The day my salary disappeared for 3 months taught me about Nigeria

In 2023, my salary stopped coming. No explanation, no email, nothing. Just silence from the accounts department. I called, I wrote letters, I visited their office. They kept saying it was a 'system issue'. For three months I was funding my family from savings and borrowing from friends.

Then one Friday, a colleague in the accounts unit quietly told me the truth. My name had been removed from the payroll because someone in management wanted to replace me with a relative. They thought I would quietly resign and they wouldn't have to deal with me. When I didn't, they had to put me back and pay all my arrears at once.

That experience changed how I see everything. In this country, you must never let them see you sweat. You keep records, you keep receipts, you keep your mouth shut until you have all the facts. The system is slow but it moves eventually, especially when you make yourself too difficult to ignore. I have seen this play out before in other parastatals. The people who survive are the ones who refuse to disappear quietly.