Drama at the Bank yesterday

9th of February 2022

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It's been tiring lately- already mentioned in previous articles how I've been going through a load of stress lately, hence decided to give myself a break on Sunday and Monday in order to not die early since my body is beginning to request for rest. I slept through most parts of Sunday and Monday as while occasionally having random discussions with my cousin in a bid to clear my head. My overall interaction on this platform reduced drastically within two days but it was a deliberate action since I intended to give myself enough rest.

After the Sunday-Monday break, Tuesday was a tad bit stressful- I had to follow my cousin to the Bank since he wanted to open an account. We got there a few minutes past 9am but didn't leave until past 1 pm or something. It's his first time of opening a bank account since he just became 18 about two weeks ago, hence the process took longer than normal. He had to first enrol for BVN (Bank verification number) which requires him to fill a form followed by biometric registration and blah blah..

The Biometric registration went by and he was given an account opening form as well which he filled and the rest was history. I make it sound easy but the truth is there was a lot of people at the Bank yesterday which made the process slow. The Banking system here is a weird one, there was only one attendant available to answer everyone which made everything super slow and annoying, plus she has a very weird attitude which I didn't understand!

After over two hours of waiting for the process to be completed, the security men began to misbehave- I use the term "misbehave" because they were acting out of logic and I had to put them in their place. For no reason at all, the security personnel started asking people to wait outside the bank. He began to ask the people on seat what they came to the bank for, and began to ask those that were waiting for others to go wait outside. I simply ignored what was going on until he came to me and asked what I came for (a very stupid question since he could see my cousin beside me filling a form). I told him I came with my cousin to open an account and he asked me to go wait for him outside.

At that point I had to ask him "for what, what do you mean I should go and wait outside?. I brought him here to open an account which I'm assisting him in filling the form and you're asking me to go wait outside? That's total nonsense". I began to raise my voice at that point and insisted I wasn't leaving when other people including the bank workers had to gather at that point to find out what's going on.

I told them "you asking me to go outside is rude, there is no provision for people to sit outside, if I go outside it means I'd be standing in the sun, for god's sake I have a house. I didn't leave my house for the Bank if I didn't come here for a purpose. If I wanna relax I have my house and there's something called Netflix, hence asking me to go outside is equivalent to asking me to go back home which means my coming here is without a purpose". I had to lash out at them because I've never been so embarrassed in my life- I mean. why would you ask me to go wait outside the Bank when I came here for a reason, I've never heard of it in over 25 years of Living in Lagos, it would seem Ondo state is filled with nothing but people who lack etiquette.

They began to try to calm me down but I wasn't shouting out of anger but logic, at some point some random man was trying to hug me in a bid to calm me down but I had to push him off me. They claimed they weren't fighting with me and I responded that I wasn't fighting with anyone as well but asking me to go outside is rude. I did all my shouting while looking them in the eye directly and at some point they just had to keep quiet, they couldn't say anything anymore!

I retained my seat while everyone else had to go wait outside because they had no say and didn't know their right since a majority of them were students, students who didn't want to break any law since the bank is located in their Polytechnic. The bank workers and security believe they can talk to anyone anyhow since a majority of their customers are students of the school and only a few outsiders. They didn't realise they were talking to Lagosian, and Lagosians are generally madd! (lol).

I retained my seat and everyone had their eyes on me- while stating that they liked my confidence and how I was able to stand up to them in their misbehaviour. A few minutes later, the Manager of the bank came to meet me personally while stating in the calmest way possible that he has begun to attend to my cousin himself so the process would be faster, while also stating that I should go wait outside with the reason being that the bank is too congested. S

Since he spoke calmly, I also decided to respond to him calmly by stating that I brought my cousin here to open an account and asking me to go outside is like saying my coming here is without a purpose, I asked him if there are seats available outside and he said No. And I continued by saying that since there are no seats which means I'd be standing outside in the sun which defeats my purpose of being here, I mentioned to him that I could be relaxing in my house at the moment but I had to bring my cousin here, hence asking me to go outside is like indirectly sending me back home I told him- "if you think the bank is too congested then regulate the rate at which people come in". He couldn't say anything else but simply went back to his office.

The Banking system here at Ondo state is a really weird one and they generally lack etiquette especially when addressing their customers. I just had to lash back at them because I respect myself a lot and would always say NO to embarrassment.

My cousin was through in no time and we left for home. We got home a few minutes to 2om after which I landed on bed and slept till late evening. After all I'm still giving myself a break from stress!