Night watchmen: Guarding precious treasures, yet so poor

They guard private mansions/houses; schools, small companies, markets mini-construction sites and so forth. Weekly Trust investigations in Kano city indicated that most of the watchmen are engaged by private individuals through friends or relatives who link them with wealthy individuals or organizations.A 60-year-old watchman, Malam Dauda Usman, who currently serves in Dorayi quarters of Kano […]

They guard private mansions/houses; schools, small companies, markets mini-construction sites and so forth.
Weekly Trust investigations in Kano city indicated that most of the watchmen are engaged by private individuals through friends or relatives who link them with wealthy individuals or organizations.
A 60-year-old watchman, Malam Dauda Usman, who currently serves in Dorayi quarters of Kano metropolis said  despite putting 20 years of his life in the job, there is little to show for it, as the meagre monthly salary he gets is barely enough to meet his basic needs.
“I have three wives and 11 children. They all depend on me to feed, cloth and other basic needs. The N12,000 I receive at the end of the month is too small to meet our needs.
“I hardly have time for my family. Even during the day time when I am supposed to be at home, to rest so as to report at my duty post in the night, I have to go out to look for something that will augment my salary. Sometimes, it even exceeds the 30 days before my salary is paid,” he lamented.
According to him, apart from the inadequate salary, coupled with his sickness associated with old age, lack of trust by his employer has been a thorn in his flesh.
“If I have my way, I will leave this job, but I am still doing it because I have no option. It pains that no matter how long you stay with your employer, you will never be trusted. He will always live and operate with you in suspicion,” he lamented.
Daudu said he left his last employer because he denied him food while on duty and would not grant his request for a break to go home and eat, adding that he had nothing like shift or a day off.”
Another watchman, Aliyu Maigadi, 26, told Weekly Trust that he guards a Super Market along Maiduguri road.
Maigadi said  “I left our village in Kebbi State to Kano for Qur’anic education after my graduation from secondary school. My conviction was that one has to work to fend for himself. So, when this shop owner approached me with this job, I gladly accepted it, thinking it could assist me to meet basic needs.”
The youngster also lamented poor and irregular payment of his salary, adding that he treks about five kilometers daily to get to his place of work. “It is because I cannot afford to pay for transport from my pocket,” he cried out.
Maigadi said though he has only his wife to look after, there are his parents and siblings back in the village to also cater for. They expect that since he is working in the city, money should be sent to them from time to time, but such expectations, though normal, cannot be met at the moment.
Similarly, 61-year-old Malam Mohammed Auwal from Madu village in Bungudu, Zamfara State has been working as night watchman with various organizations and individuals since 1982 in Kaduna.
 Auwal told Weekly Trust that he started work with the Niger Guard and spent five years with them. Then, he earned N100 per month as salary.
He revealed that he was later employed by a former governor in 1985, shortly after which he joined another politician’s farms as security guard in 1986. He received N120 and N128 as monthly salary from the former governor and politician respectively.
Auwal was thereafter employed by a Ghanaian, simply identified as Mr. Charles, who worked with the World Bank and paid him N180 as monthly salary.
He said “the actual salary was N155, but Charles personally added N25 for me.”
But when Charles left Nigeria for the United States, Auwal took another job as a shoe shiner, which he later abandoned after getting a job offer as a guard with a former Senator. He now receives N19, 000 as monthly salary.
He said, while some of his employers requested to know the working materials he needed and provided him with them, others kept mum. He said none of the places he worked for provided him with free meals, only one employer gave him transport allowance due to the long distance between his work place and his home.
Auwal has one wife and 12 children “and I can tell you the money I earn now cannot sustain the family. Even for me alone, the money isn’t enough. So, two of my children are with my relatives in the village. Now, I have nine children and a wife who are staying with me in my house at Badarawa in Kaduna.”
Auwal said he is ready to quit his present work if he gets a better offer.
In Lagos, Mohammed and Ibrahim Sani are brothers who work as security guards on 3rd Avenue Festac Town, Lagos. They told Weekly Trust that they were contracted by the residents in 2009 to watch over the area when armed robberies in the area became rampant.
Both Mohammed, 33, and Ibrahim, 29, hail from a border town in Katsina state. They have been with their present employers for close to five years and oversee the longest road in Festac town.
“The N10,000 salary we are paid is not enough to take care of our needs. I am married with four children and my family is based in Katsina state,” Mohammed said.
“There are some of our friends who live with us in the security post built for us. They are into petty trading and also assist us on the security job, if not it would have been difficult covering the long road by just two of us,” he added.
Nurudeen Akintokun told Weekly Trust that the job is dangerous; as they confront criminals at night. “I am paid N15, 000 as salary monthly and is not enough to take care of my family,” he said
Alaba Rago area of Ojo is a veritable source for anyone seeking the services of local security guards. Weekly Trust reliably learnt that most of the hotels in the area have Hausa men as guards.
The Sarkin Hausawa of the area co-ordinates the recruitment,  says Sule Maida, who also told Weekly Trust that one can get any number of guards requested.
“To get a guard from Sarki  costs as much as N30,000 monthly. The Sarki will in turn pay whoever he assigns the duty N10,000 since he lives with the Sarki and does not have to pay any rent,” he said.
In Jos metropolitan city, Gabriel Loman, working as a permanent night watchman at a bakery in Jos, earns N15, 000 a month and has three dependents in addition to himself, his wife and two kids to feed.
Loman told Weekly Trust that “as you must know, this money isn’t something to last me for any reasonable length of time even if I’m alone. But I’m not alone. I have a wife and two kids.”
Loman said “I’m a constant debtor. I owe creditors even more than the salary I earn. When it comes, I pay as many debts as it can cover, beg people I still owe for more time, and begin fresh borrowing.”
“My children must eat, not three square meals but something to at least keep them away from hunger. Almost every other thing is a luxury. I can tell my kids at Christmas that there is no money for clothes, but they must eat every day,” Loman said.
To ensure daily meals for the family, Loman has established a good measure of rapport with food sellers from whom he gets supplies on credit. “The food sellers know my circumstances and have come to know also that I would always pay back despite everything.”
Loman, who does his job at the Jos city centre, has the luck of living in nearby Tudun Wada, a walking distance when he is particularly hard-up. He runs a permanent night shift for 12 hours.
But Abu Sani, a guard in a private residence in the posh Rayfield area of Jos, is luckier than Loman. He receives N20,000 monthly and has flexible duty hours.
“I’m on duty now; I took over from my colleague at 6 pm yesterday. He will take over from me this evening. I do 24 hours and go off for 24 hours and he does 24 hours and goes off too for 24 hours. We can sometimes make it 48 hours if we choose, so that we can each have two days of work and two days of rest, especially if one or the other of us has something to do away from work.”
Sani said the arrangement helps him to save transport costs as he lives far off in Anguwa Rukuba which necessitates at least two different bus drops.
He said gloomily, “for a private individual, my Oga is kind to pay us N20,000 considering that so many security guards earn less these days; but N20,000 has been worse than living from hand to mouth. The day I collect my salary is sometimes my saddest day, because the list of what I must buy or pay for always amount to sums much higher than my salary.”