ADELABU (onile white house) builder

I’m 41, and I work as the administrative officer in a mid-sized construction company in Port Harcourt. Last year we hired a young graduate named Amaka as a junior site clerk. Her salary was ₦28,000 a month. From her second week our site manager, a woman named Bose, began to single her out. Amaka was given the files no one else wanted. She was told to stay behind after the others had closed. When she finished, Bose would look at the clock and say she had wasted company time. In the third month the deductions started. Everyone else received their full salary. Amaka’s envelope contained ₦21,500. Bose said she had damaged a company phone and the balance would be recovered. No receipt was shown. The following month it was ₦19,000. The reason given was “poor reporting.” Amaka wrote the amounts in a small notebook she kept in her bag. She also began to record the conversations on her phone whenever Bose called her into the site office. Bose started speaking about her in front of the other staff. She called her slow. She called her ungrateful. Two of the senior women began to laugh. They stopped greeting Amaka in the morning. One of them started leaving the dirty cups on her table and saying the new girl would wash them. Amaka washed them. She needed the job. One afternoon Bose called her in and told her she had asked around. She said she knew Amaka had no uncle in any ministry and no one who could make a phone call. She said, “That is why you will stay here and do exactly what you are told.” Amaka nodded. That night she added the sentence to her notebook.