Need For POS Operators To Be Christ-like, Honest, And Diligent -By Isaac Asabor

Have you noticed that not a few POS Operators are relishing in profiteering as they appear to be more obsessed with extorting their customers by charging outlandish commissions on money withdrawn from their bank accounts?

In fact, as the ongoing implementation of the Naira Swap occasioned by the disuse of the N200, N500, and N100 old naira notes across Nigeria continues, POS Operators have been smiling to the banks as they continue to rip off their customers with exorbitant charges on money withdrawn. However, despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the continued use of the old N200 notes, and thus the old N200 notes have been coexisting with the new N200 notes, the exploitative situation remains unabated. 

At this juncture, it is expedient to clarify that profiteering is a market condition where a seller of a product or service takes advantage of a situation or a person in order to make money. For instance, a landlord might profiteer during a housing shortage by doubling rents. To explanatorily put it, it is when a seller profiteer, he or she does not just profit, but profit more than expected at the expense of someone else. It is expedient in this context to note that anyone that does this “evil” is also called a profiteer. Profiteers famously take advantage of things like scarcity of food or during conflicts to make a lot of money. As explained by lexicographers, the word existed but was not commonly used in English until World War I, when journalists started talking about “war profiteers” who benefited financially from shortages and desperation.

Without any scintilla of hyperbole, it is not an exaggeration to say that while the ongoing cash crunch engendered by Naira Swap looms in the country that POS operators remained busy making hefty profits by charging more than double the rate of commission that ought to be charged on the withdrawal of cash.

With no standard and the official rate of commission on the amount withdrawn by customers, and lack of any surveillance by the government’s price watchdogs, POS operators are unarguably not showing any remorse or mercy for consumers, who are already groaning under the high cost of living triggered by soaring inflation caused by the maladministration of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) since it came to power since 2015.

Given the foregoing, it is expedient to make reference to Proverbs 25:16 in the bid to urge POS Operators across the country to be moderate in their bid for profit-making as the payment system in Nigeria is about to become cashless. 

The foregoing scripture says, “Hast thou found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it”.

In fact, there is a need for moderation in all things. The reason for the foregoing admonition cannot be farfetched as the elders say too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Extreme use of anything is abuse.  As understood from the foregoing scripture, God and Solomon want us to maximize the use of things in life by not overusing any of them. This is an important rule of wisdom and success for anyone’s life, particularly POS operators in this context.

Why it is salient for everyone to be bringing the lesson that is inherent in the scripture is that God created honey as a sweet gift for taste, and it is good for the body. Yet too much can overwhelm anyone’s senses and make him or her sick. Thus, when someone finds something pleasant, it is expedient for him or her to use it prudently for its intended purpose, lest it be a snare to the soul, or such a person ends up hating it.

Every man’s honey is different. What is sweet to your taste but tempts you to overindulge in it? What is your honey? It is your duty to identify those pleasures that captivate you the most and be temperate with them (I Cor 9:25). What is your honey? Eat only a little.

Honey is good and pleasant (Pr 16:24; 24:13). Honey is not forbidden; it is God’s gift. Be thankful for it. But too much is not good (Pr 25:27). How can something so good make you vomit? By proving that excess is bad! Excess, which is too much, shows good things have limited uses. Use them until sufficient, to their intended purpose, and not beyond.

God richly gives His children all things to enjoy (I Tim 6:17), but all those things must be used in moderation (Phil 4:5). He is not watching from a distance to see how we treat His gifts, as many imagine. The Lord is at hand. He made man upright and gave him gifts, but he has sought out many inventions (Eccl 7:29). And one such invention is excess!

The wisdom here is mainly moral and spiritual, yet it also contains nutritional advice. Honey and other simple or refined carbohydrates are a principal cause of obesity and other maladies affecting health. When prosperity supplies an endless variety and amount of sugars and carbohydrates, an excessive society can gorge on a diabetic epidemic! The foregoing, proverbially analyzed translates to mean that excessive profit which POS operators have resorted to.

Be that as it may, it is expedient to remind POS Operators, particularly at this critical time that Nigeria’s payment system is transiting to cashless, and thatGod does not measure our faithfulness to him by what is on our bank accounts. What matters is how we answer his call on our lives, how that works out in our vocation, and how, through our work, we glorify Him, serve the common good, and further His kingdom.

The reason for the foregoing cannot be farfetched as God has called us to love our neighbors, and one way we can do that is by doing our jobs well. So no matter what we are called to do, whether working at jobs that create great wealth or not, let us, as the apostle Paul instructs in Colossians 3:23-24, that says, “Whatever you do, whatever kind of work you are doing, work heartily, with all your heart and all the different ways that play out in scripture, with Christ-like character, with honesty, with diligence, with integrity, with humility. So work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.”