One thing I’ve noticed about people is that they’ll never really change. People who are selfish and greedy to the point where it affects their lifestyle, or those who don’t mind if it disrupts the life of everyone around them, but they simply don’t care. Many times, it’s not because they can’t do it, you know very well that they can do it multiple times over. But they choose not to.
Such people are dangerous because they won’t focus on what is most important and would rather spend more money on something else if they’re the only ones who will benefit from it. Getting that community spirit might be hard for them, and trying to get them on the side of the people would just be an uphill task.
Why am I mentioning this? You see, a few days ago, we found out that the pumping machine that sucked water out of the ground and into the water tanks was ruined. It wasn’t a major fault, when the technician looked at the sumo, he saw that it was a case of wiring burning up and causing a bridge. So, he easily fixed it. However, he charged us N7,000 for the work and that’s lightly below $7.
Judging by our number in the lodge, it wasn’t such a huge sum. It was enough that we were able to contribute N100 per head. That meant that every resident of the lodge got to pay something around a hundred cents or thereabout. It’s really chump change and something that you can easily stuff your hand into your pocket and pay. But there were some people who were still holding out on us.
The country is bad, yeah. But let’s be honest, N100 is too little for people to play hide and seek just to avoid paying up. Many were complaining that it was too much, and others were saying that they knew someone else who would do a better job. Some even wanted to pay N50.
For me, all this is nothing but selfishness. That amount is way too small, it can’t even buy anything substantial anymore in today’s market. You can’t buy drinks or biscuits with it. You can’t even buy a cup of garri with it. All that a N100 note can get you is pure water, small groundnut, pure water, small sugar, and more pure water.
But then, I have to say, there are extenuating circumstances. It can be that they have more than the N100 available but they already have plans for it and taking even a single kobo out would ruin whatever plans they had. Everyone has their reasons for making their decisions. It can also be that they really do not have the money at the moment. It’s just sad that sometimes, people choose to be dishonest about the entire thing.
They can ask for a little time instead of trying to weasel out of paying by questioning the integrity of the technician and making it seem like everyone was out to get their money. Another reason many felt comfortable doing this was because the service had been paid for. To hasten the technician and make sure that water was running through the lodge again, a few good Samaritans contributed the N7000 and paid him, so going to collect the N100 per head was simply to reimburse them. This was another reason many people were lagging because they knew that the issue had been fixed, so they could delay it as long as they wanted until everyone else got tired.
When it comes to money, people can get really shrewd. Even though it’s something that they’re benefitting from, they’ll do anything and everything they can not to pay what they owe. People do it for utility bills, dues, and taxes… but then, they keep spending more than that on things that have no meaning and wouldn’t do anything at all for them.
Humans really are weird. I guess that’s one of the lessons of being an adult. Adulting 101: People will try their best to stop you from taking money from them, just as they’ll try their best to take the little money you have from you.
So, be wise.
