The Lagos security guard: an endangered specie
Author(s): Ikechukwu Muomah
Security guards have become common fixtures in corporate
Nigeria. They work at banks, pharmacies, schools, and nearly every other
kind of corporate establishment in the country.
Private security guards have become a common sight all over Nigeria.
Isaac Fajaiye is a 28-year old part-time student who works as a guard
at a fast food restaurant in Jibowu, Lagos. He says he supervises the
traffic of customers, and monitors the restaurant’s facilities to be
able to forestall security threats. He says he earns
N26,000 monthly but that the amount is incommensurate with the amount of risks his job involves.
“I just manage this job because I have to pay for my education,’ he said. “
N26,000
is not enough to cover for the type of risk I face daily. There was a
time when armed robbers came here, and they hit me with a gun when I
told them I did not know where the money was.”
Many security guards face similar risks ― but they earn even less.
Bassey Udor is one of them. He’s a guard at a hotel in Festac, Lagos, and earns only
N10,000
a month. ”Normally my job is to open the gate for cars to come in and
go out, but I want to leave this work soon: the pay is too small and the
risk is too much because robbers usually target big hotels like our
own,” he said.
A private security guard. Many complain that the job is too hazardous for too little pay.
Considering that they are likely to get attacked while at work,
some security guards think their employers should provide them with
arms so they can protect themselves and discharge their duties more
effectively.
Seun Oyeleye, who is one of the guards at a Lagos bank, belongs to
this group. “We don’t have weapons to defend ourselves if the need
arises, so if a small boy comes here with a gun and asks me to open the
door, I’ll do so or else he may shoot me,” he said.
Most security guards are usually not employed by the company where
they really do their work but by a separate security firm. This firm
makes a deal with a given company, called the client, and then it hires
people to work as guards at this client’s establishment according to the
terms of the deal. In this case, the security firm is the real employer
of the guards and is responsible for their remuneration and welfare.
Some of such security guards claim that their employer pays them an
unfair amount of the money the client pays for their services or that
their employer does not provide them satisfactory welfare conditions.
“Here we have no medical, retirement or insurance benefits,” said a
guard who did not want his name published. “You’re not allowed to go on
leave and nothing is given to you when your appointment is terminated.”
Samuel Yenki gave up after years on the job. “I worked for a security
firm for over ten years and left when I learned the client was paying
N18,000 for my services, whereas my employer was paying me only
N6,000 of it,” he said.
Experts in the industry have decried the trend, saying that such
treatment open avenues for security guards to betray the trust reposed
on them.
Tony Ofoyetan, the director-general of International Institute of
Professional Security, said professional security firms should not pay
their guard less than 65 percent of what the client is
offering. ”Besides that, a lot of these guards asking for
fanciful welfare benefits do not even have the befitting educational or
professional qualification,” he said.
Ray Ekwueme, a chief superintendent at the National Security and
Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), said that the agency is trying its best to
enforce better conditions for guards employed with security firms.
NSCDC officers at weapons training. The Service says it is trying to regulate the private security industry.
“There are rules governing private guarding,” he said. “For example,
the employers must provide medical benefits for their guards. So we have
seized licenses and closed down some non-compliant security firms in
the past. On the issue of what percentage of the client’s actual payment
the security outfits should pay their guards, a decision has not been
reached because clients don’t pay the same amount. If we say 65 percent,
how will the outfits settle guards whose clients are paying
N20,000 or less? But then we maintain that every guard must get a minimum wage of
N10,000 no matter what his client is paying.”
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