Nepotism - A Disservice I Share With My Father

Nepotism is an act of hiring friends or family to work within one's organization, giving unfair advantage to your own family, if you are in a position of power, especially giving them jobs or promotion. I believe Nepotism is a form of Bribery and Corruption stemming out of favouritism in which persons in position of authority appoint relatives or friends to different jobs.

Nepotism may not only occur in workplaces. It may occur in places like our communities, schools, marketplace and many more. I really enjoyed discussing this topic within my Topical Talk school classes, because it allowed me to share two of my experiences. I fell victim of Nepotism when I was about six years old. A kite flying competition was announced in my locality and I decided to take part, while knowing that my parents were not financially bouyant as at that time, unlike other kids parents. We struggled for money to register hoping that if I won, the prize money would off set some of our bills along with the registration fee. I could say that I was the only kid that was not as rich as them. The competition started and I scaled through the first round though my kite was getting weaker. However, I got excited when I saw a man giving brand new kites to other competitors, most of them he called by names. I requested for one but I wasn't given, saying I did not look familiar to him, I felt very bad. I was discriminated against.

The second round came, my kite was now worn out thereby eliminating my chances of winning. One of the children who was given a brand new kite won. If only I was given a new kite, I could have won .

There is yet another experience of Nepotism. Time time it was my father and his boss. My father once worked in a family owned company. The boss noticed my father's hard-working spirit and promised him a promotion. My fathers colleagues all sat for the promotion with him. But alas, the boss's son - in - law was favoured over every other more qualified and more talented worker. Surprisingly, some years later the company closed down, after losing several valuable and talented members of the organisation.

Ashok Saraf said "Nepotism will never give you success, but talent can". This implies here that the boss favoured his son - in - law, but the success he wanted was futile. My talent would never fade away, my talent can make me achieve more success.

My recommended solutions to Nepotism is that :

It is more advisable that family members work somewhere else other than the place of work other family members work because in Nigeria, we believe that family is where life begins and love never ends .

I feel that some particular people are ignorant of the consequences that they will face if they ever practice nepotism, so therefore, enlightenment on the dangers of Nepotism should be made known, as I have also tried to enlighten people practicing Nepotism in my communities about the dangers.

Anti Nepotism policies should be created, whereby rules and guidelines are put in place by an organisation to prevent the hiring or promotion of family members. I have also tried to cub this by putting up posters that "SAY NO TO NEPOTISM".

There should not be preferential treatment on one employee than another.