The Wrong Packing Case

Summary

Some years ago, Mr. Atta-Yao was a Senior Civil Servant in a certain department in Accra, and was put in charge of over 100 labourers and a few junior clerks. As he always asked a bribe of his subordinates by using the general formula, ‘do something’, he was nick-named, ‘do something’. This great bully dismissed labourers for the least mistake, but reinstated those who could give him a bribe. Whenever he had to recruit labourers or some junior clerks, he chose not those who showed promise but those who gave him bribes. Some applicants who were too poor to give anything were employed on condition that they should give half of their first month's wages. And that was not all. When the applicants got the employment, on pay days, Mr. Atta-Yao summoned the labourers one by one to his office where he paid and asked each one to ‘do something’ with, say 10/-. Those who refused, he dismissed immediately.

One afternoon, all the labourers met and sent the following petition:

Dear Mr. Atta-Yao,

We, the humble labourers working under you, beg to put this our humble petition before you. We beg you to call all of us together on pay days and to give us all that the Governor has given you to give us. Do not force anyone to ‘do something’ again. We hear that your pay is about £60 a month, car allowance extra—if you sleep outside your house, the Governor pays you 10/- every night for sleeping. Kindly therefore leave our poor wages alone.

We beg you not get angry and so sack all of us, but to consider this our humble Petition.

On behalf of all the labourers,

We remain,

Yakari Busanga,

Johnson Kpakpo,

Kwabena Akuamoa,

Ayigbe Kofi.

Unfortunately, this petition failed to achieve its aim. It rather greatly offended Mr. Atta-Yao. The four labourers who signed the letter were dismissed instanter.

The day after this incident, a very poor but good-looking secondary scholar, by name Amoako, applied for a job in the Clerical branch. Mr. Atta-Yao was willing to employ Amoako if only Amoako would ‘do something’. So he summoned Amoako to an interview and said:

‘Well, Amoako, you want to be a clerk here eh? Are you prepared to do something?’