Quick thought why is the entry door of the bank bigger than the exit door ?
that's the question i'm pondering in my mind as I step into the banking hall already counting cash in my mind mentally trying to work out how much to spend on each of the numerous things I wish to purchase thereafter. There is a queue as expected and its quite long but not long enough to deter me, so I quietly join the queue after asking one guard a few questions. To my delight, the four segment line moves quickly and i'm at the last segment under 10 minutes. To pass time, I halfheartedly admire a painting hanged somewhere in the banking hall. Its while I am trying to make some sense of the jagajaga painting that the unexpected happens. The lights go off and the annoying beep of numerous UPS take center stage. The only light source is one rechargeable light shining from the managers office as though he was expecting the power outage chai! Now this is not too strange for folks who grew up in Nigeria, what one would expect is for a standby Lister generator to come on within the minute but that fails to happen so after some 10 minutes of continued beeps in that rather annoying tone they die off. Its another 25 minutes of waiting before the lights come back on all this time there's no apology or explanation given by the staff or management of this bank. so by the time the lights eventually come back on, its no surprise that half the people in the bank have left frustrated by such annoying incompetence. On my own part i'd already made up my mind to write a compliant as any civil customer should so I searched the bank for a complaint box and was happy to find one towards the back it was an electronic complaint box which gave me the impression that at least my complaint would reach relevant authorities without interference. As I moved closer however, I discovered the box wasn't even plugged haba!! Naija sense at work!!
For me its no leave no transfer! I wasn't really annoyed though how cud I? I'm a Nigerian in Nigeria. besides I wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. Those who chose to wait had broken up into groups each with a different topic of discussion with most if not all bothering on change and politics, these groups soon scattered as people tried to quickly return to their positions in the lines you could see relief smiles cross a few faces betraying the hope that found its way to their hearts, while we waited a few minutes for their systems to become operational.
As silence fell in the banking hall one cashier requested that those who wish to make deposits step forward while those of us hoping to make withdrawals wait. I've been waiting a long time so i didn't take this to heart but soon enough all those making deposits are through and were told that they (the cashiers) could not access any accounts so it was impossible to make any cash withdrawals, tired but determined to see things through I decided to wait just like some others who said they'll wait until they would be chased out of the bank hall. In the mean time, the same cashier attempts to persuade one female customer to go home and come on the morrow, in response the lady begins a tale of her cashless state and we all end up having a good laugh as the cashier now begs her to wait instead. It takes 45 minutes for the accounts to become accessible within this time its basically every man for himself, we're down to a handful of people staying on there own cuz basically every topic for discussion has been exhausted at this point some folks can be seen sitting on the floor (pardon the blurry pix, the last thing you want to get caught doing is taking a pix at this time)
at a few minutes to six the accounts were finally accessible and I went ahead to cash my cheque after the usually verification whew! I finally step out of the bank to meet my girlfriend who has been waiting patiently.. something must change hands!
Comments
Post a Comment