A CRY OF HELP FOR MUFU By Korede Oluwole.

Korede Oluwole.

When you go to sleep at night, the effects of Mufu are what enable you have a sweet sound sleep. You wake up in the morning, you walk straight into his hands as you do your toilet necessities, prepare your kids for school and as you too get ready for the day’s job. 

Mufu comforts you and your family as you make your way to your destinations and back home late in the day. The cycle goes on and on. All thanks to Mufu.

 

You might wonder, ‘who is this Mufu’? Mufu is an allegory, poetic or literary representation of the Nigerian Artisans, Technicians or Handymen – the Blue Collar People. If your bed is bad and you couldn’t get a carpenter to fix it, there is no way you would have a comfortable sleep. What about if there is an electrical problem at home and no electrician or technician to fix the electricity and generator; how will you have a sound sleep without your fans or air conditioners functioning?; God help you if you have babies during the dry and hot weather.

 

You wake up in the morning directly into the works of these artisans. Imagine, if your plumbing system went bad and no Mufu to fix it, how will your family do the shit business in the morning, take your bath, brush your teeth and so on as you prepare for work and school respectively?

Another scenario, you managed the car today and called your mechanic to fix it because you have an important appointment tomorrow that could make or mar your career; he promises to be with you by 6am to fix it in order to help you secure that rare opportunity that will take your career to the next level. Alas! Mufu is nowhere to be found, can’t reach his phones and that opportunity is given to your arch rival in your place of work. Such instances are endless.

 

Several of us are quick to condemn the actions, in actions and at times, the irresponsible behaviours of Nigerian artisans. Yes, we could be perfectly justified for our deep disappointment and resentment for them. At the same time, it is important for us to have deep thoughts and find out why and what makes them behave the way they do. Some of them in fact, can be really terrible and a good example is the Carpenter side of Mufu. You commission these guys to do jobs for you, they insist on getting 70% of the fees, they go for close to two weeks before bringing the materials to you (that’s after you have done your first phase of shouting on phone), they come for a day or two to do like 50% of the job, and then they disappear. You can’t reach them on phone and the job is just there like that forever. It is indeed very painful.

 

Truth is, we are all suffering from the unpleasant way the Nigeria society has treated these guys in the Blue Collar jobs over the years. They have been relegated to the ground completely, we don’t place value on their works and skills; hence, we pay them peanuts as service fees because we believe they are not graduates. Their pay is not commensurate with the hard work they do. The government policies never favours them all the time, they don’t have access to modern tools to work, nobody puts plans in place for them to develop their skills, we treat them like house boys and so on. 

Do you think Mufu is angel Gabriel sent by God just to give you pleasant news or angel Michael to come and resolve your problems? No, Mufu is a Nigerian like you and me that live in the same society. He pays the same PHCN bills like you, the graduate, he pays school  and hospital bills for his children just like you, he aspires to grow just like you (buys his own flat, car and gets the good things of life), he also wishes to leave good inheritance for his children. Yet, the society has beaten his confidence to the ground as a second or third rated citizen in his own fatherland all because he is ‘unfortunate’ not to be a graduate. 

I usually get very upset when i see a Mufu saying ‘yes sir or yes ma’ to his potential or old clients out of serious inferiority complex. Answer this question, can you do the work of a mechanic, or the work of a carpenter, electricians and welder? It took him years to acquire those skills. You are not his boss; he is his own boss in his industry, a master of his own trade. It is important to note that unlike you that go through structured training while in the higher institutions, these guys go through training in a very hard way. You need to see how their bosses flog them like cattle whenever they make little mistakes during the course of their training.

 

One of my good friends is an Australian, he is an ICT architectural engineer, he informed me that a couple of those technicians that use cranes to clean windows of sky crapper buildings earn more income than him; he said some of them earn more income than medical doctors and lawyers.

Their society is well structured and each sector one chooses to operate in provides the best of opportunities.

Here in Nigeria, the confusion, greed and insincerity of our policy makers have seriously relegated blue collar occupation to the background. Take for example, when you want to change your door locks, the carpenter can provide 20 types of locks and they are all fake; even though you insisted on him getting original. I have lost count on the number of locks and keys i have changed; same goes for plumbing materials, car parts, electrical appliances, etc.

What is the Standard Organization of Nigeria doing about it. Let’s even look at the white collar setting; the government, through the civil service structure had deliberately institutionalized sharp discrimination among higher institution graduates. BSc is more superior to HND. Even among those that have BSc, some would discriminate that they attended federal university while others attended state higher institutions; some of those that attended the so called federal universities still discriminate that they attended Lag, Ife, UI; while others schooled elsewhere. 

Then, imagine what happens to poor Mufu even when the almighty graduates discriminate among themselves.

What a porous mentality.

 

There is growing concern in some circles on how we could remedy the dangerous trend of ‘killing’ the spirit in these artisans. Many of them have resulted in okada riding, area boys, robbery and other fast means of making money.

The socio – economic implication of this dangerous trend is that we are facing a massive shortage of skilled people in the blue collar sector very soon. Ask those in the facilities maintenance business, they will tell you that they have to go as far as Benin Republic, Lome, Ghana, Cameroun and across the West Coast to get skilled artisans. The foreign artisans are very patient and do the work perfectly and to time.

 

Compare Nigerian car panel beaters with the ones from Ghana, or Nigerian tailors with the tailors from Ivory Coast or Cameroon; then you will see the huge difference. 

Our artisans are very impatient now (the younger ones), they are half baked and will always compromise on standards to make more money. 

What some of us are trying to do is to engage Mufu and his community and discuss ways they could improve on their present state of service delivery. Personally, i have been speaking with some microfinance banks on the possibility of arranging soft loans for these guys as cooperative groups in order to get genuine work tools and parts to serve their clients better; on the part of harassment from the police, i have been in talks with some lawyers that could do pro bono and speak for Mufu and his community whenever in trouble.

There is an urgent need of mass re orientation for the government, the people and the artisans’ community; otherwise, we are yet to experience the worst. 

As many as have good ideas that will bring some solutions should come out and provide it 

When next you see Mufu doing his antics, remember that the problem is beyond him.

 

Please share this and air your views if you believe there should be positive changes.