
Respect People, not Accessories
- Posted by Amaka Akinteye
- 4 Comments
As we drove along a high street heading towards Wall Street business arena on Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, on an errand to deliver important documents. As we drove into the parking spot, the security guard demanded we parked on the other side, this came after we had driven into a space although we reluctantly obeyed him. As he directed my colleague who instead of relying on the mirrors to give him best judgment he decided to rely on a novice who does not know how to drive. In seconds we heard a noise – gbooaaaa” it was both bumpers tapping each other, I stuttered in amazement,” you hit someone’s car, you should be more careful”.
He got down from the car, took a peep at both bumpers, and walked off to drop the documents, judging from his body language it appeared to be a very minor dent or rather not noticeable. In the hot scorching sun, I let the car run with the Air conditioner at medium temperature. I called my boss to inform him that Tim had gone in to drop the documents. I scrolled through my to-do list to see if I could complete a task requiring a phone call while seated in the car.
In a few seconds, I saw the security man walk up to a young man who was approaching my car having exited the building, he gesticulated aggressively, pointing at the other car, the young man gave me a stern look, I suddenly figured this could be the owner of the car Tim hit. Immediately a tall smooth-looking guy walked up to them with his sun shades, I got another unfriendly look from the young man. I said to myself, just wait for Tim to come but on a second thought I came down to see what had happened, I guess that was a very wrong decision although I felt I had to be courteous. To my amazement, the bumper was cracked open, I could not help but mutter repeatedly ‘ oh so sorry, this is huge, the damage is massive, could this have been done by that small tap, I do not think Tim saw this well, all these were said simultaneously. I barely finished my sentence when Tim walked up to us in shock too, apparently, he did not see the damage, I guess his glasses deceived him the first time he checked.
While we were still debating on if the impact could have caused such damage, the security guard, slim and stout, judging from his looks he could be in his mid-sixties began to pace in anger disagreeing with Tim’s denial. As I attempted to reiterate Tim’s opinion, the security guard jumped right in front of me with vexation and uncontrollably stuttering while he rained words on me. At first I thought he had gone insane because I could not understand what he was really saying because he was so loud that it sounded like the horn of a train in my head. Suddenly, I noticed I was the only female in the midst of five men, no wonder he picked on me, Tim is about six feet tall, and masculine, no one will want to pick on a man his size. I suddenly got the message, I decided to take his picture because he literally insulted me, as I took a closer picture of him, he ran towards me, threatened to slap me and he snatched my phone from me. It was getting serious, another security guard instructed him to give the phone back to me as soon as he did I went into the car and sat down quietly wondering what went wrong. The security guard continued his arguments laying emphasis on the fact that the person we came to see was just a mere staff, making reference to the disparity in the class of cars we came in.
The young man insisted we must get his car fixed, the security man reeled and hopped everywhere. We left to an auto repair shop, where the car was assessed and the estimate was a total of 40,000naira, I insisted on getting my own mechanic to assess the damage and give us his own quote. My panel beater came and gave us a quote of 10,000, but the young man’s name was Zima, he refused to get his car fixed by my mechanic so I paid just 15,000 naira and left.
We are getting to the interesting part, I called my boss to report the case, he requested for his picture. I demanded that he reach out to the security company responsible for that staff, I also demanded an apology from the security guard because he was disrespectful too and didn’t want to pick on his own size. My boss immediately called the chief security officer(CSO) of the company and narrated the incident to him. Unfortunately, the CSO said he was out of town although he would be back on Monday so he would address the issue on Monday evening. The security officer was questioned, and reprimanded my motive was not for him to lose his job but to correct him. He was transferred to another company that did not offer the kind of luxury the former one provided him, this was a punishment for talking to me in that manner. He called to apologize and explain from one side of his mouth but the deed was done..
You do not need to know the status or pedigree of anyone before you show them respect. The type of car one drives, clothes & ornaments they wear and the houses they live in is just the reward of their life struggles and not a reflection of their inner self. Give regard to everyone irrespective of their race, size, color, status, possession, and the likes.
We need to shift away from looks-focused orientation to being good. The strength of one’s character should be the solid attraction and not the strength of their material possession.
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