THE POWER DRUG

Hello once again, welcome to another day in the life. Hope you are doing alright? Today I want to talk about the POWER drug; the confidence little power can give to an individual.

I am sure you might be asking, “What inspired this guy to write on this?” well, I just experienced something today and it brought back memories on my experiences with people who were given responsibilities and they saw it fit to use this responsibilities (authority) to abuse people; letting them know that “they run things” in their vicinity.

Let’s take a few examples. Imagine a class representative using his position to intimidate girls to become his “girlfriends”. The class representative promises quick submission of their assignments or claims to have a good reputation with the lecturers and promises to switch papers or help her with her examinations if she agrees to be in a relationship with him. This guy also uses a similar technique on the guys to bring them under his control. It’s Scary huh?

Picture this: A security personnel who is responsible for the safety of lives and property of students in an educational institution is bullying a student for being fashionable because he/she feels intimidated and threatens to use his power to show that he has some pull with the school authorities. This can be done by laying false accusations against the poor lad like saying, “he/she is a cultist”. Such low self esteem! He feels he is losing ground in the “fashion circle” and decides to bring the student to his own “level” or as others might say “cutting down to size”.

Another example can be seen in our offices both in the private and public sector. The gateman, secretary and other low income staff, throw their weight around by telling the clients of the company that if they want things done the easy way or if they want to see the General Manager or as we Nigerians will say “the OGA” of the office, they should “grease their fingers” to get things done. This can be seen in our Nigerian society, where contracts are to be awarded, and the secretary who compiles the proposals arranges the proposals in “monetary” order. What I mean by this, is they arrange the contracts according to how much the contractors bribe the secretary. All this is done behind the man who has the real power, the General Manager.

These examples can also be applied to all fragments of society both in the rich, middle and poor social circles.

Here is my problem. Do these guys who have a little power know that such power does not last long? Do they know that they could be kicked out their jobs at anytime? Do they know that being nice and doing their jobs will give them the respect they deserve?

Who am I kidding? These are questions the perpetrators can answer for themselves. Here is my opinion; no matter how low or high you are placed in society, you have a responsibility to the society itself. If you are a gateman, be the best gateman. If you are a security personnel, do your job well. If you are a secretary, do your job well as well. I may sound like a “boy scout” but trust me, if you do your job well, covering all your angles, you will be noticed and rewarded. Let us take this analogy; you are a secretary who works for a “stingy” boss. You do your work night and day without complaints, clients come in and you give your full attention with a smile on your face. What do you think will happen to that secretary? He/she will eventually get noticed by the clients he/she attends to everyday and she will be rewarded by her boss. This same example is applicable in every aspect of life.

It is times like these that I like to quote the scriptures. Ecclesiastics 9:10 says “whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, or device, no knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest” KJV. I am appealing to all those who are involved in such practices to please cease from them. If not for anything, remember that you will be held accountable for every decision you make in life. And the decisions you make today will (not might), stand for you or against you in the future. You might get away with your crimes and feel that you “enjoyed your work and you dealt with all those big men who came into the office” or “you used your position to get many girlfriends in school”. Please do yourself a favour and buy a reality check from the supermarket of life. Based on the scripture I quoted earlier in this paragraph, you are going to die. What will people remember you for when you leave that position? I don’t believe a student will want to remain in school just because he cannot approach a woman without having some power behind him and I don’t believe a gateman wants to remain in that position forever. Even if these people want to remain in those positions of “authority”, the winds of life will definitely push them away from that position and they will end up miserable and hated by other people.

The solution can be found in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” KJV. Instead of investing your life in frivolous things like money, swag and reputation alone, you should spend your quality time investing in your smile. When I mean “smile” I mean you should be hospitable to other people that are higher or lower than you. Being hospitable is the direct opposite of being a jackass. I know that your work is stressful and you want to relieve some of that stress by taking it out on others but you should look for other profitable things to take the stress away like reading, learning an instrument or in my case, music. You were given this power because your employer found you qualified for the job. And according to Peter Parker’s grandfather in the movie Spiderman, “with great power, comes great responsibilities”.

I look forward to reading your comments.

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So everyone, LIVE LONG AND EXCEL.