Steem4nigeria Accelerator Contest Week 51: l learnt to say "NO"
‘Even Though I May Be Soft, I Said No and Heaven Did Not Fall.’
Hi Steemians, warm Greetings to you all!
There are times when we find ourselves in situation that we need to make and take decisions that are consequential in our journey of life. And come to think of it, all decisions we take seemingly good or bad, have their effects on us and such decisions also, affects the people around us either positively or negatively.
When the decisions you take do not favor the people around you or go in the direction that they expect, you may end up being misunderstood or called several names.
Taking a firm stand to saying “No” try to justify the popular saying “ I can't please you to displease myself.” But does this not sound selfish since it portrays the fact that, you only care for your own gain as it pleases you and not others?
Does it mean that you only have to say yes when your own gain is in perspective? Ok now , Could you still say no even when you stand to gain from the decision?
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In the last concluded general elections, I worked as an adhoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC during a state assembly elections. I was employed as a presiding officer. My main duty was to be in charge of activities or events at the polling unit during the election day. Other duties I performed includes:
Issuance of ballot papers to voters and ensure that they deposit the thumb printed papers into the appropriate ballot box
Conducting voter education before the election starts proper
Coordinating events in the voting units under my supervision
Documenting adverse incidents, using incident report forms and inform the appropriate authority and persons.
Others included polling, sorting , counting of votes and announcing the results of the election.
These are just few out the duties that I was employed to perform.
During the electioneering period, all the ad-hoc staff, we were all treated well by the members representing all the political parties and the community members. Security was top–notch and there were no incidents or casualties recorded in unit my unit.
After the elections were over and the winner announced, there was massive jubilation within and outside the communities where the elections were held.
Four days after the elections, the winner called a meeting with the workers. Everyone that worked in my unit went for the meeting including me, except one person that could not come because he traveled.
When we arrived at the venue of the meeting, the winner of the election welcomed us as he was still in the happy mood of celebration and quickly prepared some items to appreciate us. He didn't just say thank you, I mean he really appreciated us! He appreciated us by giving us some huge cash gifts to share among ourselves. What was his reason for appreciating us? He appreciated us based on the fact that our team of ad–hoc staff showed high level of resolute and uncompromising standards during the elections.
But inside my mind, I was wondering why he chose to give us the cash gift collectively and not individually. I could not think out any other thing except that may be, by giving us collectively he would be spending less unlike if he chooses to give us individually. We all thanked him for recognizing our efforts in the elections asked to be on our way.
We all gathered again to share the cash gift but one of us that traveled was not yet back. So the reason of his being absent, they said should not take share of the money. I became furious about this and said that he must have his own share of the money in as much as he worked with us. While they insisted that he must not get Share, I said no, he must have his own share.
I became an enemy to them all because, I insisted he must get his own share otherwise, we wait till he comes back.
Finally after few days, they succumbed to my position that chukwudi must get his own share. We shared the money as it ought to be and I transferred to chukwudi his own rightful share of the money.