and did not have the wherewithal to move on had taken to crime and ended badly. The Saviour, Jesus, says in Luke 10:7: “The labourer is worthy of his wages.”
A man of God rightly put it this way: “When a businessman, after enjoying the services of a worker or an apprentice, refuses to settle the fellow under any guise, he cannot claim that the money he has at hand is all his own until he has done the needful with regard to those he still owes. If he ignores this fact, it means he is operating his business on a false balance and the consequences could be grave.”
False balance stunts growth and hinders progress. Many otherwise flourishing businesses have nosedived because they were being operated on a false balance. Much as we condemn reprehensible behaviour of some of our youths, we should not deny them their rights when they work for us, or when they come to us for mentoring. That will make them a liability to society.
A Lagos construction company once owed its 20 workers arrears of salary for more than a year. Rather than source funds to pay the workers, the owner/managing director of the company left the workers in a miserable state and relocated to a foreign country with his family. He has not returned, while the company remains under lock and key. But rest assured, someday, the laws of harvest will catch up with him, and he will reap what he sowed. “Don’t be misled; you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant,” Galatians 6:7.
Operating on a false balance includes tax evasion, dealing in adulterated products and casualisation of workers by which employers short-change workers, denying them their full rights and benefits. In all of these and more, those who are operating their businesses on a false balance and are enjoying it should bear in mind that one day, as the saying goes, “your chickens will come home to roost.”
•Awu can be reached on 07082882568, [email protected]
