The Allowance That Never Came
A young corps member, a new workplace, and an allowance that never came
She finished three weeks of NYSC camp in Ekiti and got on a bus to Lagos.
She had been posted to Lagos for her Place of Primary Assignment, so the next step was to leave camp and report to the organisation she had been assigned to.
The journey was supposed to take about five hours.
It took more than ten.
Bad roads. Erosion. Delays. The kind of journey where five hours slowly becomes six, then eight, then ten, and you eventually stop wondering when you will arrive.
By the time she got to Lagos, it was extremely late.
But she had arrived.
The next day, she went to her PPA.
And was rejected.
Just like that.
After travelling all the way from Ekiti to Lagos, she had nowhere to report to.
Eventually, she was reassigned to another PPA.
Somewhere along the way, she also fell ill.
It was hardly the smooth beginning anyone would imagine for a service year.
Eventually, she reported to the new organisation.
This time, they accepted her.
Then came the question of allowance.
As a corps member, she was already receiving the allowance paid by the Federal Government. But she wanted to know whether the organisation would also provide an allowance.
The owner asked why she was so concerned about receiving an allowance from the organisation.
It was an interesting question.
Not necessarily because there was anything wrong with asking it, but because of the circumstances surrounding it.
She was living in Lagos.
The organisation wasn’t providing accommodation.
It wasn’t providing transportation either.
And whatever she received from the Federal Government still had to stretch across the realities of living in Lagos.
Transport.
Food.
Data.
Personal expenses.
The little things that don’t look like much individually but somehow become a lot when they all have to come out of the same pocket.
Eventually, the owner agreed verbally to pay her a small amount.
It wasn’t much.
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But there was an agreement.
And that seemed to settle the matter.
Until it was time to actually make the payment.
The money didn’t come.
The allowance that had been discussed and verbally agreed upon was not paid.
And that is where the story becomes more interesting than the amount of money involved.
Because there are really two separate questions here.
The first is whether an organisation is obligated to pay a corps member an additional allowance.
That can depend on the organisation. Some pay. Some don’t. Some provide other forms of support. Some may simply make it clear from the beginning that there is no additional allowance.
The second question is what happens when an amount has actually been agreed upon.
If an organisation doesn’t intend to pay an allowance, it can say so.
If it cannot afford one, it can say so.
But once an amount has been agreed upon, what does it mean when that agreement is not honoured?
And perhaps that is what makes this story worth telling.
The allowance itself was small.
But small is relative.
A business owner and a young corps member can look at the same amount of money and see two completely different things.
For one person, it may be an insignificant expense.
For another, it could mean several days of transportation to and from work.
Especially in Lagos.
Especially when accommodation and transportation aren’t being provided.
Especially when you’re just starting out and trying to figure out how to make everything work.
There is something about being young and having very little bargaining power.
You often have to accept what is offered.
You don’t always feel comfortable negotiating.
And sometimes, even asking a simple question about money can make you feel like you are asking for too much.
But asking about payment doesn’t necessarily mean someone is only interested in money.
Sometimes, it simply means they are trying to understand how they are going to survive.
And perhaps that is the bigger question this story raises:
How much consideration do we give to the person on the other side of the agreement?
Not every employer has to pay an additional allowance.
But when someone is showing up to work every day, what does it cost them to be there?
And when an agreement is made, however small the amount may be, shouldn’t the agreement itself count for something?
Sometimes, workplace stories aren’t really about the money.
Sometimes, they are about how people with less power are treated by people who have more.
And sometimes, the smallest amounts reveal the biggest differences in perspective.
