Banker Tales

This is just wickedness...Or what else should i call it?

Papa welcome sir, how you dey? How family? How your body? I rambled on with my questions ignoring the obvious frustrations on papas face.

These pensioners again. Though my favorite people in the bank; Today, I am under pressure, I do not have the time to pet any old man. If you came from home with frustrations, feel free to wear them out of the bank. No one was going to unburden any frustrations on me today. So when I saw Papa and his squeezed face, I went on with my pleasantries like person wey no see Uche face. Afterall, I saw him drinking cold dispenser water and replacing cup. That water refreshes.

Papa held up his card to me, this particular Papa spoke my language and would never let anyone attend to him but me. So since we became friends, I have been the one debiting his account every month; I give him the complete money o. We would converse in my language and say our goodbyes.


Today, both of us are having mood swing. Papa dey form vex, me sef no get joy so I spoke pidgin. I was wondering why he would give me his ATM card. I had persuaded him sometime back to collect an ATM to avoid the stress of coming all the way to our bank. From his explanations, he spends seven hundred naira to the nearest branch which is ours. He was convinced and collected the card in company of his daughter. I refused to take the card, let go of my mood, smiled and asked him what the problem was.


He had gone to the ATM in company of his daughter, they tried to withdraw and they could not. The daughter told him the card had a fault and so he had to spend transport fare to come report. He gave me his card, papa say he no want again, the thing no dey work.


I asked for his withdrawal slip and tried debiting; it would be nice to pay Papa his cash before we solve the ATM issue. The account was insufficient. Papa gets thirty thousand naira every month, he filled thirty thousand naira so getting insufficient balance means something is really fishy here. I asked him like five times if he was sure he did not withdraw, he said No angrily.


I asked for his alert, he said his phone is with his daughter, we do not check balances in the bank but there was provision for exceptional cases. This was already one. I proceeded to check his balance, noticed he had less than five hundred naira. This was beyond me, I got my Boss involved. We needed a statement of account to prove he wasn’t paid. We quickly got it so Papa can go resolve with his pension people but what I saw shocked me.


Papa was paid and according to his statement of account; he had bought airtime in tranches of three thousand naira ten times amounting to thirty thousand naira. I did not need a seer to tell me what had happened. But I wanted to be very sure so I asked him if he bought airtime, he got even more upset. I calmed him down, asked if he had anyone in the house with him, he said just his daughter and her mum. They live alone in the house with him, his other kids are all grown up and have abandoned him for God knows what reason. His other wives were gone too.

His daughter helped him change his pin and helped him keep his phone too, smart child of an aged man. I asked for her number so we could invite her, he did not have it anywhere. He did not know his own number too. He claims he keeps his card with him all the time and only brought it out at the ATM, he was very sure the ATM did not dispense any cash to his daughter.

We suspect his daughter used his card to buy airtime on her phone without his knowledge, accompanied him to the ATM, she told him the card was bad and encouraged him to return it to the bank. The sad reality is that she encouraged him to come knowing what she did; knowing the old man was without transport to return home. She turned a man who has worked hard in his youth into a beggar in his old age.

I left my Boss to be the bearer of bad news, I cannot come and let old man faint in front of me when he realizes his own blood had fooled him completely. I wonder what she would do with thirty thousand naira airtime. Why didn’t she withdraw the money instead? Perhaps she even did the transaction right under Papas’ watch and the old man must have thought himself smart to keep his card with him all the time.


I have no idea how he handled the case at home, but that was the last time I told any pensioner or old person to get an ATM card. I can’t keep parting with some of my small salary when these men come complaining of fraud by family members or strangers.