by Yomi Adegboye

Truth is, a job is a job. When you sign up for a job, loyalty is required. You may gripe in private about the terms and conditions of your job (and I am betting that none of the critics have access to Mr. Abati’s private moments), but you are bound to loyalty to your employer.

I may not agree with everything that Mr. Reuben Abati says in the course of his job as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, but then I have learnt that in this life I do not have to agree 100% with a person in order to understand his position. People keep comparing what he said years ago while otherwise employed to what he says now as an employee of the Federal Government. I do not see what the problem is, as it really is very simple, and as always, I shall use examples to make my point.

I work in the mobile industry and know certain executives who used to be in the employment of BlackBerry years ago. Back then, these individuals would defend the BlackBerry brand to the death. It was BlackBerry or nothing, they told those of us who cared to listen. Not too long after, some of these guys moved over to competing brands, e.g. Samsung or Nokia. Guess what? Their songs changed. Now, they sing about the new brands as passionately as they sang about BlackBerry earlier.

Were these individuals hypocrites? No. They were doing their jobs before, and they are doing their jobs now. Oh, I see some readers already fuming and getting ready to reply me with the line that Mr. Abati is defending the sometimes horrible policies and actions of his employers. But then, how many of those reading do not do the same?

How many of us work as customer care staff or PR executives of telecoms companies in Nigeria and daily spew corporate trash to customers in defence of your employers when they mess up? How many of us do the same for the banks, insurance companies, airlines and whatever other companies that we work for? We defend our employers everyday regardless of how bad their policies and practices. Why have we not quit those jobs? Are many of those people griping and slinging mud at Mr. Abati not being hypocrites themselves? After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

We are quick to point fingers and blame others when we easily do the same thing day by day. Truth is, a job is a job. When you sign up for a job, loyalty is required. You may gripe in private about the terms and conditions of your job (and I am betting that none of the critics have access to Mr. Abati’s private moments), but you are bound to loyalty to your employer. We all do what we have to do to get by. Mr. Abati is no different from any of us.

Having said all that, I still do not agree with some of the things that Mr. Abati says, just like I don’t agree with some of the cock-and-bull stories that the customer care officers of my mobile providers and banks tell me. But I understand that they are all doing their jobs. Mr. Abati’s job is as valid as the jobs of millions of other Nigerians. Let the man do his damn job!

Read the original piece in Mobility

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Yomi Adegboye is a maverick polymath, has owned over 80 mobiles & counting, Founder MOBILITY.com.ng, Agony Uncle, Music lover and one part of The Karaoke Sound. Follow him on Twitter @Mister_Mobility, on LinkedIn at YomiAdegboye, and circle him on Google+. His personal blog is kept at MOBILITY.com.ng/Mister.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.